Question

Why must plans focus on coordination and flexibility instead of maintaining a rigid command and control bureaucracy?

1) Disaster plans can and should account for all possible scenarios
2) Disasters always go as expected
3) Disasters tend to disrupt established routines and present new challenges
4) All of the above

Answer 1

Plans must emphasize coordination and flexibility due to the unpredictable and disruptive nature of disasters, which require the ability to process abstract information and anticipate unprecedented situations. This, along with bureaucratic challenges and the intricate relationship between human activities and disaster impact, reinforces the need for adaptable disaster response strategies.

Step-by-step explanation:

Plans must focus on coordination and flexibility rather than maintaining a rigid command and control bureaucracy because disasters tend to disrupt established routines and present new challenges. While we cannot predict all possible scenarios, we need to be able to process abstract information and anticipate situations that have never yet arisen.

This requires being ready to make individual sacrifices for the greater good and recognizing that waiting for a crisis to become clear-and-present may leave us unable to respond in time. Furthermore, the reality of how disasters affect human ecology—increasing the number of people impacted and the severity of that impact—underscores the importance of planning that can adapt to rapidly changing conditions. Lastly, the challenge of bureaucratic inertia highlights the need for a more agile and proactive approach to disaster response and planning.