Coping with catastrophe : building an emergency management system to meet people's needs in natural and manmade disasters.

"Required by the Congress of the United States"-t.p.

"Submitted in fulfillment of Federal Emergency Management Agency contract EMW-93-C-4097"-t.p.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an "institution not yet built," according to a recent report by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). Following considerable public criticism of the Federal response to Hurricane Andrew, Congress asked NAPA to examine government capacity to respond to a major disaster. This report details the findings and recommendations of that study. The study panel concludes that the U.S. needs a well organised, effective emergency management system, but that it does not yet have one. In addition, they recommend that the president should have a more direct role in responding to major catastrophes and should have a domestic crisis monitoring unit in the White House to assure that federal response is timely, effective and well co-ordinated. Among other recommendations it suggests amending the Federal Response Plan to improve damage and needs assessment, creating a gradated disaster scale, developing procedures for employing the armed forces in response to major disasters, strengthening mitigation activities, developing performance measures, and establishing a modern communications and information system