Planning for Disaster-Relief Construction

The aim of this paper is to describe the state of emergency construction planning for hurricane disaster relief and to present the results of a survey of emergency-management agencies. Most emergency-management agencies are organized to coordinate the efforts of other agencies rather than take action themselves. However, efforts need to be made to further strengthen the ties between emergency-management agencies at all levels of government. The survey revealed that very little effort had been made to document the planning process or to implement emergency construction planning. In fact, construction planning was almost nonexistent. The survey also concluded that most emergency-management personnel are well-trained and that problems are rarely due to the quality of effort provided but rather to the lack of planning information available.