DISASTER

POLICY AND ITS

PRACTICE IN THE
UNITED STATES
 DISASTER
POLICY AND ITS
PRACTICE IN THE
UNITED STATES
A Brief History
and Analysis

ANDREA M. JACKMAN,
MARIO G. BERUVIDES, AND
GARY S. NESTLER

MOMENTUM PRESS, LLC, NEW YORK

Disaster Policy and Its Practice in the United States: A Brief History and
Analysis

Copyright Momentum Press, LLC, 2017.

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 Abstract

Emergency management and the study of disasters is a relatively young

industry, beginning in its current form only after the World Wars of the
previous century. Yet with the ever-increasing complexity of society in the
Digital Age, the management and recovery from disasters in recent years
have received more attention than ever. In a field traditionally belonging
to the military and social sciences, the authors of this book review exist-
ing policy and standard practices within emergency management from
an industrial and systems engineering perspective. The book explores
both the contextual history of managing disasters in the United States,
both at the national and local level, and describes how these events influ-
enced federal policy development in the latter half of the 20th century.
Compliance with this policy, and existing challenges with 21st century
technology, is further explored, along with recommendations for future
policy directions. Practitioners of emergency management, and academic
researchers who ask the question is our policy working? should find the
text relevant to their endeavors.

KEYWORDS

cost of policy, cost of quality, disaster management, emergency manage

ment, federal government, industrial engineering, systems engineering,
legislation, mitigation, planning, policy design, policy, preparedness,
quality measures, recovery, response, workforce professionals
 Contents

List of Figures xi
List of Tables xiii
1Introduction: Why We Need to Analyze Policy
in Emergency Management 1
1.1Why Emergency Management? An Introduction
by Andrea Jackman 1
1.2 About This Book 4
2 Emergency Management in the United States: 18001969 7
2.1 Nineteenth-Century Beginnings 7
2.2U.S. Disasters in the Early 20th Century 8
2.3Duck and Cover! Military Influence and the Cold War 12
Websites of Interest 14
3 The 1970s: Four Phases and FEMA 15
3.1Shifting Government Priorities and Agencies 15
3.2Our Four-Phase Cycle: The Industry Standard 17
3.3The New Federal Emergency Management Agency 23
Websites of Interest 24
4 The Stafford Act of 1988Then and Now 27
4.1 The Stafford Act 27
4.2Updates to Federal Disaster Management 28
4.3 The Stafford Act in the 21st Century 31
Websites of Interest 34
viii Contents

5DMA 2000 and September 11, 2001: A Shift from

Responding to Preparing 35
5.1 Mitigation Gets Its Own Law 35
5.2 How to Comply with DMA 2000 37
5.3Implementation Challenges for DMA 2000 39
5.4 Industry Impacts of Terrorism 44
5.5The National Incident Management System 44
Websites of Interest 45
6Hurricane Katrina and PKEMRA: New Challenges
in a New Millennium 47
6.1Hurricane Katrina, a Disaster of Perception 47
6.2The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform
Act of 2006 51
Websites of Interest 54
7Certifications, Societies, and Self-Assessments:
A Look at Industry Policy 57
7.1Process Quality in Emergency Management 58
7.2The International Association of Emergency Managers 59
7.3 Certified Emergency Managers 59
7.4The National Emergency Management Association
and Programs 61
Websites of Interest 63
8 The Business of Disaster 65
8.1 Background and Challenges 65
8.2 RiskReward Ratio 66
8.3System Constraints and Expectations 68
8.4Expectations 69
8.5Return on InvestmentA Case in PointGeorgia 76
8.6 Analytics and Business Intelligence 80
9Emergency Management 2020: The Current State of
Research and Policy Recommendations for the Future 83
9.1 The Next Five Years 83
9.2Future Policy and Research Directions 84
 Contents ix

Appendixes 87
Appendix A: Glossary of Terms 87
Appendix B: Additional Reading Materials 95
Bibliography 99
Index 105
 List of Figures

Figure 3.1. The cycle of the four phases. 23

Figure 3.2.Four phases of emergency management at all levels
of government. 24
Figure 4.1. Stafford Act declaration process Renken (2016). 31
Figure 4.2.Number of declared major disasters in the United States
Renken (2016). 32
Figure 5.1.HMP completion percentages for the continental
United States, 2007. 40
Figure 6.1.National response structure prior to 2007 as
self-reported by FEMA. 53
Figure 6.2.National response structure following PKEMRA-driven
changes in 2012 as self-reported by FEMA. 53
Figure 8.1.Capabilities needed for effective incident, event
or emergency management. 68
Figure 8.2. Situational awareness functional model. 72
 List of Tables

Table 3.1. The four phases of emergency management 18

Table 6.1. PKEMRA legislation breakdown 52
Table 8.1. The use case challenge 70
Table 8.2. Situational awareness functionality 72
Table A.1.Definitions of natural hazards. Source: NOAA-NWS
Glossary; as referenced by glossaries of the National
ClimaticDataCenter and incorporated into SHELDUS 87
Table A.2. Required actions for multi-jurisdictional HMPs 89
Table A.3.Summary of literature defining the response, recovery,
andmitigation phases of emergency management 92
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Why We
Need to Analyze Policy in
Emergency Management

1.1WHY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT? AN

INTRODUCTION BY ANDREA JACKMAN

A hundred years ago, the field of emergency management did not exist.
The same can be said for many other disciplines that arose in the 20th
century, as well as technological advances and products of the rapid mod-
ernization and eventual digitization of our society. Yet, our field becomes
more critical with each of the advancements in both society and technol-
ogy. The more advanced systems we have to support our daily lives, the
more tightly these systems become interwoven, and the more our depen-
dence on them grows. What might have been an unreported non-incident a
hundred years agoa minor flood or loss of telephone linescould today
cause significant disruption and be broadcast globally through online
media. Studying our management of such disruptions is essential, and a
policy provides a measuring stick by which to do just that. As this book
will show, the implementation of an existing policy provides a chance to
measure our progress, and the development of a new policy provides an
opportunity to shape our reactions.
When I was eight years old, my family lived in Hiroshima, Japan. My
parents and I lived in a fifth floor apartment in a residential neighborhood
of one of the safest and most orderly countries in the world. One weekend
in the fall, my mother and her friend planned to take a trip to another city
to do some shopping. The weather forecast called for a miserable, windy,
and rainy fall daya mild typhoon was near the coastso she planned to
be on the train and indoors while my father and I stayed home.
2 DISASTER POLICY AND ITS PRACTICE IN THE UNITED STATES

As the end of the weekend got closer, the forecast changed. The
typhoon had strengthened, and was likely to come ashore. Dad and I
kept an eye on the sky from our apartment as clouds darkened, the wind
picked up, and a steady rain started to fall. Nobody seemed particularly
alarmed, although this was years before the Internet and 24-hour news
cycle that surrounds hurricanes and typhoons today. My father had some
fluency in Japanese and tried to pick up bits and pieces of information
from television and radio, as well as the police officer with a megaphone
driving down the street giving instructions for staying safe. My mom,
who had already boarded her return train, found that it was not moving
as quickly as usual and she thought they might be late getting back to
Hiroshima stationsomething very unusual on the high-precision bullet
trains.
The sun went down as the storm picked up, and Dad and I watched
sheets of rain, and occasional pieces of corrugated roofing, blow sideways
down the street. The wind rattled our windows and blew the screens back
and forth, making loud banging noises. Never a fan of startling noises
or severe weather to begin with, I was getting more and more uneasy as
the evening went on. The husband of my moms friend phoned us to say
he was going to try to get to the train station, just down the hill from
their house, to try to get some information about the trains and see about
picking up his wife and my mom on what was clearly going to be a late
arrival. My mom and her friend, meanwhile, were experiencing intermit-
tent power outages on the train, which had stopped moving. They were
able to piece together bits of announcements from the train conductor to
figure out that they were parking in a tunnel for the night until the train
could proceed safely. Years later, the two women enjoy telling the story of
how they found the last bit of food available on board and shared it: a stale
tray of noodle salad and a warm beer.
Back in Hiroshima, it was getting close to midnight, and there was
nothing left for us to do but try and get some sleep. Dad brought me into
his room and tucked me in bed while he sat up watching the weather out-
side. I woke up a few hours later in pitch darkness, with no memory of
having fallen asleep. My dad was gone. Not just gone to sit in the living
room, but gone from the apartment. I looked for him and realized the
power was out. Trying to calm myself down, I thought perhaps he had
gone to get my mom. My mom! Where was she? Was she safe? Had my
dad tried to get her and something happened? I picked up the phone and
started to dial our friends house to see if they were there, but the phones
were out along with the power. Feeling helpless and terrified, I thought the
best thing I could do was stay locked in the apartment and wait, under the
 INTRODUCTION 3

safety of a few blankets, and hope none of the larger bits of flying debris
smashed through the window.
I woke up early in the morning to find both my parents returned. My
moms bullet train had limped into Hiroshima station around 4 a.m. as the
storm was dying down. My dad had gone to get her, but failed to wake me
up or leave a note explaining his absence, much to my moms and my own
horror. We were safe and unharmed, but were soon evacuated to a hotel
when it was discovered our neighborhood would be without water, power,
or phone service for the next few days.
I maintained an interest in weather and the natural sciences through
school, and in college, decided to major in meteorology. It seemed if
Iunderstood what was happening in the atmosphere around me, I would
be less likely to find myself alone and completely in the darkliterally
and figurativelyin the middle of a raging storm. One afternoon during
a junior-year internship with the National Weather Service in Indiana,
Ifelt a familiar uneasiness. Conditions were ripe for severe weather and
my bosses were issuing tornado watches. I tried to stay out of the way
as storms began popping up and I expected mayhem. Surely, forecast-
ers would be running around, making urgent and animated phone calls,
shouting over each other and the howling wind. But, instead of a chaotic,
panicked forecast room, I watched seasoned professionals talk to each
other as though it was a pleasant sunny day. They quietly issued warnings
after measured discussion on whether or not radar signals were strong
enough to indicate possible tornadoes, took calls from trained spotters and
answered questions from sheriffs, and calmly made recommendations for
ensuring citizen safety. No alarm bells went off, no lightning struck our
building, and not a single person raised their voice. I did the only thing I
could think of to make myself useful and brought everyone lunch, all the
while thinking that if this was how professionals conducted themselves in
life-threatening situations, maybe there was a place for me in emergency
management.
People across many disciplines come to emergency management in
their own ways, including my co-authors from industrial engineering and
holistic medicine. What I learned from my typhoon experience and my
day at the National Weather Service, then later a career in studying natural
disasters and their management, was that, often in our society, disasters
are what we make of them. Many times, they are just afterthoughts; blips
on an otherwise smooth road of business-as-usual. They do not happen a
lot. We do not like to think about them happening. We have little natural
inclination to prepare for them, or try to mitigate what we cannot see (and
might go a lifetime without ever seeing). Humans much prefer to react, to
4 DISASTER POLICY AND ITS PRACTICE IN THE UNITED STATES

embrace panic, to watch dramatic news coverage, or convince ourselves

that nothing worse has ever happened to anyone. We wait for that low
probability even to come along, assuming it never will. On a national and
industry-wide scale, our policy is not only a reflection of that, but in turn,
drives our decisions, keeping us right where we feel comfortable in a con-
stant state of reaction. On top of that, we love to make our lives as simple
and comfortable as possible, which means tight dependency on technol-
ogy and services. The more complex our society becomes, the more vul-
nerable we are to a disaster wiping everything out.
Emergency management is a young and under-researched field, but an
important one. It is critical that we understand ourselves in this environ-
ment and stop designing ourselves into vulnerable systems. Policy is one
way to drive the practice you want to see, which makes understanding it
essential to understanding emergency management now and in the future.

1.2 ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book seeks to provide a comprehensive background and discussion

of all major national policies in emergency management, from a prac-
titioners perspective. Academic references are also provided for rec-
ommended further reading, if you are interested in the implementation
of emergency management and its policy from a research perspective.
Chapters 2, 3, and 4 discuss the history of emergency management and
its policy in the United States, from the earliest days of our country to
the birth of modern emergency management practices at the end of the
last century. Chapter 5 discusses an important shift in thinking toward
preparation and mitigation, and Chapter 6 discusses the recent impact of
new mobile and digital technology and how it gives far more visibility
into disasters than previously known. Chapters 7 and 8 step away from the
government perspective that dominates policy and discusses emergency
management policy found within the industry and commercial sectors.
Chapter 9 discusses the future of emergency management and recommen-
dations for future considerations and research in the practice.
The authors of this book come from diverse backgrounds, as is prov-
ing critical in new, cross-disciplinary fields such as emergency manage-
ment. Dr. Andrea Jackman earned her degrees in meteorology and wind
engineering and continues to work with special emphasis on natural haz-
ards and their impacts on the built environment. Dr. Mario Beruvides
comes from a background of industrial engineering, with special interest
 INTRODUCTION 5

in system design and the interactions of humans and systems. Dr. Gary
Nestler has 30 years experience in the emergency management field. He
currently maintains a license to practice medicine, serves as a Captain in
his local fire department working with emergency medical services, and
remains as an active member of a local law enforcement SWAT team.
 Index

A Disaster Relief Act of 1974, 16, 23

Advanced analytics, 8081
African-Americans, 10, 12
ArcGIS software, 3940
Awareness, lack of, 69
B Mitigation Act of 2000
Big Data, 8081
C DOD. See Department of Defense
CEM. See Certified Emergency
Manager
Certified Emergency Manager
(CEM), 5961
The Civil Defense Preparedness
Agency (1972), 2324
Collaboration, 71
D Management Accreditation
Data overload, 69
Decision support and consequence
analysis, 70
Department of Defense (DOD), 24
Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), 24
DHS. See Department of
Homeland Security
Digital asset management, 8081
Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000
(DMA 2000), 31, 36
aftermath of, 4344
implementation challenges for,
3944
Disaster Relief and Emergency
Assistance Act. See Stafford
Act
Disasters in 20th century, 812
DMA 2000. See Disaster
Documentation, DMA 2000 and,
3739
E
Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965, 16
EMAC. See Emergency
Management Assistance
Compact
EMAP. See Emergency
Program
Emergency management
abolition of, 24
academic research in, 1723
background and challenges,
6566
certification for, 5961
Cold War, 1213
commercial products for, 8081
disaster in 1970s, 1525
disasters in 20th century, 812
federal-level, 2324
frameworks for, 8081
funding vehicles for, 2930
106 Index
future policies, 8486
Galveston hurricane, 812
introduction to, 14
new FEMA, 23
in nineteenth century, 78
phases of, 1822
policies, 5762
qualities, 5859
return on investment, 7680
risk-reward ratio, 6668
shifting government priorities
and agencies, 1517
in 20th century, 814
in 2020, 8386
updates in, 2831
workforce professionals
Emergency Management
Accreditation Program
(EMAP), 61
Emergency Management
Assistance Compact (EMAC),
61
Emergency managers. See also
Emergency management
certified, 5961
expectations, 6976
functionality, 7276
system constraints, 6869
F HSPDs. See Homeland Security
Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA), 9
assessments and
recommendations, 2930
audits by OIG, 49
changes within, 51
documentation, 3739
How-To Guide for State and
Local Mitigation Planning,
3839
impacts of Katrina and, 4950
Individual Assistance and, 30
Interim Final Rule, 3637
legal foundation for, 3637
Public Assistance and, 29
PKEMRA and, 5154
predecessors to, 2324
in 1979, 24
FEMA. See Federal Emergency
Management Agency
Fugate, Craig, 51
G
Galveston hurricane, 812
Great Depression, 12
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927,
812
H
Hazard Mitigation Grant Program
(HMGP), 36
Interim Final Rule and, 3637
Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP),
3738
actions for multi-jurisdictional,
8991
Core Four of, 3839
HMGP. See Hazard Mitigation
Grant Program (HMGP)
HMP. See Hazard Mitigation Plan
Homeland Security Presidential
Directives (HSPDs), 44
Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), 24
Presidential Directives
HUD. See Housing and Urban
Development
Hurricane Katrina, 24, 33, 4751
I
IA. See Individual Assistance
IAEM. See International
Association of Emergency
Managers
Incident and event management,
71
Incident Command System (ICS),
44
Individual Assistance (IA), 29

Insight, lack of, 69
Insurance coverage, 29
International Association of
Emergency Managers (IAEM),
59
L 49
LEPCs. See Local toxic
chemical emergency planning
committees
Local toxic chemical emergency
planning committees (LEPCs),
41
Logistics and first responder, 71
M legislation breakdown, 52
Man-made disaster. See also
Emergency management
Bhopal chemical explosion
(1984), 27
Challenger explosion (1986), 27
Chernobyl meltdown (1986), 27
Mitigation phase, 17, 1822,
9294
DMA 2000 and, 3738
efforts, 29
Multi-Hazard Mitigation Council,
35
N mitigation, 85
National Emergency Management
Association (NEMA), 17,
6162
National Governors Association
(NGA), 17
National Incident Management
System (NIMS), 44
Natural hazards, definitions of,
8789
NEMA. See National Emergency
Management Association
NGA. See National Governors
Association
NIMS. See National Incident
Management System
Index 107
O
The Office of Civil and Defense
Mobilization (1958), 23
The Office of Emergency
Preparedness (1961), 23
Office of Inspector General (OIG),
P
PA. See Public Assistance
Post-Katrina Emergency
Management Reform Act
(PKEMRA) of 2006, 3132,
5154
effectiveness of, 51
Pre-Disaster Mitigation grants
(PDMs), 36
Preparedness phase, 17, 1822
Public Assistance (PA), 29
Q
Quality in emergency
management, 5859
R
Recovery phase, 17, 1822, 9294
Research, emergency management
in technical fields, 8586
professionalization of workforce,
86
sustainability and resiliency, 8485
Resource management, 70
Response phase, 17, 1822, 9294
Return on investment, 7680
Risk assessment, 71
Risk-reward ratio, 6668
S
SARA Title III, 41
Self-governance, 15
September 11, 2001 attack, 24, 44,
47, 84
Shared governance, 15
108 Index

Situational awareness, 70 Stafford Robert T., 27

elements of, 68
expectations and, 69 T
functionality, 7276 Terrorism, industry impacts of,
Stafford Act of 1988, 16 44
in 21st century, 3133 Trauma, 30
overview, 2728
updates to disaster management U
and, 2831 University of Delaware, 17