This is Government

One of the many pleasures of Congress not being in session is that CSPAN gets to feature some interesting people those of us outside the Beltway might not otherwise see.  I caught part of this presentation by Craig Fugate, who President Obama appointed to head  FEMA.  He previously worked for Republican governor Crist of Florida.  He is one impressive guy.

In this year of nine disasters costing over a billion dollars in damage each, and certainly as we look to the immediate Climate Crisis future, the role of emergency management, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is going to be very important.  If Fugage can truly transform FEMA in the way he describes, it's a godsend, not just for now but for that future (assuming somebody like ol' Heckava Job doesn't get the job.)

Fugate is updating the agency, not only in terms of technology and streamlining bureaucracy, but in attitude.  In an article about him from about a year ago, he said: "We need to change this methodology that the public are victims, and realize they're survivors and that they oftentimes will contribute to greater success if we incorporate them into the plans and remember who we're working for," he said. "We're working for survivors."

Since this statement, the Joplin tornado happened, and Fugate was there immediately.  What he found was that a quite recently developed emergency plan created locally was working smoothly.  It not only coordinated local resources but allowed for improvisations.  Knowing that people were relying almost entirely on cell phones they were carrying--but that their chargers might well have been lost along with their homes--a local casino raided its lost and found cache of rechargers and donated them to the Red Cross.

As Fugate recognizes and asserts, most rescues in the first hours after disaster are by neighbors looking out for their neighbors.  Some may call this the Golden Rule ethic, but I prefer to describe it with the common phrase, "you'd do the same for me."  It is one of the most important bases for all human society. Emergency management must recognize it and liberate it, must coordinate and manage it.

Fugate has instituted other reforms that sound like common sense, like making sure that resources for infants and old people are in the mix in every batch of emergency supplies.  But it took an incisive intelligence, skilled in the vocabulary of business as well as government bureauracy to make the case and get it done.  This guy is a real bright spot, and rekindles my hopes for this difficult future we're embarking on.

This, by the way, is government.  This is what government is about, and government also attracts people with the commitment and smarts of Fugate.