Citation

Stratton SJ. Prehosp. Disaster Med. 2022; 37(3): 297-298.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S1049023X22000723

PMID

35583195

Abstract

Disasters and public health emergencies are predictable events. When considering disaster events, there are recognized management phases, including recognition of the existence of a hazard that may predispose a disaster event to occur, and mitigation of disaster risks based upon recognized disaster hazards that improve the ability of a community to sustain itself should the event occur. Disaster planning is the next phase in emergency management to address potential disaster hazards. Further in the phases cycle is the active response should an event occur, and then recovery to "build back better" once the response has stabilized the community. Following an event is an analysis in the form of an after-action report that assesses the successes and failures of the mitigation, planning, response, and recovery phases. A final step is to improve mitigation and future active response should the event occur again.Reference Landesman1 The most effective of all the above disaster management phases to protect a community from disaster destruction and human suffering is recognition of the risk of the threat of an event and taking mitigation actions to develop sustainability for health, infrastructure, and the society.

Language: en