Emergency response responsibility in America's federal system

At its simplest and most succinct, the mission of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA, 2018a) is “helping people before, during, and after emergencies,” (p. 1). To fulfill this mission, FEMA engages in a variety of related actions including strategic planning, intelligence gathering, communication, and coordination. FEMA conducts risk assessments, helps communities build resilience, and helps to protect or recovery essential services. FEMA (2018b) also outlines its five core mission areas, which include prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery. FEMA remains active at each of these stages of emergency management and does not discriminate against any one type of emergency, playing as integral a role in natural disaster management as in technological, cyber, and terrorist-related incidents.
Prevention involves strategic planning, information gathering, intelligence sharing, threat detection, and any other activity that would involve stopping a problem before it manifests. Protection is a phase during which a disaster may be unpreventable, but yet still early enough to offer effective public information related to evacuation, interdiction, and physical protection from known threats. Disaster mitigation refers to the minimization of loss or damage, which is why building community resilience in both short and long terms is central to FEMA’s (2018b) mission. The response phase involves ongoing assessments and resource coordination to respond to situational needs, which could entail mobilizing local police forces, offering critical communication or transportation services, conducting search and rescue, or providing for public health and safety needs (FEMA, 2018b). Finally, recovery refers to social/humanitarian as well as economic and infrastructural needs. Because the FEMA mission is complex and all encompassing, it is sufficient for handling a large nation’s emergency management operations. More importantly, FEMA recognizes the need for states to remain full partners in disaster prevention, mitigation, management, and recovery.
States play an integral role in the disaster management process as it is overseen by FEMA. In many ways, states serve as liaisons between local stakeholders and FEMA. Local governments cannot directly access federal funds, programs, or resources—they must go through the appropriate state government channels first (FEMA, n.d.). While the middleman role may seem unnecessarily cumbersome, bureaucratic, and perhaps time consuming in the midst of a crisis, it is in fact the most efficient disaster management system possible. The methods by which local governments ask for and receive what they need have been largely predetermined through the systematic planning and preparation that has already taken place with FEMA’s help. Local governments disseminate the resources according to immediate needs. The main problem with the way the system works is that many disasters—particularly natural disasters but any disaster that affects a large area such as a technological disaster—will impact several local communities at the same time. Due to political affiliations, differential socioeconomic conditions, infrastructure issues, and other variables, some localities will receive swifter responses and more comprehensive resources than others.
One of the most critical roles played by the state is deciding when to declare a disaster under the Stafford Act, and another is working directly with FEMA to conduct assessments of the affected areas to determine how to best allocate resources. The state must also determine how to engage either or both FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, both of which play critical roles in disaster management. Within the National Response Framework (NRF), first responders at the local level always bear the heaviest burden being on the front lines, and remain the most important for successful emergency management response procedures. Only local first responders understand the terrain and geography, cultural or linguistic constraints, and other issues that impact effective service delivery.
References
FEMA (n.d.). Disaster sequence of events. https://training.fema.gov/emiweb/downloads/is208sdmunit3.pdf
FEMA (2018a). About the agency. https://www.fema.gov/about-agency
FEMA (2018b). Mission areas. https://www.fema.gov/mission-areas
United States Department of Homeland Security (2013). National response framework. https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/20130726-1914-25045-1246/final_national_response_framework_20130501.pdf