Know the Facts!
What is an Emergency / Disaster?
FEMA Definition of "Disaster":
"A disaster is an occurrence such as a hurricane, tornado, flood, earthquake, explosion, hazardous materials accident, war, transportation accident, mass shooting, fire, famine, or epidemic that causes human suffering or creates human need that the victim cannot alleviate without assistance."
Terms like ‘disaster’, ‘emergency’ and ‘major incident’ are all used to describe the kind of event which the emergency services and local authorities may not be able to deal with as part of their every day work.
Emergencies and disasters can happen anywhere at any time. Transport accidents, storms, floods, fires, industrial accidents, terrorist attacks, and many other events can cause distress and disruption on a massive scale and throw communities into chaos.
Greensburg, KS aftermath of a tornado
Broadly speaking this will be an ‘event’ that requires the implementation of special arrangements by one or all of the emergency responders, often for the purpose of:
- the rescue and transportation of a large number of casualties
- the involvement either directly or indirectly of large numbers of people
- the handling of a large number of enquiries likely to be generated both from the public and the news media, usually addressed by the police
- the large scale combined resources of the Police, Fire, and Ambulance Services, the Health Service and Local Authorities
- the mobilization and organization of the emergency responders and supporting agencies, e.g. local authority, to cater for the threat of death, serious injury or homelessness to a large number of people
