GWU Critical Thinking & Organizational Effectiveness Discussion
1. What are DALYs? What purpose to they serve?
2. Explain how organizational effectiveness is evaluated during and following a catastrophe.
Critical Thinking Exercise
In August, 2018, Puerto Rico elevated the official death toll, the number of deaths caused by Hurricane Maria from 64 to 2975, almost a year after the storm struck the island. Below is the link to the study used to justify this action.
As you review this report (which addresses catastrophic response issues rather than the sensationalized headlines of the press) you will see many of the concepts issues and techniques address in the textbook.
The article from CNN linked below chronicles the death toll from the hurricane in September (October), 2017.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/29/us/puerto-rico-growing-death-toll/index.html
3. Discuss the role of “death” in the assessment of disaster, and how is can be misleading as a measurement of human returns? The Puerto Rican death count application reflects post-traumatic residual mortality (a term not in your text).
4. Presuming the methodology of the study is sound, what benefits derive from a study of this nature? How does Puerto Rico as a territorial government benefit from the release of this study?
