Disaster Response: Principles of Preparation and Coordination

The word "disaster" conjures up different images to different people. To the fire fighter, it may mean a high-rise office building in flames; to an air traffic controller, it is wrecked aircraft; to an international relief worker, it may be an earthquake or flood or famine or civil strife. So it is useful to start by stating whatDisaster Responseis not about. It is not a book about dealing with famine in Africa, flooding in Bangladesh, or even an earthquake in Armenia. As the author is careful to point out, this book addresses the specific problems of responding to multicasualty incidents in the United States or countries having similar infrastructure and a similarly organized system of emergency medical services. It is, furthermore, primarily a book for those with managerial, rather than medical, responsibility for the planning and implementation of a disaster response. Reviewing a host of incidents reported in