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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.
Seismic risk refers to the risk of damage from earthquake to a building, system, or other entity. Seismic risk has been defined, for most management purposes, as the potential economic, social and environmental consequences of hazardous events that may occur in a specified period of time. A building located in a region of high seismic hazard is at lower risk if it is built to sound seismic engineering principles. On the other hand, a building located in a region with a history of minor seismicity, in a brick building located on fill subject to liquefaction can be as high or higher risk.
Emergency management or disaster management is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actually focus on the management of emergencies, which can be understood as minor events with limited impacts and are managed through the day to day functions of a community. Instead, emergency management focuses on the management of disasters, which are events that produce more impacts than a community can handle on its own. The management of disasters tends to require some combination of activity from individuals and households, organizations, local, and/or higher levels of government. Although many different terminologies exist globally, the activities of emergency management can be generally categorized into preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery, although other terms such as disaster risk reduction and prevention are also common. The outcome of emergency management is to prevent disasters and where this is not possible, to reduce their harmful impacts.
Flood insurance is the specific insurance coverage issued against property loss from flooding. To determine risk factors for specific properties, insurers will often refer to topographical maps that denote lowlands, floodplains and other areas that are susceptible to flooding.
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is a program created by the Congress of the United States in 1968 through the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968. The NFIP has two purposes: to share the risk of flood losses through flood insurance and to reduce flood damages by restricting floodplain development. The program enables property owners in participating communities to purchase insurance protection, administered by the government, against losses from flooding, and requires flood insurance for all loans or lines of credit that are secured by existing buildings, manufactured homes, or buildings under construction, that are located in the Special Flood Hazard Area in a community that participates in the NFIP. U.S. Congress limits the availability of National Flood Insurance to communities that adopt adequate land use and control measures with effective enforcement provisions to reduce flood damages by restricting development in areas exposed to flooding.
The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act is a 1988 United States federal law designed to bring an orderly and systematic means of federal natural disaster assistance for state and local governments in carrying out their responsibilities to aid citizens. Congress's intention was to encourage states and localities to develop comprehensive disaster preparedness plans, prepare for better intergovernmental coordination in the face of a disaster, encourage the use of insurance coverage, and provide federal assistance programs for losses due to a disaster.
Butch Kinerney is Chief of Communications for the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and an expert in risk and crisis communications. He served as acting press secretary for FEMA in 2005–2006, rising to the position immediately following landfall of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. During Katrina and the ongoing recovery in the Gulf Coast, he was quoted more than 30,000 times in the press, from Katrina's first landfall in Florida throughout the tumultuous fallout from FEMA's response efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Mitigation is the reduction of something harmful or the reduction of its harmful effects. It may refer to measures taken to reduce the harmful effects of hazards that remain in potentia, or to manage harmful incidents that have already occurred. It is a stage or component of emergency management and of risk management. The theory of mitigation is a frequently used element in criminal law and is often used by a judge to try cases such as murder, where a perpetrator is subject to varying degrees of responsibility as a result of one's actions.
Hazus is a geographic information system-based natural hazard analysis tool developed and freely distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 is legislation enacted in the United States that led to the creation of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
In environmental engineering, the flood mitigation involves the management and control of flood water movement, such as redirecting flood run-off through the use of floodwalls and flood gates, rather than trying to prevent floods altogether. It also involves the management of people, through measures such as evacuation and dry/wet proofing properties. The prevention and mitigation of flooding can be studied on three levels: on individual properties, small communities, and whole towns or cities. The costs of protection rise as more people and property are protected. The US FEMA, for example, estimates that for every $1.00 spent on mitigation, $4.00 is saved.
A flood insurance rate map (FIRM) is an official map of a community within the United States that displays the floodplains, more explicitly special hazard areas and risk premium zones, as delineated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The term is used mainly in the United States but similar maps exist in many other countries, such as Australia.
A natural hazard is a natural phenomenon that might have a negative effect on humans and other animals, or the environment. Natural hazard events can be classified into two broad categories: geophysical and biological.
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water levels. Flooding can be caused by a mix of both natural processes, such as extreme weather upstream, and human changes to waterbodies and runoff. Though building hard infrastructure to prevent flooding, such as flood walls, can be effective at managing flooding, increased best practice within landscape engineering is to rely more on soft infrastructure and natural systems, such as marshes and flood plains, for handling the increase in water. For flooding on coasts, coastal management practices have to not only handle changes water flow, but also natural processes like tides.
A flood opening or flood vent is an orifice in an enclosed structure intended to allow the free passage of water between the interior and exterior.
A hazard map is a map that highlights areas that are affected by or are vulnerable to a particular hazard. They are typically created for natural hazards, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, flooding and tsunamis. Hazard maps help prevent serious damage and deaths.
Due to the common occurrence of hurricanes in the coastal state of North Carolina, hurricane recovery in North Carolina is a large component of the state's emergency management efforts. Recovery from these tremendous storms at the local and state level is a large part of the aftermath of a hurricane. Gavin Smith and Victor Flatt stated that "Disaster recovery remains the least understood aspect of hazards management, when assessed relative to preparedness, response, and hazard mitigation." Smith and Flatt also went on to state that the role of the states is even less understood. The review of the plans and policies that instruct recovery, agencies involved, funding processes and budgets, and the environmental effects of a hurricane creates a better understanding of how North Carolina recovers from a hurricane.
Coastal hazards are physical phenomena that expose a coastal area to the risk of property damage, loss of life, and environmental degradation. Rapid-onset hazards last a few minutes to several days and encompass significant cyclones accompanied by high speed winds, waves, and surges or tsunamis created by submarine(undersea)earthquakes and landslides. Slow-onset hazards, such as erosion and gradual inundation, develop incrementally over extended periods.
The Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 was a United States Congress bill that would have delayed the increases in flood insurance premiums that were part of the Biggert–Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. The reforms from that law were meant to require flood insurance premiums to actually reflect the real risk of flooding, which led to an increase in premiums. At the time of the bill, the National Flood Insurance Program was $24 billion in debt.
The Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2013 is a bill that would reduce some of the reforms made to the federal flood insurance program that were passed two years prior. The bill would reduce federal flood insurance premium rates for some properties that are sold, were uninsured as of July 2012, or where coverage lapsed as a result of the policyholder no longer being required to maintain coverage.
References
- ↑ United States of America (2002). Code of Federal Regulations 44, Emergency Management and Assistance (PDF). United States Government Printing Office. pp. 313–315.
- ↑ "Definitions of FEMA Flood Zone Designations". Federal Emergency Management Agency. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
- ↑ "Community with No Flooding? | FEMA.gov". www.fema.gov. Retrieved 2023-06-15.
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