“Emergency Management is the management of risk so that societies can live with environmental and technical hazards and deal with the disasters they cause” (Waugh, 3).  Arguably, emergency management is the foundational role of government.  Communities and governments were formed to protect and provide for their citizens when the resources of individuals and families become overwhelmed.  Thus, emergency management is performed at multiple levels including; the individual, the family unit, the community, local, state and federal government.  In addition, emergency management benefits from public and private partnerships.

Emergency management is often made up of activities which fall into the categories of preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery.  Preparedness begins with identification and assessment of existing and possible hazards.  In identifying hazards, if any are avoidable, steps are taken to eliminate them.  However, some hazards are determined to be unavoidable.  In order to survive the unavoidable hazards, steps are taken to lessen the probability and reduce the consequences of damages.  This combination of probability and consequences constitutes risk.  Thus, preparedness is the “state of readiness to respond to a disaster, crisis or any other type of emergency situation” (Haddow, Chp 6).

Based upon the definitions of preparedness, this study Past, Present and Future of Preparedness focuses on three issues.  These issues, hazards, risk and readiness are each addressed from the macro perspective of the federal government.