Disaster Preparedness
Over the past century the world has confronted many disasters, both natural and manmade, and many government entities have had to cope with the aftermath. The Unites States, in particular, has had to revamp the manner in which it confronts disasters. Early in the nation's history, disasters were usually considered local problems that only involved the federal government if they were particularly large in scope or had national implications. Even in those instances, the federal government responded on an individual basis to disasters, offering aid in a piecemeal fashion when necessary. Eventually, the need for a permanent system to deal with disasters was seen and the U.S. government responded accordingly. Today, we fully anticipate that the government will be there when they are most needed, but that has not always been the case.
It was not until the Depression of the 1930s that the federal government began to view disaster recovery as a potential economic tool to put people back to work. The Reconstruction Finance Corporations and the Bureau of Public Roads were both authorized to make loans for repair and reconstruction of public...
During this time, the Tennessee Valley Authority was both conceived and implemented, providing not only hydroelectric power to millions who had no reliable electric source before, but also greatly reducing the potential for flooding in the affected region (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2011, p.2). Furthermore, the Flood Control Act of 1934 gave the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the ability to design and carry out flood control projects, an authority they possess to this day (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2011, p.3).
Meanwhile, most of the response to natural disasters continued as before, with legislative action after particularly devastating disasters had struck. Finally, in 1961 the Kennedy administration changed the way that future disaster events would be handled, by creating the Office of Emergency Preparedness inside the White house (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2011, p.3). For the first time in our nation's history an office or department of the federal government would be expressly responsible for reacting to and preparing for any large-scale disasters that might…
