THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS:

COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY BETWEEN NIGERIA AND USA

OGECHUKWU M. AGIM

OVERVIEW OF PAPER The paper defines emergency management,

specifically in the context of flood emergency, and examines the roles and responsibilities of government in a flooding emergency situation in both countries. There is a historical perspective offered also, to show the evolution of federal government involvement and dominance in state and local matters (e.g. In the US, the Centralized-Regulatory federalism (comparable to the 1993 floods).

Findings based on extensive research on the subject matter will be presented in the paper, followed by policy recommendations.

METHODS USED The method for information sourcing

for this paper is a combination of case studies, as in the case of Nigeria’s floods of 2012 and the Mississippi Floods of 2011, and other literature-based research, by perusing academic journals, articles, and Internet resources. (Secondary data analysis)

RESEARCH QUESTIONS This paper seeks to answer these

research questions: • What are the roles and responsibilities of

government(s) in emergency response and management in both countries?

• How effective is government in responding to natural disasters, both in Nigeria and USA?

LITERATURE REVIEW What really happened during the 2012

floods in Nigeria: Bellonwu, Vivian, Henshaw, Ken (2012) “We Have Not Seen Anything Like This Before” found in Social Action Briefing No. 5.

Yale-Tulane Moc Special Report Mississippi River Spring Flooding 2011

Learning from the Mississippi Floods of 1993: Elements, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations: Galloway Jr., Charles (1995) “Learning From the Mississippi Flood of 1993”, presented in the US-Italy Research Workshop in Perugia, Italy, 1995.

Understanding the evolving roles of government through a historical perspective: Wright, James M. (2000). “The Nation’s Responses to Flood Disasters: A Historical Account” found in a Report by the Association of State Floodplain Managers.

WHAT IS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT?

Emergency Management (Disaster Management) is the effective and efficient organization and management of resources and responsibilities when dealing with all aspects of emergencies, disasters or terrorist attacks. Emergency management involves plans, structures and arrangements established to engage government, volunteer, businesses and nonprofits in a comprehensive and coordinated way to mitigate the implications of a disaster, terrorist attack or emergency. Emergency management is divided into three distinct phases.

Three Phases of Emergency Management are: Planning Response Recovery

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF GOVERNMENT IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ROLES

• Acting as the primary “first provider” of emergency response services.

• Activating the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan.

• Requesting the State Emergency Management Agency to provide State and/or Federal assistance.

STATE GOVERNMENT ROLES

• Monitoring the situation.

• Activating the State EOC to coordinate available State assistance.

• Determining if the situation is beyond the capability of the State and if Federal

assistance is needed.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ROLES

• Conducting Joint PDAs with State and local

governments to identify:*Damage to individuals, farms, and businesses;*Damage to public agencies, specialdistricts, and private nonprofit organizations; and*Potential mitigation activities that canoccur during repairs and before anotherDisaster.

MISSISSIPPI FLOODS 2011

MISSISSIPPI FLOODS OF 2011 The Mississippi River floods in April and May 2011 were

among the largest and most damaging recorded along the U.S. waterway in the past century, comparable in extent to the major floods of 1927 and 1993.

Record flooding along the Mississippi River and tributaries in 2011 caused major devastation in the state. The flood displaced thousands of residents and destroyed thousands of acres of farmland. The incident period for the Mississippi Flooding Event began on April 27, 2011, and the declaration for disaster was issued on May 4.

U.S. President Barack Obama declared the western counties of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi federal disaster areas.

RESPONSE OF GOVERNMENT TO FLOOD SITUATION AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that federal aid has been made available to supplement state and local response efforts in the area struck by flooding beginning on April 27, 2011.

At the request of the governors, President Obama declared major disasters for the states of Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi, including individual assistance in many areas.

AT THE STATE AND LOCAL LEVELS Several coordinated regional efforts address flood risk

management at a regional scale, playing an integral role in the post flood recovery process for their respective regions and generating many innovative strategies and products to ensure a highly communicative, effective and efficient flood recovery effort.

APPLICATION OF COURSE CONCEPTS

Federal and State flood risk management coordination and engagement is the goal of the Silver Jackets teams formed at the state level and bring together multiple state, federal, and sometimes tribal and local agencies to learn from one another and apply their knowledge to reduce flood risk. (Federal-state relations)

Incentivized funding/grants-in-aid provided by the Federal Government to the local and state governments. This gave the FG the control over the SG and LG (Centralized-Authority Federalism model). See Supremacy clause.

SOUTHERN STATES IN NIGERIA (2012)

NIGERIAN FLOODS OF 2012. Nigeria has a rainy season and suffers from

seasonal flash floods. These flash foods are sometimes lethal, especially in the rural areas or overcrowded slums, where drainage is poor or does not exist at all.

The 2012 Nigeria floods began in early July 2012, and have killed 363 people and displaced over 2,100,000 people as of 5 November 2012.

Rural areas of 24 out of 36 states were submerged; it took the concerted efforts of the federal, state and local governments and international charity organizations.

FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL GOVT RESPONSE

• Over $110 million federal assistance to the states affected for immediate relief provision, and long-term reconstruction and rehabilitation (OCHA 2012).

• The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) established Early Warning Alert and Response Network on Floods (EWARN) until the end of year, covering 298,592 flood affected population.

• At the federal level, NEMA is the lead agency for managing disasters through its six zonal offices spread across the country (Fagbemi 2011). At the state level, the Federal Government mandated the establishment of State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs) and at the local level, mandated the creation of Local Emergency Management Agencies (LEMAs)

APPLICATION OF COURSE CONCEPTS

Intergovernmental regulations: In the case of the flooding that affected 24 out of 36 states, federal assistance was granted to the states, with the conditions that federal programs be implemented to improve disaster preparedness in the community (grants-in-aid).

FINDINGS Infrastructural irregularities have prevented

government at the local levels in Nigeria from getting accurate figures of structures damaged during floods, and obsolesce of population data and flood risk survey maps has caused misrepresentation of

The findings reveal that there are technical and managerial flaws in disaster management in the country. (Needed: a more comprehensive approach that encompasses both pre-disaster risk reduction and post-disaster recovery).

Failure to regulate carbon pollution

FINDINGS State and local authorities need river stage and

discharge information for emergency situations, for local flood relief efforts, and for floodplain management. During the Midwest flood, conflicting estimates of flood crests created difficulties for local emergency response efforts.

Federal government interference with state response and preparedness programs (as seen in the case of the Great Mississippi Floods of 1993) makes it difficult for the state and local governments to exercise autonomy.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS Based on my findings, it can be seen that obsolesce of

maps and data were largely to be blamed as reasons for the inadequacies of federal assistance(in the form of funds and supplies).

It is recommended that there be a constant updating of the national inventory of structures, and a more in-depth analysis of the floodplains be carried out, to enable better coordination of flood flow frequency curves and flood elevation profiles, as well as floodplain maps.

The National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) and other disaster management agencies should be decentralized.

CONCLUSION Disasters, man-made or natural, are bound to happen. It is

the level of preparedness that separates a BIG disaster from a small one. According to Niekerk, it is usually described in terms of the adverse effects which a disaster has had. Disaster risk (R) = Vulnerability (V) x Hazard (H) /Capacity (C)

In response to the research questions, the roles and responsibilities go beyond what is outlined in the constitution; following Dillon’s rule and applying it to both countries, since the local government is a creature of the state, and ultimately that of the federal government (in a federalist system), then the FG should be more than nominally involved in emergency management at these levels.

Government is effective in its response to emergency situations, as much as it is equipped to do.