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The overall function and mission responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security
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Tyler Fuller
4/4/16
Homeland Security II
Officer Anuario
Homeland Security Agency- FEMA The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by the Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders on April 1, 1979 (FEMA.gov). FEMA’s mission is “to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain and and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate all hazards” (Fema.gov). FEMA has ten regional offices in the United States each left in charge of a certain region of the country. Here, in New Jersey, we fall under Region II. This
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Billions upon billions of dollars was given to FEMA to ensure that communities would be able to face future terrorist attacks. Since its 20th anniversary, FEMA has put all of its “all-hazards” efforts towards Homeland Security disasters. The Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 2, 2006. This act had forced FEMA to reorganize itself with the newly provided substantial authority.
Hurricane Katrina proved to be the most devastating natural disaster in U.S. history. It had created a bigger and smarter preparedness mission for FEMA to follow and implement. Katrina hit three times while traversing the west coast. It reached a Category five rating at its greatest peak. Hurricane Katrina had originally started in the southeastern Bahamas on August 23, 2005 and made its way through to the United States coast.
FEMA has five strategic priorities: “Be survivor-centric in mission and program delivery, Become an expeditionary organization, Posture and build capability for catastrophic disasters, Enable disaster risk reduction nationally, and Strengthen FEMA’s organizational foundation” (FEMA.gov). All of these priorities would be put to the test with upcoming trouble. Another huge disaster which tested FEMA’s abilities was the post-tropical storm named Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy destroyed the East Coast of the United States. This storm had first
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People who seek a job in FEMA have huge opportunities ahead of them. FEMA has many training classes. These classes run through programs at state and federal levels. Newcomers would be training in things such as BLS and other life-essential things.
FEMA has many vehicles in which they use to transport aid across the United States. Their most used vehicle is the Mobile Operations Vehicle. From here all of FEMA’s activities are coordinated and examined. Their Incident Response Vehicle usually has four to five people inside and can house ten people from the outside. This vehicle is very important when spontaneous disasters occur. They get employees along with quick and easy medical help.
FEMA’s eighteen wheeler Mobile Medical Unit transports all the required medical equipment to save any life it may come across. Now the absolute most important of FEMA’s quick vehicles is called the Mobile Hospital Surgical and Intensive Care Unit. This vehicle, as the name states, is meant for the direct purpose of surgical and otherwise fatal injuries. If you get seriously injured by some type of disaster you definitely want to see this truck pull up. All of these vehicles serve an extremely important purpose when dealing with massive
Royer, Jordan. “Hurricane Sandy and the importance of being FEMA”, Crosscut.com, Crosscut.com, Web. 1 Nov 2012, 3 May 2014.
Homeland Security. (2008, 12). National Incident Management System. Retrieved 10 22, 2011, from FEMA: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nims/NIMS_core.pdf
In 2003, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was rolled into the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. FEMA’s responsibilities are to prepare, protect, respond, and recover from diminish all hazards. There was a mass coverage about the failure for FEMA to act immediately to Katrina, but once they were able to get things organized such as giving food and water, and setting up the tent and shelters communities can be strong and move on.
The Coast Guard, for instance, rescued some 34,000 people in New Orleans alone, and many ordinary citizens commandeered boats, offered food and shelter, and did whatever else they could to help their neighbors. Yet the government–particularly the federal government–seemed unprepared for the disaster. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) took days to establish operations in New Orleans, and even then did not seem to have a sound plan of action. Officials, even including President George W. Bush, seemed unaware of just how bad things were in New Orleans and elsewhere: how many people were stranded or missing; how many homes and businesses had been damaged; how much food, water and aid was needed. Katrina had left in her wake what one reporter called a “total disaster zone” where people were “getting absolutely
The 109th Congress questioned the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) after Hurricane Katrina. Congress called for mandatory reports from the white house, Inspectors Generals, the Government Accountability Office, and others. A common denominator in all of these findings were that some of the losses brought by Katrina were caused, at least in part, by deficiencies within FEMA; such as: questionable leadership decisions, organizational failures, and inadequate legal authorities. As a result of these findings, Congress further utilized their control strategies to reorganize FEMA, and restructure the way responsibilities were handled following emergencies. Congress passed the “Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act of 2006” in order to accomplish these revisions. This newly enacted bill reorganized FEMA, expanded its authority, established new leadership positions and position requirements within FEMA, and imposed new conditions and requirements on the operations of the agency. Congress also utilized the appropriations process to influence this portion of bureaucracy by enacting supplemental appropriations, one-time waivers of requirements and temporary
Through the path of history, there have been several major events that influenced thousands of lives and were significant in forming the world today. One of the largest and deadliest events that occurred in history was a disaster not anybody could control or be held accountable for. This was Hurricane Katrina. On the early Monday morning of August 29th, 2005, a Category 5 rating Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States with winds up to 175 miles per hour and a storm surge of 20 feet high. Hurricane Katrina was one of the greatest and most destructive natural disasters recorded to make landfall in the United States. The natural causes of the hurricane, poorly structured levees, disaster inside the Superdome, and the
Katrina demolished more residential buildings than any other recent hurricane and ‘’Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne which in total, wrecked approximately 85,000 homes.’’ Hurricane Katrina also left ‘’many people homeless as more than 800,000 housing units were destroyed or damaged in the storm.’’ The storm dislocated beyond a million people in the Gulf Coast region. Even though residents have returned home, up to ‘’600,000 households were still displaced a month later.’’ The storm may have happened in 2006, but it still impacted the following year by 85 percent of public schools remaining
Federal intervention in the aftermath of natural disasters began after the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. This 8.3 magnitude earthquake killed 478, and left over 250,000 homeless. While the disaster itself was obviously unavoidable, the subsequent fires that burned throughout the city were a result of poor planning. (1, 17) In an effort to consolidate existing programs, and to improve the nation’s level of preparedness, President Carter created FEMA in 1979. Initially, FEMA was praised for improving communication between various levels of government, and multiple agencies during a crisis. (1,19)
On August 29, 2005, the third strongest and biggest hurricane ever recorded in American history hit the Gulf Coast at eight o’clock a.m. The interaction between a tropical depression and a tropical wave created a tropical storm later referred to as Hurricane Katrina (FAQS, 2013). Forming over the Bahamas, Hurricane Katrina gradually strengthened as it moved closer and closer to the Gulf of Mexico. Recorded on August 28th, 2005, Katrina jumped from a category three storm to a category five storm with maximum sustained winds up to 160 miles per hour. Although other hurricanes, such as Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Wilma, exceeded Katrina, this dominant storm was classified as the fourth most intense hurricane based its pressure capacity. Once Hurricane Katrina hit land, it was pronounced as a category four storm moving slowly. While people thought that the slow speed of this storm prevented trauma, records show that Katrina did more damage than any fast-moving storm could have ever achieved (Solanki, 2013). Katrina produced abundant debris. The debris was in such large quantity that if it was stacked together on a football field, the rubble would reach the elevation of ten and a half miles. The size of Katrina also caused 90,000 square miles to be affected. Once proclaimed a category three storm, Hurricane Katrina slowed to the speed of 155 miles per hour. At this point in time, Katrina proved to be the sixth most prevailing hurricane traced in history. (Solanki, 2013). Several different aspects of life were impacted by Hurricane Katrina such as availability of gasoline, economic issues, and the ability to have an adequate supply of drinking water (Solanki, 2013). Hurricane Katrina was a large storm ...
More than 1,400 people lost their lives. It became the global symbol of American dysfunction and government negligence. At every level and in every duty, from engineering to social policy to basic logistics, there was revelations of malfunction and failure before, during, and after Katrina. With 80 percent of the city underwater it has been a slow road to recovery. Out of the 140,000 applicants, only 22,000 families have received funds for renovating their homes and only expending 1.3 billion out of the total allocated. Many people are still displaced, many are still waiting for their homes to be rebuilt, neighborhoods are still in shambles, and business are still trying to rebuild but for some the situation still remains
The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) is the state equilivilant of the United States Homeland Security and Preparedness Agency. The ADEM coordinates the resources, activities and proficiencies to prevent and protect against disasters, alleviate the impact of disasters by responding to events and promote the recovery from events as well as working to impede possible future risks to the security of the state and its inhabitants and inhibit the impact of prospective events. (Arkansas.gov, 2014) The State of Arkansas’ Emergency Operations Center (SECO) is located at ADEM.
August 29, 2005 was one of the darkest days for the residents of the State of Louisiana. Katrina, a category 3 hurricane, ripped through New Orleans and the surrounding areas causing catastrophic loss of life and property. The federal government’s disaster response team, which was formed in 1978, titled the Federal Emergency Management Agency, (commonly referred to as FEMA) responded to the needs of the survivors. Unfortunately the Bush administration through FEMA showed gross ineptitude in its response to the disaster. Pre-Katrina the lack of response resulted in a largely unsuccessful evacuation. After the storm, aid to the citizens of New Orleans was slow and inadequate. When we look back at the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, it appears that Bush’s FEMA botched much of the handling of the crisis and that overall, our “administration” could have responded to the situation much better.
The mission of FEMA is “to support our 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.”[1] FEMA intends “to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of ‘A Nation Prepared.’”[2]
On early morning of August 29th, 2005 on the Gulf Shore near New Orleans, a devastating hurricane struck. It wrecked havoc, demolishing anything in its path. Leaving nothing but mounds of trash. The surviving people were forced to leave due to massive flooding and the destruction of their homes. New Orleans was not the only place hit by Katrina but it was one of the areas that was hit the hardest. Millions of people were affected by this tragedy and the cost range was up in the billions. Crime rates went up, no one had a place to stay and water was polluted. The damage done by Katrina affected New Orleans and the other areas hit years after it struck. Restoration for the areas hit was going to need support from all of America and support groups across the country. No one was ready for this tragedy or could ever predict the horrible outcome.
Throughout the recovery period, it is crucial to monitor local media sources for information about where to obtain emergency housing, food, medical, and financial assistance. Direct assistance to individuals and families may come from different organizations such as American Red Cross, Salvation Army, FEMA and non profit organizations. Such organizations can provide food, shelter, essential hygiene supplies and assist in the aftermath clean-up efforts.