When people think of mega-disasters, they often think of Hurricane Katrina. It is important to understand,
however, that Hurricane Katrina was not the only mega-disaster to strike the United States. In 1906, a
devastating earthquake that spawned an outbreak of fires struck San Francisco. The loss of life and devastation
caused by the earthquake and fires was comparable to that of Hurricane Katrina.
Both natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes) and human-caused disasters (e.g., terrorist
attacks, shootings, or intentional chemical/biological agent release) present immense challenges for integrating
lessons learned into effective implementation of emergency management standards.
Policy makers reacted to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in a manner similar to the way policy makers
reacted to Hurricane Katrina—they learned which response and recovery methods worked and which did not
work. Ideally, this is how emergency management evolves over time as each generation responds to new
hazards and disasters.
For this Discussion, review the media and Learning Resources for this week. Select a natural or human-caused
disaster to use for this Discussion and do some research on this disaster. Do not select Hurricane Katrina as
your disaster. Think about historical lessons learned from it. Consider how these lessons learned, if they were
integrated into current emergency management policy decisions, apply to contemporary emergency
management.
By Day 4
Post a brief description of the disaster you selected. Next, explain some of the lessons learned from that
disaster. Finally, explain how these lessons were or could have been integrated into emergency management
policy decisions.
Be sure to use the Learning Resources and current literature to support your response.
Sample Solution