1. Drawing on your current knowledge of an HVA, explain why a county assessment might be different from a city / borough one.

You will find this one-page article very helpful. http://www.med.uottawa.ca/sim/data/injury_preventi…

Although not required, you may find this article helpful in the application of the matrix. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12575…

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Q2. Must every small town or borough have its own HVA? Why or why not?

Even though this should not be a must, we all know that disasters are local. For this reason it is important for emergency planners to keep in mind that every plan should match the needs of our local community (Perry and Lindell, 2007). Furthermore, conducting a HVA at a regional or state level may avoid the waste of time and resources which might be required to sustain the assessments at county, or local levels. However, the down side of such approach is that planners might not relevant information related to local community. Realities at regional level might not be seen or experienced from the same perspective at local level. It is therefore necessary for us to seize up the situation based on the local realities. Besides, assessments conducted at different levels will not represent the same distribution of population or their exposure to potential existing threats. In other words, the local realities and the context might be quite different from those addressed at state level. The county plan needs to be as specific as possible with measures addressing realities inherent to the town. Besides, as plans are living document that can be updated regularly, it is important to start at least with the initial HVA a local (county/Town) level. Then, when this times comes for some revisions in, planner will not need to look for local details as for the initial assessment.

Furthermore, conducting a HVA a local level allow the best involvement of the local communities in the planning process. Interaction between planners, departments, personals and representatives of the different organizations throughout the planning process is a great opportunity for people to know each other, to buy-in and convey their different point of views about local opportunities and challenge that may arise during emergency response. Involving local community in the planning is a proven instrument for more sustainable output and multiplies the rate of successful realization of development by people because it is more likely to produce a set of outcomes actually desired by the community (Kaur, 2007). The HVA is a way to know the local capabilities to that can be included in the plan. For this reason, assessing a town or county may help to discover neighborhood associations and civic organizations which can contribute to build up local resources that will be useful during recovery phase. These groups are made of active citizens who can become important voices in local government, they provide a basis for policy formulation etc. They can also pass along official messages to friend and neighbors, and they can also act as pools of volunteers in support to emergency response and recovery processes.

In sum, allowing the city to proceed with its own HVA and can open opportunity for consultation with people interested in, or affected by the project to offer their point of view before a decision is made.

References

Kaur G. (2007): Participatory Approach/ Community Involvement in Planning: Retrieved from: http://www.isocarp.net/Data/case_studies/1108.pdf

Perry W.P. and Lindell K. L (2007): Emergency planning, USA

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HVA is a process for identifying the city’s or facility’s highest vulnerabilities to natural and man-made hazards and the direct and indirect effect these hazards may have on the area and community. When a town or a borough identify their own vulnerabilities and build their HVA on those vulnerabilities, they will have an analysis that specifically meets their needs and fill any gap in the disaster preparation process. The HVA for any city should be reviewed and evaluated on a yearly basis or after a major event, this is because conditions change and necessities alter regularly even for the same area, this raises the need for an exclusive HVA for any area. Doing so will keep the emergency preparedness efforts as applicable as they should be.

The city resources acquiring strategies and training program will need an HVA that is based on an extensive analysis of the city’s hazards from both statistical and magnitude approach. Resources deployment process to emergency professionals training programs and public awareness campaign will be disrupted and the efficiency will be lower than expected if the HVA of the city is not exclusive to the city.

A town’s HVA is a primary resource for the town’s facilities. Hospitals and institutions will need a reliable resource that fulfills the need for a thorough evaluation of the hazards the area is exposed to. For example, when an institution like Jefferson Hospital wants to develop their own HVA, first they will look into the Philadelphia’s HVA, then they will adjust the analysis areas to be consistent with the hospital’s situation.

Reference:

Hazards Vulnerability Analysis. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/planning/mscc/hea…