FEMA Response To Northridge Earthquake

The whole world observed as the administration responders appeared incapable to provide essential protection from the effects of nature. The deprived response results from a failure to accomplish a number of risk factors (Moynihan, 2009). The dangers of a major hurricane striking New Orleans had been measured, and there was sufficient warning of the threat of Katrina that announcements of emergency were made days in advance of landfall (Moynihan, 2009). Nonetheless, the responders were unsuccessful to change this information into a level of preparation suitable with the possibility of the approaching disaster. Federal responders failed to recognize the need to more actively engage (Moynihan, 2009). These improvements include improved ability to provide support to states and tribes ahead of a disaster; developed a national disaster recovery strategy to guide recovery efforts after major disasters and emergencies; and the Establishment of Incident Management Assistance Teams in which these full time, rapid response teams are able to deploy within two hours and arrive at an incident within 12 hours to support the local incident commander (FEMA,

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would become the central point-of-contact within the national government in responding to incidents. Since formation in 1979, FEMA’s core missions were to enhance the government’s ability to survive a foreign attack, and to assist state and local authorities in disaster response (Carafano, 2005). And while the two core missions seem heterogenous in scope at times from an outside perspective, the biggest difference between the two tasks is duration. A man-made disaster may be over in a matter of minutes as compared to a hurricane lasting several days, but in both instances the road to recovery is long. In order to streamline response and recovery in either scenario, FEMA was reorganized with new directives to support comprehensive emergency management practices (CRS, 2006). Today, FEMA provides the standard approach and guidance that many local communities may not have due to funding, training, and

Ensuring Resilience to Disasters has more tasking’s than another mission and involves many different agencies to accomplish those tasks. The four tasks are to mitigate hazards, enhance preparedness, ensure effective emergency response, and rapidly recover. The main agency that is responsible for these tasking’s is FEMA. FEMA’s mission is to “reduce the loss of life and property and protect communities nationwide from all hazards, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters” (FEMA, 2017, p.2). FEMA works with federal and State services to assist them in accomplishing their goals. They also assist local services by assisting in setting up emergency management agencies (LEMA) and set guidance for Emergency Operations Planning (EOP). EOP’s are “plans that provide an overview of the jurisdiction’s preparedness and response strategies. It describes expected hazards, outlines agency roles and responsibilities, and explains how the jurisdiction keeps the plan current.” (FEMA, 2010,

This program is the Department of Homeland Security’s final priority to “plan, train, and equip police, fire, and paramedics to react successfully to terrorism; and promotes recovery with the assistance of disaster specialists.” (Homeland Security, 2015) One of the examples of disaster specialists that help assist in disasters like Hurricane Katrina is the Federal Emergency Management Agency also known as FEMA. FEMA helps communities with reducing their risk, helps its different agency officials prepare for all types of hazards, and also helps people in communities get back on their

First, FEMA offered 100% funding of public assistance, which had never been done before. Typically, the state and local government are required to provide a portion of this funding. Another change that FEMA made, was in its interpretation of the Stafford Act when rebuilding the transportation system for the city. Public transportation is the primary route of transportation for the majority of New York City. Therefore, it was vital that FEMA not only repair the damage done to the NYC public transit system, but to improve the infrastructure. Typically the funding provided by FEMA for these damages would be for repair only, and FEMA would not provide the extra money needed to make improvements over the way it operated prior to the disaster. The improvement to the transportation system received the largest portion of FEMA’s funding provided to NYC. The NYC police and fire department also received millions of dollars to cover losses and payment for the large numbers involved in the initial response, and payment of pensions to the families of those members who lost their lives. FEMA funding also aided in the identification

Supplies could be needed in one area, but without communication that area might not be able to reach out for those supplies. Communication amongst first responders is important for information sharing, so that information can flow between different jurisdictions and agencies. When looking at the efforts of first responders, communication is the one constant variable, which without communication all efforts would be in vain. (Newman & Clarke, 2008) The National Incident Management System (NIMS) places an emphasis on the importance of communication when dealing with response efforts. The National Incident Management System shows how having a unified command systems can benefit the response efforts to disaster. However, without proper and efficient communication, a unified command system cannot proceed efficiently.

State and local responders formulate the concepts within the FRP around disasters and emergencies that can be handled “the Federal Government is called on to provide supplemental assistance when the consequences of a disaster exceed State and local capabilities” (p.11). If assistance is required by State, and local agencies, the Federal Government has the ability to deploy a wide range of assets to aid state and local efforts during the disaster. The Federal Government has a large contingency of support personnel, teams, operating facilities, specialized equipment, and assistance programs that allow for disaster operations. “The FRP describes the major components of the system, as well as the structure for coordinating Federal response and recovery actions necessary to address State-identified requirements and priorities”

This integration of FEMA into the DHS was more than just window dressing because this allowed true integration between other DHS units. Prior to 9/11 and when FEMA was an independent agency, the traditional Emergency Management system focused on four mission areas; preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation (Gerber, 2016). After integrating into DHS, the Emergency Management system focused on the traditional four mission areas and added protection as the fifth mission area (Gerber, 2016). In 2003, these five mission areas were incorporated into Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) – 8 and provided authority for the development of the National Preparedness Goal and, for the first time, defined “first responders” and their role in the early stages of an incident (Office of the Press Secretary, 2003). These are key points in how the Federal Government took a strong leadership role and provided guidance on how public safety entities would prepare and respond to threat incidents in a post-9/11 US.

As a part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) group during the tabletop exercise I was afforded the opportunity to take a closer look at segments of FEMA’s emergency response in crisis situations, specifically an earthquake affecting 35,000 people.

For the past 35 years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, commonly known as FEMA, has been dedicated to preparing, protecting, responding and serving the American people following major disasters and crisis. Effective on April 1, 1979 under President Jimmy Carter’s administration and funded through federal funding, FEMA has been committed to preparing, protecting, responding and assisting in recovery efforts in the state as well as the local government during crisis and disasters. Similarly to any agency, FEMA has faced many challenges when providing funding to victims and survivors of disasters. Critics have criticized FEMA in their response to disasters.

Even though FEMA has made progress, there is additional work needed in several areas. The response of the storm exposed challenges in how FEMA coordinated Federal agencies, State officials, and preparing and deploying it staff. For example, “difficulties with issuing mission assignment in a timely manner, implementation of incident management structures, and meeting the needs of survivors during the response phase” are some of the challenges that FEMA’s Sandy after action report identified. There were also challenges with delivering disaster relief and services to the seniors and individuals with disabilities trapped in public housing (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2013). The report revealed that FEMA had not worked with other federal

The region suffered more than $20 billion in damage overall, making it one of the most costliest disasters in U.S. history (Bolin & Stanford, 1998). Due to the magnitude and severity of the disaster it grabbed the immediate attention of the federal government, and within hours after the earthquake President Clinton sent key member of the administration to assess the damage and begin recovery operations. Most notably, James Lee Witt not only was in charge coordinating the response effort, but also took immediate action to begin relaying information to the public and disaster victims as quickly as possible (Gordon & Emerson, 2010). In the days to follow the quake, Witt held daily public press conferences with the Governor and would spend many evenings walking through temporary shelters, speaking with victims and listened to their stories (Bolin & Stanford, 1998). While Witt made it his duty to thoroughly reassure the public that the government was there to help, he also made the decision to modify existing FEMA programs to expedite grant money to victims. Under normal circumstances, displaced families would only receive a grant check for $3,000 if they could show proof of their displacement. However, due to the severity of the disaster, FEMA decided that the risk of fraud was far exceeded by the benefit of distributing grant money

Knowledge is the skill acquired by a person to have facts or information through education or experience. To wonder is to be curious to know something. The meaning behind Morgan’s quote is that once someone learns something new, they want to investigate or know more.

Today, the Incident Command System (ICS) is a major component of NIMS and is widely used in emergency management response. However, this was not always the case. According to David A. McEntire and Gregg Dawson, authors of the article, “The intergovernmental Context,” ICS was originally developed by the fire service in 1970. Its purpose was to assist in the command of wildfire events. It was unique because it standardized operations, yet offered flexibility so that it could be used on any number of events, regardless of size or type (McEntire & Dawson, 2007, p. 63).

The NIMS system, or National Incident Management System, was developed by Fema to create a nationwide framework and aid in the coordination of all governmental: tribal, local, state, and federal governments; with the private sector, and non-governmental organizations. This system creates a framework for all of the groups listed above to work in a more organized, efficient manner and create better outcomes when a disaster occurs in the community. The system is set up to aid in the coordination of these groups to prevent, mitigate, and manage any incident regardless