Students are required to write an eight (8) page Research Paper (body of the paper excluding the title page, reference page(s), and appendix) which addresses a specific problem of the response phase in an in-depth manner. A disaster response is “action taken immediately before, during, or directly after an emergency occurs, to save lives [and] minimize damage to property (McEntire, 2015, p. 5)1 . You are asked to select a disaster that will serve as the basis of your research paper. The disaster can be one that impacted the United States or one that impacted other countries. Please explore the variety of disasters that have impacted the world over the past 50 years prior to selecting one to serve as the basis of your paper. After describing the disaster, the research paper should answer the following specific questions: What is a major challenge(s) government officials will/did confront during the response phase of a disaster? Your paper must use the definition above when addressing the challenges actually confronted or anticipated during the disaster. Why are such challenges a problem? Why is the issue of preparing for or confronting challenges during a disaster important to resolve? How can such challenges be overcome by the emergency manager and other related actors or agencies?