Preparing for the Worst: Psychological Excellence of First Responders - A Katrina Lessons Learned Study
Abstract
Hurricane Katrina was the most destructive natural disaster in U.S. history. The nation was in shock and many governmental officers and administrators as well as American taxpayers cannot help but wonder what could be done to ensure better preparation as a nation for the next formidable disaster. In fact, there have been several official lessons learned reports and the findings and recommendations from these reports of the response to Hurricane Katrina have been addressed. These reports provided the comprehensive picture of the disaster, pinpointed many deficiency areas, and suggested a corrected course of action at the Federal, State, and local level agencies to prepare, respond, and recover from the massive disasters. Though we fully agree with the needs for better planning and preparedness, those previously reported findings and recommendations are, in general, a culmination of top-down approach based on rational decision-making system. What has been lacking in the previous reports is bottom-up approach to deal with the disaster at the scene by real people, first responders (FR), who are making a difference during the crisis. In this paper, we attempt to understand how and what types of training technologies can be provided to support and prepare our first responders to deal with such unimaginable scale of disaster. Based on our findings, we are now proposing an alternative training model that combines cognitive and behavior aspects when preparing the FR. Consequently, the third project component - developing a training module based on both engineering (cognitive readiness) and sport psychology (mental skills training) - was added.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA482017
Entities
People
- Regina Avery-epps
- Sherry Springs
- Yongchul Chung
- Younho Seong
Organizations
- North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University