A History of Disasters and Emergencies

With a growing populous it became necessary to plan, respond, and take measures to prevent emergencies. That's where emergency service professionals count. More recently, over the past 20 years the industry has become more organized with special attention to legal matters and science. Today, all emergency officials are now licensed and certified either by State, National, or a combination of the two. A long road of innovations, improvements, and inventions has advanced the tools and techniques of emergency operations.

Emergency operations became well organized and developed (although present in history before 1900s) after several marked efforts took place. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, NHTSA, was officially established in 1970 by the Highway Safety Act of 1970 (pushing for more coordination, better emergency care, etc in the late 60's early 70's). The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966 (improving transportation safety, regulations, and emergency operations structure) paved the way for modern organized response and standards. With the use of the automobile since the early 1900's (speeding up transport and response times), the advancement of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) in the 60's now modernized and advanced even more, advanced electronics, modern drugs, and of course since the 1930's wireless communications, we've got the tools necessary for a complete emergency operations sytem that is effective and effecient (although there is always room for improvement).

Since the time of early disasters, whether small (also non-disaster related emergency events such as a heart attack, house fire, etc), medium, or large scale, the need for emergency preparedness, building better infrastructure, and response systems (emergency operations) was formally recognized. Disasters can be man made or natural similar to any emergency. Over history, nearly every country has experienced forms of both natural and man mad disaster events.

Historically, America has had its fair share of disasters including recent major disasters such as: Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900 major hurricane hits (at least 6,000 people were killed), 1906 San Francisco Earth Quake with numerous fires (7.8 magnitude), 1918 Flu Pandemic (50 million died worldwide), 1925 Tri-State Tornado (killed approximately 700 people), 1974 Super Tornado Outbreak (killed 300 people), 1933-1945 Holocaust (man made disaster killing millions), 1980 Mount St Helens Eruption (killed 57), 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (cost millions and damaged environment), 1993 Floods, 2005 Hurricane Katrina (killed approximately 1400 people), September 11, 2001 Attack (killed 3,000 people), and numerous other natural as well as man made disaster events. Other less reported or excluded man made disasters include numerous chemical spills, train wrecks, and other events.

Further back in history (world wide), disasters have also been major. For example: 830,000 people were killed from the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake (China). In ancient Rome 64 AD (some believe arson/fires) under Nero thousands died, 36,000 died from Krakatoa(Indonesia) eruption in 1883, 25,000 died from Mount Vesuvius(Italy) 79 AD, 100,000 died during the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami. These natural and man made disasters are not limited to any country or region.

Modern Advancements & Future
Tactical techniques made way for improvement such as the creation of specially trained units, for example, search and rescue, heavy rescue, mobile intensive care units, SWAT teams, swift water rescue, dive teams, and other specialist groups. Each individual is trained to specific standards in their respective areas of expertise. To assure quality, legalities, best practice, and efficiency all professionals go thru training and license processes to prove their skill set. Next to this, experience also plays an important role. Most professionals are involved in some type of operation relative to their profession.

Disasters and emergencies can create temporary or long term effects. The impact has been felt whether its damage to property which can be rebuilt or loss of life, which can never be replaced. Over time we have worked to better mitigate any event, especially disasters. Formal organizations and training have proved to save life and reduce the cost of loss by protecting property. Emergency medical, fire, police, and military work together to ensure a full circle of resources to deal with nearly any situation of almost every nature. The important message is prevention, preparedness, and response.

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