Federal Emergency Management Agency
There exist numerous types of situations that could cause an emergency response, nonetheless, who is supposed to provide emergency response to large scale emergencies? The answer is the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); specifically the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Department of Homeland Security was created in lieu of one single event that happened on September 11th, 2001. There stand several entities under the DHS program, additionally; the Federal Emergency Management Agency heads the emergency response efforts under DHS.
FEMA was created out of several different initial disaster response agencies such as, just to name a few; the National Weather Service Community
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It is also designed as a standard, cooperate tool used for managing incidents. “The concepts contained herein provide for a flexible but standardized set of incident management practices with emphasis on common principles, a consistent approach to operational structures and supporting mechanisms, and an integrated approach to resource management” (Department of Homeland Security, 2015). The NIMS has several functions that work in collaboration to provide the necessary tools for response efforts. These functions include: NIMS Doctrine Supporting Guides and Tools; Training; Resource Management and Mutual Aid; Implementation Guidance and Reporting; NIMS Alerts; FEMA NIMS Regional Contacts; and Incident Command System Resources. These functions work together to produce the Department of Homeland Security’s effective emergency response strategy.
The Department of Homeland Security sponsors a program called “Ready Business.” “DHS has adopted the National Fire Protection Association 1600 (NFPA 1600) as the American National Standard for developing a preparedness program” (Department of Homeland Security, 2015). FEMA spreads this strategy in efforts to establish effective emergency response preparedness from the businesses initially affected by disasters. This type of program is in place in hopes that it will alleviate a large amount of identified hazards associated
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is a federal agency connected to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with the goal of helping America prevent, prepare, and recover from all forms of disasters, whether they are natural or man-made. The agency was founded 37 years ago, in 1979, when it was finally decided that federal action needed to take place in order to respond to and aid the United States during times of disaster. It was signed by Jimmy Carter on April 1 and has been in effect since then, with the main mission of, “to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of ‘A Nation Prepared.’”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was created in 1979 from a series of disasters, which occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. FEMA is a federal agency that coordinates the response to a disaster in the United States. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall affecting many citizens in New Orleans, activating the response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The common obstacles that the federal system of government encounters with are communications and funding.
The assistance provided for the purpose of helping the victims of a disaster rebuild their homes to the same living conditions they had lived in before the disaster, FEMA assisted 130,000 middle income and low income families rebuild after the Northridge earthquake (Eugene, 2010). FEMA also assisted with the coordinated the response of 27 federal agencies that were involved in the recovery process. The FEMA United States Fire Administration student manual “ICS-300: Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents” (2013) refers to this type of command structure within the Incident Command System is defined as a “Unified Command”. The Unified Command type of management system allows for multiple agencies to work together to plan and strategize but most importantly to be able to collect resources from each agency without having to go through extra steps. This coordination was said to have had a huge benefit by being able to get the funding for repairs and to be able to decrease the time frames set to repair and rebuild the infrastructure (highways and roadways) needed to the get the city moving again. (DeBlasio et al,.
The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for “consolidating existing federal government response plans into a single, coordinated national response plan.” (GAO Reports. 2007.) The Homeland Security Act of 2002 allows them to handle all sorts of disasters from natural disasters to terrorist attacks. DHS also “Operates the Federal
Throughout its history, FEMA has had two main missions. First, FEMA’s mission is to enhance the federal government 's capacity to deal with and survive foreign attacks. The main types of foreign attacks that FEMA is tasked to respond to relate to terrorist attacks and nuclear war. The second mission of FEMA is to assist state and local authori¬ties to respond to man-made and natural disasters that are to enormous for the local and state resources to respond to efficiently. While national security focuses more on civil defense, state and local authorities are more focused on natural disasters such as hurricanes, storms, floods and potential nuclear power accidents. These divergent focuses really presents FEMA with huge challenges since federal security authorities’ main objective is quite different from state or local authorities’ focus. Considering that FEMA designed the Federal Response Plan, the agency has the challenge of balancing these interests while working on its two key missions.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has had some downfalls within their missions as does any organization, however, they still lead a very positive and contributing lending hand when in times of need. Their goal and ultimate mission, according to the official website of the Department of Homeland Security, is to “support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against,
FEMA takes over for state and local governments whey they tell FEMA what they need.
The mission of FEMA is about support, first response, sustainability, and recovery. Their entire focus is that of helping those affected by a disaster. If you look at the mission of the DHS it centers on safety, security, anti-terrorism, and threat response. These mission statements, although both compatible & noble, do not belong under the same roof. Allow the right hand to hold the sword and the left hand to
The United States at this time was the target of a series of different natural disasters. Ranging from the “Ash Wednesday” storm which accounted for well over $300,000,000 in damages to an earthquake which measured 9.2 on the Richter scale and in turn resulted in multiple tsunamis that rolled down the pacific coast and resulted in over a hundred losses of life (Maria). These kind of disasters did not let up in the 60’s and 70’s as the United States was hammered with a series of massive earthquakes and hurricanes. Legislation recognized there needed to be a solution and so in response the Disaster Relief Act was created giving presidents more power in their declarations at the time of the disasters. Since the first government intervention in 1803 until 1970, more than one hundred federal agencies were in some manner involved in some aspect of responding to the emergencies when they took place. The overlap between state issued programs and federal installed policies was concerning. That is why in the year 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed into order the Federal Emergency Management Agency(FEMA). As of present day, this is the program we all now look to in times of a disaster. They strive to support not only the citizens but also the first responders to ensure we can work together to improve, build and sustain our capability to recover from all hazards that are associated with these emergencies. FEMA does not work completely alone however, and in 2001 homeland security stepped up its role in dealing with disasters (Haddow). It was the terror attacks on September 11th that sparked their involvement and their coordination with FEMA made for quick and effective decisions during one of the United States’ time of greatest
On May 12, 1933 after years of struggling to get started, the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) was created. The one who would oversee this program was Harry Hopkins. A key condition of the Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933 was that for authorization of this program to even begin FERA would need to expire in two years. So, with a very small deadline the FERA decided to set required guidelines and procedures for this act. One of those required guidelines was the administrations had to work with state government by providing federal grants for relief purposes. Those States with grant applications were to provide information on the amount of money that was necessary to meet relief needs in their state. They also had to share the amounts available
The difference is that FEMA is considered a hybrid. We can investigate both criminal and administrative. This allows us to crack down on any and all misconduct within and involving our organization.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) response Federal response to oil or hazardous materials incidents may also be carried out under another key Federal response authority which is a regulation with the force of law found at 40 CFR Part 300. FEMA will assist in aiding the Coast Guard and other secondary agencies by providing their
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is a body under the United States Department of Homeland Security that was created in 1978 to improve the safety of the American residents, especially during disasters. FEMA has a primary mandate of coordinating the response to any disaster that may occur in the U.S. and that overwhelms both local and state authorities’ resources. FEMA comes in to aid only after the governor of the involved state has declared a state of emergency and has made a formal request. However, there is an exception to the gubernatorial declaration requirement, when an emergency occurs on a federal property such as the Space Shuttle Columbia experienced in the 2003 return-flight disaster ("About the FEMA Agency", 2016).
NIMS, what is it? What does it stand for? Well, it is a term that we expect all FEMA leaders to memorize and understand its purpose. NIMS stands for the National Incident Management System. This system was introduced in the early months of 2004 by (DHS) the Department of Homeland Security. The “NIMS system allows the Federal, State, tribal, and local governments, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations to work” (“National Incident Management”, 2011, p. 6) jointly to get ready for, avert, recover from, react to, and mitigate the effects of an incidents irrespective of the s complexity, size, cause, or location.
Government at all levels plays an important role during disaster management. Actions and roles of each government agencies are spelled out in the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the National Response Framework (NRF). But before we go into details on the roles of governments, let me first of all explain what constitute emergency and emergency management, just to give clearer understanding some of these terms. Then I will examine the roles of governments at all level including first responder actions, mutual support, lead and support roles.