American Decades
Natural Disasters
FEMA.
Natural disasters are a relatively common occurrence in a country as large as the United States, yet the severity of the events in the 1990s was unusual. Floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes hit the United States repeatedly, causing billions of dollars in damage and taking many lives. These storms and resulting catastrophes tested the wherewithal of a new federal agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which had been established in 1979 to respond quickly to the needs of citizens suffering from a natural disaster. It was not until 1989 that FEMA was tested fully. Hurricane Hugo hit Charleston, South Carolina, in September 1989, causing $7 billion in damage. Because of the massive destruction caused by the hurricane, and the newness of FEMA, the agency was unprepared to respond in a timely manner with sufficient resources. A second disaster hit scarcely a month later, on 17 October, when an...
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1990's Government and Politics
