Learning from other's mistakes
Pick any disaster or major event (non-terror related) you wish that you can examine and Monday morning quarterback it based on risk as we have discussed and learned. You just graduated and have been hired to consult with a company that wants to know all about what you learned about the event you chose. How can they learn from other’s mistakes? What could have and should have been done differently? This will require you to look at the known facts and compare them to the process of risk analysis in an after-the-fact examination.
TEXTBOOK: Bennett, B. T. (2018). Understanding, assessing, and responding to terrorism: Protecting critical infrastructure and personnel (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 9781119237785.
When looking at Hurricane Katrina through a risk assessment lens, it is clear that many errors were made on multiple levels. For example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) failed to properly assess both local evacuations plans as well as their own emergency response capabilities prior to the storm’s landfall; this resulted in evacuation delays which ultimately put thousands of lives in danger when they could not flee soon enough before floodwaters engulfed much of New Orleans and other areas affected by the hurricane.
Moreover, inadequate communication between various government agencies such as FEMA and local authorities hindered resources being quickly deployed once flooding did occur; furthermore lack coordination amongst relief workers caused further delays greatly reducing chances successful recovery efforts. Finally poor policy decisions related infrastructure improvements including levee construction contributed overall chaos situation leaving many communities completely devastated .
In order prevent similar occurrences happening again all involved must constantly evaluate processes procedures place ensure up date current threats posed climate change potential disasters ; moreover necessary develop comprehensive plan respond such events appropriate manner effective communication protocols enabling quick access needed resources . Long term investments also key factor maintaining public safety rebuilding destroyed structures efficiently thus allowing citizens affected return normalcy sooner rather later . Overall purpose risk analysis learn past mistakes order make sure same do happen again future minimize amount loss human life damage sustained property much possible