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Department Of Homeland Security Essay

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defines risk as the “Potential for an unwanted outcome” (2010, p 27). At the local level of government, the potential for an unwanted outcome is determined based on the threats that the community faces (DHS, 2011a). A threat is hazard that has the potential to disrupt a community, harm its citizens, destroy its infrastructure and properties, and affect the environment (DHS, 2010). Communities at the local level are vulnerable to natural hazards, technological hazards, and human-caused incidents. (DHS, 2011a). Natural hazards are those hazards that occur naturally without human intervention, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and pandemics, among others (DHS, 2011a). Technological hazards are …show more content…

However, for a local government to be able to determine the consequences for a particular threat, it must fully understand its own capabilities as well as the threat itself (DHS, 2011b). Local governments can develop planning factors, which will help determine the required capabilities that the community needs to effectively prevent, protect, mitigate, respond, and recover from the threat (DHS, 2011b). Once the planning factors have been determined, the local government will be able compare and contrast the required capabilities against the current capabilities that exist within the community (DHS, 2011b). If there are many shortfalls in the community’ capabilities, the consequences will increase; similarly, if the local government currently has or is able to implement the required capabilities for a particular threat, then the consequences will decrease because the community will be more prepared and proficient at dealing with the threat. In conclusion, risk, threat, and consequence have a relationship in the sense that they all help the community understand better the threats that they are facing as well as how the threats can affect the community, which in turn, it will allow decision makers to know what they need to do or fix in order to prevent or minimize the damage caused by

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