Combines evidence-based research with case studies of recent events to demonstrate the fundamental principles of emergency management and explore the impact that disasters have had on U.S. policy.
Richard Sylves is professor of political science at the University of Delaware. He has served on a National Academy of Science, National Research Council panel, and he has done funded and unfunded research for FEMA. He served three years as an appointed member of the National Academy of Science Disaster Roundtable. His books include The Nuclear Oracles; Disaster Management in the United States and Canada: Politics, Policy, Administration, Study and Instruction of Emergency Management; Cities and Disaster: North American Studies in Emergency Management (with William Waugh); and Homeland Security and Emergency Management: A Public Budgeting Perspective.
Tables, Figures, and Boxes Preface About the Author Chapter 1: Disaster Management in the United States The Champlain Towers Collapse The Fundamentals Emergency Management as a Profession Disasters as a Field of Scientific Research Presidential Disaster Declarations Fundamental Challenges of Emergency Management Phases of Emergency Management Summary Key Terms Chapter 2: Theories of Public Policy and Management Helpful in Disaster Studies Normative Political Theories The Role of Theory in Emergency Management Theory in Disaster Recovery Knowledge Codification and Knowledge Diffusion Issues Data Analytics and Emergency Management Summary Key Terms Chapter 3: A History of U.S. Disaster Policy The Cold War and The Rise of Civil Defense Nationwide Emergency Management Federal Emergency Management Organization Before FEMA The Birth of FEMA Disaster Declaration Issues Disaster Law, Policy, and Public Relations from Reagan to Clinton The 9/11 Attack Remakes U.S. Disaster Management Summary Key Terms Chapter 4: Presidential Declarations of Major Disaster or Emergency The U.S. Constitution and Emergency Powers of The President The "Policies" And Laws That Established Presidential Disaster Declarations The "Process" Followed in Requesting Presidential Declarations The President's "Power" to Decide The "Politics" of Presidential Declarations "Paying" For Presidential Disaster Declarations Summary Key Terms Chapter 5: Social Justice, Climate Change, Civil Unrest: Buffalo, NY & Portland, OR Buffalo's 2022 Mega-Blizzard Snow in Meteorological Terms Survival and Political-Social Controversy Response to the Blizzard and its Effects Public Works and Sheltering Equity and Social Justice Issues Social Equity and Portland's Bureau of Emergency Management Social Equity as a Focus of Local Hazard Mitigation Summary Key Terms Chapter 6: Intergovernmental Relations in Disaster Policy The Political Geography of U.S. Subnational Governments Ways in Which America's Governments Formally Cooperate and Plan Ways in Which America's Governments Formally Cooperate and Plan Home Rule and Municipalities Federal-State Agreements The Regional Geography of FEMA State Government Homeland Security, Emergency Management and Military Departments The Frameworks and The National Incident Management System Intergovernmental Disaster Management Challenges Government Contractors and Disaster Management Summary Key Terms Chapter 7: Civil-Military Relations and National Security Civil Defense to Homeland Security The Military's Role in Disaster Response and Recovery The Military, Homeland Security, and Disaster Policy Posse Comitatus Homeland Security, National Security, Federalism State Homeland Security Operation Stonegarden The Emergency Management Performance Grant Program Summary Key Terms Chapter 8: FEMA in Peril FEMA and a Re-elected President Trump FEMA at Risk Partisan Politics, The President, and Congress Why Partisan Polarization Abounds and Moves toward the Extreme Presidential Executive Orders FEMA Loses BRIC FEMA's Quandary FEMA and the DOGE Chain Saw What Trump's Evolving Changes to FEMA Mean for State and Local Governments Presidential Disaster Declarations: Uncertainty Abounds FEMA and the Emergency Management Profession Summary Key Terms Chapter 9: The Pandemic, A Hurricane Rebuild, & Two City Burning Wildfires The Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020-2023: FEMA'S Role and Experience Trump1, Biden, FEMA, and the Pandemic Mobilization and the Response to COVID-19 FEMA, The CDC, and the U.S Health Care System Hurricane Idalia Case Study: A Homeowner's Recovery Experience in St. Petersburg, Florida Lesson #1: Stay informed, get online, join your neighborhood Facebook (Meta) group before a storm, and prepare for post-disaster contractors Lesson #2: Understand insurance, public and private, and become a quick study in matters of government disaster assistance to individuals and households Lesson #3: Know how disaster insurance works and appreciate the rules that insurers impose Lesson #4: Mortgage Companies, the Rebuilding Experience, and Homeowner Flood Mitigation Postscript: A Year Later, Hurricanes Helene and Milton Re-damage the Homeowner's Newly Repaired House The Lahaina Fire Disaster, Hawaii, August 2023 Conditions Leading Up to the Disaster Impact Assessment of the Lahaina Fire Disaster of August 2023 Physical Impact & Economic Consequences The Palisades and Eaton Wildfires Los Angeles County, California, January 2025 Causes of Casualties in the Wildfires Summary Key Terms Chapter 10: Conclusions and the Future Is U.S. Disaster Policy Morphing into Something Different? Policy, Politics, and Institutions What Is Happening To Federal Emergency Management? Follow the Money Biden, Trump, FEMA, and Why Budgeting Matters Political Upheaval and DHS For-Profit Contractors, Whistleblowing, And Science Integrity Summary Key Terms Glossary Notes Master Bibliography Index
This is a textbook that provides a great amount of insight and research into a well-rounded view of emergency management. I am not aware of any other textbook in publication which provides the background this resource does. -- Professor Eric Griffin * Review * This is an accessible introductory text to disaster and emergency management that can be used in undergrad and graduate courses. -- Professor Jason D. Rivera * Review *
