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Reflection
For this project we had the opportunity to create an emergency response plan for the city of our choice. The city my partner and I decided to create an emergency response plan for was Galveston, Texas. We then used our response plan that we created to solve a natural disaster simulation. While participating in this activity, I felt very stressed and overwhelmed. These were probably my main feelings due to the fact that I had never done something like this before and was unsure of what to expect and do. But after a while, my group and I started to figure out what we needed to complete in order to properly set up our part of the simulation. Some of the things that my group did was create a presentation for the people in the flood. This would have been given to the people so that they knew what to do in the emergency of a flood. We also had to decide where we would locate our people, how many people as well where our supplies would be coming from which in my opinion was most challenging. We were prepared to act when the flood occurred because we had our presentation for the citizens in the flood. This was a very important aspect of our job as we can not do the job alone and will need for citizens to do as much as possible on their own so that the people really in need can get help. What we were not prepared for was the exact plan of action for evacuating citizens. We had the locations of where our people would be but not what they would be exactly doing in those locations other than evacuating. We had absolutely no conflicts within our group which was really nice. All of us were able to express ideas and have a part. When in an emergency like this flood, it is important for the employees of the local government agencies to have characteristics of open mindedness, determination, organization, respect, and responsibility. All of the employees need to be able to work well together in order to be most effective for the community. It is also very important for the local government agencies to work together. For example in our group, we needed to work with the fire department in order to get lifeboats to help with evacuation. We also had to work with them in order to have a safe place to take the rescued people. Without the other agencies other than yourself, the job would be impossible. If even one of the agencies wasn't there or unprepared, it would affect all of the other agencies and eventually bring the whole thing down. For example without the water works wasn't prepared , the people would have nothing to drink and his could cause even more complications than there already are. The decisions of the government agencies are important to us as people because the whole point of their job is to keep us safe. Their job is to inform citizens on what to do in this situation and without them, any natural disaster would turn into more chaos than it already is. There is absolutely no chance of me being a local government employee who works in these type of situations. The reason for this is that I do not enjoy working in stressful situations such as natural disasters and I also do not want to work in a field where I am having to work so closely, and be dependent on so many different people. Overall, the main lesson that I took away from this is how hard these agencies and people really work to make sure we are safe. They have highly stressful jobs and do it all for the citizens which takes a lot of effort and courage.
