Can we really prevent emergencies?
It is fundamental to emergency management that we cannot prevent all emergencies from occurring, or stop all hazards from causing problems. We will always face a given level of risk based on the hazards that surround us, and on the degree to which we protect ourselves.
The only way to prevent emergencies is to completely separate the hazard from the community (people and the environment).
Let us look at some examples of this.
Recently it has been discovered that a group of materials called 'polychlorinated biphenyls' (PCBs) can cause significant harm to people. These oily materials have been used in transformers and other electrical equipment, and have been spread throughout industries and even in our homes. When the potentially harmful effects of PCBs (the hazard) were discovered, an extremely expensive and time-consuming effort was made to collect them for destruction by high-temperature incineration. This work was fairly successful, and the intention was simply to remove the hazard from the community.
Did this actually work? To an extent, but one Western country discovered a huge discrepancy when they compared the amount of PCBs actually imported into their country and manufactured in their country for domestic use, and the amount of PCBs collected and destroyed. They destroyed 20,000 tonnes of the material, but could not account for another 40,000 tonnes that they knew existed somewhere in their country.
Clearly, as a prevention exercise, this was less than 100 per cent successful.
A much more convincing attempt at prevention relates to nuclear-powered warships. Some communities perceive that the anchorage of nuclear-powered warships near populated areas is an unacceptable risk. They believe that the hazard associated with these vessels is of such magnitude that they are 'unsafe'. The best solution to this is simply to ban the approach of nuclear-powered warships to their communities. This has been done in many cities and even countries around the world, and is a good example of prevention from a specific hazard.
So separating the hazard from the community is sometimes, if rarely, an option. But this option usually only exists in relation to man-made or technological hazards. Can it be done with natural hazards?
Consider extreme meteorological events such as tropical cyclones, tornadoes, storm surge, and floods. We cannot stop these events from occurring, but we can reduce their effects.