DI (Disasters) (White House Central Files: Subject Files)

Materials filed under the subject file category DI (Disasters) pertain to natural and manmade disasters in the United States, its territories and some foreign countries. A large portion of the materials consists of requests from the public, local and state officials and Congressional delegations for Federal assistance in times of disasters. There are many requests for the President to make a major disaster declaration which makes Federal funds, supplies, National Guard units, the Corps of Engineers, trailer housing, and low interest loans available to victims and affected communities and to visit devastated areas. The primary Federal organization involved with disasters was the Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) with the following agencies involved at a secondary level: the Small Business Administration; the Federal Housing Administration; the Farmers Home Administration; the Corps of Engineers; and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). There are numerous reports on the administration of the President's Disaster Fund and the yearly Disaster Assistance Acts. The disasters mentioned in this category include hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, hail storms, snow storms, floods, droughts, fires, earthquakes, train and subway accidents and mud slides.

The principal correspondents in the Disaster files include the President; White House staff members such as John Ehrlichman, Peter Flanigan, Bryce Harlow, William Timmons, Tom Korologos, Richard Cook, Ken Cole, John Whitaker, Richard Fairbanks, James Falk, Tod Hullin, John Campbell; Office of Emergency Preparedness George Lincoln and Darrell Trent; HUD George Romney, James T. Lynn, and Frank Carlucci; and ROland Harriman, Director, American Red Cross. Other frequent correspondents following a particular disaster were local governmental officials. If the disasters were of international scope heads of foreign governments corresponded with the President. The Shah of Iran sent many cables.

The terms Executive and General which are used before the subject file codes indicate the source of the materials. Items designated as Executive are communications among leaders and agencies of foreign, national, and state and local governments and prominent persons. Items designated as General are communications between Government officials and private citizens and organizations. The topics filed under each are generally similar with more citizen input appearing in the General files.

The types of records found in the subject files include original incoming letters and staff memoranda; carbons and electrostatic copies of outgoing letters and staff memoranda; transmittal letters and correspondence forms, reports, case files, prepared by OEP for the President recommending to major disaster declaration, making a supplemental allocation of Federal disaster funds or recommending a denial of a major declaration, telegrams, cables, maps, charts, resolutions, preservation copies of newspaper and magazine clippings, printed materials such as reports, brochures, and magazine reprints, cross reference sheets to other file materials, and withdrawal forms for materials withdrawn for Federal statute or agency policy, national security or privacy.

Some related materials are in the following subject categories:

CO Countries

FG 6-8 Office of Emergency Preparedness

FG 74 American Red Cross

FI 4 Finance - Budget/Appropriations

FI 5-4 Finance - Housing

FI 5-7 Finance - Small Business

HS Housing

LG Local Governments

ME Messages

NR 6 Natural Resources - Oil and Natural Gas

SP Speeches

ST States

DI DISASTERS

Topics filed under DI include information about the Federal Disaster Act; the Santa Barbara oil spill; Hurricane Camille; Disaster Relief Revision Study; requests for temporary housing following disasters; low interest loans or forgiveness of parts of some loans; Lake Erie pollution; Committee on the Relationship between Disaster Assistance and Civil Defense; list of Federal Agency Programs available with and without a major disaster declaration; conflict over the use of Federal funds for schools that had not submitted desegregation plans - concerns over disaster relief funds not being given to poor blacks; Disaster Insurance Assistance Group; Presidential message to Congress and disaster funding; comments on fuel shortage and possible national disaster; the Office of Emergency Preparedness and Gen. George Lincoln.

DI 1 ACCIDENTS

The topics included in DI 1 are messages from the President to individual citizens, communities and groups for acts of heroism or special efforts at times of disaster: coal mine explosion in Hyden, Kentucky; the Shell Oil platform explosion; the Sunshine Silver Mine fire; and the commuter train crash in Chicago, Illinois.

DI 1/CO ACCIDENTS BY COUNTRY

Topics mentioned in the subcategory are the Argentine railway disaster and a plane crash in Peru.

DI 1/ST ACCIDENTS BY STATE

The topics covered in this subcategory pertain to explosions, tornadoes, train and bus accidents, the crash of the USS Yanch into the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, expressions of gratitude for Federal support at time of disaster and the need for more and continued emergency housing.

DI 2 DROUGHTS 1969-1970 / NATURAL DISASTERS 1971-1974

For the years 1969-1970 this subcategory contains materials concerned primarily with droughts and later floods. Topics covered are the Administration activities on the droughts in the Southwest; the Interagency Drought Committee; summary reports on Federal assistance after floods in Colorado, Arizona and Nebraska; and then Federal efforts to prepare for spring floods (Operation Foresight).

For the years 1971-1974 the topics covered are summaries for financial aid as the result of the President's major disaster declarations; Hurricanes Edith, Fern and Ginger; the Task Force on Disaster Insurance; earthquake relief in California; the Executive Order on Disaster Mitigation Act; Hurricane Agnes; Bob Hope's Telethon for the Benefit of Agnes Flood Victims; the Red Cross efforts in disaster relief; the Presidential Report "New Approaches to Federal Disaster Preparedness and Assistance", May 8, 1973; comments on the veto of changes in the Small Business Act for disaster assistance, S. 1672; floods in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh; African drought relief; tornadoes in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Tennessee and the Presidential tour April 3, 1974; HR 12412 Foreign Disaster Relief Act of 1974; problems with loans from the Veterans Administration and complaints that the Federal government did not move fast enough.

DI 2/CO NATURAL DISASTERS BY COUNTRY 1969-1970

DI 2/CO 1-176 NATURAL DISASTERS BY COUNTRY 1971-1974

The materials are arranged by number of the country from the CO Subject Files. The topics covered in the 1969-1970 period are U.S. aid to Chile after an earthquake; cyclone in India; disastrous earthquake in Nicaragua; relief efforts after the cyclone and floods in Pakistan; earthquakes in Peru; Presidential messages to Philippines, Turkey and Italy. In the General files there is correspondence from the American children offering aid to victims in Pakistan; description of relief efforts in Pakistan and volunteers for relief to Nicaragua.

The topics covered in the 1971-1974 period pertain to droughts in West and Central Africa; the appointment of Maurice Williams as Special U.S. Coordinator for African Drought Relief; eruption of volcano in Iceland; memos concerning the Robert Clemente Memorial Fund for Nicaraguan earthquake victims and floods in Pakistan and Tunis.

In the General files the topics concern the drought in the Sahel in Africa; the efforts of PUSH and Jesse Jackson to get more U.S. aid to Africa; requests for the use of U.S. helicopters in the Mexican earthquake; and many children's letters about the earthquake in Nicaragua.

DI 2/ST NATURAL DISASTERS BY STATE

The Executive materials of this subcategory contain the following topics: requests for major disaster declarations due to severe winter snow storms, Hurricane Agnes, and tornadoes; correspondence from Gov. George Wallace, Alabama, concerning the delay in financial assistance from OEP for victims of Hurricane Camille; the earthquake in California and the collapse of the San Fernando Veterans Administration hospital; the Sunshine Silver Mine disaster in Kellogg, Idaho; the red tide (toxic algae) off the coast of Maine; severe flooding in Corning, New York area due to Hurricane Agnes; requests to use urban renewal funds for recovery from disasters; many requests for assistance by Congressmen and Senators for their districts and states; appointment of Frank Carlucci as a special representative for the President following severe floods in Pennsylvania after Hurricane Agnes; charges that Indians and Blacks were discriminated against in relief operations; use of USDA Emergency Loan Programs; requests for pre-disaster funds for migrant workers; correspondence on the Sanctified Hill earthslide in Cumberland, Kentucky; conflicts over administration of disaster relief by SBA and the Farmers Home Administration; disaster claims due to heating oil shortage in 1973; comments and report on the fire suppression assistance on publicly and privately owned non-Federal forests and grasslands; and the tornado in Xenia, Ohio.

Topics covered in the General materials are the concerns of citizens that more money is sent to foreign governments when it should be spent on Americans; people writing in about effort to protect victims of disasters from unscrupulous and dishonest individuals and organizations; numerous letters and clippings about the floods in Pennsylvania following Hurricane Agnes, many were writing to "cut bureaucratic red tape" and get aid directly to victims; needs were expressed for housing and loans to restart businesses; many letters seeking a Presidential visit to affected areas; requests for SBA loans; Hurricanes Agnes and Camille; and support for the National Catastrophic Insurance Act of 1973.

DI 3 EARTHQUAKES

Topics included in this subcategory are Presidential messages to foreign leaders on earthquakes in their countries and public concern over protection of records and food reserves in case of severe earthquakes in the U.S.

DI 3/CO EARTHQUAKES BY COUNTRY

In this subcategory there are letters of appreciation of American assistance after severe earthquakes and letters about an earthquake in Iran, but most of the materials concern the earthquake in Peru and include materials about Mrs. Nixon's trip to Peru with relief supplies, efforts of many groups helping with relief in Peru such as the Peace Corps, CARE, the Salvation Army, AMDOC (American doctors who volunteer to assist in emergencies), World Medical Relief, Inc., American Sister Cities and U.S. churches, correspondence expressing concern over the distribution of supplies, care for victims, and adoption of Peruvian orphans, and letters concerned over the relief efforts of the USSR and Cuba.

DI 4 FIRES

The topics in this subcategory pertain to the use of the Disaster Relief Act of 1969 to suppress fires on public or private forest or grasslands if they constitute a major disaster and the fires in California.

DI 4/ST FIRES BY STATE

The materials concern requests from the states of California, Idaho, and Washington that suffered major fires for a Presidential disaster declaration.

DI 5 FLOODS

The topics covered in this subcategory are Operation Foresight (Federal aid augmenting local and State flood preparedness activities to reduce or minimize damage due to floods) operated under the direction of OEP; floods due to Hurricane Camille; and resolutions from individuals and communities asking for flood control dams.

DI 5/ST FLOODS BY STATE

The topics included in the subcategory are requests for disaster declarations due to severe flooding; summaries of Federal assistance; requests from governors for supplemental allocations; floods in California; letters from the President to individuals commending them on their efforts during Hurricane Camille; Operation Foresight; state and local community flood control plans; and OEP criteria for a major declaration of disaster.

DI 6 STORMS

Materials in this subcategory include daily reports to the President on Hurricane Camille; Red Cross fund raising efforts for victims of Camille; foreign condolences; Bob Hope's Telethon to aid Camille victims; large case on charges of racial discrimination, income discrimination and general inefficiency of Federal relief programs in Mississippi after Camille; ESSA reports on Hurricane Weather Reconnaissance; and suggestions from the general public for anticipating storms.

DI 6/CO STORMS BY COUNTRY

The materials primarily pertain to the storms in Pakistan including Presidential messages, the Pakistan Relief Fund, Congressional correspondence on Pakistan relief, requests and petitions for aid to Pakistan and a large case of materials from Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine.

DI 6/ST STORMS BY STATE

The topics included in this subcategory are requests for assistance after Hurricane Camille, requests for major disaster declarations and supplemental allocations, heavy snow and ice storms in Maine, tornadoes, requests for Presidential visits to affected sites, WE CARE RED CROSS TELETHON for victims of Camille, and a large case from James Allen, Assistant Secretary for Education, concerning payments of Federal funds to school districts to repair or replace facilities damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Camille.