Feedback from the field : Organizational preparedness and response to the West Memphis, Arkansas tornado

ABSTRACT

Most of problematic features of the organizational response to the West Memphis tornado relate directly or indirectly to the fundamental lack of emergency planning in Crittenden County and in West Memphis. Crittenden County has a paper plan -but it is just that and little more. The concept of planning as a continuous and perpetual social and organizational process is absent here. Despite the low death toll, the organizational response to the West Memphis tornado reaffirms the need for a dynamic planning process, complete with periodic updating, simulations, and most importantly, the active participation of all local emergency relevant organizations.(AU)