Building Sound Emergency Management into Airports

Airports are essential and irresistible assets in major disaster responses. Traditional and newly emergent roles—e.g., command posts, shelters, temporary hospitals, —alternative communication hubs—were filled by airports after Hurricane Katrina and for 9/11 flight diversions with essentially no warning. The basic thesis of this paper is that sound emergency management measures should be built into airport preparedness functions to not only maximize the use of airports during major disaster responses but also to preserve airport operations during the disaster and to facilitate resiliency afterwards. Qualitative analysis applied to historical case studies at New Orleans and Gander and preparedness measures at Memphis and Düsseldorf gives results bearing on necessity to enhance capabilities of airports and methods to fund and sustain such new assets. National standards and new sources of funding to build sound emergency management into airports are critical to the development of resiliency through timely management of catastrophes.