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Exploring the dynamics
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also involved in the process of assistance. At the apex of the
pyramid are the disasters that require local, state, and federal
resources (Rubin, 2007). Moreover, floods, earthquakes,
tornadoes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters usually cause
damages across different administrative borders. Therefore,
local governments understand that working alone to deal with
disasters is unrealistic and may result in failure (Bryson &
Crosby, 2008; Bryson et al., 2006). Sharing a cross-border view
and collaborating with others are keys to successfully dealing
with all hazard types. In other words, the disaster severity level
is related to the interdependency of each local government.
(B) Resource Dependence on Federal and State
Governments
The basic assumption of the resource dependency theory
is that organizations are embedded in networks of interde-
pendencies and social relationships. Their needs for financial,
physical, or informational resources to achieve organizational
goals are provided by the environment, which forces
organizations to be dependent on external sources for these
resources. As each organization is in the same dependent
position, exchange relationships develop (Fleishman, 2009).
Through the development of exchange relationships, individual
organizations build stable inter-organizational connections for
securing their sources of resources and ensuring that their
organization survives.
In cases of EM in the U.S., the federal government
provides two types of principal funding: pre- and post-disaster
funding (Sylves, 2007). Several principal grant programs have
been created for processing pre-disaster funding, such as the
Homeland Security Grant Program, the Law Enforcement
Terrorism Prevention Program, the Emergency Management
Performance Grant Program, and the Assistance to Firefighters
Grant Program. These pre-disaster funds are used as grants for