It’s the last day of September, so we may as well jump right in…The moon is rusting, Imelda and Humberto are hanging just offshore, the entirety of New England is suffering worsening drought conditions, and wildfire smoke could kill 70,000 Americans by 2050.

While the sophistication of government action (and its attendant bureaucracy) is a rather recent development, the very concept of disaster response, hazard mitigation, and emergency management as components of a larger social contract can be seen throughout history.

Occasionally we run into news, research, case studies or other useful things we find worth sharing. Check out our inaugural wrap-up, which coincides with National Preparedness Month.

The Public Assistance (PA) program is FEMA’s largest and most crucial grant program, devoted to helping communities stabilize, maintain operations, and return to “normal” as quickly as physically possible after a disaster.

Following Superstorm Sandy, FEMA’s response came under fire for bureaucratic delays and general inefficiency. The Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 2013 (Pub.L. 113-2) was enacted to accelerate FEMA’s delivery of post-disaster recovery funds and streamline the agency’s grant application processes.

The Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA) introduced several significant reforms that provided even greater flexibility to FEMA’s Public Assistance (PA) program applicants and modified the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP).

The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA2K) strengthened the US federal government’s disaster relief capabilities and placed more emphasis on pre-disaster hazard mitigation planning.

The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act was a direct response to the failures of federal response following Hurricane Katrina and was the most significant reform of the Stafford Act to that point in FEMA’s history.

The passage of the Stafford Act in 1988 was a critical moment in the history of America’s nationwide approach to emergency management.