Managing volunteers: FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue programme and interactions with unaffiliated responders in disaster response

Authors: Barsky, Lauren E.¹; Trainor, Joseph E.²; Torres, Manuel R.¹; Aguirre, Benigno. E.³

Source: Disasters, Volume 31, Number 4, December 2007 , pp. 495-507(13)

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Abstract:

In the aftermath of disasters it is not uncommon for a large number of individuals, ranging from professional technical responders to untrained, albeit well meaning, volunteers, to converge on site of a disaster in order to offer to help victims or other responders. Because volunteers can be both a help and a hindrance in disaster response, they pose a paradox to professional responders at the scene. Through focus group interviews and in-depth structured interviews, this paper presents an extended example of how Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) task forces, a type of professional technical-responder organisation, interact with and utilise volunteers. Findings show that US&R task forces evaluate the volunteers in terms of their presumed legitimacy, utility, and potential liability or danger posed during the disaster response. Other responses to volunteers such as a feeling of powerlessness or the use of volunteers in non-technical ways are also explored. This paper demonstrates some key aspects of the relationship between volunteers and formal response organisations in disasters.

Keywords: disaster response organisations; Urban Search and Rescue; volunteers

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7717.2007.01021.x

Affiliations: 1: A graduate research assistant at the Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware, US 2: A staff researcher at the Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware, US 3: Core faculty member at the Disaster Research Center and a professor in the department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, US.

Publication date: 2007-12-01

Managing volunteers: FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue programme and interactions with unaffiliated responders in disaster response

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