ABSTRACT
In the seven years that have passed since the second edition of this book was published in 2012, many of the disaster events and outcomes described in that edition warrant reexamination because of their significance to our knowledge about disasters and to the systems in place in the U.S. to deal with them. This third edition also discusses the changing nature of the hazards and threats, as well as the modifications and adjustments made in public sector emergency management systems for responding to them. The increasing complexity of the response, extreme vulnerabilities of frequently impacted communities in coastal states, and concerns of public sector emergency management and leadership are just some of the issues that have come to the fore in the first decade of this century. We have seen a remarkable series of disasters-major to catastrophic in their impacts in the United States.
