Disasters, whether natural or man-caused, have happened and will continue to occur in Pennington County. Emergency Management employs 4 basic strategies to minimize the effects of a disaster while maximizing the community's resiliency.

1. Preparedness: This step involves modifying our behaviors and actions to proactively prepare for the impacts of emergencies or disasters by adopting a preparedness mindset and maintaining a state of readiness to respond effectively when events occur.
2. Response: In a large-scale disaster, the response phase involves not only trained emergency responders but also community members stepping in to help family, neighbors, and others, putting preparedness into action with effective communication.
3. Recovery begins immediately, almost alongside the response effort, with the goal of restoring services and a sense of “normalcy." In some cases, this may be adapting to a new way of doing things and implementing changes to become more resilient. 
4. Mitigation: Proactive changes and strategies to reduce the potential impact of a crisis and minimize damage.  Mitigation efforts address immediate vulnerabilities and help prevent similar disasters from causing the same level of harm in the future.