FEMA administrator promotes preparation for next disaster

People don’t want to think about bad things so they don’t prepare for emergencies, Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told a National Press Club Newsmaker audience May 4.

The problem with not preparing is that “you don’t get to pick the next disaster. You don’t always know when it is going to happen. It could be happening right now [and] we just don’t know it,” Fugate said.

Planning ahead for an emergency also allows help to be received by those who need it most, Fugate said.

“It is about the shared responsibility of being prepared as a community so that the most vulnerable don’t have to compete with those of us that should have gotten ready and should have been prepared,” he said.

When a disaster strikes, “you need to survive it. You need to let people know you are OK,” Fugate said. This is the communications plan that every family should have.

A communications plan allows everyone to connect with each other even if phones aren’t working properly. The plan can include an out-of-area contact number, which may be easier to reach, status updates on social media, or going to a predetermined spot to wait for other family members, he said.

After the disaster, if you are still in your home but you have no power, no phones and no water, you need to have enough supplies to last for a couple of days because if you don’t have power, telecommunications and water, it is likely that your local store won't either, Fugate said.

Should you have to evacuate before a disaster strikes, plan ahead where you will go and what you will take with you, Fugate said.

“If you need to leave and move quickly somewhere safe, [make sure you have] what you need to get somewhere safe so when you get there you didn’t leave your medication, you didn’t leave your important papers, you didn’t leave your pets,” he said.

Fugate acknowledged that some shelters don’t accept pets but he said FEMA is working with various groups on pet-friendly options. He also urged those with pets to plan ahead and find pet friendly hotels and motels along evacuation routes, he said.

Fugate, who was formerly the director of the Florida Emergency Management Division, wants the private sector to be part of the team helping survivors. FEMA shouldn’t be competing with the private sector, he said.

After Hurricane Wilma in 2005, Florida’s emergency response had distribution sites set up within 24 hours but they were set up in the parking lots of open and available grocery stores, which meant that aid didn’t go to the rural areas where it was needed more.

Now the private sector has staff that rotates in the national response center so that FEMA is aware of what is open and available from the commercial sector.