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Emergency Management
When disaster strikes, a government must be ready to mobilize any resources necessary and remedy the situation, whether it is damage from a tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake or any other manmade or natural happening. Emergency management is thus vital to a government's policy of quick action. Sometimes, emergency management is undertaken by local authorities, who are the first responders to the scene, but these people cannot have the kinds of resources that a national government or a national or international agency could have. Since local authorities are not capable of providing the best resources for undertaking critical disaster relief, this paper will propose utilizing federal and state entities and will thus examine emergency management from a national government point-of-view to show the superiority of such management over local emergency responses.
First, I will analyze the federal government agency in charge of emergency management and response. This agency is called FEMA, which stands for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA's mission is to support United States 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." FEMA agrees that disaster can strike anywhere and can take many forms, including natural disasters and acts of terrorism. Therefore, the agency makes sure that its mission includes all these types of disasters in a comprehensive way, yet FEMA leaves room for specific treatment of disasters to ensure that each will be ministered to according to the priorities decided upon at the site of the disaster. [1: Unknown. (2011). "About FEMA." Federal Emergency Management Agency. Retrieved...
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FEMA's authority is given by the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act signed in 1988 that amended the 1974 act that authorizes FEMA to respond to activities that especially pertain to its jurisdiction. The organization is now part of the Homeland Security Agency, and the Homeland Security Act further cements its mandate and authority. Thirdly, the Post Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act ensures that the Federal agency will be prepared should another such disaster strike again, for as we know, the government's response was quite reticent in that disaster, so the organization will hopefully ensure that will not happen again. [2: Unknown. (2011). "About FEMA." Federal Emergency Management Agency. Retrieved April 19, 2011, . ]
As mentioned above, FEMA acts over situations in which it has jurisdiction, which include national-scale disasters or international terrorist acts, such as 9-11. However, in other cases, state governments should, in partnership with federal agencies, take care of the damages. The one benefit of FEMA is that it has of 3,700 full time employees that can ensure speedy recovery and organized disaster relief and the benefit of state agencies would be better knowledge of a certain state's issues. FEMA, as part of the federal government and its work with the American Red Cross and other non-profit groups, also has the best resources, whether technological or otherwise. Local agencies, for example, will not have the latest technologies, which may affect their response to a disaster.
In order to examine whether state agencies are also suited to work in partnership with a federal agency I will examine the New York State Office of Emergency Management (OEM). The OEM states that its goal is "to protect the lives and…
OEM also states to "routinely assists local government, volunteer organizations, and private industry through a variety of emergency management programs," which include hazard identification, loss prevention, and operational response to emergencies. OEM further coordinates emergency response of all state agencies in times of a crisis. However, one must note that these programs and general beliefs, although similar to other states, are only relevant to New York State. Thus, other states will have their own ways of dealing with emergencies. OEM's "legal foundations" rest in the Federal Civil Defense Act of 1950 and the New York State Defense Emergency Act of 1951. Thus, the organization is quite fit to assist in a disaster, though with federal help, and this is why federal agencies are so vital to disaster relief and emergency management. [4: Unknown. (2011). "About SEMO." New York State Office of Emergency Management. Retrieved April 19, 2011, < http://www.semo.state.ny.us/about/>. ]
It thus seems that federal agencies are best equipped to help with emergency management, but that state agencies are also vital as first-responders to disaster scenes. It thus benefits the latter to have the support of the former, both politically and financially, and vice versa. When one reads headlines such as "State and Local Agencies Bear Brunt of Homeland Security Cuts," it is disappointing because these agencies are still vital to emergency response. In this article, the recent budget cuts are discussed, and the author does not agree with the "more than $786 million" cut from "first responder grants" either. He further stated that these cuts placed unnecessary pressure on state and local emergency officials, and will not allow for even minimal staffing to be put into place at these local agencies. However, this budget cut was meant to "allow staffing levels to be maintained at federal agencies like the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard and Secret Service." While this is great for U.S. security, it is still vital to have both federal and state responders. [5: Wimberly, R. (2011). "State and Local Agencies Bear Brunt of Homeland Security Cuts." Emergency Management. Retrieved April 20, 2011, <http://www.emergencymgmt.com/disaster/State-Local-Agencies-Homeland-Security-Cuts-041911.html>. ] [6: Wimberly, R. (2011). "State and Local Agencies Bear Brunt of Homeland Security Cuts." Emergency Management. Retrieved April 20, 2011, <http://www.emergencymgmt.com/disaster/State-Local-Agencies-Homeland-Security-Cuts-041911.html>. ]
This paper has analyzed emergency management and has established that the most important relief response happens at the federal level, though this cannot take place without the first-responders at state levels. However, local governments cannot obtain the most up-to-date technology and the best employees, and must also rely on federal agencies. Thus it is wise to recommend beginning with federal agencies and federally aided state agencies that can better address emergency management.
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