The United States’ emergency management system prepares America and the public to emergencies within the country as a result of natural disasters, threats to homeland security, including terrorist incidents, hazardous materials incidents, or civil disturbances. When emergencies occur, man-made or natural, America has to be prepared to mitigate and respond appropriately to the emergency; therefore, reducing the risk of damage to American citizens and first responders arriving on the scene. The emergency management system allows for federal assistance to be sent to cities, states, or individuals located within disaster areas; thus, assisting the communities in mitigating the disaster. When Americans know that a disaster is imminent or has already …show more content…
FEMA was created with the mission of “supporting American citizens and first responders to ensure to ensure that the nation can work together to build, sustain, and improve America’s capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards” (FEMA, 2017). FEMA’s creation assisted the government in being able to prepare for tragedies and protect America against disasters and if a disaster occurred, ensuring that America and its citizens can recover from and mitigate the devastation. FEMA utilizes an organizational structure in order to accomplish the mission; thus, allowing for FEMA to effectively prepare for any type of disaster, either man-made or natural. Since catastrophes can be overwhelming for local and state governments, FEMA is able to assist local and state governments in dealing with a disaster; thus, ensuring on the ground support to disaster areas and improving recovery times for areas in which a tragedy has occurred. Furthermore, FEMA is a major agency of the Department of Homeland Security, which means that during a terrorist event, FEMA is equipped to assist in the recovery of the incident and able to prepare for future occurrences. FEMA …show more content…
According to the Department of Homeland Security, “NIMS is a comprehensive, national approach that is applicable at all jurisdictional levels and across functional disciplines; thus, ensuring applicability across a full spectrum of potential incidents, hazards, and impacts, regardless of size, location, or complexity, improve coordination and cooperation between public and private entities in a variety of incident management activities, and provide a common standard for overall incident management” (Department of Homeland Security, n.d.). NIMS is the system used to implement strategies for mitigating natural or man-made disasters, which is effective because NIMS incorporates an organizational hierarchy chart consisting of the incident commander, finance and administration section, logistics, operations, and planning. NIMS was established to cover mission essential functions, delegations of authority, and communications by executing an action plan in which the different sections work together to respond to and mitigate an incident. Each section plays a crucial role in ensuring that disasters are effectively mitigated by cooperation across each section via communication to guarantee that action plans are
The National Incident Management System, NIMS was introduced in March 2004, and is the country’s comprehensive approach to incident management. It outlines how first responders from different disciplines and jurisdictions can work together. The NIMS improves the coordination and cooperation between the public and private entities in different domestic incident management activities. It also creates a framework for compatibility and interoperability through balancing standardization and flexibility. As such, NIMS comes up with a flexible framework for the federal government to work together with private entities to manage domestic incident management activities.
In 2003, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was rolled into the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. FEMA’s responsibilities are to prepare, protect, respond, and recover from diminish all hazards. There was a mass coverage about the failure for FEMA to act immediately to Katrina, but once they were able to get things organized such as giving food and water, and setting up the tent and shelters communities can be strong and move on.
Both man-made and natural disasters are often devastating, resource draining and disruptive. Having a basic plan ready for these types of disaster events is key to the success of executing and implementing, as well as assessing the aftermath. There are many different ways to create an emergency operations plan (EOP) to encompass a natural and/or man-made disaster, including following the six stage planning process, collection of information, and identification of threats and hazards. The most important aspect of the US emergency management system in preparing for, mitigating, and responding to man-made and natural disasters is the creation, implementation and assessment of a community’s EOP.
The mission of FEMA 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, respond to, recover from and mitigate all hazards.”[1] FEMA intends “to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of ‘A Nation Prepared.’”[2]
NIMS is a uniform set of processes and procedures that emergency responders at all levels of government will use to conduct response operations. NIMS helps improve cooperation and interoperability among organizations. The framework is adaptable and accessible. It encourages all hazards preparedness. NIMS enables a variety of organizations to contribute successfully in emergency management and incident response. NIMS creates uniform professional emergency management and incident response practices.
Executive Office of the President is comprised of his staff. Responsible for a lot of communications, some to the American people, some to foreign nations, and some to the Executive Branch.
The CPP is inherently different from traditional models developed by federal entities in several ways, the most important being that it is a “bottom-up” planning method as dictated by one of the directives of the Act of 2007. FEMA was asked to partner with State, local and tribal governments, emergency responders, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in addition to other federal agencies typically involved with disaster preparedness, response and recovery efforts. Most FEMA and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) systems and methods in the past have been driven from the “top down”, such as the Incident Command System (ICS) and the National Incident Management Systems (NIMS) and have focused on the structure of command and control rather than coordinated partnerships (Ruback et al., 2010). Another significant directive of the Act of 2007 is the specific focus on preparedness for catastrophic events rather than disasters, which are more regional in scope.
Federal intervention in the aftermath of natural disasters began after the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. This 8.3 magnitude earthquake killed 478, and left over 250,000 homeless. While the disaster itself was obviously unavoidable, the subsequent fires that burned throughout the city were a result of poor planning. (1, 17) In an effort to consolidate existing programs, and to improve the nation’s level of preparedness, President Carter created FEMA in 1979. Initially, FEMA was praised for improving communication between various levels of government, and multiple agencies during a crisis. (1,19)
Federal Agencies help serve the United States by protecting our well-being, and making sure that we run at full efficiency. Agencies provide services to the people of the United States for many reasons. The EPA helps the environment, the FDA makes sure our food is safe to eat, and the DEA limits drug usage, and smuggling. All of these agencies have a specific job to do. An agency doesn’t deal with another agencies problems, unless they work together. One agency in particular is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security, which is under the executive branch. FEMA is an integral part in keeping our nation safe. Founded on April 1st, 1979 by then president Jimmy Carter to prevent hazards,
The NIMS provides a consistent, flexible and adjustable national framework within which government and private entities at all levels can work together to manage domestic incidents, regardless of their cause, size, location or complexity. This flexibility applies across all phases of incident management: prevention, preparedness, response, recovery and
Emergency Management has always been an important role in government, communities, and some organizations when dealing with planning and response to emergencies and disasters. However, since the September 11th attacks and other terrorist attacks on United States soil such as the Oklahoma City bombing, or the Boston terror attack, emergency management now has a more active and upfront role. Planning for terrorist attacks is no longer if but when.
The goal of the National Response Framework (NRF), now known as the National Incident Management System (NIMS), is to provide the Federal Emergency Management’s (FEMA) way of enhancing National preparedness and response systems. Since the occurrence of disasters, whether natural or manmade, has increased in severity and rate, the need for common terminology, standards of operations, and collaboration between agencies has become imperative. NIMS serves as the comprehensive framework designed to enable effective, efficient, and coordinated incident management at all levels of government and across all levels of disciplines and jurisdictions. The creation of the National Incident Management System sprung from the results of response efforts following
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an organization of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially formed by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and applied by two Executive Orders on April 1, 1979. The initial first response to a disaster is the job of local emergency services with the nearby help of the surrounding sources. A major disaster can be a result of tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods. The event must be absolutely more than the state or local governments can handle alone. If confirmed, funding comes from the President's Disaster Relief Fund, managed by FEMA and the disaster aid programs of other joining federal agencies.
Emergency management is often described in terms of “phases,” using terms such as mitigate, prepare, respond and recover. The main purpose of this assignment is to examine the origins, underlying concepts, variations, limitations, and implications of the “phases of emergency management.” In this paper we will look at definitions and descriptions of each phase or component of emergency management, the importance of understanding interrelationships and responsibilities for each phase, some newer language and associated concepts (e.g., disaster resistance, sustainability, resilience, business continuity, risk management), and the diversity of research perspectives.
Of the four phases of emergency management, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery, perhaps the place that individuals can make the biggest difference in their own state of resiliency and survival of a disaster is in the preparedness phase. Being prepared before a disaster strikes makes sense yet many people fail to take even simple, precautionary steps to reduce the consequences of destruction and mayhem produced by natural events such as earthquakes, volcanos and tornados (see Paton et al, 2001, Mileti and Peek, 2002; Tierney, 1993, Tierney et al, 2001).