Local risk analysis

Two storms in Sweden 2005 and 2007 clarified both professional crisis managers and citizens' ability to respond to the consequences. These events created an awareness of the vulnerability of society, especially in rural areas. Emergent Citizen Groups (ECG) conducted initially a large part of crisis management, such as clearing roads, supporting exposed neighbors and repairing power lines in collaboration with power companies. As a result of these events some local ECG groups continued to work on risk prevention. This paper has two aims, firstly to emphasize the importance of ECGs during and after severe events such as the storms Gudrun and Per, second to describe and analyze a local emergent citizen group’s work on the prevention of local risk and vulnerability, in this case with regard to flood prevention. The results indicate that the emergent groups' concerns about local risks are not always understood by professional emergency managers and other authorities. There is also a lack of experience and capacities of authorities to collaborate with and support the ECG’s risk and vulnerability reduction work. Bureaucratic barriers and declining motivations among volunteers within the ECG’s could undermine commitment to the prevention of local risks.