DISASTERS (DI)

A primary category containing information pertaining to disasters and disaster relief, including aid in the form of materials, services, gifts, and loans.

Subject categories and sub-categories fully available for research are bolded. Closed categories and sub-categories have a simple phrase describing their contents.

DESCRIPTION OF FILE CODES

File Code Description

DI Disasters (0.2 ft.; box 1)

This primary subject category contains material relating to proposed regulatory changes in the Small Business Administration’s Disaster Relief Program; the amending of the Disaster Relief Act of 1974; and requests for federal aid to prevent future natural disasters, or help economically depressed areas.

DI001 Accidents (0.5 ft.; boxes 1-2)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to the accidents at the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear power plants; the 1981 sewer explosion in Louisville, Kentucky; the 1983 sinking of the Glomar Java Sea off the coast of Vietnam; the Air Force jet crash at Gander, Newfoundland (1985); the 1987 explosion at the Henderson, Nevada rocket fuel plant; the dioxin contamination at Times Beach, Missouri; the 1981 levee break at McDonald Island, California; the 1988 plane crashes at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and at Lockerbie, Scotland; and international agreements regarding nuclear accidents and collisions at sea.

DI002 Natural Disasters (9.6 l.ft.; boxes 2-26)

This secondary subject category contains material relating to reports from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reviewing a natural disaster and then requesting a declaration or denial of a major disaster. Letters from Congressional, state, and local officials supporting the need for major disaster declarations are also included. Natural disasters covered are storms, flooding, tornados, earthquakes, crop freezes, landslides, drought and the hurricanes Alicia, Diana, Elena, Gloria, Kate, Juan, and Gilbert. This category also contains letters, memos, reports, talking points, speech drafts and publications on the following subjects: amendments to the Earthquake Hazards Relief Act of 1977; personal requests for assistance due to a disaster or difficulty with a federal agency; the dioxin clean-up of Times Beach, Missouri; the clean-up of river sedimentation following the Mt. St. Helens volcano eruption; requests for fire suppression assistance; material covering the drought that affected agriculture from 1983 through 1988 - including material on H.R. 5015, Drought Assistance Bill of 1988; assistance for international disasters, particularly the Mexico City earthquake of 1985 and the Armenian earthquake of 1988; and H.R. 2707 - the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Amendments of 1988.