Federal Emergency Management Agency

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The purpose of FEMA (begun by Presidential Order on March 30, 1979)
"FEMA - Disaster of an Agency" (editorial),
   Lynn Woolley, September 2005, webpage:
   NewsMax-2827 :
   states "Jimmy Carter created "FEMA by executive
   order on March 30, 1979."
is to coordinate the response to a disaster which has occurred in the United States and which overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities.  The governor of the state in which the disaster occurred 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 is when an emergency or disaster occurs on federal property or to a federal asset, for example, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in the 1995 bombing, or the Space Shuttle Columbia in the 2003 return-flight disaster.

References

Other websites
 DHS organization 
 FEMA Field Operations Guide  Including descriptions of markings on evacuated and searched buildings
 FEMA website
 A History of FEMA

Category:Natural disasters in the United States
Category:United States government agencies