Managing volunteers: FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue programme and interactions with unaffiliated responders in disaster response.
In the aftermath of disasters it is not uncommon for a large number of individuals, ranging from professional technical responders to untrained, albeit well meaning, volunteers, to converge on site of a disaster in order to offer to help victims or other responders. Because volunteers can be both a help and a hindrance in disaster response, they pose a paradox to professional responders at the scene. Through focus group interviews and in-depth structured interviews, this paper presents an extended example of how Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) task forces, a type of professional technical-responder organisation, interact with and utilise volunteers. Findings show that US&R task forces evaluate the volunteers in terms of their presumed legitimacy, utility, and potential liability or danger posed during the disaster response. Other responses to volunteers such as a feeling of powerlessness or the use of volunteers in non-technical ways are also explored. This paper demonstrates some key aspects of the relationship between volunteers and formal response organisations in disasters.
Barsky
Lauren E
LE
Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, US. lbarsky@udel.edu
Trainor
Joseph E
JE
Torres
Manuel R
MR
Aguirre
Benigno E
BE
D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004190:Disasters; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017144:Focus Groups; D006805:Human Experimentation; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D012066:Relief Work; D014481:United States; D014505:Urban Population