ABSTRACT
Imagine this common scenario: A disaster coordinator needs a plan now to meet state law requirements, initiate accreditation activities, or initiate awareness for the start of a specific disaster season (e.g., tornado, hurricane, and blizzard). In other cases, a new emergency manager may discover the 20-year-old disaster plan placed on a shelf and gathering dust. To solve the problem, the disaster coordinator asks a new hire or intern, or pays a consultant, to write a plan. Often sitting in an isolated cubicle or in a basement, the new planner will e-mail friends and colleagues, make a Facebook post, or tweet a message asking for existing disaster plans from other communities. Consultants may use their own existing boilerplate plan. The planner will then receive all kinds of plans, paste them together, do a computer generated word search to eliminate the other communities’ names, and add the new community’s name. While constructing the new document, the planner rarely leaves a cubicle to talk with others. Once the planner completes the document, upper management signs off, and the community or organization now has a plan and is considered “prepared.” As we describe below, planners should not follow this planning process.
