Governors, Presidents, and Disasters: The Impact of Vulnerability and Politics Across Emergency Management Eras

Abstract

This article examines disaster decisions by governors and presidents between 1953 and 2005. Relying on presidential disaster decision materials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the All About Presidential Disaster Declarations website (University of Delaware, Public Entity Risk Institute [PERI], 2008), census data, material from six presidential libraries, climate data from the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration; and geological data from the U.S. Geological Survey, I assess the effect of competing models of vulnerability and politics on disaster choices by state governors and American presidents. I also evaluate changes during the administration of Jimmy Carter and after the passage of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act). The analysis confirms that President Carter may have believed that federal disaster assistance rewarded risky behavior by states and acted accordingly in responding swiftly and more negatively to disaster requests. I also confirm that the patterns of both gubernatorial and presidential decisions changed after 1989, becoming less vulnerability based and somewhat more political.

Keywords: presidential decision-making, emergency management, vulnerability, politics