CHMS Community Resilience & Capacity Building 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Adaptive capacity in hazard mitigation refers to:
- The ability to purchase updated emergency equipment regularly
- A community's ability to adjust to changing hazard conditions and improve mitigation strategies over time (Correct answer)
- The speed at which emergency responders can deploy after a disaster
- Federal flexibility in allocating grant funds across disaster types
Correct answer: A community's ability to adjust to changing hazard conditions and improve mitigation strategies over time
Adaptive capacity is a community's ability to learn from experience, anticipate future changes, and adjust practices to improve resilience against evolving hazard threats.
Question 2: A Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) is primarily used to:
- Allocate FEMA recovery funds after a presidential disaster declaration
- Establish community-specific capability targets based on identified threats and desired outcomes (Correct answer)
- Rank states by their emergency management performance nationally
- Determine insurance premium rates for high-risk properties
Correct answer: Establish community-specific capability targets based on identified threats and desired outcomes
THIRA is a four-step risk assessment process that helps communities understand their threats and hazards and set capability targets needed to achieve desired outcomes.
Question 3: Which term describes a community's ability to recover quickly and return to its pre-disaster state?
- Absorptive capacity
- Redundancy
- Bounce-back resilience (Correct answer)
- Adaptive management
Correct answer: Bounce-back resilience
Bounce-back resilience specifically refers to the ability to return to original conditions after a disruption, as distinguished from adaptive or transformative resilience.
Question 4: Community engagement in hazard mitigation planning is critical primarily because:
- It satisfies FEMA administrative requirements without affecting plan quality
- Local knowledge and priorities improve plan relevance, buy-in, and implementation success (Correct answer)
- It reduces the cost of consultant-driven planning processes
- Engagement delays allow more time for hazard assessment studies to be completed
Correct answer: Local knowledge and priorities improve plan relevance, buy-in, and implementation success
Authentic community engagement captures local hazard knowledge, builds ownership of mitigation priorities, and increases the likelihood that identified actions will actually be implemented.
Question 5: The concept of 'redundancy' in community resilience planning means:
- Having duplicate copies of all emergency management documents
- Building backup systems and alternative pathways so critical functions can continue if one component fails (Correct answer)
- Assigning multiple agencies to the same emergency response role
- Repeating community outreach efforts until target participation rates are achieved
Correct answer: Building backup systems and alternative pathways so critical functions can continue if one component fails
Redundancy ensures that if one system, route, or facility fails during a disaster, backup alternatives can maintain critical community functions without interruption.
Question 6: Community-based organizations (CBOs) contribute to disaster resilience primarily by:
- Replacing the need for government emergency management agencies
- Providing trusted relationships and local networks that can mobilize resources quickly during disasters (Correct answer)
- Developing official hazard mitigation plans on behalf of local governments
- Administering federal disaster grant programs at the local level
Correct answer: Providing trusted relationships and local networks that can mobilize resources quickly during disasters
CBOs leverage existing trust and social networks within communities to rapidly mobilize volunteers, distribute information, and connect vulnerable residents to resources during disasters.
Question 7: Which outcome best indicates a successful community resilience capacity building program?
- Increased number of presidential disaster declarations over time
- Reduced dependence on outside assistance and faster recovery times after disasters (Correct answer)
- Higher insurance claim payouts following disaster events
- Greater frequency of evacuation drills held annually
Correct answer: Reduced dependence on outside assistance and faster recovery times after disasters
Successful resilience capacity building is measured by communities' ability to handle disasters with greater self-sufficiency and recover more quickly with less reliance on external aid.
CHMS Community Resilience & Capacity Building 2
Adaptive capacity in hazard mitigation refers to: