Communicating Health Risks (Essay Sample)

Communicating Health Risks: Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication
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Communicating Health Risks: Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication
Crises and emergencies such as natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and terrorism among others may have profound consequences to the public health. When such events happen, people look up to the public health officials for information, advice, and recommendations on how they can protect themselves from the possible harm. It is always of great importance when people are equipped with the knowledge of how to effectively response to crisis. In this regard, preparation on how to respond to crisis is critical to helping people survive. Accordingly, accurate communication aimed at motivating crisis and emergency preparedness is essential to reducing suffering and saving lives in the event of a disaster. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, crisis and emergency risk communication should be articulated clearly and effectively to help people make the best possible decisions that would facilitate the best possible outcome to the communities (CDC, 2014). This paper seeks to analyze a recent incident for which risk communication was essential and further elaborates on the procedures taken to communicate with the people that helped in reducing the dangers of the incident.
The Central U.S has had a history of natural disasters primarily the occurrences of Tornadoes. A tornado is characterized by a strong and violent storm that runs in cycle through a region. There are different types of tornadoes some exhibiting very strong and violent force while others seeming lighter. In February, 2012 the region experienced a series of tornadoes. According to the report by the Storm Prediction Center, the tornadoes became one of the strongest ever witnessed in the region (National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office, 2013). These tornadoes were heavily experienced in the regions such as Mississippi River valley, Ohio valley, Nebraska Gandy southern Illinois.
The occurrences of tornadoes in the central U.S is something the communities in the region are used to, and therefore, they are always prepared for such. In 2012, the storm survey done by the National Weather Service found out that although the tornadoes experienced that year were strong, there were no major destructions of property and life in many towns (NOAA, 2012). Notably, the Southern Illinois town of Harrisburg is one of the places that seemed to have suffered substantially. According to their report, 200 hundred homes were heavily destroyed in the region. Six people were reported to have died and over 100 people injured (NOAA, 2012). Other towns such as Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky also had numerous tornadoes. In these towns, several buildings were destroyed and the number fatalities increased to 13 in total. The building destructions were characterized by broken windows, blown rooftops, homes shifted off their foundations. High –rise buildings experienced some severe structural damages, trees losing their bark and cars thrown far distances besides being demolished. Such destructions are considerably huge as they cost millions of dollars to put up the building structures. The environment becomes uninhabited, as people can no longer stay in their demolished houses until they are reconstructed.
In a country like the U.S that is prone to several natural disasters every year, crisis and emergency risk communication is very crucial to help protect the people from experiencing huge loses in case of a disastrous event. Whenever such an event occurs, those mandated with communicating to the people must be ready to respond to the situation within the right time to enable people make suitable decisions necessary for their well-being (CDC, 2014). In normal situation, there are various predetermined procedures of communicating relevant information to the people. In the U.S, the government though various relevant bodies such as the Centers for disease control and Prevention has outlined the various communication channels and procedures that the people should look out for to get any relevant message pertaining to any possible crisis.
During the 2012 tornadoes experienced in the country, warning messages concerning the tornadoes were communicated to the people through various channels such as radio stations, weather forecast stations, warning siren system, and National Weather Service offices who utilizes text messages, for instance, in Kansas and Missouri in 2012 (WorldNow and WREX, 2012). Social media platforms such as Facebook and...