People-oriented emergency response mechanism—An example of the emergency work when typhoon Meranti stroked Xiamen

Abstract China is a country with frequent meteorological disasters. At the same time, it is also a big country with population of more than one billion. In 2006, the Chinese government adopted the people-oriented emergency response mechanism (POERM), which has successfully reduced mortality. How does China quickly transform an idea into an emergency management practice? In 2016, Xiamen initiated the POERM, which successfully reduced the losses caused by the super typhoon Meranti. Taking this disaster incident as an example, this paper analyzes the operation process of POERM from three aspects: laws and regulations, emergency management networks and supervision mechanisms. The laws and regulations are designed to guide people-centered behavior; the emergency management network is designed to achieve functions of the POERM; the supervisory mechanism is responsible for ensuring the efficiency and quality of the emergency response mechanism. We found that the central government successfully passed the pressure to local governments through the POERM. Moreover, it has promoted the ability of local government departments to improve communication and innovation, and to improve the organization's ability to respond to disasters. At the same time, we also found that in the process of disaster response, local governments have greater pressure to reduce disaster losses. Local governments have been fighting for early warnings to get more time to reduce losses, but they have also increased risk mitigation costs.