Stafford Relief Act Essay

Posted: October 17th, 2013

Stafford Relief Act Essay

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Stafford Relief Act Essay

Every region in the United States is at a risk of succumbing to disaster at any given time. Regardless whether the disaster is man made or a natural occurrence, all the American states and their respective leaders should imminently prepare themselves and identify appropriate methods of responding to the occurrence of tragedies that threaten human life, the economic viability of the state, as well as private and public property. Putting this into consideration, one should not ignore the premise that the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act has acted as a primary federal statute that paves the way towards responding to natural and man made calamities (Hunter, 2009). Primarily, The Stafford Act is designed to establish flexibility to the agencies that interact directly with the affected communities. However, there are notable scenarios that suggest flaws in the act itself. Human life, state and personal property and the economic viability of the state should be considered fundamental aspects. Therefore, since The Stafford Act does not fully preserve and protect those aspects, I maintain that it is subject to reform.

Considering the stand, I have taken several existing scenarios give the notion that the Stafford Act is not fully equipped with complete guidelines and procedures to orchestrate its objective. For instance, the response to distress calls regarding Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Katrina, and other subsequent disasters have revealed flaws to the Stafford Act (Hunter, 2009). These scenarios revealed that the Act lacks flexibility in certain areas and imposes stricter requirements in others. The leaders and the rest of the citizens of America need to be assured that as they live and work to mitigate calamitous scenarios, or engaging in activities of rebuilding after they occur. Therefore, there is need for the federal government to make amends to the Stafford Act in order to ensure that the selfless efforts of both leaders and citizens are not rendered futile (United States, 2011)

Many leaders including mayors have volunteered to feature on the front line with a view of developing mitigating, responsive, and recovery strategies in case of any disaster. The citizens of America desire speedy action in these kinds of situations and look for assurance that their lives will be steered back to their previous state before the calamity occurred. Regardless, the Stafford Act denies these human beings the ability of accessing federal resources directly. Instead, the Stafford Act requires that citizens look towards working through state governments. In reality, this quality of the Stafford Act often grapples the response efforts of the disaster victims. For example, the hurricanes that struck in 2005 clearly indicated that there was an urgent need to differentiate between a catastrophic event like Hurricane Katrina, and a simple disaster that only poses negative effects on the community, only limited in scope (Saunders, 2006).

The Hurricane Katrina was so devastating that it led to massive evacuations of majority of New Orleans. Eighty per cent of New Orleans was left submerged after this calamity occurred. In this particular disaster, the Stafford Act was not able to offer appropriate methods of governing response strategies to different situations. In this particular disaster, the strategies implemented in accordance with the guidelines and procedures of the Stafford Act did not attend fully to the needs of the New Orleans residents. The response action was not timely, and the recovery process was not implemented as quickly as it should have been. This feature gives rise to the premise that the Stafford Act lacks flexibility to attend to widespread devastation from both natural and man made calamities (Saunders, 2006). Furthermore, the Act is not designed to deliver effective decisions in the event of distress calls. This is further concern that supports my stand to reform the Act.
Better methods for planning in the event of catastrophic disasters would have allowed the Stafford Act to respond effectively to the housing needs of masses victimized by the Rita and Katrina Hurricanes. When Hurricane Katrina struck, the Stafford Act did not have appropriate plans that clearly mandated responsibilities, processes, and roles aimed at addressing housing needs. The Stafford Act did not have provisions that stipulated the proper means of coordinating housing needs among local and state governments. Furthermore, the Act did not offer any provision over the adequate contract monitoring and management that should have been implemented.

Conclusion

Indeed, the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act has acted as a primary federal statute that paves the way towards responding to natural and man made calamities. Despite the law’s intention to support preparation and formulate appropriate means of responding to disasters, it bears flaws that ultimately render it to criticism regarding its ability to live fully to its purpose. In this case, the Stafford Act should be reformed to include appropriate methods of responding to the occurrence of tragedies that threaten human life, the economic viability of the state, as well as private and public property. This should also include provisions on better housing implementation strategies. The occurrence of calamities is an unfortunate yet imminent aspect of livelihood. Where you cannot avoid or prevent it, appropriate measures should be taken to rescue and recover from the vice. In America, the premise is subject to the reform if the Stafford Act.

Reference

Hunter, N.D. (2009). The Law of emergencies: Public health and disaster management. Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann

Saunders, R. (2006). FEMA: Change or die. Journal of Emergency Management.

United States. (2011). An Act to Amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to Reauthorize the Pre-disaster Mitigation Program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Washington, D.C: U.S. G.P.O.