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Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA)

About FIMA

What We Do

FIMA manages the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and a range of programs designed to reduce future losses to homes, businesses, schools, public buildings, and critical facilities from floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters.

Mitigation focuses on breaking the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage. Mitigation efforts provide value to the American people by creating safer communities and reducing loss of life and property. Mitigation includes such activities as:

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Mitigation’s Value to Society

  1. Mitigation creates safer communities by reducing losses of life and property.
  2. Mitigation enables individuals and communities to recover more rapidly from disasters.
  3. Mitigation lessens the financial impact of disasters on individuals, the Treasury, state, local and tribal communities.

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Who We Are

Hazard Mitigation is sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and their property from hazards and their effects.

FIMA was established on November 29, 1993. At that time, Mitigation became the cornerstone of emergency management, for the first time in the history of federal disaster assistance. The mission of the agency has shifted significantly since 1993, most notably through the creation of a separate and distinct group. FIMA's partners include a broad spectrum of stakeholders in federal, state, tribal and local government, and the private sector. Partners also include professional associations and non-governmental groups involved in public policy and administration, insurance, higher education, the building sciences, and urban planning.

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Divisions

FIMA is comprised of three divisions: Risk Analysis, Risk Reduction and Risk Insurance.

The primary functions of these divisions include:

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Programs

FIMA's programs are significant components of the Nation's emergency management system. The statutorily authorized programs include:

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Offices

The Office of Environmental Planning & Historic Preservation provides management and oversight to all FEMA programs in their compliance with environmental planning and historic preservation laws, executive orders and regulations.

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Breaking News

Mitigation Assessment Team (MAT) for Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia

A massive tornado outbreak affected the Southern, Midwestern, and Eastern United States from April 25-28, 2011. Tornadoes rated as high as EF-4 and EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale caused profound destruction in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. Although the National Weather Service (NWS) is still evaluating and rating the tornadoes that occurred during this period, it appears to have been the most significant tornado outbreak—causing the most severe impact and loss of life—the U.S. has experienced in several generations.

FEMA has deployed three Mitigation Assessment Teams (MATs) to impacted areas of AL, MS, TN and GA. The three MATs will head into the field on Friday, May 6, 2011, for a 7 to 8 day deployment. Their goal are: (1) investigate and assess the performance of safe rooms and shelters, and document damages observed; (2) investigate and assess residential building performance, with a focus on newer construction where possible; (3) investigate and assess the performance of critical and essential facilities (e.g., hospitals, schools, emergency operation centers, fire stations, communication towers, etc.); (4) evaluate operational issues resulting from damage of critical facilities (e.g., effect of the damage on response and recovery); and (5) evaluate and provide field evidence to determine the tornado ratings on the EF Scale for those locations where the MAT engineers perform building evaluations.

Each MAT will consist of FEMA personnel and contractor subject matter experts. All teams will start by working together in the hardest impacted areas in Alabama to draw upon each of the members technical expertise. The teams will then branch out to the other areas across the states of MS, AL, TN, and GA to assess the building damage in those areas. The three MATs will provide the following geographic coverage:

The field effort will end with a 1-day meeting to discuss key observations and findings of the field investigation effort, outline the content of the MAT report, and identify the number (and content) of needed recovery advisories. A briefing will also be prepared and delivered to the Joint Field Offices prior to leaving the field.

In addition to the FEMA deployment of the MATs, the National Science Foundation and the University of Florida have also deployed teams to investigate damage and building performance. The FEMA MATs will work closely with these other teams to share data and findings.

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Last Modified: Thursday, 28-Jul-2011 09:45:17 EDT

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