A Look at Nigeria’s Bourgeoning Emergency Management System: Challenges, Opportunities, and Recommendations for Improvement

Emergency management in Nigeria, a country once known as the Giant of Africa, is in its infancy. Although organized responses to disasters date back to the early 1900s when the Fire Brigade was in charge of putting out fires, protecting properties, and helping communities respond to disasters, a comprehensive approach to emergency management only began in 1999. However, since then, Nigeria’s emergency management system has undergone tremendous changes. These include better organizational structure, more funding, curriculum development in emergency management education programs, increased training of emergency personnel, and more collaboration with other countries on emergency management issues. Nevertheless, this bourgeoning disaster management system still has a long way to go and faces innumerable challenges, including poverty, lack of funding for emergency management programs, and marginalization, among many others. This chapter examines the history of Nigeria, including its demography and geography, and takes a look at the factors contributing to vulnerability to disasters and hazards in Nigeria. In addition, this chapter discusses some past disasters as well as the opportunities and the challenges facing Nigeria’s emergency management system. This chapter concludes with recommendations for improving Nigeria’s emergency management system

Digging through disaster rubble in search of the determinants of organizational mitigation and preparedness

Disaster researchers have established the determinants of mitigation and preparedness at the household level of analysis. However, at the organizational level, there is limited research and no theory to guide research on the determinants of mitigation and preparedness. The research question is “what are the determinants of mitigation and preparedness at the organizational level?” The data come from a survey of 227 organizations in Memphis, Tennessee. This study uses Tobit regression technique to identify the determinants and finds that organizational size and concern over disaster impact are strong positive determinants of mitigation and preparedness in organizations. In addition, there is a significant and nonlinear relationship between organizational obstacle and mitigation and preparedness activities. This study concludes with policy implications and recommendations for future studies.National Science Foundatio

Determinants of Organizational Preparedness for Floods: U.S. Employees’ Perceptions

Globally, and in the United States, flooding is considered one of the most destructive natural hazards in terms of lives lost, injuries, and economic losses. Despite the growing concern of climate change impacts on organizations in particular and society in general, very little is known about the factors influencing public, private, and nonprofit organizations to prepare for flood hazards. This article examines the predictors of flood preparedness in organizations using information collected via an online questionnaire from a national sample of 2008 employees of public, private, and nonprofit organizations in the United States in 2014. The findings revealed that in general, organization size and organization age are robust predictors of flood preparedness. This article concludes by discussing the implications of the results for theory, offering recommendations for practice, and outlining an agenda for future research on the predictors of flood preparedness at the organizational level

Adoption of Hazard Adjustments by Large and Small Organizations: Who is Doing the Talking and Who is Doing the Walking?

Environmental hazards pose a considerable and genuine threat to the survival of organizations. However, organizations can increase their likelihood of survival by adopting various hazard adjustments. Prior studies on hazard adjustments have found a positive relationship between the adoption of hazard adjustments and organization size. However, no study on hazard adjustments has grouped hazard adjustments into active and passive and studied the relationship between active and passive hazard adjustments and organization size. The author investigates whether large organizations adopt more active and passive hazard adjustments than small organizations, using data from a survey of 227 organizations in Memphis, Tennessee. The results show that large organizations adopt more active and passive hazard adjustments than small organizations and both large and small organizations engage in different types of hazard adjustments

Mitigating and preparing for disasters: a survey of memphis organizations

Disaster researchers have established the determinants of preparedness and mitigation at the household level of analysis. However, at the organizational level, there is limited research and no theory to guide research on the determinants of preparedness and mitigation. The main goal of this study is to answer the question "what are the determinants of mitigation and preparedness at the organizational level?" The data come from a survey of 227 organizations in Memphis, Tennessee. This study uses Tobit regression technique to identify the determinants. This study finds that organizational size and concern over disaster impact are strong positive determinants of mitigation and preparedness in organizations. In addition, there is a significant and non-linear relationship between organizational obstacle and mitigation and preparedness activities. The study concludes with policy implications and recommendations for future studies.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Dr. William L. Waugh; Committee Member: Dr. Ronald G. Cummings; Committee Member: Dr. Douglas S. Noonan; Committee Member: Dr. Robert B. Olshansky; Committee Member: Dr. Christopher M. Weibl

Assessing the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards after 5 Years: Achievements, Challenges, and Risks Ahead

Congress mandated the Department of Homeland Security to regulate chemical facilities with the goal of increasing security at these facilities to prevent future terrorist attacks. In 2007, DHS issued an interim rule known as the chemical facility anti-terrorism standards (CFATS). This paper takes a look at CFATS 5 years after implementation and discusses the achievements and the challenges confronting this important piece of legislation. In addition, this paper poses several questions and discusses some CFATS issues and concerns that have far-reaching implications for CFATS stakeholders, homeland security, and emergency management

Professional Education for Emergency Managers

The education of professional emergency managers has been the subject of workshops by the National Science Foundation and the National Academies. There is general agreement on the content of curricula, except for components related to Homeland Security. This article looks at the broad issue of professional education and the need to include information on Homeland Security

Disaster Policies and Governance: Promoting Community Resilience

This brief editorial introduction highlights the importance of policies and effective governance for disaster resilience including communities, individuals, institutions, and organizations through the execution of deliberate choice and collective action. Effective facilitation of development and implementation of disaster policies can lead to more resilient communities in the aftermath of disasters. The success of design, development, and execution of disaster resilience policies require engagement of the “whole community”

Critical Infrastructure, Terrorism, and the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards: The Need for Collaboration

In response to 9/11 and the increasing concerns over chemical sector security, Congress gave the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the authority to regulate the safety and security of U.S. chemical facilities. In April of 2007, DHS passed the interim final rule called the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) in order to secure the U.S. chemical infrastructure. Unfortunately, the latest update on CFATS progress by DHS indicated that very few chemical facilities have completed the CFATS process. The slow implementation of CFATS perpetuates the inherent vulnerabilities of U.S. chemical infrastructure and does not augur well for the safety and security of the U.S. population. We argue that collaboration between DHS and the chemical industry can help to speed up CFATS and that communities should not wait for CFATS to ramp up before developing preparedness and response plans in anticipation of future chemical disasters