Instructor: Diane Elliot
Office: 014 Kirby Hall of Civil Rights
Office Phone: 330 5856
Email: elliottd@lafayette.edu
Course Description: There was the bombing in the World
Trade Center in 1993; the bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City in 1995;
the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Since 1975 there have been
31 individual terrorist attacks involving Americans. It was not until 9/11 that we
realized that we are vulnerable to terrorist acts AND we are not ready to handle them.
There was Diane in 1955, Camille in 1969, Agnes in 1972, Hugo in 1989, Andrew in 1992, Floyd
in 1999, Charley, Frances and Ivan in 2004. These were among the worst hurricanes in history,
which in many cases caused devastating flooding. Yet it was not until Katrina and Rita in
2005 that the threat of these storms to human life and property, potentially greater than
and more likely than a terrorist attack, made us acutely aware of how vulnerable we are to
natural disaster AND that we are not ready to handle them.
There was the 1918 Influenza A pandemic that killed nearly 700,000 Americans and 40 million
people worldwide and the 1957 and 1968 Influenza pandemics that killed tens of thousands of
people in the US. There was SARS in 2002 that killed 800 people around the world. There is
the current threat of a pandemic presented by the Avian flu. But we have yet to recognize
that we continue to be vulnerable to disease AND that we are not ready to handle serious
epidemics should they arise.
Why are we unable to plan and respond effectively and efficiently to these disasters?
Together we will explore the science, technology and psychology of these events. We
will examine the organizational structure in place to handle these disasters from the
President to local emergency management coordinators. We will look at the laws and how
they both facilitate and impede a timely response. We will probe into the importance of
communication and a coordinated response. We will investigate the value of emergency
preparedness to our officials at all levels. We will also receive National Incident
Management System training and be visited by A. Scott Wells, a former Federal Coordinating
Officer (FCO) for FEMA's Department of Homeland Security, whose duties included coordination
of the Katrina response.