New book on preparing and responding to emergencies, from terrorism to natural disasters

After an emergency occurs, there are several key factors to successful recovery and rehabilitation. Whether the strike of a terror bomb disrupting a nation or a natural disaster, a close look at the handlings of previous emergencies can offer relief to a community and encourage families, government officials and individuals to prepare for future disasters.    

The True Golden Hour: How People Respond in Emergencies, by Professor Hayim Granot, is primarily focused on people and how they react to all types of emergencies.  While emergency agencies will find the material useful for understanding human response, individuals will benefit from the book’s insight into what they can expect of themselves and others in emergencies. 

Granot examines people’s reactions and responses to various emergencies including natural disasters, ongoing religious warfare, transportation dilemmas, and even random acts of violence.   

 “Despite their diversity, emergencies and disasters have in common their inherent threat to people and their most treasured possessions,” says Granot. “While societies create emergency preparedness plans, people are, of course, part of the organized response and influence its effectiveness with their strengths and weaknesses.” 

The True Golden Hour goes beyond the “sophistication of organized emergency response” to examine the reaction of average citizens to emergencies. The focus of the book is on the behavior of individuals, family, and community members in times of disasters.

Discussions in The True Golden Hour include:

• The most important and, often, most overlooked procedures—how to deal with emergencies before rescuers arrive
• Why individuals must know what they can expect of themselves when faced with an emergency and how they can enhance their strengths before they’re forced to deal with one 
• The role the media and other formal organizations play in emergencies
• Why individuals often cope better than organizations in emergencies
• The myths about ‘emergency behavior’
• Ways to improve your ability to cope in emergencies 

Professor Hayim Granot was born and educated in New York.  After a brief stint as a researcher at CUNY, he taught sociology at LIU in Brooklyn, and then at the Graduate School of Social Work, Rutgers University, NJ. 

From 1970-2002 Granot taught at the School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, Israel where he established the Mass Emergencies Project to prepare applied solutions for emergencies on all levels from individual and family to whole communities and nationwide. During that time, he served as senior consultant on coping with population problems with the Israel Defense Forces -Civil Defense Headquarters and other emergency agencies.  Granot has taught crisis intervention to social work and school counseling students; emergency planning to municipal Security Officers; and management of human problems in emergencies to Civil Defense officers

Granot has lectured around the world and published on various aspects of human behavior in emergencies.