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FEMA's Fugate: Tornadoes Could Be Second Worst Ever
Jessica Rettig
Agency administrator says FEMA isn't close to reaching a breaking point
Tornadoes ravaged the South just two weeks ago, and now floods along the Mississippi River add to the list of natural disasters sweeping through America. It's safe to say that the
Excerpts:
How do the damages from recent tornadoes compare to those from past disasters?
Because the damage is so concentrated, you're not going to see what you normally see, like in hurricanes, where a community gets hit hard, and all their fire stations are heavily damaged or destroyed. Everybody wants to compare it to something else, and the best thing we can compare it to is actual tornado outbreaks. The weather service is looking at this as one of the top five -- possibly the number two -- tornadoes as far as loss of life. We'll get a better sense of the dollar figures as we complete damage assessments and begin writing projects on public assistance.
How would you compare the preparedness of your organization now compared with pre Katrina days?
There's some things that you guys in the press haven't really picked up on yet. Part of the things that we were able to do are based upon changes in the law that
So moving forward, should states and local communities take the lead on emergency management?
That should be the approach that we use in all disasters. That is, maximizing the local response with the state leading, and [allowing that] a governor be able to call up nonimpacted communities and the
Is there enough in the agency's
Well, we're over
You've been critical in the past of the centralization of
Well,
Does it matter that national attention has been drawn elsewhere in the wake of these disasters?
We don't care. We're focused on the survivors. We're not just saying that. We really try to focus in on not what the national media covers, or where people think the issues are; we try to focus on where the survivors are and where their needs are. There is only one motive here, and that is supporting state and local governments, and primarily for us, focusing on making sure we're doing everything we can to meet the needs of our survivors in those communities that are impacted.
You're dealing with tornadoes, flooding, wildfires in more than half the states in this country. Is
No. If
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