The Evolution of Emergency Management

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The U.S. disaster response system was established in the 1970s under a framework called the Incident Command System. The benefit of ICS is it's plug and play so you can expand it, but now we don't have localized disasters like we used to. States generally could call on another state and say, could you send over X, Y or Z? That's becoming harder as well as we're seeing these multi-state disasters.

Vermont just got slammed with flash floods, road closures, and evacuations. Harvard’s Juliette Kayyem says the storm reveals how unprepared the US is for the present moment, when natural disasters are more frequent and more intense than ever before.

This episode was produced by Jon Ehrens and Miles Bryan, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard with help from Amanda Lewellyn, engineered by Michael Raphael, and hosted by Noel King.

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