What is Emergency Management?

Emergency Management is the organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all aspects of emergencies, in particularly mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.  Emergency management seeks to promote safer, less vulnerable communities with the capacity to cope with hazards and disasters.  Emergency management involves plans, structures and arrangements established to engage the normal endeavors of government, voluntary and private agencies in a comprehensive and coordinated way to respond to the whole spectrum of emergency needs.  This is also known as disaster management.

In the United States, the lead federal agency for emergency management is the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA.  Each state also has an emergency management office.  In California it is the State of California Office of Emergency Services or CalOES.