Disaster can strike anytime, anywhere. It takes many forms—a hurricane, an earthquake, a tornado, a flood, a fire, a hazardous spill, or an act of terrorism. In the past decade alone, natural disasters of considerable severity resulted in 699 Presidential Disaster Declarations, an average of nearly six per month.
The US Armed Forces have a historic precedent and enduring role in supporting civil authorities during times of emergency, and this role is codified in national defense strategy as a primary mission of DOD. Homeland Security is a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the US; reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, major disasters, and other emergencies; and minimize the damage and recover from attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies that occur.
Homeland Defense is the protection of US sovereignty, territory, domestic population, and critical infrastructure against external threats and aggression, or other threats as directed by the President. Defense support of civil authorities (DSCA) is support provided by federal military forces, Department of Defense (DOD) civilians, DOD contract personnel, DOD component assets, and National Guard (NG) forces in response to requests for assistance from civil authorities for domestic emergencies, law enforcement support, and other domestic activities, or from qualifying entities for special events. Disaster management (or emergency management) is the term used to designate the efforts of communities or businesses to plan for and coordinate all the personnel and materials required to either mitigate the effects of, or recover from, natural or man-made disasters, or acts of terrorism.
Homeland Defense, DSCA, & Disaster ResponseView
Disaster can strike anytime, anywhere. It takes many forms—a hurricane, an earthquake, a tornado, a flood, a fire, a hazardous spill, or an act of terrorism. In the past decade alone, natural disasters of considerable severity resulted in 699 Presidential Disaster Declarations, an average of nearly six per month.
HDS1: The Homeland Defense & DSCA SMARTbook
HDS1: The Homeland Defense & DSCA SMARTbook chapters and topics include homeland defense (JP 3-28), defense support of civil authorities (JP 3-28), Army support of civil authoritie...
Disaster Response SMARTbook 1 – Federal/National Disaster Response
As a Nation we must maintain a state of readiness to respond to both natural disasters and man-made threats. National response and preparation is the term used to describe the effo...
Disaster Response SMARTbook 2 – Incident Command System (ICS)
Disaster can strike anytime, anywhere. It takes many forms—a hurricane, an earthquake, a tornado, a flood, a fire, a hazardous spill, or an act of terrorism. An incident can buil...