Introduction / $r Claire B. Rubin --Tipping Points in Policy and Practice / $r Susan L. Cutter -- $t As Tornado Outbreaks Become More Deadly, Major Changes Happen / $r Lucy Arendt, Jane Cage, and Renee White -- $t Hurricane Sandy : The New York City Experience / $r Donovan Finn -- $t Hurricane Harvey : Issues for Urban Development / $r Ashley D. Ross -- $t Hurricane Irma and Cascading Impacts / $r Christopher T. Emrich, Sergio Alvarez, Claire Connolly Knox, Abdul A. Sadiq, and Yao Zhou -- $t California Wildfires / $r David Calkin, Karen Short, and Meg Traci -- $t Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico : Preexisting Vulnerabilities and Catastrophic Outcomes / $r Jenniffer M. Santos-Hernández, Ashley J. Méndez Heavilin, and Génesis Álvarez Rosario -- $t Loss Reduction and Sustainability / $r Melanie Gall -- $t Glancing Backward and Moving Forward / $r Susan L. Cutter and Claire B. Rubin

"U.S. emergency management in the 21st century explores a critical issue in American public policy: Are the current public sector emergency management systems sufficient to handle future disasters given the environmental and social changes underway? In this timely book, Claire B. Rubin and Susan L. Cutter focus on disaster recovery efforts, community resilience, and public policy issues of related to recent disasters and what they portend for the future. Beginning with the external societal forces influencing shifts in policy and practice, the next six chapters provide in-depth accounts of recent disasters: the Joplin, Tuscaloosa-Birmingham, and Moore tornadoes, Hurricanes Sandy, Harvey, Irma, Maria, and the California wildfires. The book concludes with a chapter on loss accounting and a summary chapter on what has gone right, what has gone wrong, and why the federal government may no longer be a reliable partner in emergency management. Accessible and clearly written by authorities in a wide-range of related fields with local experiences, this book offers a rich array of case studies and describes their significance in shifting emergency management policy and practice, in the United States during the past decade"-- $c Back cover.