Major improvements in the United States Government's disaster assistance operations in fiscal years 1972-1 973 were given impetus by the upgrading and strengthening of A.1 .D.'s disaster relief capability.
It was during ,this period that the disaster relief function was raised from a divisional level to one of the major offices in the Bureau for Population and Humanitarian Assistance. A Center was designed and equipped, and a Disaster Tamsk Force Reserve was created, manned by volunteers from various A.I.D. and State Department