FEMA Response Paper

Not only did the attack of 9/11 physically, emotionally, and physiologically hurt U.S citizens, but it also hurt America economically, culturally, and health wise. After the attack happen, the U.S stocks lost $1.4 trillion in valuation for the week. In New York City, about 430,000 job-months and $2.8 billion dollars in wages were lost in the three months after the attacks. The economic effects were mainly on the economy's export sectors. The city's GDP was estimated to have declined by $27.3 billion for the last three months of 2001 and all of 2002. The U.S. government provided

August 25, 2017 Hurricane Harvey hit the coast of Texas with absolute power. It was originally predicted that it would not surpass category 1, the elements combined and made Harvey extremely vicious. It hit the most populated areas on the United States becoming one of the most destructive. People did not have enough time to properly prepare for the unpredicted devastation ahead. However, the government and the people responded with strong efforts. Let’s start with the federal department. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (which is referred to as FEMA), with its government accomplices mobilized a work force and with many assets to help states affected. About 21,000 government assets were sent to help out during the vicious Tropical Storm. A lot of people sought refuge during the storm and the Federal government gave them many places to stay for example many government owned sites were converted refuge sites for the victims. The U.S coast guard played a huge role to aid victims. Thousands of coast guards were deployed in support of the relief efforts. They evacuated victims through government transport such as helicopters and big vehicles that could travel through the flooding. They are also opened various docks and waterways within Brownsville, Kentucky without any restrictions to the public. FEMA provided thousands of meals, medical and household items. Fema also paid rent for the victim’s short-term housing. Other ongoing Federal

FEMA was established after a number of serious natural disasters that took place, but after that there were very few disasters so FEMA has not been in practice. Secondly FEMA has a history of poor planning, people with skill sets not suited for emergency response, FEMA was therefore not considered to be a priority agency when Hurricane Katrina

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) response to the Northridge earthquake was almost immediate with the assistance of two urban search and rescue teams and the support from FEMA continued to grow after that (DeBlasio et al,. (2002). During the first week of rebuilding the Federal government provided an aid package to support the rebuilding needs of the area impacted by the earthquake. The aid package was broken down int several categories of recipients of the money with the two largest being money for FEMA and money of the Federal Highway Association. FEMA received $3.9 million and the Federal Highway Association received $1.35 billion (Eugene, 2010) According to Eugene (2010) the Federal Emergency Management Agency also provided assistance for

The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act is mainly focused on response. The government was nowhere near prepared in 2005 when hurricane Katrina struck, then shortly followed by hurricane Rita. “In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed thousands of homes and displaced over 1 million people. In light of widespread Congressional and public interest in U.S. agencies’ performance in assisting hurricane victims, GAO initiated work under the Comptroller General’s authority to examine federal housing assistance.” (GAO Reports. 2007.)

time of crisis by R. David Paulison, who unlike Brown, has had a career focused on disaster

In order to help the people further, FEMA absorbed other services thanks to the Executive Order 12127 in which President Carter merged many of the separate disaster-related responsibilities to FEMA such as The Federal Insurance Administration, The National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, The National Weather Service Community Preparedness Program, The Federal Preparedness Agency of the General Services Administration, The Federal Disaster Assistance Administrations activates from HUD, Civil defense responsibilities were also transferred to the new agency from the Defense Department’s Defense Civil Preparedness Agency. FEMA receiving the power and leadership to direct other operations and creating them as one was a move to give the people in need a service for whatever crisis that is affecting that said area. FEMA has a long history from being created in 1979 and since then they have grown to be stronger with more power to do things for an area such as Flint Michigan.

Over the years of Hurricane Katrina, Fema faced many criticisms. Back in 9/11, They acted fast and accordingly to the disaster. During hurricane Katrina, they were slow and had false promises that the locals of New orleans believed (Maestri, “The

Before the federalization of the relief effort, states worked to raise their own money for things like food for the homeless, but after it was federalized many states purposely did a bad job of raising fund and then would over exaggerate their needs, this made them have to do less work and get more money. All states were supposed to supply an equal amount of funding in order to get federal money, but this was not always the case. For example, the director of FERA allowed certain governors to provide a very small amount of state money and sometimes didn’t require them to provide

After reviewing the problems caused, what type of assistance should the citizens of New Orleans have expected from the federal government?

When a disaster strikes, part of FEMA’s duty is to make sure people are prepared with sufficient supplies in order to improve the situation. FEMA’s second failed attempt in response to the storm was with transporting citizens out of the city. Despite the early warnings for New Orleans citizens to evacuate some decided to stay since they themselves lacked the transportation to leave or some believed they could wait out the storm similar to what they had done in the past with other hurricanes. With the amount of citizens that stayed in the city, FEMA

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is responsible for coordinating the government’s role in preparation, prevention, response and recovery from domestic disaster, whether they be natural or man-made. FEMA.gov lists 1849 total disasters declared since 1953, with an average of 32 each year (13). This particular agency has generated a lot of praise and but just as much criticism. Over the course of FEMA’s history, there are many lessons to be learned and FEMA is always looking for ways to be more effective. This paper will examine the history of FEMA, evaluate its performance over the years and pinpoint lessons to be learned and actions to be taken.

The majority of the immediate relief occurred thanks to the aid of private organizations such as the Red Cross along with the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund (McNeill, 2011). The Bush administration and other government figures acted incredibly slowly and were unable to give the

The Hurricane Katrina disaster highly challenged the operations of FEMA thereby leading to great changes in the agency. The Storm that is ranked as the third most intense U.S. landfalling intense caught the FEMA and at large the Department of Homeland Security unprepared thereby leading to severe losses. The hurricane claimed more than 1200 individuals and a total property of around $108 billion, of which could have minimized if FEMA could have carried out its operations effectively (Bea, 2006).

* On May 9, 2006, Secretary Jackson approved Louisiana’s initial supplemental CDBG Disaster Action Plan and awarded the state $368.4 million to help meet the state’s infrastructure needs, provide interest-free small business bridge loans and support long-term planning efforts. On May 30, 2006, Secretary Jackson approved an amended plan and awarded an additional $4.6 billion of the state’s original $6.2 billion to fund Louisiana’s Road Home Program. This program provides up to $150,000 to eligible homeowners whose primary residences were located outside pre-Katrina designated flood zones and were destroyed or severely damaged following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. (Hurricane Katrina:  What Government is Doing, 2006)