ABSTRACT
The role of government intervention in the response to and recovery from disasters and catastrophic events has an extensive history in the United States. Financial aid and military support has been provided for infrastructure repair, public safety, and individual assistance in response to prior disaster events ranging from the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 to the Mississippi ¥oods of 1927 (Morris 1906; Simpich 1927), but there was no speciœc mandate for the distribution of federal relief in disasters until 1950. Prior to this time, disaster relief was authorized on a case-by-case basis without any guarantee of federal intervention.
