OK, not much of a diary I know, but I thought this was worth some attention: President Obama (I still love saying that!) appointed one W. Craig Fugate as the new head of FEMA today.
And who is W. Craig Fugate? Is his prior experience in emergency management restricted to being forced to resign as head of the International Arabian Horse Association?
Nope. Turns out that Fugate is actually--wait for it, it's shocking, I know--QUALIFIED!
As the Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Mr. Fugate oversees an agency with 138 full time staff. The Division coordinates disaster response, recovery, preparedness and mitigation efforts with each of the state's 67 counties and local governments. In September 2003, the Florida Emergency Management Program became the first state emergency management program in the nation to receive full accreditation from the Emergency Management Accreditation Program.
From volunteer firefighter, Paramedic, to Lieutenant with Alachua County Fire Rescue, his 15 year career in local government included serving 10 years as the Emergency Manager for Alachua County, Florida.
In May of 1997, he was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Preparedness and Response with the Florida Division of Emergency Management. Over the next four years, the State of Florida faced numerous disasters while continuing to build a nationally recognized emergency management program.
In October of 2001, Mr. Fugate was appointed by Governor Bush as Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. With the events of September 11, 2001, the Division was tasked with the role of managing the Federal Homeland Security funding and developing Florida’s Domestic Security Strategy with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Florida’s program is recognized as a model for other states.
In 2004, Florida was impacted by 4 major land falling hurricanes (Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne) setting a record in both numbers of storms as well as damages for the State of Florida.
In 2005, Florida was again impacted by 4 hurricanes with Hurricane Dennis and Wilma striking as major hurricanes (Category 3 or greater). 2005 also saw Florida’s largest mutual aid response to another state due to impacts of Hurricane Katrina along the Mississippi Coast, over 7000 responders from state and local agencies provided assistance to the State of Mississippi and local communities, additional resources were sent to the State of Louisiana.
In December 2006, Governor Crist reappointed Fugate as Director, the role he continues today.
Director Fugate has served as the State Coordinating Officer in 23 Declared State Emergencies, 11 of which were Presidential Declared Disasters totaling over 4.5 billion in federal assistance.
Well, he's no Brownie, but I suspect he'll do far more than just a "heckuva'" job.
Seems the locals agree:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/...