Introduction to Emergency

Management 1st Edition Lindell

Solutions Manual
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8
MYTHS AND REALITIES OF
DISASTER RESPONSE
How People and Communities Respond in an Emergency

Learning Objectives

Upon reading this chapter, students should be able to:

• Design a plan for convergence.

• Design a warning dissemination plan.
• Create a plan to work with and organize volunteers and emergent organizations.
• Analyze evacuation time estimates.
• Predict how people will respond to disasters.

Chapter Summary

Emergency managers must know how people truly react during a disaster so they can plan their
response appropriately. There are differences between the myths and the realities of household
response to emergencies. People may experience fear when disaster hits, but they also seek
information and respond by taking protective action, regardless of their circumstances. In addition,
those who don’t experience the disaster, often respond by volunteering to help. Because emergency
managers can predict some behaviors, it’s important they develop plans to respond to those behaviors.
As emergency managers have to disseminate information to those who seek it, and they have to ensure
they have given appropriate warnings, solutions for protection, and even plans for organizing the
people who show up to help after the disaster.

Key Terms

Emergent organizations
EMONs
Established organizations
Evacuation trip generation
A disaster response organization that performs novel tasks within
novel organizations.
A group of organizations whose interactions develop in response to
the demands of a disaster rather than being planned beforehand.
Stands for emergent multiorganizational networks.
A disaster response organization that performs normal tasks within
normal organizations.
The number and location of vehicles evacuating from a risk area.
Expanding organizations
Extending organizations
Panic
A disaster response organization that performs normal tasks within
novel organizations.
A disaster response organization that performs novel tasks within
normal organizations.
An acute fear reaction marked by a loss of self-control which is
followed by nonsocial and nonrational flight behavior.

Lecture Notes

1. If your class includes current responders or others who have survived disasters, be sensitive to
the fact that they may have experienced trauma and may be hesitant to discuss the topic.
2. Discuss the added psychological stresses that can arise from terrorist events as opposed to
natural disasters.
3. Ask students what they believe their response would be in the face of a hurricane. What about
in a terrorist incident? What about in an apartment fire? Ask them how they think their natural
responses differ (if they do) from protective actions.

Suggestions for Learning Activities

1. Invite a psychologist or other mental health professional to discuss the psychological affects
of trauma.
2. Ask students to write a 1-2 page paper comparing and contrasting expected human behavior
in emergencies with actual behavior in emergencies.
3. Show the class a film or documentary on United Airlines flight 93 (The Discovery channel
produced a very good documentary and there is a feature film that is available as well).
Discuss the thought process the passengers and crew went through during the time of their
hijacking until their death.

Suggestions for Additional Resources

1. Mental Health Terrorism Training Manual, on the book companion website.

2. “Understanding Citizen Response to Disasters with Implications to Terrorism,” article by
Ronald Perry and Michael Lindell. Located on the book companion website.
3. “Terrorism Challenges for Human Resource Management,” article by Lawrence Mankin and
Ronald Perry. Located on the book companion website.

Answers to Self-Check Questions

Answers to Self-Check questions immediately following section 8.1

1. Define panic. An acute fear reaction marked by a loss of self-control which is followed by
nonsocial and nonrational flight behavior.

2. Describe three conclusions about shock that Melick’s study shows.

 • Shock appears most frequently in sudden events involving widespread destruction,
traumatic injuries, or death.
• When the symptoms do appear, few people are affected. Fritz and Marks reported that
14% of victims showed evidence of the early symptoms associated with shock. Most
reported only mild symptoms. These symptoms might include uneasiness or trouble
sleeping. For example, Moore reported that 17 to 30% of families exposed to a tornado
had at least one member who had “emotional upset.” Taylor’s study of another tornado
reported that 27% of the victims had “trouble sleeping.”
• Shock lasts for a maximum of a few hours or days. It is rare for shock to last longer.
This is not to say that the symptoms vanish. Depending upon the circumstances, studies
have concluded that situational anxiety, phobia, and depression can persist for years.
However, these disorders are psychological conditions that are distinct from disaster
shock.

3. Explain why an emergency managers’ belief in the panic myth can lead to fewer people
taking protective action. Emergency managers make poor decisions if they believe these
myths. For example, the belief that people will panic becomes a reason to withhold
information about a threat. In fact, people are less likely to comply when they have vague or
incomplete information.

4. Explain how population segments differ in their willingness and ability to evacuate.
There are many publics or population segments. Each differs in their hazard knowledge,
family roles, and household resources. In particular, you need to distinguish among residents,
transients, and special facility populations. These population segments differ in their
willingness and ability to evacuate

Answers to Self-Check questions immediately following section 8.2

1. Explain the importance of developing donation management plans? Donations and

volunteers, although potentially an asset, can be a liability because they are unanticipated. It is
essential to develop donations management procedures. One such plan is Supply Management
(SUMA) developed by the Pan American Health Organization. Donations management
procedures allow for integration of volunteers. They also create a routine for receiving, storing,
and using material and equipment.

2. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of socially integrative responses. Many volunteers
direct help to victims in the form of needed clothing, food, and lodging. What is important is the
positive social climate created by such altruism. Consensus following disasters is a short-lived
phenomenon. For example, six months after the 9/11 attacks, there was conflict on how to
distribute compensation funds. There is agreement that a therapeutic community develops in the
short-term aftermath. It promotes positive psychological outcomes for disaster victims. Also
remember, however, that it will be short-lived.

Answers to Self-Check questions immediately following section 8.3

1. Name three ways that warning methods differ. Warning methods differ in a variety of ways,
including the following:
• Ability to get a message to the group(s) that are most at risk
• Ability to get people’s attention as they go about their daily activities
• Ability to provide specific information
• Ease with which a message can become distorted
 • Number of people who receive the message over time
• Requirements for people sending and receiving warnings
• Feedback

2. Identify the major sources of information that people rely on in disasters.

• Face-to-face
• Route alert (loudspeaker broadcast from a moving vehicle)
• Siren
• Commercial radio and television
• Tone alert radio
• Telephones
• Newspapers

Answers to Self-Check questions immediately following section 8.4

1. Define evacuation trip generation. The number and location of vehicles evacuating from a risk
area.

2. Describe how drivers choose the routes they take when evacuating a city. There are four
factors defining evacuees’ destination/route choice:
• Ultimate evacuation destination, the place where evacuees want to stay until they can
return home.
• Proximate destination, the point at which the evacuees leave the risk area.
• Route choice, the roads evacuees take to get out of the risk area.
• Primary evacuation route utilization, the percentage of evacuating vehicles using
official evacuation routes.

Answers to Self-Check questions immediately following section 8.5

1. Name three disaster impact zones. The innermost circle is the total impact zone where
casualties and damage are the greatest. Immediately adjacent to the total impact area is the
fringe impact zone. In this zone, casualties and damage are significant but not overwhelming.
The next ring is the resource filter zone. Through this zone, information passes from the inner
(total impact and fringe) zones to the outer (community aid and regional aid) zones.

2. Explain whether emergency responders abandon their roles in a disaster. Examination of

the Disaster Research Center’s studies of hundreds of emergencies showed no evidence of
role abandonment.

3. Name the four types of disaster response organizations.

• Established organizations perform their normal tasks within normal organizations. For
example, police directing evacuation traffic.
• Extending organizations perform novel tasks within normal organizations. For
example, crews from public works agencies digging through rubble to extricate trapped
victims.
• Expanding organizations perform their normal tasks within novel organizations. For
example, Red Cross volunteers working under the supervision of permanent staff to
operate mass care centers.
 • Finally, emergent organizations perform novel tasks within novel organizations. For
example, neighbors forming a team to search for and extricate trapped casualties after
an earthquake.

4. Explain EMON. They termed such structures emergent multi-organizational networks

(EMONs). EMONs typically comprise professional and volunteer personnel from government
agencies within local government. EMONs also include representatives from state and federal
agencies and representatives from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the private
sector.

Answers to Self-Check questions immediately following section 8.6

1. Describe how people seek information about impending disasters. People threatened by
disaster have multiple sources of information. None of these sources is considered completely
credible. Nor is any single source expected to have all the information a household needs to
protect itself. This can produce confusing and conflicting information unless different sources
coordinate their risk communication.

2. Explain how fear affects people. They do not experience debilitating shock or panic. Fear is
a normal human reaction to conditions that threaten them or their loved ones. Fear rarely is so
overwhelming that it prevents people from responding. However, it does impair people’s
ability to reason through complex, unfamiliar problems. Fear is especially high when people
lack information about the consequences of hazard exposure.

3. Describe the basic principle about people’s action during a disaster. The initial response
to a threatening situation might be to seek information. Those who conclude they are at risk
take protective action. It is important that official warning messages include recommended
protective actions. If authorities do not provide recommended actions, people take action
anyway. They take the most appropriate actions they already know, or are told about by peers
or the media.

4. Explain the difference between warning compliance and spontaneous evacuation. Some of
those at risk will comply with authorities’ recommendations. However, their compliance is rarely
automatic. The level of compliance is contingent upon a variety of other factors:
• Information source.
• Message content.
• Receiver characteristics.
• Situational characteristics such as threat familiarity and urgency for response.
Some of those who are not at risk will also comply with protective action recommendations.
Spontaneous evacuation has been reported in response to hazard agents as varied as nuclear
power plant accidents, and hurricanes.

Answers to Self-Check questions immediately following section 8.7

1. Describe the differences between the conditions experienced by Holocaust survivors and
the conditions experienced by survivors of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center
and the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. The Holocaust was one of the most heinous crimes
of the twentieth century. Many survivors, including concentration camp survivors, experienced
posttraumatic stress disorder with symptoms of anxiety and depression as a result of extreme
guilt for surviving. The WTC survivors witnessed death or handled the dead, were exposed to
large scale property destruction and may have had relatives, neighbors or friends seriously
 injured or lose their lives. Although survivors of Hurricane Katrina experienced similar
circumstances of stress to those of the WTC survivors, many Katrina survivors evacuated
before the storm and the disaster struck.

2. Identify the groups most likely to experience psychological consequences of disasters and
describe the treatment they need.
• People who have witnessed death or handled the dead.
• People who have been exposed to large scale property destruction.
• People whose relatives, neighbors, or friends have been seriously injured or lost their
lives.
However, people become depressed even if less severe conditions occur. As authorities move
from response recovery and reconstruction, they should anticipate the need for referrals for
crisis counseling. Some people also need other short-term therapy to reduce long-term
negative consequences.

3. Identify the link between disasters and health problems. Even in the apparent absence of
psychological symptoms, victims and nonvictims have developed physical health problems
following disasters. Some of these health problems are unrelated to the disaster agent.

Answers to Summary Questions

1. Anti-social behaviors such as looting are common during and after disasters. True or false?

2. Disasters are not associated with increases in mental health problems in the affected population.
True or false?

3. The positive impact of convergence is the increased resource base and increased morale. True
or false?

4. It is the source and content of the warning message that largely determine response to warnings.
True or false?

5. What percentage of casualties reach a hospital on their own or through the help of a friend or
bystander?
A. Over 75%
B. 27%
C. 46%
D. Less than 10%

6. Information passes from the inner zone through the outer zone through which of the following
impact zones?
A. Total impact
B. Fringe impact
C. Community aid
D. Resource filter

7. If authorities do not provide recommended actions, people will not take action. True or false?
8. What can you expect of people when they respond to disaster?
A. People threatened by disaster have multiple sources of information and will seek to find
information.
B. People generally experience fear.
C. People will take action when they think they are at risk.
D. All of the above.

Answers to Review Questions

1. Explain why myths about disasters can be dangers. The myths are not just wrong, they are
dangerous. Emergency managers make poor decisions if they believe these myths. For example,
the belief that people will panic becomes a reason to withhold information about a threat. In fact,
people are less likely to comply when they have vague or incomplete information. Therefore,
emergency managers’ belief in the panic myth can lead to fewer people taking protective action.
This example illustrates why it is important to review studies that describe people’s actual disaster
response patterns. The behavioral record is very clear with respect to three commonly held beliefs
about disaster victims’ reactions—disaster shock, panic flight, and homogeneity of victim
response.

2. What evokes panic flight? Steps that evoke panic flight are:
• A perception of immediate and extreme danger
• The existence of a limited number of escape routes
• A perception that the escape routes are closing, necessitating immediate escape
• A lack of communication

3. Describe the therapeutic community. Early researchers saw the therapeutic community as “an
outpouring of altruistic feelings and behavior beginning with mass rescue work and carrying on
for days, weeks, possibly even months after the impact” (Barton, 1969, p. 206). Regrettably, not
enough research has been completed to know if Barton is correct. The therapeutic community
may not be a lasting condition (Quarantelli & Dynes, 1976, 1977). Consensus following disasters
is a short-lived phenomenon. For example, six months after 9-11 there was conflict on how to
distribute compensation funds. There is agreement that a therapeutic community develops in the
short-term aftermath. It promotes positive psychological outcomes for disaster victims. Also
remember, however, that it will be short-lived.

4. Name five warning methods. Answers will vary but may include the following:
• Face-to-face
• Route alert (loudspeaker broadcast from a moving vehicle)
• Siren
• Commercial radio and television
• Tone alert radio
• Telephones
• Newspapers

5. What four factors define evacuees’ destination/route choice?

• Ultimate evacuation destination, the place where evacuees want to stay until they can
return home
• Proximate destination, the point at which the evacuees leave the risk area
• Route choice, the roads evacuees take to get out of the risk area
 • Primary evacuation route utilization, the percentage of evacuating vehicles using
official evacuation routes

6. Describe the different disaster response organizations produced as a result of contingencies.

• Established organizations perform their normal tasks within normal organizations. For
example, police directing evacuation traffic.
• Extending organizations perform novel tasks within normal organizations. For
example, crews from public works agencies digging through rubble to extricate trapped
victims.
• Expanding organizations perform their normal tasks within novel organizations. For
example, Red Cross volunteers working under the supervision of permanent staff to
operate mass care centers.
• Finally, emergent organizations perform novel tasks within novel organizations. For
example, neighbors forming a team to search for and extricate trapped casualties after an
earthquake.

7. What contingencies affect the level of compliance?

• Information source
• Message content
• Receiver characteristics
• Situational characteristics such as threat familiarity and urgency for response

8. What are the three distinct patterns of expected citizen response to disasters? The first
principle is that people threatened by disaster have multiple sources of information. The second
basic principle is that people generally experience fear. The third basic principle is that people
take action when they think they are at risk. The initial response to a threatening situation might
be to seek information.

Answers to Applying This Chapter Questions

1. As part of an initiative to educate the public about the dangers of myths that are related to
disasters, you are writing an article for a website. Outline the key points you would make in
the article. Sample answer: There are several long-standing myths about how people respond to
disasters. These are dangerous, because they prejudice emergency managers’ anticipation of the
public reaction, leading to them possibly not “tell the whole truth.” People with incomplete
information may be skeptical about the actual danger facing them, and therefore less willing to
evacuate their homes. They may decide to wait the storm out at home, for example, with pets and
other precious possessions.
But, studies have shown that people will act in their own best interest, given the information they
have. Reports of widespread panic or shock during disasters are grossly exaggerated. Shock does
occur with a small number of people, but the effects are usually mild and short-lived. Scenes of
panicked mobs make for good drama in cinema, but they do not occur in reality unless there is
extreme immediate danger, a lack of communication, and the belief that becoming trapped is
imminent, such as building exits that are blocked or closing. Therefore, it is best to give people as
much accurate information about a disaster as possible. This builds the public trust in authority and
increases the odds of compliance with evacuation and other instructions.

2. You live in the Midwest and are watching national news coverage of a hurricane disaster off
the coast of Florida. The media predicts major damage and casualties. What kind of
 response can you expect from the surrounding Florida communities? What kind of response
can you expect from those living in your part of the country?
Sample answer: The weather service is predicting that a major hurricane will hit a particular
area of Florida. I expect the residents of the targeted area to protect their homes and businesses
by boarding up their windows with plywood. Some communities may try to build a sandbag
barrier around certain structures. Most residents who are able will then pack up their cars and
evacuate, but a few will remain behind. On television there will be the ubiquitous media reports
of all these activities, as well as footage of a junior correspondent reporting from the path of the
storm, with intermittent static heightening the drama.
From my neighbors in the Midwest, there will be an outpouring of compassion and generosity.
Donations will be made privately, by small companies, and by corporations, in the form of
money, food, medical supplies, and services. Some may open their homes to disaster refugees
who are family, friends, or even strangers. Some people will go to the disaster site to lend their
services, particularly if they have medical training. The plight of companion animals left behind
during disasters is particularly troubling to pet owners. Since I personally know people who
volunteered to rescue stranded animals after Hurricane Katrina, I expect this type of
mobilization again.

3. You need to warn people of an approaching hurricane? What types of warning systems do
you use and why? Sample answer: There is a hurricane approaching my area, and I will use
several types of warning systems to alert the residents. In the early stages, while the storm is still
far out at sea, there will be regular newspaper, television, and radio reports of its trajectory and
status. As the storm grows nearer, the television and radio warnings will be accompanied by
warning tones. There will be a crawler on the television screen constantly giving the latest
information. An automated telephone calling system can be used for specific areas that are
targeted for evacuation, as well as a public address siren. High-density areas can be effectively
reached using a vehicle with a loudspeaker. As the vehicle slowly moves through the streets,
evacuation orders can also be given as authorities walk house-to-house.

4. You are evacuating a city; what factors do you consider when estimating evacuation times?
Sample answer: When evacuating a city, I must consider the evacuation tendencies and times of
the various types of residents. The basic US Census data that will be helpful to me are the size and
geographical distribution of the resident population, the number of people per household, and the
proportion of the population that is dependent on public transportation. I can get information
about the size, distribution, and number of evacuating vehicles of the transient population from
the convention and visitor’s bureau. In addition, I need to consider the number of evacuating
vehicles and trailers per household. I also estimate the percentage of residents and transients that
will evacuate when told to do so or even before being told to do so. These figures are known as
the Protective Action Recommendation (PAR) warning compliance and PAR spontaneous
evacuation data. Other more individual factors are the time of day various people tend to
evacuate, the amount of time they need to prepare, their destination, and the route by which they
intend to get there.

5. Is the rate of compliance likely to be higher with a threat of flooding or with a threat of a
nuclear power plant release of radioactive materials? How about the rate of spontaneous
evacuation? Why? Sample answer: The rates of both warning compliance and spontaneous
evacuation are likely to be higher with a threat of nuclear power plant release of radioactive
materials than with the threat of flooding. One reason is that radioactive material release is a much
more frightening, mysterious and invisible threat. People know that its effects might not be felt for
a period of months or even years, and future generations can even be harmed. Even so,
possessions would not be damaged, so people are more likely to lock the doors and windows, grab
 their pets, and go. With a flood, people’s homes and possessions are at stake in addition to their
lives, and there is a tendency to stay home and try to save one’s property. And, since water is a
benign substance that we use all day long, it is inherently less threatening than radioactive
material. Many people in flood-prone areas have seen it all before, and feel that they can live
through another flood.

6. You are tasked with organizing volunteers who have shown up to help after a tornado has
destroyed a community. How would you organize the volunteers? Sample answer: Volunteers
that want to help after a tornado has destroyed my community can be organized according to
Dynes typology of disaster organizations; that is, the 2x2 matrix formed by combining
normal/novel tasks/organizations. For example, anyone trained in medicine, first aid, nursing, etc
will be assigned to aiding the Red Cross in administering medical aid. This is a normal task
performed by a novel group, or an expanding organization. Those skilled in rescue activities, such
as firemen, will be work on rescue/recovery missions. This represents an established organization;
a normal group performing normal tasks. Miscellaneous volunteers will be dispatched to provide
comfort to bewildered victims, serve meals, contact family members, sort incoming donations,
assist in the completion of government forms, etc. These activities would qualify as emergent
activities, or novel personnel performing novel tasks.

7. As an emergency manager, you need to understand the effects of stress factors on people
who survive disasters in which they lost loved ones or in which they experienced guilt from
survival. Research how stress affects those who experienced a traumatic experience, and
then describe how the survivors of the tragedy cope with the effects. Sample answer: People
who have survived disasters sometimes experience a range of psychological and physical health
effects for some time afterward. Psychological effects can include post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD), anxiety, phobia, depression, and “survivor syndrome,” which can present as guilt over
surviving while so many others died. Physiological effects can encompass a myriad of health
ailments, such as insomnia, nausea, vomiting, constipation, headaches, and even heart disease and
certain kinds of cancer. Survivors of disaster often need psychological counseling to help them
cope with the trauma of the event, the guilt of surviving it, the grief over losing loved ones, and
the stress of putting their lives back together. At the very least, financial assistance, whether by
donations, federal aid, or low-interest loans, is needed by most victims to help them recover and
regain a sense of control over their lives.

8. As an emergency manager, you have been asked to describe adaptive behavior of people
responding to disaster. Your audience assumes that the average person will evacuate from
the disaster area before the disaster hits. You know there are many potential problems
because of individual circumstances. What problems do you suggest discussing with your
audience? Why is it important to explain these problems of adaptive behavior and what
cannot be assumed about individual circumstances? Sample answer: I am an emergency
manager making a speech on adaptive behavior during disaster response. I need to convey to my
audience that there is a wide spectrum of individual circumstances that affect people’s ability and
propensity to respond in a certain manner. My audience assumes that the population consists of
people like them: those who have cars, credit cards, daytime jobs, trust in authority, families to
help them in an emergency, etc. In order to help them understand people different from
themselves, I will describe a few scenarios: a single mother with three young children and no
vehicle, a senior citizen who is frail, hard of hearing and doesn’t even hear the evacuation
warnings, a middle-aged couple who survived a disaster several years ago and is reluctant to leave
their possessions and home. It is my hope that by asking the audience to imagine themselves in
these predicaments, they will understand the breadth of personal experience that determines how a
person might react in a stressful situation such as a disaster.