Final answer:
We can improve our ability to handle disasters striking by focusing on the preparedness phase of emergency management. This phase includes implementing preparedness measures and ensuring infrastructure resilience to avoid crisis-driven responses.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the field of emergency management, we can dramatically improve our ability before disasters strike during the preparedness phase. This phase involves efforts to process abstract information, anticipate situations that have never yet arisen, and to take proactive measures for the greater good. These actions may include implementing civil defense and emergency preparedness measures, such as anti-terrorism legislation and ensuring the resilience of a critical national infrastructure.
By focusing on preparedness, communities and individuals are able to make individual sacrifices for the greater good, even if not mandated by law. This forward-looking approach enables us to avoid waiting for a crisis to become clear and present, which might leave us unable to respond in time. Instead, we endorse a radically new paradigm of timely, effective mitigation to ensure a robust response to potential threats.