Emergency management incidents occur in two forms. This incident type generally requires only a limited, multi-discipline resource application to alleviate. These techniques facilitate the effective integration of a multi-discipline response. A disaster is defined as an incident producing a widespread, potentially catastrophic community impact. Disasters may require an extensive, long term, resource application.
Disasters often exhaust and exceed the resource capacity of a given community.
One conclusion drawn was the need for greater proactivity within the emergency management mission. A significant percentage of emergency management programs throughout this country and abroad focus primarily on the Response and Recovery phases of emergency management. This focus is oftentimes only found when those program facets were required as the result of an occurring emergency or disaster. This approach may result from the most common hazard types planned for in addition to accepted management focus and practices found in Midwestern U.S. emergency management programs. Although this approach may permit a somewhat successful encounter with an emergency, a successive series of emergencies or a disaster will quickly expose the limitations of this focus.