Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1981 |
Jurisdiction | State of Oregon |
Headquarters | Salem, Oregon 44°54′05″N123°00′43″W / 44.90137°N 123.01192°W [1] |
Agency executive |
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Parent agency | Oregon Military Department |
Website | oregon.gov/oem/Pages/About-Us.aspx |
Oregon Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is an emergency services system authorized by the U.S. state of Oregon legislature to coordinate efforts to "prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies". [2]
The OEM maintains emergency services systems as mandated in Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 401, by "planning, preparing and providing for the prevention, mitigation and management of emergencies or disasters that present a threat to the lives and property of citizens of and visitors to the State of Oregon." [2] OEM's director has said,
What we do today to prepare will save lives and property tomorrow, or whenever a disaster strikes. As we build a culture of preparedness in Oregon we are empowering Oregonians to be disaster survivors, not victims. We want Oregonians to be prepared, not scared.
— Andrew Phelps [3]
Administratively, OEM is a division of the Oregon Military Department. [4] There are four sections of OEM:
OEM manages resources for disaster assistance, cross-jurisdictional aid to protect lives, property and the environment, and other assistance with emergency incidents. [5] OEM also manages grant opportunities, preparedness workshops, state preparedness exercises and training, and toolkits for emergency managers. [5]
Within OEM's responsibilities are the disaster declaration process, the Oregon Emergency Response System, the Real-Time Assessment and Planning Tool for Oregon, [6] and the state's search and rescue program. [7]
Following federal passage of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act in 1974, and the 1979 establishment of FEMA, in 1981 the Oregon legislature established the state's Emergency Management Division. [9] In 1993, passage of Senate Bill 157 transferred the Emergency Management Division to the Department of State Police, renaming it the "Office of Emergency Management". [9]
OEM's authorization and responsibilities are defined in Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 401 — Emergency Management and Services. [2] [10]
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders on April 1, 1979. The agency's primary purpose is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities. The governor of the state in which the disaster occurs must declare a state of emergency and formally request from the President that FEMA and the federal government respond to the disaster. The only exception to the state's gubernatorial declaration requirement occurs when an emergency or disaster takes place on federal property or to a federal asset—for example, the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, or the Space Shuttle Columbia in the 2003 return-flight disaster.
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**Citizen Corps: Enhancing Community Preparedness and Response**
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