Running head: THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA) 1
THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA) 11
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Abstract
In an effort to respond to disasters effectively, in 1978 the government of United States set an agency that should be able to react to emergencies once the local and state authorities were overwhelmed. The formed organization is what is referred to as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The report below summarizes the following aspects of the agency; mission and history, organization & workforce overview, roles and responsibility, organizational highlights, challenges, Intelligence and Armed forces application. The first section summarizes the events that lead to the formation of FEMA from 1803 – 1979. Topic two gives a detailed organizational structure of FEMA and the workforce overview while the roles and responsibility of the organization are outlined in the third chapter. In the fourth chapter, some of the involvements that FEMA feels to be their highlights. Notably, the agency has its share of challenges which are outlined in chapter five, and the last topic gives the relations that exist between FEMA and the U.S. Army.
Keywords: disasters, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), local and state authorities, mission and history, organization, roles and responsibility, workforce overview, organizational highlights, challenges, Intelligence and Armed forces application
Introduction
The federal emergency management agency (FEMA) as stated earlier is an agency of the United States that was formed in 1978 and its primary responsibility is to respond to disasters that have occurred and overwhelmed the local and state authorities (Cutter, 2003). Notably, if a disaster happens in a particular state, then the governor is supposed to declare a state of emergency and then request the President for FEMA to respond to the situation. Once the President responds to request, FEMA reacts quickly in disaster response phase by providing immediate relief to the affected persons. Even after the disaster, FEMA assists in the recovery and rebuilding process by giving needed aid.
In addition, the agency has more than 2600 employees who work in the headquarters located in Washington D.C and also at regional offices which are dispersed across the country with an annual budget of approximately $13 billion. The agency also has over 4,000 reserve disaster assistants who are there to help in case a disaster happens. To perform their duties efficiently, the organization works hand in hand with other organizations such as American Red Cross, local emergency management agencies and twenty – seven federal agencies (Kapucu et.al, 2010).
Mission and history
The mission of FEMA is to support the citizens to ensure that the nation is able to protect against, respond, mitigate and recover from all forms of catastrophes. This mission has remained even after 38 ye...
