1. Emergency Management Planning
PLAN 4015/6015: Policy Perspectives
Anuradha Mukherji
Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning

2. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
POLICY ISSUES
1. Collaborative vs. Centralized
2. Compliance through coercion or inducements
3. Creation of DHS – not necessarily more efficient
4. Tone of emergency management shifted to national security
5. FEMA & local emergency managers cannot handle terrorism
6. Devaluation of the idea of mitigation
7. Higher priority for terrorism prevention, preparedness, response
8. Low Frequency vs. high frequency

3. LOCAL PARADOX
Insufficient attention to threats posed by hazards
Intensive development of hazardous areas
Local communities bear the brunt of loss
SAFE DEVELOPMENT PARADOX
Promoting safe but actually making unsafe
Levee expansion and development in New Orleans
Structural mitigation encourages development in risky
areas
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
POLICY ISSUES

4. NFIP LIMITS
1. Unable to update flood insurance rate maps timely
2. Flood insurance available, but buildings not elevated in areas with
localized flood risk & levee failure
3. Not able to cover costs from premiums, borrows from treasury
4. Standard – 100 year flood event – not very accurate, most floods
caused from other events
5. No incentive to homeowners to reduce flood vulnerability
6. Operating cost & loss from big events, cannot recover through
premiums
7. Program does not adequately reflect risk in rates and operates at
loss
8. Subsidizes occupancy of hazardous areas and facilitates more
development than economically logical
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT