An Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is an agency at the local, state or national level that holds responsibility of comprehensively planning for and responding to all manner of disasters, whether man-made or natural. An OEM may also be requested to provide consequence management for large special events such as major gatherings, visiting dignitaries et al.

Emergency Management organizations often hold different names (such as "office of emergency preparedness" or "emergency management agency"), but perform the same function. In the United States, FEMA is the agency responsible for emergency management on the national level. Examples of state and local agencies are listed below. Large federal and state agencies, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as private companies often maintain OEM's as discrete departments responsible for handling organizational emergency preparations and response plans.

Examples

Local

• New York City Office of Emergency Management (website)

State

• California Office of Emergency Services (OES)
• New York State Emergency Management Office (SEMO) (website)
• Wisconsin Emergency Management (website)
• Virginia Department of Emergency Management (^*)

Federal

• EPA Office of Emergency Management (website)

See also

• Civil protection
• Prevention

Disaster preparedness in the United States