FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is a Federal government bureaucracy initiated by executive order during the administration of President Carter. As of 2003, by the Direction of President Bush (the son), it is now part of The United States Department of Homeland Security. Deanne Criswell. ($203,700/yr) , is the current FEMA Administrator. She reports to Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas ($226,300/yr). The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is a US Presidential Cabinet position. Thus, he has high tea and crumpets with the current US President.

According to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell., the Function of FEMA is helping people before, during, and after disasters. Thus, FEMA manages emergencies such as disasters. For example, if a city was burning to the ground, over a period of a day or two, FEMA would provide some kind of service before, during, and after the fire. However, according to the FEMA website, the number one goal of FEMA is to Instill Equity as a Foundation of Emergency Management, and if you don't know what the word equality means you can read Executive Order 13985. Understand, the number one goal of FEMA is not providing alerts, manpower or equipment for a rescue operation, providing food supplies or shelter, exercising preventive measures, but to make sure everyone feels like they are being treated equally while the city is burning to the ground.

FEMA is divided in to 10 Regions. Each Region has a Regional Administrator. For example, the Regional Administrator of Region 9 which handles the southwestern part of the United States and various pacific islands like Hawaii is Robert J. Fenton, Jr ($165,300/yr).

The fiscal year 2024 budget request for FEMA is $29.5 billion dollars. According to testimony by the FEMA Administrator on July 13, 2023, in front of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology a 29.5 billion dollar budget was not enough prompting Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio to draft a letter of concern to the FEMA administrator. This comes at a time when Florida Governor DeSantis stated that Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-created insurer, has “not been solvent” and may be unable to pay all claims from a major hurricane.

The CONELRAD system was implemented by President Truman in 1951 as a means to alert the public of an impending attack during the cold war. In 1963 it was changed to the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS),an in 1997 it was changed to the Emergency Alert system (EAS). In 2012 the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) system became operational. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was the over all authority governing all the programs. On Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 at 0220 pm Eastern time FEMA will coordinate the activation of a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert system (EAS) and the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs). The wireless phone portion of the test will last for 30 minutes, and will broadcast the following message, THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed . The EAS portion of the test is scheduled to last approximately one minute. EAS covers television and radio, and it will have a similar message as the wireless alert.

Integrated Public Alert & Warning System(IPAWS), think barking dog, is the FEMA local alert system. Antwane Johnson (165,300 dollars per year) is FEMA’s director of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). It provides localized information regarding dangerous hazards to the public on wireless devices, radio, television, and NOAA weather radio. For example, if your city caught on fire like Maui, Hawaii, the IPAWS system may tell you to evacuate and give you the best directions on how to escape. Yes, the IPAWS system was activated in the Maui, Hawaii wildfire, but many of the cell towers had been knocked down. Thus leaving only the radio and television. The state of California had reported simular problems with the IPAWs system dating as far back as 2020. The emergency alert system in Hawaii is tested once a month.

In a survival situation there is only one person you can count on. Think of your surroundings, and visualize possible scenarios and escape routes. If a fire was to occur in your surroundings and began to expand beyond the control of the local fire department. What would you do? where would you go? when would you react.