Emergency and Disaster Management Commons^™

Social Media Risk Messaging During The March 2023 Arkansas Tornadoes: A Qualitative Approach, Will Sappington, Andrew Rafferty

ATU Research Symposium

This study examines the social media risk communication activities of public organizations during the March 2023 Arkansas Tornadoes. The research question for this study is “what information was communicated to the public during the March 2023 Arkansas Tornadoes?” The data for the study was collected by reviewing the Facebook posts of 22 public organizations for a seven-day period (March 30 -April 5, 2023). The data thus collected was analyzed by using qualitative content analysis approach. The findings suggest that most of the organizations only communicated to the public after the tornadoes. The message content disseminated before and during the tornado …

2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Examining The Preparedness And Risk Communication Strategies Of Em Stakeholders, Andrew N. Rafferty, Will M. Sappington

ATU Research Symposium

On April 8th, 2024, a total solar eclipse will cross North America. The City of Russellville is listed as one of the top locations for viewing the eclipse. Due to the eclipse, Russellville is expected to experience a heavy influx of visitors and other potential issues such as delayed emergency response, traffic congestion, and communication disruption. This research examines the eclipse-related preparedness and communication strategies of emergency management (EM) stakeholders in Arkansas, and specifically in the City of Russellville. The research question for this study is “What strategies are EM stakeholders implementing related to the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse preparedness …

Disaster Preparedness Levels Among Firefighters, Shelby G. Coonts

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

There are numerous studies that focus on household preparedness however, there are few studies that focus on the preparedness levels of first responders. The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to (a) establish, analyze, and compare the current level of disaster preparedness among Hinesville City Fire Department and Liberty County Fire Services located within the same region of Southeastern, Georgia and (b) analyze any correlation between demographics of the Firefighters and their level of disaster preparedness. This research sought to benchmark the organizational level of disaster preparedness of two critical departments (city and county fire services) by measuring three …

The Importance Of Public/Private Partnerships For Supply Chain Success In Emergency Management, Rick W. Neudorff

ATU Research Symposium

During the global COVID-19 pandemic response health care related supply chain issues pulled the curtains back to expose a disjointed, mis-managed and fragile supply chain (Goldschmidt & Stasko, 2022). This disfunction eventually impacted billions of people globally and significantly extend the supply chain recovery from COVID-19. The perceived strength of our domestic supply chain was weakened by minimal collaboration between the federal government and the private sector, which manages the majority of supply chains, during the early days of the pandemic (Aday & Aday, 2020). Additionally, the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) was depleted due to many years of under-budgeting for …

Supporting Responder Resiliency: The Effects Of Stress And Mental Health On Retention And Burnout In The Humanitarian Disaster Workforce, Misty C. Sutton

ATU Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

What Makes A Cert Program Successful And Effective?, Dempsey Kraft, Wade Aaron Baker

ATU Research Symposium

There has been little research conducted about Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs). Even so, previous research suggests that CERT programs present a viable option for increasing a community's disaster resilience by increasing preparedness education and building interpersonal bonds among community members. Still, additional research indicates that measuring the success of CERT is challenging to quantify. This study seeks to determine what makes a CERT program successful and effective.

Method

The researchers are utilizing purposive sampling and a structured questionnaire to interview CERT Program Coordinators. CERT Program Coordinators identified as potential participants were contacted via an email solicitation. This email provided …

Emergency Nurse Perceptions Of Disaster Preparedness After The Implementation Of A Department Emergency Operations Plan, Angela R. Gentry

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

Emergency departments (ED) are the entryway into the healthcare system during a disaster event and patients often arrive in the first thirty minutes after an event has occurred. This creates unique challenges for ED nurses. The purpose of the Quality Improvement (QI) project was to measure the impact of a Department Emergency Operations Plan (DEOP) on the ED nurse’s perception of disaster preparedness. This study included a convenience sample of 126 full time and part time registered nurses working in the ED at a Level 1 Trauma hospital. Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was obtained by both Arkansas Tech University …

A Novel Cloud Removal Method Based On Ihot And The Cloud Trajectories For Landsat Imagery, Shuli Chen, Xuehong Chen, Xiang Chen, Jin Chen, Xin Cao, Miaogen Shen, Wei Yang, Xihong Cui

Faculty Publications - Emergency Management

Cloud removal is significantly needed for enhancing the further utilization of Landsat imagery, since such optical remote sensing satellite images are inevitably contaminated by clouds. Clouds dynamically affect the signal transmission due to their different shapes, heights, and distribution. Generally, pixel replacement is the only and common method used to remove thick opaque clouds, and radiometric correction techniques has been widely adopted to remove the thin clouds. However, no methods can remove both thick and thin clouds at the same time. In this paper, a new method is proposed based on fitting “trajectory” of cloudy pixels with the help of …

Exploring Determinants Of Housing Prices In Beijing: An Enhanced Hedonic Regression With Open Access Poi Data, Yixiong Xiao, Xiang Chen, Qiang Li, Xi Yu, Jin Chen, Jing Guo

Faculty Publications - Emergency Management

The housing market in Chinese metropolises have become inflated significantly over the last decade. In addition to an economic upturn and housing policies that have potentially fueled the real estate bubble, factors that have contributed to the spatial heterogeneity of housing prices can be dictated by the amenity value in the proximity of communities, such as accessibility to business centers and transportation hubs. In the past, scholars have employed the hedonic pricing model to quantify the amenity value in relation to structural, locational, and environmental variables. These studies, however, are limited by two methodological obstacles that are relatively difficult to …

How Does The Dengue Vector Mosquito Aedes Albopictus Respond To Global Warming?, Pengfei Jia, Xiang Chen, Jin Chen, Liang Lu, Qiyong Liu, Xiaoyue Tan

Faculty Publications - Emergency Management

Background Global warming has a marked influence on the life cycle of epidemic vectors as well as their interactions with human beings. The Aedes albopictus mosquito as the vector of dengue fever surged exponentially in the last decade, raising ecological and epistemological concerns of how climate change altered its growth rate and population dynamics. As the global warming pattern is considerably uneven across four seasons, with a confirmed stronger effect in winter, an emerging need arises as to exploring how the seasonal warming effects influence the annual development of Ae. albopictus. Methods The model consolidates a 35-year climate dataset and …

Modeling Road Network Vulnerability For Evacuees And First Responders In No-Notice Evacuation, Xiang Chen, Qiang Li

Faculty Publications - Emergency Management

The concept of vulnerability has been employed to develop transport systems that sustain devastating disasters and ensure the efficient evacuation of neighborhoods. Existing studies of road network vulnerability overlook two important aspects of analysis: the no-notice evacuation and the different objectives of evacuees and first responders. First, a no-notice evacuation leaves limited time for proactive emergency planning; therefore, rescue strategies in this scenario rely heavily on real-time traffic information. Second, the goal of first responders in an evacuation is to move into an affected area immediately after a hazardous event unfolds, and the risk they face differs from that of …

Local Christian Churches And Disaster Preparedness: Are They Prepared?, Andrew J. Smith

Theses and Dissertations from 2016

Many religious institutions respond to global crises. These faith-based organizations may be small, independent institutions or belong to a larger corporate body. Local mainline Christian churches from mainline denominations including Lutheran, Presbyterian, Catholic, and United Methodist follow the latter model. As members of the larger corporate faith organization, these local churches have access to well-organized and established disaster response functional units. At the corporate level, these religious institutions have come together as collaborative partners in disaster response and recovery as members of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (NVOAD). While disaster planning, preparedness, response and recovery activities may be …

Responding To Train Derailments Of Crude Oil Cargos And The Use Of Nims/Ice, Laura Hartline Weems

Theses and Dissertations from 2016

Derailments of freight trains carrying bulk cargo are not a new phenomenon in the United States; they have occurred since the 19th century when the first shipment made its way across the nation. However, despite sweeping changes in the past decade to the structure of emergency management in the United States, how the railroads have responded to derailments has not changed. The railroad culture is to operate lean, meaning few people are needed to transport large quantities of cargos and commodities. When a derailment occurs, the culture does not change, and railroads respond with typically few of their own personnel …

An Investigation Into Hazard Mitigation Tools At Institutes Of Higher Education, Robert A. Jackson

Theses and Dissertations from 2016

Current theories for community planning assert that multiple stakeholders should be involved to improve civic cohesion and implementation. Since an institute of higher education (IHE) operates like a town or city in many ways, it is appropriate that the emergency management planning within an IHE should engage multiple stakeholders. Emergency management planning at an IHE focuses on the students who while adults, are not traditionally valued for their input in emergency management planning. Emergency management leaders at IHEs across the country were surveyed. Following correlation analysis, results indicated that an IHE with student involvement in emergency management planning had an …

Teaching Preparedness To Better Prepare Children In The Event Of Disaster, Brian Kendall

Theses and Dissertations from 2016

The purpose of this research was to determine if teaching preparedness to children will better prepare them in the event of a disaster. Children have been the target audience for several campaigns in the past. By introducing disaster awareness into the schools, it is hoped, like in other campaigns, that children will take the knowledge obtained and share that information to family and friends. This study was significant to the field of emergency management due to the need of providing the general public with the necessary information and resources that could potentially save lives. As a result of this study, …

Do First Responders Find Active911 Useful?, Tina Phouthavong

Theses and Dissertations from 2016

Mobile technology continues to advance, as does the field of emergency management. Today, emergency management personnel utilize the latest technology in all phases of emergency management, which include mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. This proposed study particularly identifies mobile technology in the response phase of emergency management pertaining to first responders. Specific technologies on the rise in the field of emergency management include mobile applications. Applications such as Active911 were developed in detail for first responders. It was found that not all first responders take advantage of existing technology and the reasons vary. This mixed methods study was created to …

An Examination Of How School Continuity Plans In Northeast Arkansas Address The Post-Emergency Resumption Of The Educational Process, Brittany E. Moseley

Theses and Dissertations from 2016

Planning for the resumption of the educational process in Arkansas public schools should be a part of every school’s emergency continuity plan. The purpose of this study was to examine how public schools in Northeast Arkansas are prepared for a situation where education must resume outside of normal circumstances due to an emergency. A literature review determined that all Arkansas schools are required to have some form of continuity plan for their students, but the requirements are not always enforced or punishable if neglected. This creates an opportunity for school continuity plans to be disregarded and planning may only include …

A Climate-Driven Mechanistic Population Model Of Aedes Albopictus With Diapause, Pengfei Jia, Liang Lu, Xiang Chen, Jin Chen, Li Guo, Xiao Yu, Qiyong Liu

Faculty Publications - Emergency Management

BACKGROUND: The mosquito Aedes albopitus is a competent vector for the transmission of many blood-borne pathogens. An important factor that affects the mosquitoes' development and spreading is climate, such as temperature, precipitation and photoperiod. Existing climate-driven mechanistic models overlook the seasonal pattern of diapause, referred to as the survival strategy of mosquito eggs being dormant and unable to hatch under extreme weather. With respect to diapause, several issues remain unaddressed, including identifying the time when diapause eggs are laid and hatched under different climatic conditions, demarcating the thresholds of diapause and non-diapause periods, and considering the mortality rate of diapause …

Unveiling Perceptions Of Food Safety Scandals In China: An Exploratory Study With Search Engine, Xiang Chen, Bo Zhao, Emily Blackard

Faculty Publications - Emergency Management

Introduction Food security, known as access to sufficient and nutritious food for all household members at all times (Reutlinger, 1986), has been heavily investigated by entities from across the public and academic spectrums in recent years. In developed nations, food security primarily explores how food can be physically accessed and readily purchased and if levels of food access relate to socioeconomic status, rate of obesity, or the contingent health consequences (Black et al., 2014). In developing countries like China, the topic of food security has been investigated with increasing frequency and depth in the particular arena of food safety (Cheng, …