Federal Emergency Management Agency: Leadership and Responsibility

Throughout the U.S history, many Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) directors have been in place many of whom had different leadership styles. There are those that can be remembered for their achievements while others can be remembered for lack of performance. One of the FEMA directors that did admirably well during a major U.S emergency crisis was Craig Fugate during the Obama administration when hurricane Sandy disaster struck. Craig is known for his philosophy of “whole-community response,” that seeks to decentralize disaster management form the federal government and involving the private sector, private citizens, and volunteers (Cecchine, G. 2013). This philosophy aims at solving the glaring weaknesses in how the government responds to disasters as witnessed by the hurricane Katrina. Craig revolutionized how the disaster would be managed by taking the leadership role and including other people and organizations to be part of the system.

The leadership role meant that he planned and coordinated different organizations whenever disaster struck. The philosophy that he came with where he believed that different people have different abilities and expertise and they could play various roles whenever disaster struck helped in changing the mindset of people towards disaster management. Craig was able to bring back the credibility that FEMA had lost. He was able to achieve that fate by leading FEMA to pre-position equipment and supplies in order to be ready for an unprecedented case of a disaster before it strikes (Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. 2014). Fugate also improved communication and how to reach out to different agencies. He knew clearly well that the first responder whenever disaster strikes is the next door neighbor. That is why he chose the all-inclusive approach in disaster management because he understood that everyone had a role to play that could save a life or property. He marshaled help form every quarter that included the non-governmental organizations, different states, private agencies and all agencies that could support and offer help whenever major disasters struck. He is that kind of leader that believes in the power of the community in accomplishing difficult tasks.

One of the FEMA directors that performed below standards during a major U.S emergency crisis was Michael D. Brown during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in August 2005. Brown personally agreed to some of the failures that could be traced to him. During an interview, he admitted in his opening speech that his biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that is August 27th that Louisiana was dysfunctional. Later during his testimony, he said that “My mistake was in (not) recognizing that, for whatever reasons. Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco were reticent to order a mandatory evacuation.” (Cecchine, G. 2013). Brown made his first request for homeland security workers to be deployed at the scene of the disaster merely after two days of training. He also told the fire rescue departments that were stationed outside the areas that were not affected not to provide trucks or emergency workers pending a direct appeal from the state or local government so as to avoid coordination problems and counter-accusations of overstepping the federal authority. Mr. Brown seemed to be totally out of control of the situation and he was not aware of what was happening on the ground. On September 1st, 2005 he is on record on CNN telling Soledad O’Brien that he was not aware that New Orleans’ officials had thousands of evacuees that had run out of food and water in the Convention Center. This was despite the fact that major news outlets had a day before been reporting on the plight of the evacuees. Mr. Brown also declined help from other quarters to assist the affected victims. According to the then mayor of Chicago, he had pledged to give firefighters, health department workers, police officers and other resources on behalf of his city but Brown only asked him to send one truck.

His major failure was the absence of leadership and communication that affected all levels of government. His job entailed coordinating different units to deal with disaster but he seemed to have failed miserably towards this end. Hurricane Katrina was ostensibly one of the biggest disasters and they had been warned beforehand that it was bound to get out of control. With the knowledge that the disaster was one of the biggest in U.S history and that it was beyond the capacity of the state and local government and FEMA the wise thing that he would have done was to seek for the intervention of the military (Cooper, C., & Block, R. 2007). The issue of the vulnerability of the levee system causing a potential loss of life in the event that a disaster of the magnitude of Katrina struck was a concern that Brown was aware of but as a mitigating effort he did little if not nothing. The fact that there was a breakdown in terms of communication contributed to the massive failure. The agency did not seem to have enough alternative modes of communication such as satellite communications ability in the event of failure of the available infrastructure and that worsened the situation.

One of the decisions that Mr. Craig Fugate as a director of FEMA made that changed the course of recovery from disaster dramatically was the philosophy of “whole-community response,”. The philosophy was as a result of the lessons learned from the failures of the governments’ during the hurricane Katrina disaster that claimed over 1300 lives leaving a massive destruction of properties (the United States. 2000). He revolutionized the community thing by seeking to decentralize disaster management form the federal; government to involve different plays such as the private sector, private citizens, and volunteers. Prior to his revolutionary philosophy, there was the view that there was an emergency responder and there were the rest of us and the two shall not meet. The idea that everyone could play a role in the emergency response was both very helpful and innovative. Craig was able to achieve it by changing the response mentality of all the people involved when a disaster strikes.

His decision changed the course of recovery from the disaster because people changed their mentality towards disaster management and got to understand that all of them had a very important role to play when it came to disaster management. The level and extent towards which that decision has affected disaster recovery are that people have owned the process and everyone is now concerned and plays a key role that may be either direct or in-direct towards disaster management and mitigation. This factor has made it possible for FEMA to coordinate different organizations and individuals and prepared them for any eventuality that may befall the nation. FEMA was also able to change how it conducted itself and how it relates to the public in terms of disaster management and mitigation. The decision made sure that everyone that is able and willing to offer their help is brought on board and he or she are allowed to offer his or her help and expertise.

One of the decisions that Mr. Michael D. Brown as a director of FEMA made that changed the course of recovery from disaster dramatically was his refusal to accept certain help from different organizations and agencies. His refusal to accept help from other agencies and States fearing being accused of overstepping the federal authority led to the death of more people and destruction of properties that would have been the case. He also told the fire rescue departments that were stationed outside the areas that were not affected not to provide trucks or emergency workers pending a direct appeal from the state or local government so as to avoid coordination problems and counter-accusations of overstepping the federal authority. Brown also failed in terms of his leadership abilities and he was not able to bring together and coordinate different agencies when dealing with disaster management whenever it occurred or took place within the nation. This decision affected the extent and level of disaster recovery fundamentally because those people and agencies that were in a position and willing to offer their help were hindered from doing so.

Eventually, this delayed the rescue operations and lead to the suffering and probably death of more people than would have been the case (Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. 2014). For instance, the then mayor of Chicago had pledged to give firefighters, health department workers, police officers and other resources on behalf of his city but Brown only asked him to send one truck. Had he been allowed to send those resources things would have been different as more lives and properties would have been saved.