ABSTRACT
Prior to World War II, there was no overarching legislation or policy at any level of government driving emergency and disaster management in the United States. Rather, policy, legislation, and practice typically were created in response to individual disasters. The federal government’s involvement was almost always disaster specific, usually delayed, and varied in the services provided. Sociologist Gary Kreps writes that prior to 1950 “there was no permanent federal program of disaster assistance to states and localities in the United States. Private voluntary agencies, such as the American National Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and many others, bore the primary responsibility for disaster relief; and state and local governments coped as best they could with disaster impacts.”1
