The Role Of Local Civil Defense In Disaster Planning
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Date
1975
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Disaster Research Center
Abstract
Description
Intensive field studies involving over 300 in-depth interviews in
12 American cities were conducted in an effort to ascertain the conditions
or factors associated with variations in the tasks, saliency and legitimacy of local civil defense organizations around the United States.
All of the cities were objectively subject to at least two major natural
disaster threats and half had undergone a major disaster in the last
decade. Data were obtained from key community and emergency organization
officials by way of a disaster probability rating scale, two intensive interview guides, and a general documentary checklist. Among the findings were the following. While overall disaster
planning by civil defense has tended to be differentiated, segmented,
isolated, cyclical and spasmodic , in recent years planning has broadened
to include a wide range of disaster ,agents, a lesser focus on nuclear
attack, more concern with local community viability and increasing
involvement of a greater number of organizations in community disaster
plans. Currently in almost all communities there are multiple layers
of planning with little consensus on disaster tasks, on organizational
responsibility and on the scope of disaster plannlng,is well as confusion
concerning the role of civil defence in such planning. Local civil defence
directors not only differ in following a professional or a political
career path, but also manifest a variety of behavioral styles in carrying
out their roles. Local civil defense agencies tend to be ambiguously viewed as to
their interests, structures and functions by the general public, community
influentials and organizational officials. Civil defense agencies
have also evolved in two different ways -- some following a traditional
path with an emphasis on nuclear hazards and others concerned with a
number of different hazards. High saliency seems to be related to extensive horizontal relationships, broad scope of tasks and multiple hazard concerns. A number of factors undercut the legitimacy of civil defense organizations.
These include changes in organizational purpose, preceived
need for services, decline in resources, poor performance and changing
saliency of the military model. Local offices which have legitimacy tend
to be in localities where there are persistent threats, where civil
defense is within the local governmental structure, where extensive relationships
are maintained with other organizations, and where the output
or product of the civil defense organization is seen as useful to other
community groups. Conditions which are most likely to be productive of successful local
civil defense involvement in disaster planning are that the loca1 organization
develops experience in handling a variety of community emergencies,
that municipal government provides a structure which accepts and legitimizes the
civil defense function, that the local civil defense director
has the ability to generate significant pre-disaster relationships among
those organizations which do become involved in emergency activities, and
that emergency-relevant resources, such as EOCs, be provided and that the
knowledge of their availability is widespread throughout the community.
Keywords
Local Civil Defense, Disaster Planning, Vunerability