Responses to Disaster: Planning for a Great Earthquake in California

Abstract

The principal purpose of this paper is to establish an analytical framework for assisting disaster relief planners in assessing the effectiveness of existing plans and devising realistic allocations of responsibilities among relief organizations, The paper builds on an earlier tradition of disaster studies: while major earthquakes are relatively rare events, major disasters are not, and the patterns of physical and psychological damage to disaster victims have been well documented. The environment in which planning and relief organizations must operate, including the nature and extent of damage an earthquake might cause and the likely behavioral response of both members of relief organizations and the client population, is fairly predictable.