Federal Emergency Management Agency

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Federal Emergency Management Agency
FEMA
New FEMA seal
Agency overview
FormedMarch 30, 1979
Employees6,651 (2008 Budget)[1]
Annual budget$8.02 billion (2008)[1]
Agency executive
Parent agencyDepartment of Homeland Security
Websitewww.fema.gov

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) [2] 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[change | change source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 FEMA's FY 2008 Budget Request March 9, 2007
  2. "FEMA - Disaster of an Agency" (editorial), Lynn Woolley, September 2005, webpage: NewsMax-2827 Archived 2009-06-28 at Archive-It: states "Jimmy Carter created "FEMA by executive order on March 30, 1979."

Other websites[change | change source]