Community Emergency Preparedness & Response Paper
NUR 408
March 25, 2013

Community Emergency Preparedness & Response Paper
Media coverage of disasters across the globe come in real time and with intensity that one would believe that natural or manmade disasters happens more frequently, affecting thousands if not millions of lives. People prepare for the worst such as buying premium insurance to decrease the anxiety but still expecting the best. Disasters in all form is part of life and how we deal with these events depend on how prepared we are. A communities ability to get back on its feet and be self reliant after a disaster will be decided by how well the community prepare and responds to these emergencies. In the neighborhood we will discuss and examine how the resources and people responded to the emergency- a forest fire which have raged on for the last 5 days. We will discuss the hospital, senior center, school and the Bley household and how the emergency affected their life. We will then identify the types of public health agencies such as the local, state, and national that could be called upon to respond to emergencies.
The Neighborhood
The town is situated along a river and located west of a forest with a population of 64,200 of which one-third are elderly. A wildfire have started in the forest and has spread and destroyed several acres of land. The fire has been raging on for the last five days that has the community mobilizing its resources to assist its population. Firefighters are trying to control this wildfire in the forest, as health care workers are assisting its residents with restrictive and obstructive lung disease whose has been experiencing respiratory complications such as sob and difficulty breathing. Due to poor air quality from smoke, officials has warned its citizens not to go outside unless it was necessary. The poor air