DISASTER - An occurrence causing widespread destruction and distress; a catastrophe.

EMERGENCY - Any event which threatens to, or actually does, inflict damage to property to people.

MANAGEMENT - The coordination of an organized effort to attain specific goals or objectives.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT - An organized effort to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from and emergency. Emergency management occurs on federal, state, and local levels.

MITIGATION - Activities which eliminate or reduce the chance of occurrance or the effects of a disaster. MORE

PREPAREDNESS - Planning how to respond in case an emergency or working disaster occurs,  and working to increase resources available to respond effectively. (To find out  how to prepare for various disasters on a personal level, please see the "Be Prepared" section on the right hand side of every page.)

RESPONSE - The activities that occur during or immediately following a disaster that provide  emergency assistance to victims of the event, and reduce the event of  secondary damage.

RECOVERY - The act of returning something back to to normal, or as close to its normal  state as possible. With regards to disaster revovery, it refers to returning the area affected by a disaster back to its normal state, or as close as can be achieved under the circumstances. This is both short term (returning vital support systems to minimum operating status) and long term (redeveloping an area destroyed by a disaster).

EMERGENCY MANAGER - An individual that has the responsibilities of coordinating all the components of the emergency management system. He/She is responsible for  developing and overseeing emergency mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery systems for a given area. This includes coordinating all emergency resources under a given jurisdiction, such as local governments, fire and police departments, the Red Cross and other volunteer groups, ambulence services and  hospitals, civil defense efforts, and all public works, so that they may all work  together for efficiently during a disaster situation. An emergency manager must also remain abreast of the latest developments, problems, strengths, and  weaknesses within his/her jurisdiction so that was new situations occur, they can be handled accordingly.

FEMA (FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY) - The leading agency for civil defense that coordinates with other federal agencies with responsibilities or capabilites valuable to national security emergency preparedness.

HAZARD - A natural or technological force or event that could cause or create a disaster.