Week three of Building Safety Month is ‘Understanding the Four Phases of Emergency Management”. Even though there are many distinct types of natural and manmade hazards, they have a common element that can allow you to prepare and protect yourself from disasters.
Most emergency managers think of disasters as recurring events with four phases: Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. A community should be in at least one phase of emergency management at any time.
Disaster Mitigation Phase
Usually considered phase 1, the Mitigation phase occurs before a disaster takes place. Mitigation should be a sustained action during which efforts are taken to prevent future emergencies and steps are taken to minimize the impact when they do occur. Mitigation can be structural or non-structural adjustments to minimize the impact of disasters. It also includes prevention measures, evacuation planning, environmental planning and design measures. Mitigation should be a continuing activity that is integrated with the other phases of emergency management.
The primary goals of the Mitigation phase is to protect people and structures and to reduce the cost of time and money during the response and recovery phases. Modern building codes are a great tool for accomplishing these goals in a natural disaster. Adoption of the International Code Council’s International Building Code (IBC), International Residential Code (IRC), International Fire Code (IFC) and in Colorado, the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code (IWUIC) are a recommended start. These codes provide a model code that community codes can be based on and establish an adequate level of protection for people and structures that do not unnecessarily increase the cost of construction, while being consistent across jurisdictions. According to FEMA, when these codes are adopted, the community is more likely to qualify for emergency funding and post-disaster assistance.
During the Mitigation phase, putting in place and practicing measures to protect people, structures and property could include some of the following actions. Building new homes and commercial structures to be more disaster resistant, ensuring that a adequate fire break is present in wildland urban interfaces (WUI), keeping natural vegetation under control, tying down or properly anchoring structures to withstand wind damage, reinforcing fencing and gates to prevent animal escapes, digging water channels to redirect floodwater or building permanent barriers to control flooding. The Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management website has additional resources and links.
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