With Tropical Storm Isaac bearing down on the US Gulf Coast just like Hurricane Katrina almost exactly seven years ago, US President Barack Obama’s top emergency management official looks well positioned to spare his boss a repeat of the ham-handed response that hurt former president George W. Bush.
Sporting a state trooper’s mustache and swampy Florida drawl, US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate could not present a starker contrast to Bush’s ill-starred FEMA director Michael Brown, who resigned in September 2005 after harsh criticism of the government’s response to Katrina.
Unlike Brown, an accomplished lawyer who owed his job to political connections and had little hands-on emergency relief experience, Fugate is a career first-responder who got his start as a volunteer fire fighter and was named to head Florida’s Division of Emergency Management by two Republican governors before being tapped by Obama to head FEMA.
Bush’s remark, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” made even as waters were rushing over large sections of New Orleans, forcing residents to flee to higher ground, became a catch-phrase that marred the Bush presidency and still evokes bitter memories.
With storm surges of up to 3.6m expected to batter the Gulf Coast and heavy rains expected in parts of Mississippi, Alabama and southwestern Louisiana, Fugate warned on Monday that the storm could wreak havoc and urged citizens to take shelter.
A lesson learned from Katrina is that state, local and federal officials have to be better prepared, Fugate told reporters in a conference call.
“Rather than waiting for a storm to hit, we have folks in place,” he said. “It still requires people to heed evacuation orders,” he added.
Although Fugate, 53, has been on the job for more than three years and has handled dozens of major emergencies, Isaac, with its parallels to Katrina, arrives just as both political parties are set to hold their presidential nominating conventions.
The storm, now forecast to strengthen to a Category 2 hurricane, may test Fugate’s skills. Fairly or not, the Obama administration’s handling of the storm and its aftermath could affect the public’s perception of its effectiveness.
Some elected officials have found fault with FEMA, including former Republican presidential hopeful Representative Ron Paul, who said last year that the agency adds to the federal deficit and stands in the way of reconstruction efforts after disasters.
However, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who will deliver the keynote address at the Republican convention, heaped praise on the agency for its aid following last summer’s Hurricane Irene, which caused more than 50 fatalities and US$15 billion in damage.
“Federal Homeland Security and FEMA have been wonderful,” Christie said at a press conference. “They have given us everything that we’ve needed.”
Fugate himself cuts a down-to-earth figure and is known for obsessive planning that has included drilling his staff in mock disaster response scenarios ranging from blackouts to nuclear bomb explosions.
His folksy manner comes alongside hard-won experience from almost two decades of managing crisis responses in disaster-prone Florida.
When a tornado devastated Joplin, Missouri, in May last year, killing 161 people, City Manager Mark Rohr did not want to be put in the position of having to tell citizens that authorities were abandoning the search for survivors. Fugate, who had arrived the day after the storm hit, told him he did not have to. Continue with search and recovery, Fugate counseled, but to make sure there are spotters on hand during the clean-up, Rohr remembers.
“I didn’t want to dash someone’s hopes in terms of having one of those 11th hour rescues,” Rohr said. “I could tell from talking to him he had dealt with similar circumstances in the past and he was willing to share that experience with me.”
State and local officials describe him as responsive and willing to follow up well beyond the initial disaster.
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin said he can reach Fugate by cell phone, even on weekends, a year after Irene.
“I think because he’s personally been in the trenches, been on the ground he understands the challenge of the tragedy of natural disaster that he’s particularly sensitive to the things that really matter, and what matters in a time of crisis is someone who shakes the belly of the beast and gets results,” Shumlin said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was