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For Local Officials

FEMA 101: What Local Officials Need to Know about Emergency Management

Photo of Michael Moriarty, Acting Regional Administrator

By Michael Moriarty, Acting Regional Administrator

Too often local officials think of emergency management only after disaster strikes.  This mistake means individuals and communities fail to take actions to reduce their disaster risk. 

Disasters take lives, drive others to financial ruin and many communities never recover.  People want to know why.  As a local official, you will be asked about the disaster process--how disaster declarations are issued, types of disaster assistance available and support for the recovery process. I was a local official, and here are the top 10 things you need to know.

  1. Know the disaster risks in your community; prepare residents for them.
  2. Know your first responders, Emergency Management Director for your county, and State Emergency Managers.
  3. Understand the federal disaster declaration process.
  4. Assess disaster damage with the State /Federal team in your county.
  5. Understand that federal reimbursement for dollars spent on health and safety actions taken during a disaster or to rebuild a public facility impacted by a federally declared disaster-requires documentation.
  6. Understand the operations of a disaster: evacuation, shelter in place, commodity distribution, interim housing, your special needs community, etc.
  7. Set realistic expectations for your community and your constituents.  Things will not be the same after a disaster.  It takes years for communities to recover from disasters and some never do. The most an individual can receive from the Federal government is a $28,800 grant.  These are stark realities.
  8. Communicate early and often to the people in your community.
  9. Keep the public information channels open with your state and federal public information officers.  Your goal is unified, accurate and timely information to the public.
  10. Come to the FEMA 101 Meetings in your community to learn more…

Your U.S. Representative or Senator hosts FEMA 101 Meetings.  Congressional members have helped us by inviting local officials from their district to these educational briefings on emergency management.  We have conducted four FEMA 101 Meetings in the districts of Representatives Frelinghuysen, Representative Ferguson, Representative LoBiondo, and Representative Garrett.  We will conduct one with Representative Bishop in August.  If you want to learn more, please contact William.Douglass@dhs.gov.

To know more about Michael Moriarty.

Last Modified: Tuesday, 27-Jan-2009 14:36:01 EST