Emergency Management

Emergency Management
Student’s Name
Institution
Course
Date
Emergency Management
Introduction
For close to two centuries, lawmakers in the US have acknowledged the need for a government, especially the federal government, which provides aid to victim citizens during disaster periods. The earliest and perhaps most significant instance of the government's involvement happened in 1803 when a series of fires ravaged through Portsmouth, a port city of New Hampshire. As a response, Congress passed a law that guaranteed the provision of relief to citizens. Regarded as the 1903 Congressional Act, the legislation contains the founding piece of national disaster law. Over time, Congress included disaster relief as part of the federal government's wide-reaching law to ensure that the nation’s economy is rebuilt. As of the middle of the 1930s decade, laws had been put in place to ensure that federal funds are provided to rebuild public facilities, roads, and bridges damaged by natural disasters. This paper analyzes various disaster events and their impacts on the nation's emergency management strategies.
9/11 and Hurricane Katrina
9/11 attacks profoundly affected the national system, which deals with catastrophic events. Before the attacks, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), alongside its state and local partners, had a common approach in place to deal with natural and unnatural disasters (Waugh, 2009). It included collaborative processes through which national disasters are managed. Responses provided to 9/11 had numerous flaws; nevertheless, the system was proved effective. FEMA provided support to both the local and state efforts of emergency management in New York. The Virginia local agencies also worked to provide aid to the Pentagon Official. To a certain measure, the responses showed that it is critical to have local agencies appropriately equipped to deal with large-scale disasters. Due to the recognition, their capabilities have, over time, been expanded regardless of the damages experienced by those at the federal level (Waugh, 2009). For example, the nation hastily constructed Homeland Security, hence downgrading FEMA, whose primary purpose was to provide civil protection. The federal government seemed to have emphasized terrorism primarily because of the intense social fears of another attack.
Emergency Management Balance Collapse
What often is stated by critics is that the nation shifted attention from civil protection to one used during the cold war. Consequences of poor prioritization later manifested when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2015. The weak levee systems quickly fell, leaving much of the city submerged (Waugh, 2009). Responses provided by both the local and state governments were inadequate due to budget cuts. For example, the Army Corps was unable to strengthen the system of levees to ensure New Orleans is protected (Waugh, 2009). After the floods, it could be noted that the government's awareness of a disaster was flawed, in addition to an ailing communication system between authorities and civilians.
Simply put, the shift ensured that most government officials are unfamiliar with the 'National Response Plan' implemented after 9/11 (Waugh, 2009). The creat...