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FEMA coordinates the work of federal, state, and local agencies in responding to floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. FEMA provides financial assistance to individuals and governments to rebuild homes, businesses, and public facilities; trains firefighters and emergency medical professionals; and funds emergency planning throughout the United States and its territories.

FEMA has responsibilities in what it defines as four domains of emergency management:

• Mitigation: Reducing the severity or likelihood of the hazard.
• Preparedness: Ensuring you have the capability to respond to the hazard.
• Response: Immediate actions taken to save lives, property, the environment, and the economy.
• Recovery: Subsequent actions taken to restore property, jobs, and services.

1 History

Throughout the 19th century Congress enacted over 100 separate acts to provide local assistance in response to various natural disasters. The first half of the 20th century saw the expansion of federal disaster assistance via programs scattered among various federal agencies such as the Bureau of Public Roads and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. During the 1960s and 1970s, Hurricanes Carla, Betsy, Camille, and Agnes as well as the Good Friday Earthquake and the San Fernando Earthquake prompted legislation expanding the federal government's role in disaster aid.

2 Organization

FEMA was created through Executive Order 12148, by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. It organized into a single agencyFederal independent agencies were established through separate statutes passed by Congress. Each respective statutory grant of authority defines the goals the agency must work towards, as well as what substantive areas, if any, it may have the power of ru several emergency management programs spread throughout the federal government, including:

• Federal Insurance Administration ,
• U.S. Fire Administration [1],
• National Weather Service Community Preparedness Program ,
• Federal Preparedness Agency (part of the General Services AdministrationThe General Services Administration is a federal agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of the ever-growing tangle of federal agencies. The GSA supplies products and communications for,
• Federal Disaster Assistance Administration (within HUDThe United States Department of Housing and Urban Development often abbreviated HUD is a Cabinet department of the United States government. It was founded in 1965 to develop and execute policy on housing and cities. It has largely scaled back its urban d), and
• Defense Civil Preparedness Agency (from the Department of DefenseThe United States Department of Defense abbreviated DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. The Department of Defense controls the U. military and is headquartered at The P).

A banner on the seal for the agency included the motto Pace Ac Bello Merita, LatinAlternative meanings: See Latin (disambiguation Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and ma for Service in Peace and War.

In March 2003, FEMA became part of the Department of Homeland SecurityThe United States Department of Homeland Security DHS is a Cabinet department of the federal government of the United States that is concerned with protecting the American homeland and the safety of American citizens. This department was created primarily, within the Emergency Planning and Response Directorate.