The response phase includes, the mobilization of the necessary emergency services and first responders in the disaster area. There is a need for both discipline (structure, doctrine, process) and agility (creativity, improvisation, adaptability) in responding to a disaster. Combining that with the need to onboard and build a high functioning leadership team quickly to coordinate indicates the need for a leader and his or her team to craft and implement a disciplined, integrative set of response plans. This allows the team to move forward with coordinated, disciplined responses that are vaguely right and adapt to new information and changing circumstances along the way.

The aim of recovery phase is to restore the affected area to its previous state. It differs from the response phase in its focus, recovery efforts are concerned with issues and decisions that must be made after immediate needs are addressed. Recovery efforts are primarily concerned with actions that involve reconstruction of destroyed property, the repair of other essential infrastructure. Efforts should be made to “build back better”, aiming to reduce the pre-disaster risks inherent in the community and infrastructure. An important aspect of effective recovery efforts is taking advantage of a ‘window opportunity’ for the implementation of mitigative measures that might otherwise be unpopular. Citizens of the affected area are more likely to accept more mitigative changes when a recent disaster is fresh in their memory.