Abstract
This is a chapter about the attempts to bring order to the messy realities of life after disaster and the way that one formal attempt at ordering is undertaken through a process called emergency planning. More specifically, attempts to bring order to disaster settings in the UK are made through the use of emergency planning tools which I have labelled technologies and will go on to define below. Emergency plans are often developed at a distance and then provided to local actors for adaptation to local specificities.
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Notes
- 1.
As I discussed in the introduction, I was working in this area of practice prior to the legislation and the way in which emergency planning is undertaken was redefined by the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. For the first time, new statutory duties were imposed on organisations such as local authorities and police forces. This means that much more pre-emptive work is undertaken, e.g. the publishing of emergency plans on the Internet and the creation of ‘risk registers’ to inform communities of the hazards in their area.
- 2.
Public compliance with orders from the emergency services, e.g. to evacuate, are frequently discussed within ‘debrief reports’. Debriefs are narratives that are constructed by the various organisations after the disaster has occurred.
- 3.
I go on to critique the use of this term both in this chapter and in Chapter 7.
- 4.
Conducted for his MSc in Civil Emergency Management at the University of Hertfordshire.
- 5.
By modernist, here I mean a state where it was believed that there could be ‘meta-narratives’ where there was one legitimate science or one legitimate truth rather than post-modernist where much of this is up for debate.
- 6.
In recent years, the uniform of emergency planning appears to have become adopted by anyone considering themselves to have a formalised role to play in emergency response. As the above photograph shows, there has been a proliferation of tabards with nameplates and this is also accompanied by T-shirts and fleece jackets complete with the organisation’s logo. One resident remarked to me that when attending a meeting where she and her fellow residents were the only ones without a fleece jacket, she had considered having one made up that said ‘Flood Victim’ across the back.
- 7.
This is referred to frequently in introductory training for new emergency planners, e.g. see http://www.collegest.org.uk/SHOE/outdoor_education/oe_docs/HSconf08/H+S%20Emergency%20Planning.ppt as at May 1, 2010. The colloquial and tongue in cheek terminology in emergency management for this construction are the ‘4 Fs’: 3 refer to the initials of the emergencies, and the 4th refers to the alleged profanity uttered by government ministers when faced with three crises in quick succession.
- 8.
This latter concern is addressed specifically in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 where a statutory duty was imposed on local authorities to ensure that they supported small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in preparing for and mitigating the effects of an emergency.
- 9.
This definition is also used in an online recovery toolkit that can be downloaded from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the USA.
- 10.
The ‘recovery phase’ of UK disaster was defined specifically in the Labour Government in documents such as Emergency Response and Recovery, Update Summer 2009 which is available at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ukresilience/response/recovery_guidance.aspx as at May 1, 2010.
- 11.
And in fact, any member of the public who wanted to download them as there is no restriction on access to the website.
- 12.
The ‘recovery phase’ of UK disaster was defined specifically in the Labour Government in documents such as Emergency Response and Recovery, Update Summer 2009 which is available at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ukresilience/response/recovery_guidance.aspx as at May 1, 2010.
- 13.
I was a member of these working groups and was able to draw on my notes when writing up this book.
- 14.
This will be explored in more detail in Chapter 3.
- 15.
The police and local authority did not use this actual certificate as it had not been finalised by the Cabinet Office at this point but did minute that a handover was to take place [Email discussion, Emergency Planner, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, September 2010].
- 16.
I used this term local to demonstrate that these responders were specifically sited within the village as I will go on to discuss in more depth.
- 17.
‘Rest Centres’ are places such as leisure centres and schools which are used to shelter displaced residents. Arrangements for these are co-ordinated by local authority emergency planners.
- 18.
‘Smartwater’ is a liquid applied to personal property by the Police which then helps to identify it if the item is stolen.
- 19.
Plastic shoe covers, like small plastic bags.
- 20.
A number of assistance centres for disasters have been located within hotels or large conference centres, e.g. the assistance centre for those affected by the July 7 2005 terrorist attacks in London was sited within the Royal Horticultural Halls in the centre of London. A number of airlines have arrangements with international hotel chains to facilitate this for them.
- 21.
The council events for children tended to have links to government campaigns that were being promoted in 2007–2009 such as a ‘healthy living’ event; in the photograph of the children’s pictures above their drawings have focussed on a ‘keep exercising’ theme.
- 22.
A local bakery donated cakes and bread that was to be given out to residents in Toll Bar. The children explained to me that this was mainly for the ‘old people’ but they, the children, could choose something too as I could if I really wanted something (Field notes, September 2008).
- 23.
When presenting this work to other emergency planners, it has been discussed that in Toll Bar a ‘more relaxed’ approach was permissible because of the nature of the emergency. This was the aftermath of a flood, not a terrorist attack, and the police had very little involvement in the Support Centre. Colleagues who managed the assistance centre after the terrorist attacks on London, 7 July 2005 created a very different environment. The boundaries were made very clear, for example on the doorway there was security screening and the presence of police officers.
- 24.
This analysis developed John Law’s earlier work on the ways that people try and explain disasters, with specific focus on a series of rail accidents and between 1997 and 2002—See Law (2000).
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Easthope, L. (2018). In Pursuit of the Plan: Ordering Devices in Disaster. In: The Recovery Myth . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74555-8_2
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