Mission Seven - Act

Charleston County has an Emergency Management Department (EMD) that:

provides leadership and assistance in an effort to reduce the loss of life and property in Charleston County from a variety of man-made and natural hazards through an effective emergency management program based on the Four Phases of Emergency Management:
• Mitigation - efforts to reduce hazards or their impacts
• Preparedness - efforts to prepare for a likely hazard
• Response - actions taken to respond to an emergency or disaster
• Recovery - actions taken to restore the community to pre-disaster condition (http://www.charlestoncounty.org/departments/emergencymgmt/index.htm)

The first innovation in my area was the creation of the EMD in 2010 to consolidate two previous agencies (the Emergency Preparedness Division and the Hazardous Materials Division) into a single unit that could better coordinate functions related to emergency preparedness, homeland security, and hazardous materials control.

The second important innovation in the United States as well as my area was the establishment of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program. This program was originally developed in 1985 by the Los Angeles Fire Department, because most citizens will likely be on their own during the early stages of a disaster. This is because communication systems are generally the first thing to break down in disaster situations. Accordingly, the CERT program provides basic training in disaster survival and rescue skills to individuals within a community to enable them to survive and serve as responders until other assistance can be provided.

In the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001, the Los Angeles CERT program was adopted by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and communicated to local communities nationwide.

A third innovation is the Disaster Animal Response Team (DART) program, which was created to assist in the creation and maintenance of pet-friendly shelters in the event of a disaster. During Hurricane Katrina, disaster rescue and relief efforts for pets and other animals were a critical part of the response. In Charleston County, individuals trained under the DART program will help to man pet shelters in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties as well as a “repatriation mission” at the Charleston International Airport.

I spoke to three of my colleagues about these innovations as well as the Ushahidi program. They had not been aware of them. Two of us are signing up for the CERT training and one of my colleagues is sharing the Ushahidi program with professionals involved in emergency response programs in the United States.