FEMA—The Federal Emergency Management Agency

FEMA is the Federal Government's emergency management agency employing highly skilled pre-event planners, emergency managers, and first responders. It coordinates the national response and is the primary federal agency responsible for preventing, mitigating, responding to, and recovering from disasters. FEMA was created in 1979. It consolidated under one agency the approximately one hundred disaster management functions that previously were scattered among several independent agencies. This chapter includes a great deal of information from the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate Preparation & Response to Hurricane Katrina because there is no better analysis of FEMA's, and ultimately DHS's failure during…