Worth printing out and checking over once in a while.

What does FEMA do?

One way to look at what FEMA does is to think about the life cycle of disasters. Emergency managers prepare for emergencies and disasters, respond to them when they occur, help people and institutions recover from them, mitigate their effects, reduce the risk of loss, and prevent disasters such as fires from occurring.

Some specific things FEMA does:

--Send in Preliminary Damage Assessment teams and Emergency Response Teams to work with state and local officials in determining the scope of the disaster and essential needs of the impacted area.

--Create and staff federal/state Disaster Field Offices and help coordinate other federal agencies that are involved under the Federal Response Plan

--Make disaster aid available and manage the process of loan and grant application, approval and disbursement. Disaster aid is provided to both individuals (called individual assistance) and to cities/states (called public assistance). See more about disaster assistance below.

--Distribute The Recovery Times to provide information to disaster victims; may also broadcast emergency information through the Recovery Channel and Recovery Radio network

--Identify ways and fund grants so that communities can mitigate to reduce their risk of future disasters

--Provide "buy out" funding to relocate homes and businesses away from high risk areas

--Create risk assessment maps to help local planners

--Fund emergency planning in all 50 states

--Sponsor emergency preparedness exercises and coordinate emergency plans for nuclear power plants

--Help states design and equip emergency operations centers

--Bring in mobile communications systems that open emergency lines when commercial phone systems are down

--Work to educate families about how to prepare for disasters

--Train firefighters and sets firefighting standards through the U.S. Fire Administration

--Administer the National Flood Insurance Program

--Play a role in preparing for and planning against domestic terrorism activities

--Maintain standards and credentialling and fund grants to create urban search and rescue team

Some things FEMA DOES NOT do:

--Physically rescue people or serve as "first-responders" in a disaster – that is the responsibility of local and state police, fire and emergency personnel.

--Building dams or levees or activating sand-bagging activities – generally the responsibility of local/state officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

--Taking "charge" of recovery effort -- FEMA works jointly with state and local officials.

--Running temporary shelters or disaster feeding stations – generally the responsibility of such organizations at the American Red Cross or the Salvation Army.

--Making weather predictions, fly into hurricanes or predict when rivers will surpass flood stage – generally the responsibility of the National Weather Service.

--Ordering evacuations of communities due to natural disaster – generally the responsibility of state and local officials.

--Setting building standards or setting zoning regulations – generally the responsibility of local and state official, with suggestions from FEMA.

--Calling out the National Guard – generally a state responsibility.