Former FEMA head discusses the evolving challenges of emergency response

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• John Yang:

  So far this year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, better known as FEMA, has had to respond to a record number of billion dollar weather related disasters. And that doesn't count other events like the Maui wildfires.

  What's more, in recent years FEMA has been called on for duties beyond hurricanes, tornadoes and other extreme weather. They've distributed COVID vaccines, sheltered migrant children at the southern border and helped settle Afghans who came to the United States after the Taliban takeover. And every time FEMA responds to events like Hurricane Idalia and the Maui wildfires, that response is scrutinized.

  Craig Fugate was the FEMA administrator for just about the entire Obama administration from 2009 to 2017. Mr. Fugate, first I want to start I know you're in a part of Florida that felt some of the effects of Edalia. How are things? How did you guys fare?

• Craig Fugate, Former FEMA Administrator:

  We were fine. We were in Gainesville. I mean, the biggest thing was the coastal communities with the storm surge in the wind and now the power outages across a lot of North Florida. So as power is coming back on, things are getting better for some people. Other people, they've lost everything. But where I'm at, we were just on the very outskirts of this storm.

• John Yang:

  In less than a month we had the Maui wildfires, hurricane Idalia. It seems like these events are becoming more frequent and more severe. What would you say and how would you describe sort of the state of emergency response right now?

• Craig Fugate:

  It's perpetual. Think about it. You go back in history, used to have one big disaster every decade. Now it seems like we're having them on a much more frequent basis. And I think the challenge is it's no longer geographically just the usual suspects.

  You know, you're seeing Maui, which had not seen this type of disaster in its history. You're seeing flooding and tornadoes and rainfall events in parts of the country that never experienced it. And I think again, as we see down here in the south and Florida, we're seeing more rapid intensification in these hurricanes. And that in turn is leading us to see more impacts from these storms.

• John Yang:

  And as we noted in the introduction, FEMA is also being asked to do more things. Set up COVID vaccination centers, help at the border, help with Afghans who came to the United States. Should those things be something FEMA should be doing? Or is FEMA sort of overstretched in those areas?

• Craig Fugate:

  I think you go back to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina where Congress identified FEMA as the federal government, one of its crisis management agencies. So while FEMA is best known for administering response to natural hazards that result in disasters, it does have the authority to respond at the direction of the President or at the request of other federal agencies to coordinate these different responses.

  So, it's really about funding and it's really about how long it's taking us to recover from existing disasters. And I think people talk about, you know, FEMA's mission. If you go back and look at the authorizing language, which was passed after Katrina, it doesn't speak to just natural hazards. It speaks to hazards where the President, at the direction or at the request of federal agencies, FEMA has a coordination and support role.

• John Yang:

  Let's talk about funding. The Biden Administration just asked for a total of $16 billion more for FEMA. Should we be thinking about different ways of funding FEMA?

• Craig Fugate:

  Well, we've actually started that. This goes all the way back into 2011 when were facing Hurricane Irene and were running out of money. We had less than $300 million in the relief fund, and at that time, OMB Director Jack Liu and then speaker of the House Ryan got together and agreed to fund FEMA at much higher levels, above the top line of the budget, so that they could ensure that on the reoccurring risk were seeing that FEMA was adequately funding.

  I think, though, with the more recent frequency of disasters and increasingly having to come in mid year for supplementals, we may need Congress to think about that top line again and give more headroom in the budget so that they're not having to deal with these types of issues as we're going into the peak of hurricane season.

• John Yang:

  Mr. Fugate, I know you were the Florida Emergency manager for a while. Who should be responsible for preparing communities who have a high risk of extreme weather? Is that a responsibility of the federal government, or should state and local officials play a role in that too?

• Craig Fugate:

  This is a shared responsibility, much of the preparedness, everything from evacuations to getting communities ready starts at the local level. But another major impact on the outcome of these disasters is the use of building codes and land use planning to make sure communities are built in such a way that they are resilient to disasters.

  And if you're looking at the images from this hurricane, you're seeing that play out homes side by side that are ones destroyed, one's in pretty good shape. A lot of that comes down to when was it built and under what building code. Those are things state and local governments regulate. But it has a major impact on the federal taxpayer when it comes to recovering from these disasters.

• John Yang:

  Should the private sector be more involved in not only preparing communities but also responding to disasters?

• Craig Fugate:

  Well, you know, FEMA, I learned very quickly and I learned this back in Florida, that it's really about a partnership. If you think about it, a lot of utilities are privately owned or they're ops. The quicker they get power back, the less cost it is to the federal taxpayer. The quicker businesses get open are able to provide supplies, goods and services, reduces the demand for the federal government to support that for the states.

  So, yeah, we called this the whole of community. We had to stop looking at government as the only person or the only entity that responded disasters. I mean, you look at all the volunteer organizations, but also for every business that gets back up, for every company that sends their supplies in and get their employees taken care of and start back that process of getting communities into recovery mode are all things that help reduce the impacts and the cost of the disaster recovery.

• John Yang:

  Former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate. Thank you very much.

• Craig Fugate:

  Thanks for having me.