In the wake of natural and human-made disasters, displaced populations, often living in overcrowded shelters with disrupted access to clean drinking water, proper sanitation systems, and adequate medical services, face…
Communication and information management from the field to the care facilities are consistently challenging during disaster response. A critical interdependence exists among the following: accurate information from the field about…
Offering help to people in need is a basic human instinct. During the war in Yugoslavia (1999), thousands of people were able to survive because of donations from foreign governments…
In the medical context, the term remote areas is defined as “locations that are geographically, professionally, and personally isolating, with limited sophistication of medical and logistic support, limited access to…
Management of large numbers of fatalities is one of the most difficult aspects of disaster response. Natural disasters, in particular, can cause large numbers of deaths, as underscored by the…
An Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) team is a specialized group of individuals with appropriate equipment, skills, and training that may be called into action during the disaster response phase….
The management of animals is an important part of any field response to disasters. Whether it is the management of displaced, injured, or ill animals after a natural disaster or…
The technical term geographic information system (GIS) describes a relational computer system that captures, stores, manages, retrieves, analyzes, and displays geographic data. Practically understood, a GIS allows users to understand…
Disasters occur with or without warning, and they can be “sudden” or “sustained.” With respect to disaster response, the terms volunteer and bystander are often used together, though they are…
