Playing Politics with Natural Disaster : : Hurricane Agnes, the 1972 Election, and the Origins of FEMA / / Timothy W. Kneeland.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• VerfasserIn: Kneeland, Timothy W.,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2020]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (248 p.) :; 24 b&w halftones

Hurricane Agnes struck the United States in June of 1972 months before a pivotal American election and at the dawn of the period of deindustrialization across the northeastern United States. The response by local, state, and national officials had long term consequences for all Americans. President Richard Nixon used the tragedy for political gain by delivering a generous relief package to the key states of New York and Pennsylvania in a scheme to win over voters. After his landslide reelection in 1972, Richard Nixon cut benefits for disaster victims and then passed legislation to push responsibility for disaster preparation and mitigation unto the states and localities. This effort led to the rise of emergency management and inspired the development of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).With a particular focus on events in New York and Pennsylvania, Timothy W. Kneeland narrates how local, state, and federal authorities responded to the immediate crisis and managed the long-term recovery from Ages. The impact of Agnes was horrific, billions of dollars in damage from Florida to New York, and 122 left dead and tens of thousands homeless. In the aftermath of the havoc wreaked by the storm, local officials and leaders directed disaster relief funds to rebuild their shattered cities and reshaped future disaster policies.Playing Politics with Natural Disaster explains how the political decisions by local, state, and federal officials shaped state and national disaster policy and continues to hamper preparedness and response to this day.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Cast of Characters -- Introduction: Local Disasters, Government Actors, and National Policy -- 1. American Disaster Policy through 1972: Growing Benefits and Expanding Federal Authority -- 2. Agnes Makes Landfall: Death and Destruction in New York and Pennsylvania, 1972 -- 3. Who’s in Charge? Local Governments Collapse in the Face of Disaster -- 4. Playing Politics with Disaster: Relief Efforts and the 1972 Election -- 5. “I Have a HUD-Ache”: Public Discontent over Disaster Aid -- 6. “Better Than Ever”? Rebuilding amid Industrial Decline -- 7. Without Warning and Defenseless: The Weather Service and Civil Defense before and after Hurricane Agnes -- 8. The Risky Business of Flood Control: When Dams and Levees Put People at Risk -- 9. The Disaster Relief Act of 1974: Richard Nixon and the Creation of Emergency Management -- Epilogue: Into the Future -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index