FEMA’s new administrator has a message for Americans: get in touch with your survival instinct.

[babylonsister]

X-post from Ed.


FEMA’s new administrator has a message for Americans: get in touch with your survival instinct.

by Amanda Ripley
In Case of Emergency


Image credit: Mike Theiss/Corbis


Craig Fugate, the new head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Barack Obama, is an unusual choice for the job, historically speaking. Unlike many of his predecessors, most famously Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown under President George W. Bush, Fugate (pronounced few-gate) has experience in the relevant subject matter. A former firefighter, Fugate managed disasters for 20 years in Florida, the fiasco capital of America. Even more bizarrely for FEMA, often a dumping ground for friends of the powerful, Fugate has no political connections to Obama. Instead, he got his job the old-fashioned way—when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was looking for candidates, people kept mentioning his name. He has a reputation for telling it like it is—in a field where “it” is usually bad. And what Fugate has to say may come as strong medicine for his fellow citizens, nine out of 10 of whom now live in a place at significant risk for some kind of disaster.

A bear of a man with a white goatee, an aw-shucks accent, and a voice just slightly higher than you expect, Fugate has no university degrees but knows enough to be mistaken for a meteorologist by hurricane experts. He grew up in Alachua County, smack in the middle of Florida. Both of his parents died before he graduated from high school. As a teenager, he followed his father’s example and became a volunteer firefighter. Then he became a paramedic, earning the nickname “Dr. Death” for having to pronounce more people dead on his first day than anyone before him. But he found his calling when he moved into emergency management, in 1989. Obsessively planning for horrible things he could not really control seemed to inspire him. “He is emergency management,” says Will May Jr., who worked with Fugate for more than 20 years and is now Alachua’s public-safety director. “That’s what he does. He spends practically all his waking life working in it, thinking about it, talking about it, planning how to do things better.”

Fugate is well respected, which is not the same thing as being well liked. “If they wanted a politician, Craig’s not your man,” says Ed Kennedy, who drove ambulances with him in Alachua. “Craig’s personality is more ‘Speak straight, don’t powder-puff it.’” Already, Fugate is saying things most emergency managers say only in private.

“We need to change behavior in this country,” he told about 400 emergency-management instructors at a conference in June, lambasting the “government-centric” approach to disasters. He learned a perverse lesson in Florida: the more the federal government does in routine emergencies, the greater the odds of catastrophic failure in a big disaster. “It’s like a Chinese finger trap,” he told me last spring, as a hailstorm fittingly raged outside his office. If the feds do more, the public, along with state and local officials, do less. They come to expect ice and water in 24 hours and full reimbursement for sodden carpets. But as part of a federal system, FEMA is designed to defer to state and local officials. If another Katrina hits, and the locals are overwhelmed, a full-strength federal response will inevitably take time. People who need help the most—the elderly, the disabled, and the poor—may not get it fast enough.

To avoid “system collapse,” as he puts it, Fugate insists that the government must draft the public. “We tend to look at the public as a liability. {But} who is going to be the fastest responder when your house falls on your head? Your neighbor.” A few years ago, Fugate dropped the word victim from his vocabulary. “You’re not going to hear me refer to people as victims unless we’ve lost ’em. I call them survivors.” He criticizes the media for “celebrating” people who choose not to evacuate and then have to be rescued on live TV—while ignoring all the people who were prepared. “This is a tragedy, this whole Shakespearean circle we’re in. You never hear the media say, ‘Hey, you’re putting this rescue worker in danger.’”

more...

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/fema

[ingac70]

1. Its refreshing....

to see a guy running FEMA that actually has a disaster preparedness background!

[KG]

2. the katrina disaster was proof that this country cannot handle emergencies without public help

the individualism of this country works against it.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. You have that backwards. Katrina shows the need for private preparation by citizens

If something happens without warning, you and your family are on their own for a while. Could be a couple of hours, could be a couple of days. Food, water, medicine, transportation, and security are all up to you. I live in twigs, where that is well understood. Urbanites seem clueless. Its not to say the Government does not have a role, but the first line of succor is always going to be the person themselves.

If Katrina taught us anything its that the Gov is as poorly prepared as the rest of us, and that needs to be fixed. The 2nd lesson, and to me its focused on city dwellers, is that preparation is up to you. I live in earthquake county. The big one is coming. Not a question of if, but of when. I expect the largest loss of life will come from those who have made no preparation.

How many people have some food and water set aside? Alternate heat source in snow country? For those who want to argue economics, how about something as simple as a plan, since it would be free? The answer is few if any. The Gov is not going to save us from ourselves...

[hugo_from_TN]

4. Then this guy is not your man

He preaches that the individual needs to be prepared, and shouldn't expect heroic help from the government in disasters. Meaning, if another Katrina is coming, be prepared and evacuate.

[babylonsister]

5. That sounds like common sense to me. I approve of him being

honest with his message.

[alarimer]

7. More blame the victim bullshit

The government should have evacuated those people but they failed to do so. They had NO MEANS to do so on their own. None. No cars, buses were not running, etc. So every poor person is just fucked in an emergency then.

[SoCalDem]

13. Cities need to know exactly where their "weak links" are in the chain,

and to have plans in place to deal with them in an emergency.
It's true that most/many of the poorest did not have "a way out", but Katrina was NOT a "surprise". There were DAYS to plan.

Even having buses sent in to remove people would not necessarily have been a solution, since these people had no MONEY to pay for anything..shelter/food/Nothing..

The end of the month is a precarious time for people dependent on public aid. By the 28th of the month they are barely hanging on until the next check arrives.

The officials in charge should have known this.

BUT on the other hand, if you are a poor person living in NOLA, and everything you own...all you have of any value, is inside that house/apartment, and some city official comes to you 2 days/1day before a hurricane is to arrive, and they tell you, "get on the bus, we're taking you to someplace to ride out the storm", how many would have (maybe DID) refuse to go. Why would they do this? Because they feared their "stuff" being stolen by the ones who stayed behind.

Looking back too, we have to remember that the great damage occurred AFTER the storm had passed.

Just as many people were going "whew!", the real devastation was about to happen.

Out here we have our fires, mudslides & earthquakes, but these catastrophes are not visible for days, on radar. Floods & storms give advance warning, so NO city should be unprepared anymore.

FEMA cannot make people whole, no matter who is in charge. FEMA can only swoop in later, and relieve some of the pain, but advance preparation should be the gold standard, and every community should have a plan in place that asks the question..."How do we deal with the poor & elderly?

[Javaman]

6. anyone who has the means should always keep a disaster emergency kit

if they live in traditional natural disaster prone areas.

When I lived in Southern California, I had an earthquake kit at home and in my car.

I now live in central Texas and have an extreme weather emergency kit for myself and my wife.

[alarimer]

8. And those who don't can just go to hell I guess?

No, the government is 100% to blame for the Katrina disaster and for all the deaths.

That stupid fuck Ray Nagin dithered and dithered and holed up somewhere indecisive before giving the evacuation order, much too late to do any good.

All those poor people with no cars or means to leave are just screwed then.

Of course the failure of the levies was 100% the government's responsibility and that is what killed most of the people.

It is NOT the fault of people who stayed behind; it is 100% the fault of "heckuva job" Brownie, Bush, Nagin, etc.

[Javaman]

10. What the fuck?

Where in the hell did you pull that total line of bullshit from? It certainly wasn't out of my thread or do you enjoy putting words in peoples mouth?

All I said was "anyone who has the means".

You went from zero to apeshit nuts in a second.

So go fuck yourself.

I never said anything about the poor folks in New Orleans, nor did I say we were on our own, nor did I say say state that is was or wasn't the governments fault, which is was.

So get off your god damn high fucking horse.

What the fuck is the matter with you, anyway?

All I did was recommend some common fucking sense.

jesus, you're a fucking jerk.

I would ask for an apology but it appears as if you drew your own conclusions from nothing.

fuck you.

[dem629]

11. Javaman makes a great point, and here's what you miss.

The more people who have their own supplies (those who can afford it) the more the gov't and relief organizations can help those who don't.

It's pretty simple. And it's true. Gov't and relief organizations do not have an unlimited supply of goods. They just don't. And if more people (people who can afford it) stocked up, those limited supplies can go to those who can't do it for themselves.

I would think you'd be FOR this idea. Seems pretty progressive to me.

[Javaman]

14. thanks for the support :)

was it me or was that persons reaction a little...extreme?

[dem629]

15. No problem.

I'm with you. I don't understand why that person flew off the handle. Looks like a case of wanting to complain for the sake of it.

[Fire1sKid]

9. It finally feels good....

To see a FEMA administrator that actually has experience and who's former occupation was not managing fucking horse shows.

[redqueen]

12. Just more of that change we can believe in. :)

Welcome to DU! :hi: