ABSTRACT
There are reports of an unprecedented dramatic upward trend in the occurrence of natural catastrophes worldwide, largely attributed to climate
Introduction ...................................................................................................... 27 The Four Stages of Emergency Management .............................................. 29 U.S. Nonprofit Organizations: Diversity and Significance ........................ 32
Nonprofit Roles: The Diversity of Sector ................................................. 33 Nonprofits’ Encounter with Disasters: Impact and Response ................... 35 Nonprofit Disaster Mitigation and Preparedness: Gleanings from the Literature .................................................................................................... 38
Risk Management ........................................................................................ 38 Organizational Vulnerability ..................................................................... 39 Organizational Survival and Resilience ................................................... 40 Continuity Planning .................................................................................... 41 Disaster Mitigation and Preparedness ..................................................... 41
Conclusions: Challenges and Opportunities ............................................... 44 References ......................................................................................................... 47
change, with a number of geophysical (earthquakes, tsunami), meteorological (storms), hydrological (floods, mass movements), and climatological (extreme temperature, forest fires) events, increasing from under 400 events in 1980 to nearly 900 events in 2012 (Munich Re, 2012). Specific to the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA, 2008) foresees a “high vulnerability to natural hazards, weapons of mass destruction, and widespread disease epidemics” among U.S. urban cities (World Bank, 2010). Already disasters like the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, and the recent 2013 Oklahoma tornadoes all demonstrate the scale and trail of destruction and devastation disasters have on various dimensions of a community.
