Introduction
Hurricane Harvey was a severe natural disaster that culminated in late August 2017. The emergency management measures taken by the stakeholders concerned various aspects of ensuring the safety of the population. The evacuation of people, the rescue of victims, the protection of infrastructure, and other measures were taken. This work is aimed at identifying the specifics of interagency cooperation in Texas, determining the effectiveness of the interaction and the steps taken, and making recommendations for the potential improvement of communication in the future.
Overview of the Disaster
This catastrophe not only claimed human lives but also caused massive destruction. For Texas, they were comparable to the effects of Hurricane Katrina, which affected the southeast coast of the country, and Harvey was assigned four out of five categories on the existing scale (Qin et al., 2020). From an environmental perspective, the disaster was also terrible, with massive amounts of pollutants released from Houston’s industrial plants (Qin et al., 2020). Large-scale flooding of the territories made normal rescue work impossible, and additional complex activities needed to be used. As a result, the economic damage amounted to billions of dollars, not to mention the tragedies associated with human casualties.
Emergency Management Steps
The initial steps involved in emergency management in Texas concerned the evacuation of citizens. Local healthcare facilities were deployed to accommodate people, and additional transport equipment was used, including helicopters (Hines & Reid, 2020). FEMA also initiated damage assessment activities in different areas of Texas, and in accordance with these data, additional rescue forces were deployed there (Hines & Reid, 2020). This assessment concerned, first of all, such geographical parameters as the height above sea level and the share of residential infrastructure because individual territories required increased protection. All these steps were designed to minimize potential damage and eliminate even greater losses among the population and private and public properties.
Interagency Collaboration Theories
When speaking of interagency cooperation during Hurricane Harvey, several interested agencies were involved in targeted work to prevent devastation and mitigate the consequences. As current theories related to this practice, Rajput et al. (2020) mention team functions, role clarification, and regular communication. These approaches to the fight against the disaster were necessary to maintain stable and coordinated work. Among the stakeholders actively involved in emergency steps, Kimmelman (2017) mentions FEMA, which oversees work at the federal level, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Coast Guard. Both throughout the entire period of the active phase of the hurricane and after the subsidence of the catastrophe, these departments cooperated closely to coordinate rescue operations.
Effectiveness of the Relationships Between the Government Agencies
By evaluating the collaborative work of the government agencies involved, one can determine the quality of the communication and the effectiveness of the interaction. According to Rajput et al. (2020), “During Harvey, government organizational users primarily generate information” (p. 101622). In other words, having the capacity to collect comprehensive data, the agencies involved combined relevant information using different resources. One of the approaches that Rajput et al. (2020) note was the collection of data from social media, where ordinary citizens shared personal content, and using this virtual environment to obtain the necessary information was effective. Given the geographic differences of the individual areas, the relationship between the government agencies engaged was efficient. For instance, official data received by FEMA was shared with local rescue teams and the military, who, in turn, allocated resources to address specific situations (Kimmelman, 2017). Following this communication strategy, the vertical warning system justified its effectiveness and helped minimize the damage from the hurricane.
Achieving Interagency Collaboration
Achieving interagency collaboration during Hurricane Harvey was largely based on the centralization of information flows. Rajput et al. (2020) give an example of special data hubs that collected, generate, and disseminate the data received. The aforementioned agencies acted as key coordinators, but along with them, other services were also involved. For instance, Kimmelman (2017) notes the role of the local weather service in providing up-to-date reports. As a result, while forming stable networks of data exchange, the collaboration was based on the principle of centralization of incoming information.
Recommendations
To improve communication and collaboration between agencies in the future, members of emergency management teams can optimize the way they report. For instance, data of a particular type can be sent directly to rescue teams to reduce the processing time. In addition, data on specific areas can be continuously received if individual emergency teams are created in charge of specific areas. These initiatives can help accelerate interaction, which is often a critical task during natural disasters.
Conclusion
The analysis of interagency cooperation during Hurricane Harvey helps identify the interactions between the agencies involved and assess the sustainability and effectiveness of their communication. The centralization of the mechanisms for obtaining and processing information was an approach that allowed interested organizations to address problems in a timely manner and establish effective emergency management activities. In the future, communication can be improved by reducing the processing time of received data and the formation of individual rescue teams for specific areas.
References
Hines, E., & Reid, C. E. (2020). Hurricane Harvey hospital flood impacts: Accuracy of federal emergency management agency flood hazard areas in Harris County, Texas. American Journal of Public Health, 110(4), 574-579. Web.
Kimmelman, M. (2017). Lessons from Hurricane Harvey: Houston’s struggle is America’s tale. The New York Times. Web.
Qin, R., Khakzad, N., & Zhu, J. (2020). An overview of the impact of Hurricane Harvey on chemical and process facilities in Texas. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 45, 101453. Web.
Rajput, A. A., Li, Q., Zhang, C., & Mostafavi, A. (2020). Temporal network analysis of inter-organizational communications on social media during disasters: A study of Hurricane Harvey in Houston. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 46, 101622. Web.