Homeland Security Agency (FEMA)

Tyler Fuller

4/4/16

Homeland Security II

Officer Anuario

Homeland Security Agency- FEMA The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by the Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders on April 1, 1979 (FEMA.gov). FEMA’s mission is “to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain and and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate all hazards” (Fema.gov). FEMA has ten regional offices in the United States each left in charge of a certain region of the country. Here, in New Jersey, we fall under Region II. This

Billions upon billions of dollars was given to FEMA to ensure that communities would be able to face future terrorist attacks. Since its 20th anniversary, FEMA has put all of its “all-hazards” efforts towards Homeland Security disasters. The Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 2, 2006. This act had forced FEMA to reorganize itself with the newly provided substantial authority.

Hurricane Katrina proved to be the most devastating natural disaster in U.S. history. It had created a bigger and smarter preparedness mission for FEMA to follow and implement. Katrina hit three times while traversing the west coast. It reached a Category five rating at its greatest peak. Hurricane Katrina had originally started in the southeastern Bahamas on August 23, 2005 and made its way through to the United States coast.

FEMA has five strategic priorities: “Be survivor-centric in mission and program delivery, Become an expeditionary organization, Posture and build capability for catastrophic disasters, Enable disaster risk reduction nationally, and Strengthen FEMA’s organizational foundation” (FEMA.gov). All of these priorities would be put to the test with upcoming trouble. Another huge disaster which tested FEMA’s abilities was the post-tropical storm named Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy destroyed the East Coast of the United States. This storm had first

People who seek a job in FEMA have huge opportunities ahead of them. FEMA has many training classes. These classes run through programs at state and federal levels. Newcomers would be training in things such as BLS and other life-essential things.

FEMA has many vehicles in which they use to transport aid across the United States. Their most used vehicle is the Mobile Operations Vehicle. From here all of FEMA’s activities are coordinated and examined. Their Incident Response Vehicle usually has four to five people inside and can house ten people from the outside. This vehicle is very important when spontaneous disasters occur. They get employees along with quick and easy medical help.

FEMA’s eighteen wheeler Mobile Medical Unit transports all the required medical equipment to save any life it may come across. Now the absolute most important of FEMA’s quick vehicles is called the Mobile Hospital Surgical and Intensive Care Unit. This vehicle, as the name states, is meant for the direct purpose of surgical and otherwise fatal injuries. If you get seriously injured by some type of disaster you definitely want to see this truck pull up. All of these vehicles serve an extremely important purpose when dealing with massive