This project will document strategies used by local emergency managers to coordinate responses to earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters. The research has five specific objectives: (1) identify key strategies implemented by local emergency managers to coordinate the functioning of multi-organizational networks that emerge following natural disasters; (2) document the composition and longevity of multi-organizational networks that emerge following natural disasters during four time periods; (3) identify unanticipated components of multi-organizational networks that emerge following natural disasters and document their functions, time and duration of mobilization, and degree to which they are integrated into the overall network; (4) assess the patterned relationships between the range of strategies used and key analytic features of multi-organizational networks that emerge following natural disasters, including speed of formation, stability, and shape; and (5) disseminate the strategies used and policy implications for community response effectiveness to local and state emergency managers. Data will be collected through interviews and questionnaires with a sample of local emergency managers.
