Examining Intergovernmental and Interorganizational Response to Catastrophic Disasters

Abstract

This research focused on the interorganizational and intergovernmental response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The study used the concepts from the network and partnerships literature and used current techniques of network analysis. The study found that the use of intergovernmental and interorganizational response to coordinate complex operations in multiorganizational environments of catastrophic disasters was not successful in responding to both Hurricane Katrina and Rita in 2005. The research suggests that more investment should be made in community capacity building at the local and state levels for successful and effective partnerships in responding to catastrophic disasters. In this research, the local and state levels are shown to be faster in response and future research should focus on local, state, and federal resources coordination in response to catastrophic disasters.

<b>Observing Partnership Innovation through Inter-organizational Network Analysis on Emergency Response of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami 2011</b>

“…how community / organizational networks form and grow (Prell, 2003), how network governance influences policy (Hajer and Wagenarr: 2003), how crises cause change in social networks (Varda et al, 2009). As an approach, basically social network has been being used for various contexts and levels of research; for instance, from individual level (Quarantelli and Dynes: 1977), community (Tierney, 2001, Ulbert et al, 2005, as well as organizational context (Kapucu et al, 2010, Lassa, 2010. There are several past researches which already employed SNA to study inter-organizational cooperation at the time of a disaster; e.g.…”

“…From such research, it can also push necessity that vulnerable analysis is not only about physical attribute of people (individual or organizations) but also about its social attributes. Other works more concern on organizational level of social network in the context of aid and emergency response following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina (Kapucu et al, 2010).…”

FEMA versus local governments: influence and reliance in disaster preparedness

“…In short, FEMA plays a significant role in the four phases of emergency management cycle: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Mitigation is any action aimed at preventing disasters from occurring or reducing the consequences of disasters when they occur (Kapucu et al 2010;McLoughlin 1985).…”

Disaster Response in Turkey: Conditions Promoting Cross-Sectoral Collaboration and Implications for Effectiveness

“…Frequently employed approaches for studying disaster response performance are social network analysis (SNA), (see for example Kapucu et al, 2010), and single case studies (see for example Nolte & Boenigk, 2011). The analysis in this study partly rests on the involved actors' self-evaluation of disaster CONDITIONS FOR CROSS-SECTORAL COLLABORATION 13 response performance (McConnell, 2011).…”