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agencies were involved in some aspects of disasters, hazards and emergen-
cies.
President Carter's 1979 Executive Order 12127 merged many of the
separate disaster-related responsibilities into the Federal Emergency Man-
agement Agency (FEMA).
The new agency was faced with many unusual challenges in its first few
years that emphasized how complex emergency management can be. Earlier
the community came across such disasters and emergencies as the contamina-
tion of Love Canal, the Cuban refugee crisis and the accident at the Three
Mile Island nuclear power plant. Later, the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989
and Hurricane Andrew in 1992 focused major national attention on FEMA.
In 1993, President Clinton nominated James L. Witt as the new FEMA direc-
tor. Witt became the first agency director with experience as a state emer-
gency manager. He initiated sweeping reforms that streamlined disaster relief
and recovery operations, insisted on a new emphasis regarding preparedness
and mitigation, and focused agency employees on customer service. The end
of the Cold War also allowed Witt to redirect more of FEMA's limited re-
sources from civil defense into disaster relief, recovery and mitigation pro-
grams.
A new mission: homeland security
In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Joe M. Allbaugh as the
director of FEMA. Within months, the terrorist attacks of September 11th fo-
cused the agency on issues of national preparedness and homeland security,
and tested the agency in unprecedented ways. The agency coordinated its ac-
tivities with the newly formed Office of Homeland Security, and FEMA's Of-
fice of National Preparedness was given responsibility for helping to ensure
that the nation's first responders were trained and equipped to deal with wea-
pons of mass destruction.
Billions of dollars of new funding were directed to FEMA to help com-
munities to face the threat of terrorism. Just a few years past its 20th anniver-
sary, FEMA was actively directing its "all-hazards" approach to disasters to-
ward homeland security issues. In March 2003, FEMA joined 22 other fed-
eral agencies, programs and offices in becoming the Department of Home-
land Security. The new department, headed by Secretary Tom Ridge, brought
a coordinated approach to national security from emergencies and disasters –
both natural and man-made.
As it has been for almost 30 years, FEMA's mission remains: to lead
America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a
vision of “A Nation Prepared.”
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