in FEMA’s A Whole Community Approach to Emergency Management: Principles, Themes, and Pathways for Action. 8 California Wildfires and Santa Barbara Debris Flow 2017 saw some of our nation’s most devastating wildfires. The Thomas Fire and the Tubbs Fire uncovered significant recovery issues that could be addressed pre-disaster to expedite recovery. The County of Santa Barbara wrote in the Thomas Fire and 1/9 Debris Flow After-Action Report and Improvement Plan that the County needed to increase its capability to recover from a major disaster. Specifically, the County pointed to naming “a Recovery Unit Leader early in the incident; developing pre-disaster recovery plans, including consideration for cost recovery and debris management; and pre-identifying and assessing sites across the County which can be used to support both evacuation shelters and Local Assistance Center/Disaster Recovery Center (LAC/DRC).” 9 Similarly, in Sonoma County where the Tubbs Fire became the second most destructive California wildfire of all time, recovery issues were also being uncovered. According to the October 2017 Complex Fires Emergency Operations Center After Action Report & Improvement Plan, published by the County of Sonoma in June 2018, recovery operations planning was a serious concern. It found that there was no Recovery Plan in place, which “forced staff to develop one during the response. The lack of a plan with specific governance model options resulted in County leadership attempting to create
a common issue in disaster recovery: expectation management. The report says that there is a “serious gap between what [elected officials] and the public believe about federal disaster assistance, and the reality of what the Stafford Act, which governs federal disaster management programs, actually says.” 6 Furthermore, it summarizes the consequences of these misconceptions stating, “because many Texans in high-risk areas believe that the federal government will rescue them, they have no insurance, particularly if they live outside of the floodplain.” 7 To elevate these public communication concerns, communities could apply whole-community planning approaches to engage the public prior to disasters, educating them on risks and expectations during and after incidents. Whole-community approaches to emergency management are outlined
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