SGER: The October 2006 Federal Disaster in Buffalo, NY: An Investigation of First and Second Responder Operations

这一探索性研究小额赠款(SGER)项目的目的是审查第一和第二应急者在2006年10月纽约布法罗史无前例的早期暴风雪之后的经历，努力为关于这一重要而严重未被研究的主题的灾害文献做出贡献。在这样做的同时，我们还将审查一个对准备和支持有效减灾至关重要的问题，这一问题在以前的研究中只作了较少的研究：在灾难期间，急救人员的精神健康和功能可能会受到严重损害，就像救援人员试图帮助的灾难受害者一样，特别是当他们为自己和家人的安全感到担忧时。这场自然灾害提供了一个独特的、有时间限制的机会来检查和了解不同的急救人员群体之间的差异。受影响的第一反应人员将与未受影响的人员以及国民警卫队等第二反应人员就心理痛苦的衡量标准以及对有效决策的影响进行比较，以减轻灾害。这里的第一个目标是研究情感和行为。通常，除了现场响应外，灾难级别的响应模式还需要更高级别的协调模式和响应管理。第二个目标是确定急救人员和辅助急救基础设施如何以及何时从正常的简单事件响应模式转变为灾难级别的模式。这将从技术、过程和人(认知、行为、社会团体和团队动态)的角度来看待。在灾难发生前的几个月里，研究小组根据纽约西部地区急救人员对影响减灾的关键因素的看法，开发了一个基于经验的因果模型。先前的研究表明，没有经历过重大灾难的人群倾向于认为，与灾害多发地区的同龄人相比，他们不那么脆弱，准备也更充分。然而，对于这些人群遇到灾难性事件时，人们的看法会发生什么变化，我们知之甚少。因此，第三个目标是测试急救人员的认知是否发生了变化。这将通过在现在和六个月后对纽约州西部的同一组急救人员进行灾难前的相同调查来实现。这项研究的信息还将有助于灾害应对文献中目前的应用知识体系，并可能有助于关于第一反应人员如何能够应对自然灾害和从自然灾害中恢复的问题的政策执行。结构方程模型将用于分析路径和因果关系。差异分析将使用方差分析、协方差分析、t检验和增长曲线分析。研究成果将解决有关受灾后果如何影响受托减灾的人的理论和实践问题。这项研究将为人们对非脆弱性和应急准备的看法和信念的变化提供有益的见解。在学术方面，将开发课程单元，详细说明信息保障和业务连续性规划课程的应急反应和准备评估问题。这项工作将产生的出版物将面向顶级期刊和主题领域杂志。该项目还将导致一名博士生的毕业论文。结果将通过焦点小组会议向纽约西部的第一反应人和第二反应人社区传播。

The purpose of this Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) project is to examine first and second responder's experiences, in the aftermath of the unprecedented early snow storm in Buffalo, New York, in October 2006, in an effort to contribute to the disaster literature on this important and seriously understudied topic. In doing so, we shall also examine an issue critical to preparing for and supporting effective disaster mitigation that has been marginally examined in prior research: the mental health and functioning of first responders during a disaster can be significantly impaired, like the victims of the disaster who the responders are trying to help, particularly when they are consumed with worry about their own safety and the safety of their families. This natural disaster provides a unique time-limited opportunity to examine and understand the differences between the different groups of first responders. First responders who were affected will be compared with those not affected, as well as with the second responders such as the National Guard on measures of psychological distress and the effect on effective decision making for mitigation of the disaster. The first goal here is to study affect and behavior. Typically disaster level response patterns require much higher levels of coordination patterns and response management in addition to onsite response. A second goal is to determine how and when first responders and the supporting first response infrastructure shifted from normal simple incident response patterns to disaster level patterns. This would be viewed from technology, process, and people (cognitive, behavioral and social- group and team dynamics) perspective. In the months immediately preceding the disaster, the research team had developed an empirically grounded causal model based on perception of first responders in the Western NY region regarding the critical factors affecting disaster mitigation. Prior research has shown that populations that have not experienced major disasters tend to believe they are less vulnerable and better prepared than their peers in disaster prone areas. However, less is known about what perceptions change if these same populations encounter a disastrous event. A third goal therefore is to test if there is a change in perception among first responders. This would be accomplished by administering, the same survey that was administered prior to the disaster, to the same group of first responder in Western NY, now and six months later. The information from this research will also contribute to the current body of applied knowledge in the disaster response literature and may contribute to policy implementation regarding questions of how first responders are able to respond to and recover from natural disasters. Structural equation modeling will be used to analyze paths and causal relationships. Analysis of variance and analysis of covariance, t-tests, and growth curve analysis would be used to analyze differences.Findings of the research will address theoretical and practical questions about how the consequences of an exposure to disasters affect those who are entrusted to mitigate the disaster. The study will provide useful insight on changes in perception and beliefs of non-vulnerability and emergency preparedness. On the academic front, lecture modules will be developed detailing the emergency response and preparedness assessment issues for Information Assurance and Business Continuity Planning classes. Publications that will result from this work will be targeted to top-tier journals and subject area magazines. The project will also result in the dissertation of one PhD student. The results will be disseminated to the first responder and second responder communities in Western New York through focus group meetings.