Disaster Management – Medical Model:
The 500 Year Flood that comes Every Ten Years

The Perfect Storm: Disaster Ethics Symposium and Public Forum features presentations by medical disaster professionals.

In this lecture, Kyle McPhee, senior management professional, Hagerty Consulting, defines the difference between disaster and catastrophe, and cycles through the shocking facts: natural cycles, infrastructure conditon, population growth, socioeconomic factors, and population based vulnerabilities, that require today's medical professionals to be prepared for incidents of increasing size and impact!

Mr. McPhee introduces emergency management goals, criteria, and benchmarks. He describes the federal, Incident Command System (ICS), where it works, and where it is challenged.

His ending remarks declare -- Americans assume the government is prepared for disasters (in spite of its track record), and he laments we remain extraordinarily unprepared for future disasters.