Administrative planning and political response to hazard: Issues and concerns

Abstract

Disasters affect people, their livelihoods and environment. Disaster threatens general existence of people leading to urgent intervention of government in order to reduce negative consequences of disaster. Wide array of leadership and management competencies is required to manage these routine emergencies and catastrophes; under these challenging conditions, people see to their leaders for their vision and direction to mitigate disaster impact. In order to carry out initial post-disaster relief activities in local communities, the role of emergency managers becomes important in disaster mitigation as emergency managers make immediate and urgent decision when information is unavailable. Emergency manager’s success in disaster mitigation is linked with its interaction with disaster management community and different government officials. Although government structure plays an important role during disasters and with the development and advancement of technology, governments and other agencies are equipped with more better and sophisticated way to deal with all type of emergencies. But at the same time, it is dependent on community economic, social–psychological and political resources. This involvement of communities plays an important role in creating a sense of bonding, which in turn gives rise to efficiency to entire process.