Читать книгу Disaster Response and Recovery - David A. McEntire - Страница 86

The federal government is the national political unit that has the highest authority in the United States. The federal government includes political leaders and various agencies and departments that fulfill important disaster roles (Olshansky and Johnson 2015). As mentioned, if local and state jurisdictions are unable to cope with a large disaster, the president of the United States may declare a federal disaster and provide national resources to local and state governments. This occurs through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). These are the specific units of the federal government that are most heavily involved in response and recovery operations when disasters occur.

DHS was created after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It includes 22 federal agencies and now has over 240,000 employees. DHS is primarily responsible for various security measures in the nation, and it is organized with a Secretary; a Management Directorate; a Science and Technology Directorate; an Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans; and many other offices that deal with legislative affairs, legal issues, public affairs, etc. One of the central goals of DHS is to prevent terrorist attacks on American soil. It therefore relies heavily upon agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard.

If a terrorist attack or a disaster occurs, DHS will work closely with FEMA since this agency has a primary responsibility to assist local and state governments under such conditions (Kreiser, Mullins and Nagal 2018). FEMA was created in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter to coordinate the emergency management activities of the government. FEMA has a national office in Washington, DC, that works closely with 10 regional offices scattered around the nation (Figure 2‐4). FEMA also has many functional divisions to promote mitigation and planning programs as well as other units that address response and recovery activities. FEMA likewise operates Incident Management Assistance Teams (IMAT) that are deployed immediately before or after a disaster to provide protective measures or assess what further resources will be needed. Among other things, FEMA supports large‐scale search and rescue operations, reimburses local government for certain emergency operations, facilitates debris removal, and provides people with funds for rebuilding. FEMA coordinates with many partners involved in two national plans: the National Response Framework and the National Disaster Recovery Framework.

Figure 2‐4 FEMA has 10 regional offices around the United States.

Source: FEMA.