SGER: Disaster Preparedness and the Use of the Incident Command System for Responding to Hurricane Katrina

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ABSTRACTThe recently established National Incident Management System (NIMS) mandates the use of the Incident Command System (ICS) for local, state and federal organizations during disaster response. First developed and used by firefighters over thirty years ago, many now consider ICS as the gold standard for managing disasters. Despite the long history of fire departments and other emergency response agencies using ICS, this will be the first known scientific analysis of ICS. In order to gather data on how officials used ICS for responding to Hurricane Katrina, researchers from the Center for the Study of Disasters and Extreme Events at Oklahoma State University will interview disaster managers involved with the response to Hurricane Katrina and obtain relevant documents. This study looks at how well ICS operated during and following Hurricane Katrina. We will determine the effectiveness of ICS during Hurricane Katrina by drawing upon the perceptions of disaster managers using ICS, and comparing the formal standards of effectiveness within ICS documents to actual behavior. This first scientific look at ICS should provide at least two crucial outcomes. First, we will establish what improvements, if any, are needed with ICS and more broadly with NIMS. Second, we will provide insight how organizations can respond more effectively during turbulent and unpredictable situations.