Organizational Accountability Review of Taiwan\'s Disaster Management Activities in Response to Typhoon Morakot
Shafritz defines emergency management as:
Actions taken to prepare for, prevent, or lesson the effects of natural (such as floods and tornadoes) and human (terrorism) disasters. Since 2001, emergency management has taken on a new sense of urgency and has been given significant new resources with advent of the war and terrorism. (p. 101)
Haddow, Bullock, and Coppola indicate, "Emergency management is an essential role of government" (p. 2). Emergency management is a task that the whole world has to face. Natural disasters visit us unannounced from time to time, like the earthquake in Japan, Haiti, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Human disasters like 911 emerge now and then as well. How governments and public administrators deal with emergencies poses a challenge, and it takes coordination and collaboration from all sides concerned to make a peaceful transition from a chaotic situation back to normal life.