http://dspace.udel.edu:8080/dspace/handle/19716/1129 Search the Channel search http://dspace.udel.edu:8080/dspace/simple-search http://dspace.udel.edu:8080/dspace/handle/19716/4192 Title: A Brief Summary of Social Science Warning and Response Literature: A Report to COT Netherlands <br/> <br/>Authors: Trainor, Joseph; McNeil, Sue <br/> <br/>Abstract: For more than five decades, researchers have explored the dynamics of warnings and warning response in the disaster context. This report is intended to briefly summarize findings related to this topic. The ultimate goal is to provide a basic understanding of how social science research related to warnings and evacuations might inform policy makers and emergency managers. Before we begin discussing the details of warning messages, the first and most important issue for readers to note is that the decision making processes of most evacuees and even non-evacuees are rational and calculated. Contrary to media depictions and other’s perceptions of the public that suggest animal-like, irrational, or antisocial behavior it is important that we begin this discussion knowing that people typically “rise to the occasion” during disasters. Although it would be wrong to suggest that people never make irrational decisions it is important that we begin this summary by recognizing that when we look at the broad patterns of human behavior documented through scientific/empirical studies, people who are experiencing a disaster far more often than not act in very rational and predictable ways. This finding above all others holds true in social science research. It is important to recognize this truth because it allows policy makers and emergency managers to move beyond the notion that the problem with warning and response is “getting people to be rational and do what we say” and instead allows us to move towards understanding “how can we change our approach so that it takes into account how people process warning information. While the difference may seem subtle, in practice it is quite important. The first sees overcoming irrationality as the problem while the second sees the institutional/organizational approach to warning as the problem. http://dspace.udel.edu:8080/dspace/handle/19716/4191 Title: A Brief Summary of Search and Rescue Literature: A Report to COT Netherlands <br/> <br/>Authors: Trainor, Joseph; Aguirre, Benigno E.; McNeil, Sue <br/> <br/>Abstract: The accumulated of research on search and rescue (SAR) allows us to identify repeating patterns that should be considered in the development of an effective plan for national emergency response: (1) SAR is not simply an organizational activity, it necessarily includes the social and collective behavior of volunteers; (2) Preexisting and emergent organizations, social statuses and social identities, such as neighborhood and work place relationships and family and neighborhood social identities, serve as a basis for the emergence of new SAR groups and constitute the fundamental concepts and categories that are needed to understand and improve SAR activities; (3) SAR activities do not emerge from a vacuum; as an example of the principle of continuity advocated by Quarantelli and Dynes (1977), there are always elements of the traditional social structure embedded within collective behavior entities, and their emergent division of labor, role structure, and activities are also dependent on prior social relationships and forms of social organization in the community or region; (4) Breakdown models of social organizational patterns in disaster are not useful to understand SAR. Television reports and misinformed reporters often misinterpret throngs of people moving seemingly at random at the sites destroyed by various hazards, and assume that the people were disoriented immediately after impact and had lost their ability to enact social roles. Despite these reports, scientific research shows the absence of widespread confusion, lack of coordination, and panic (Aguirre, 2005). The seeming disorganization and aimless movement of people is the result of their individual and collective acts as they try to accomplish multiple individual and collective goals under severe time constraints (c.f. Fritz & Mathewson, 1957). Creative problem-solving and rationality is a more accurate way of understanding their actions (Aroni & Durkin, n.d., p. 30). In short search and rescue (SAR) activities are part of the complex emergency response system that emerges in response to disasters. http://dspace.udel.edu:8080/dspace/handle/19716/4189 Title: Annotated Bibliography on Fire Science <br/> <br/>Authors: Torres, Manuel; Barsky, Lauren; Aguirre, Benigno E.; Poteyeva, Rita <br/> <br/>Abstract: This annotated bibliography is a product of the Disaster Research Center’s ongoing study of search and rescue (S&R) activity in fires which uses the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) data collected by the United States Fire Administration (USFA) to model fire injury and death. It was compiled as part of our examination of civilian death and injury due to structural fires. It focuses on such areas as structural collapse, civilian injury and mortality, firefighter injury and death, causes of fires, behaviors related to injury and death, and the process of search and rescue in fires. It presents a synthesis of several key areas of interest within the emerging discipline. While it is not an exhaustive bibliography representative of all areas of study, it provides an initial overview of several key areas and could serve as a starting point to research. Available findings from various studies could be compared to replicate and augment existing knowledge, as well to develop theories on the effects of the presence of S&R on morbidity and on the causes of civilian injury and mortality. http://dspace.udel.edu:8080/dspace/handle/19716/3730 Title: Social Scientific Insights on Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies <br/> <br/>Authors: Trainor, Joseph; Aguirre, Benigno E.; Barnshaw, John <br/> <br/>Abstract: It is common for governmental agencies to plan for emergencies. It’s human nature that we want to reduce our exposure to the dangers around us. While risk reduction happens at many levels (e.g. individual, family, organizational, community, and state) government agencies play a key role in ensuring the safety and security of the citizenry. The Delaware Health and Social Services agency (DHSS) is no different. With a mission to: "improve the quality of life for Delaware's citizens by promoting health and well-being, fostering self-sufficiency, and protecting vulnerable populations," disaster response neatly falls into the agencies prevue. Equally important, the agency strives to be a self-correcting organization working to retool and keep pace with changing client needs and a changing service delivery environment. Such a vision requires informed decision-making. As a result the Division of Public Health’s Disaster preparedness section contracted the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware to produce a document that provides sound knowledge from evidence based assessments of planning and response to public health emergencies. The goal of this effort is to maximize the ability of DE officials to prevent, avoid, respond, and recover from major public health emergencies through a review of the evidence based research related to this topic. This report will cover a number of issues, but it focuses most directly on social science insights that can be of value to planning and response processes. Pursuing to contract specifications, this report consists of three parts. The first part presents some of the most important research themes in disaster science. The second part presents an annotated bibliography of public health and disaster. The third part provides answers to a series of questions Division of Public officials asked DRC to answer. The first two sections are based on research findings. In the final section we provide our expert opinions based on scientific knowledge, but not in every instance drawn exclusively from research findings.