FEMA Director Craig Fugate was just fantastic today. He epitomizes smart and efficient government. I just love his no nonsense, nothing but the facts approach. I especially liked this response to a question where he gave credit to President Obama and his approach to getting things done.
Q Administrator Fugate, since you worked Katrina six years ago and this hurricane, what did you personally see the differences? Has the red tape actually been cutting up where you felt easier to be able to maneuver to get assistance to people this hurricane versus Katrina?
ADMINISTRATOR FUGATE: You talk about the processes and a lot of mechanics behind it. I think in this administration, from my earliest events when I came onboard — America Samoa, supporting USAID Haiti, the floods in Tennessee, and obviously this year — the one thing that’s been impressed upon me by the President is we go as a federal team and we bring all our resources together.
I think there is a lot of things that when we do it as a team and we understand that you cannot have separate — you can’t look at local government, state government, federal government, the volunteers and the private sector as distinct entities and be successful. You got to look as a team.
And so one of the things that’s been impressed upon me and the thing that we’ve learned and try to practice here is we’re not the team, we’re part of the team. We have to bring all of our resources together. We have to work as a team. We have to be focused on the survivors, and the emphasis on speed — to get there, get stabilized, to figure out what the next steps are without waiting to ask all the questions, well, how bad is it, what do you need? We know generally in these types of events what most likely is going to be required. Let’s get moving it. If we don’t need it, we can turn it off. But you don’t get time back in a disaster.
Look at what was happening at Katrina in the first 72 hours, that once you got past that point, there was not much more you could do to change that outcome, and then things were just cascading one on top of the other.
Q So would you say that six years ago people weren’t working as a team?
ADMINISTRATOR FUGATE: I think there was a lot of things at the federal level that Congress addressed in the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act that has certainly made my job easier to work in that team environment.
Despite the wh presscorps jackals, Craig Fugate and Jay Carney were stellar today. Just top notch. No matter what crap questions the “journalists” threw at them, no matter how they tried to frame their questions, Fugate and Carney were on their best game. They just kept dishing facts and truths from left, right, and center.
ps: Jay looked especially cute in his new hot nerd glasses.
“Q Administrator Fugate, since you worked Katrina six years ago and this hurricane, what did you personally see the differences? Has the red tape actually been cutting up where you felt easier to be able to maneuver to get assistance to people this hurricane versus Katrina?’
Does this interviewer speak English as his first language?
LOL…..I was wondering that too. What is …”has the red tape actually been cutting up…….”?. I thought to be a journalist, you had to take courses, and study English. My bad 8-0
FEMA Director Craig Fugate was just fantastic today. He epitomizes smart and efficient government. I just love his no nonsense, nothing but the facts approach. I especially liked this response to a question where he gave credit to President Obama and his approach to getting things done.
Q Administrator Fugate, since you worked Katrina six years ago and this hurricane, what did you personally see the differences? Has the red tape actually been cutting up where you felt easier to be able to maneuver to get assistance to people this hurricane versus Katrina?
ADMINISTRATOR FUGATE: You talk about the processes and a lot of mechanics behind it. I think in this administration, from my earliest events when I came onboard — America Samoa, supporting USAID Haiti, the floods in Tennessee, and obviously this year — the one thing that’s been impressed upon me by the President is we go as a federal team and we bring all our resources together.
I think there is a lot of things that when we do it as a team and we understand that you cannot have separate — you can’t look at local government, state government, federal government, the volunteers and the private sector as distinct entities and be successful. You got to look as a team.
And so one of the things that’s been impressed upon me and the thing that we’ve learned and try to practice here is we’re not the team, we’re part of the team. We have to bring all of our resources together. We have to work as a team. We have to be focused on the survivors, and the emphasis on speed — to get there, get stabilized, to figure out what the next steps are without waiting to ask all the questions, well, how bad is it, what do you need? We know generally in these types of events what most likely is going to be required. Let’s get moving it. If we don’t need it, we can turn it off. But you don’t get time back in a disaster.
Look at what was happening at Katrina in the first 72 hours, that once you got past that point, there was not much more you could do to change that outcome, and then things were just cascading one on top of the other.
Q So would you say that six years ago people weren’t working as a team?
ADMINISTRATOR FUGATE: I think there was a lot of things at the federal level that Congress addressed in the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act that has certainly made my job easier to work in that team environment.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/08/29/press-briefing-press-secretary-jay-carney-and-fema-administrator-craig-f
Despite the wh presscorps jackals, Craig Fugate and Jay Carney were stellar today. Just top notch. No matter what crap questions the “journalists” threw at them, no matter how they tried to frame their questions, Fugate and Carney were on their best game. They just kept dishing facts and truths from left, right, and center.
ps: Jay looked especially cute in his new hot nerd glasses.
I agree they were great. And yes, I love the new nerdy glasses. They make Jay look like Clark Kent. Too cute.
“Q Administrator Fugate, since you worked Katrina six years ago and this hurricane, what did you personally see the differences? Has the red tape actually been cutting up where you felt easier to be able to maneuver to get assistance to people this hurricane versus Katrina?’
Does this interviewer speak English as his first language?
LOL…..I was wondering that too. What is …”has the red tape actually been cutting up…….”?. I thought to be a journalist, you had to take courses, and study English. My bad 8-0
Forget that 8-0 . Looking for the shock sign.
Type between colons the word shock
using numbers never works for me, but I do have a low techno IQ 
Thanks for translating for me. I can’t hack listening to those stupid reporters.
President Obama on the Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/08/29/president-obama-anniversary-hurricane-katrina
I ♥ Carney
/swoon