“I beg you take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster.”
In the Ojibwa tongue, the term for disaster is whangdepootenawah: “an unexpected affliction that strikes hard.” When disasters do strike, it immediately becomes obvious that the legal issues involved in local government disaster planning are some of the most misunderstood and confusing aspects of the entire process of disaster preparation and recovery. This makes the prudent involvement of the local government attorney essential. The local government attorney is encumbered with the responsibility of understanding and interpreting the seemingly
conflicting and ever-changing body of federal, state, and local regulatory laws, rules, and guidelines. It is likewise the local government
attorney who is called upon to be the bearer of bad news regarding the legal consequences of a public entity’s failure or inability to execute an effective disaster-recovery plan properly. This Article will explore the evolving body of emergency management law, as well as the practical, and at times impractical, application of that law. The Article’s analysis of state law will focus on Florida, but its discussion of the challenges that a disaster poses should resonate with all local government attorneys.