Bridging the Response-Recovery Divide: A Unified Disaster Management Strategy

When disaster strikes, we traditionally treat response and recovery as distinct phases. This separation is rooted in practical realities. In the critical first hours, response is defined by immediate, life-saving operations, where local emergency teams mobilize and state and federal agencies deploy reinforcements. Depending on the severity, this phase could last mere hours or stretch into multiple days or weeks. 

While logical on paper, this separate approach has proven inefficient in the real world. Initial response operations should include recovery. Recent major disasters continue to underscore the standard playbook can even delay recovery, prolonging hardship for affected communities. Officials could take days to determine temporary, let alone permanent, sheltering plans, may not immediately consider debris estimates and removal operations, and overlook return access for the evacuated community for too long. In Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands during Hurricanes Maria and Irma, logistical challenges in debris removal operations, such as transportation limitations, space limitations, and restricted staging areas created further delays. These same challenges faced almost eight years ago still remain to this day: after the recent wildfires in Los Angeles, where responders completed the initial debris removal phase at record pace, the structural debris removal persists.

Effective recovery, however, doesn’t begin when response ends: it starts alongside it. A well-executed response sets the foundation for swift and effective recovery. By embedding recovery actions into the immediate response phase, and continuing recovery as an operation, we can restore essential services faster, get critical resources to the community, and shorten recovery timelines.

A New Playbook

Recovery operations are incredibly challenging. They take way longer than anyone wants, and the frustration of survivors, business, and local officials is at its peak. Add to that, the uncertainty from potential policy shifts and changes in FEMA could decrease the number of federally declared disasters and reduce resources or operational support. Regardless of the details, this moment requires a refreshed playbook to empowers state and local governments to implement a new disaster management strategy with concurrent response and recovery operations.

This new playbook integrates recovery into response operations and continues a operational mindset during recovery. Too often the functions of the emergency operations center (EOC), the core of all operational coordination, are reduced or adjusted after response. Incident action plans may halt, daily calls and meetings become sporadic, and status reports lessen. Recovery operations are ongoing and require the same structures, staffing, and processes as the response phase, such as:

• The EOC includes a recovery cell – the designated group responsible for coordinating and managing long-term recovery efforts – established during response. Build processes before a storm hits to help everyone involved in response, from search and rescue (SAR) teams to law enforcements, to relay information on infrastructure damage and environmental hazards to the recovery cell.
• Keep the structure of the EOCs going. Transition to the recovery support functions (RSF) structure but keep the operational coordination structure – ops, planning, and logistics – in place to support RSFs.
• Instantly log and relay damage reports to reduce the lag between response and recovery. Conducting rapid infrastructure assessments while response teams are still deployed can accelerate rebuilding efforts. In Puerto Rico and during hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, FEMA leveraged urban search & rescue (US&R) teams to collect damage reports, helping to speed up assistance approvals.
• Prioritize lifesaving and life-sustaining efforts at the outset. As response transitions to recovery, incident objectives need to be recovery focused.
• Document costs from the start. Accurate, real-time data and reporting ensure communities can seek federal reimbursement more easily, avoiding delays and financial strain down the road.
• Recovery is often focused on individuals and infrastructure. Local businesses play a significant role in the communities, and their recovery needs to be a part of a larger recovery strategy and operations.

Expediting Recovery with Technology

Technology plays a crucial role in making this integrated approach possible, and innovative technologies are already transforming disaster management. GIS platforms, drones, and AI-driven analytics allow responders to gather real-time data, assess damage, prioritize response actions, and more effectively inform recovery.

Drones are invaluable tools for surveying remote or hazardous areas and provide an immediate, detailed look at the damage, like inspecting dangerous utility assets or identifying debris blocking response teams. With these insights, organizations can make informed decisions about where to allocate their efforts and resources not only to save and sustain lives but also accelerate damage assessments. 

This data-driven approach streamlines applications for federal aid. State and local governments and federal agencies increasingly rely on existing imagery and population impact data to expedite individual assistance declarations, ensuring residents receive immediate support. Communities can accelerate recovery timelines and expedite aid distribution by investing in these tools preemptively, like pre-storm drone flights to capture imagery and map out vital infrastructure to compare to post-disaster. This was used during near-historic tornado activity in 2024 to estimate both damage and debris levels, accelerating assistance decisions and getting recovery started sooner.

The Role of Public-Private Collaboration

A successful integrated response-recovery model also depends on strong public-private partnerships. Private sector stakeholders often manage critical infrastructure, including utilities, telecommunications, and supply chains. Coordinating with utilities during the initial response phase ensures restoration efforts align with emergency response priorities, like restoring power quickly. In the recovery process, this partnership also aids in speeding up rebuilding and creating more resilient infrastructure ahead of future incidents.

Public-private collaboration also includes voluntary and charity organizations. The volunteer organizations active in disasters (VOADs) are critical partners in both response and recovery. VOADS and charity organizations – some are founded to support communities after an incident, like in Los Angeles and Maui – have resources and programs that may help close assistance gaps.

Finally, remember to collaborate with and support local businesses. The same businesses that define the community and employ the community will need resources, services, and funding quickly to help them recover. Residents need places to work, shop, and support, aiding the local economy and helping the community as a whole recover.

Disasters are unpredictable, but a unified operational strategy to integrate response and recovery can help mitigate their impact. Fostering the synergy between response and recovery is not just a theoretical concept: it’s a critical framework for rebuilding communities in the face of increasing global risks. By embedding recovery-focused actions into immediate response efforts, leveraging technology to accelerate assessments, and proactively fostering strong public-private partnerships, communities can restore services faster, distribute critical resources, and shorten recovery timelines. Breaking down the artificial divide between response and recovery creates stronger, more resilient communities.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Rabin

John Rabin is an experienced executive and enterprise leader, who is helping to lead ICF’s disaster management practice. Prior to joining ICF, Rabin was the assistant administrator for response at FEMA, where he was responsible for the delivery of a coordinated federal emergency management response to state, local, tribal, and territorial communities impacted by natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or other emergencies. This included providing leadership and management of the National Urban Search and Rescue System, Disaster Emergency Communications, the National Response Coordination Center, and numerous national planning, warning, and reporting organizations. He directed an organization of more than 1,000 federal employees, 6,000 urban search and rescue professionals, eight 24-hour operations centers, and managed a $160 million operating budget. Prior to this role, Rabin was FEMA’s assistant administrator for field operations from 2018-2021 where he was responsible for training, readiness, and leadership of more than 13,000 disaster workforce personnel. From 2017-2018 he was FEMA’s deputy assistant administrator for national preparedness, leading daily operations to provide guidance, training, exercises, and programming to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from all hazards. In 2017, he served as the acting regional administrator of FEMA Region II, where he directed all aspects of federal emergency management for New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, and federally recognized tribal nations within Region II. A former firefighter and emergency medical technician, Rabin is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and the Executive Leaders Program at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security.