What are the steps involved in the risk assessment process for LA County emergency planning?

The steps involved in the risk assessment process for LA County emergency planning systematically focus on identifying hazards, assessing vulnerabilities, and evaluating potential impacts. This approach is essential for understanding the specific risks that the community faces, which enables emergency planners to create effective response and mitigation strategies.

Identifying hazards involves recognizing potential events that could cause harm, such as natural disasters, technological hazards, or human-caused events. Assessing vulnerabilities looks at the community's weaknesses, including infrastructure, population density, and resilience, to understand how susceptible they are to those hazards. Evaluating potential impacts then measures how those hazards, combined with the vulnerabilities, could affect the community, including physical, economic, and social consequences.

This thorough process ensures that emergency planning is grounded in a clear understanding of risks, which is vital for developing effective strategies for prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. The other options, while they may represent meaningful activities within the broader context of emergency planning, do not capture the foundational steps of the risk assessment process essential for informed decision-making.