ABSTRACT
As described in the previous chapter, the U.S. emergency response sys-tem was tested severely in the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, lessons were learned from September 11, Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, and other events during that decade, and positive steps were taken to incorporate those lessons into the system: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revised its emergency response doctrine with the publication of the National Response Plan (NRP) and then the National Response Framework (NRF); the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) coordinated and held national-level exercises; and the Obama administration filled critical leadership positions within DHS and FEMA with experienced emergency management professionals, starting with the appointment of Craig Fugate, the former director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, as administrator of FEMA.
