Orchestrating through Whirlwind: Identified Challenges and Resilience Factors of Incident Management Teams during Hurricane Harvey

Abstract

While resilience in emergency management has been studied at the macro- (government) and micro-levels (individual field responder), little is known for resilience of incident management teams (IMTs). To investigate challenges and resilience factors of IMTs, this paper documents thematic analysis of 10 interviews with emergency personnel who responded to Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Themes emerged in four categories: goals, challenges, resilience factors, and technical tools of IMTs. Given similar goals but unique challenges during Harvey, IMTs sought to establish and maintain a common operating picture to make sense of evolving situations and make decisions adaptively. Various technical tools were used providing different functionalities, but a need for technology to reduce cognitive load was indicated. Findings of this study will inform the development of more resilient IMTs in future disasters.