Citation

Falato CP, Smith SM, Kress T. Int. J. Emerg. Manage. 2007; 4(4): 575-583.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Inderscience Publishers)

DOI

10.1504/IJEM.2007.015730

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The federal government's role in community disaster preparedness in the USA has historically been limited to assisting communities after a disaster has occurred. Recent years, however, have seen an increase in the complexity of disasters, making it more difficult to manage the response. Local organisations often do not have the resources or the training to effectively react to the needs created by a disaster. With the support of federal and state programmes, changes must be implemented to better enable local governments to effectively work with communities to prepare for and respond to all disasters, whether natural or man-made. It will be the responsibility of citizens and local government officials to work together to adapt the programmes to their communities preparedness needs. This paper will address the evolution of government involvement in disaster preparedness and examine the history of comprehensive community disaster preparedness planning in the USA.