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New FEMA leader grew up, trained in Alachua County
Posted October 5, 2009 at 00:12 in clips
Mr. Ron Dupont, editor of The North Florida Herald, gave me this great national story opportunity at the beginning of the summer. It was a struggle trying to get an interview with the new FEMA administrator, but it was worth the wait in the end! This story was originally published in The Herald on Aug. 20.
Preparing the U.S. for floods, hurricanes, terrorism & more: New FEMA leader grew up, trained here
By April Dudash
For The Herald
He walked the streets of Alachua in his youth. He walked the hallways of Santa Fe High School.
Now, he walks the halls with President Obama in Washington D.C., working to protect the United States from disaster.
Craig Fugate, the new administrator for FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was appointed to the position in May. He grew up in the city of Alachua and since then, he has pulled from his experiences growing up and working in Alachua County.
Fugate said Alachua was a town where “everyone knew your family.”
“It was growing up in a community that was safe and where people knew you,” Fugate told The North Florida Herald.
Fugate lived with his grandmother, who worked at the Alachua post office.
Teachers would go get their mail after school, and his grandmother would know about his grades and homework before he got home.
“As a kid growing up, it was an experience that you always knew whatever you did was going to make it home before you did,” he said.
Fugate also has served as a paramedic, an Alachua County Fire Rescue lieutenant, an Alachua County emergency manager and the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
He also was in charge of the largest federal disaster response in Florida history, when four hurricanes impacted the state in 2004.
His friends and past coworkers pointed out that Fugate has climbed up the ranks, and in doing so, they said he’s the right fit for the job.
“We figured it was just a matter of time before he was discovered by the rest of the world,” said Mike Stone, Florida Division of Emergency Management spokesman.
Fugate served as director of the Florida division for eight years.
Fugate easily communicates with everyone, from Florida residents to politicians, Stone said.
“It conveys a lot of understanding and confidence because he can speak so directly to folks and help them understand the situation,” he said.
Fugate oversaw 67 counties and a full-time staff of about 127 people in the Florida division.
“He’s up the road, and we know we have a very good man who has our back if we have to call upon him,” Stone said.
He also described Fugate as a Gator fan.
Back in 2004, Stone was on the road with Fugate, and they were responding to the four major hurricanes that year (Jeanne, Charley, Ivan and Frances).
They arrived in Pensacola, and they happened to come across a little football blanket that said “Gators.”
“You always knew where Craig was at or about to be if that Gator shawl showed up on the back of a chair,” Stone said.
Fugate, who said he loves the Gators, also mentioned that he owned Gators memorabilia.
“Now that Florida (football) starts practicing, we’re getting into the meat of hurricane season,” he joked.
Others feel that Fugate has more than proven himself when it comes to hurricane preparedness.
High Springs Fire Chief Verne Riggall had worked with Fugate back when Riggall was operations chief in Port Charlotte, Fla.
“During the Charley incident, our contact was very professional,” Riggall said. “He was very intelligent and very easy to talk to.”
Now that Fugate is the top emergency manager in the United States, Riggall said he’s excited to have someone in FEMA who knows Florida so well.
“There will be a quicker reaction to what’s coming in,” Riggall said. “We’re going to be able to react faster.”
Chief Will May, Alachua County director of Public Safety, remembers when Fugate was working out of a closet.
During May’s first days as fire rescue chief in the summer of 1990, he visited each office in the department of Fire Rescue Services.
“When I went to visit Craig, I found him in a large closet,” May said. “He had a desk and a filing cabinet and a chair, and I believe that’s all he could fit into that room.”
Fugate had to make space in order to open the door.
“The emergency manager of this county, and who is now the Federal Emergency Management administrator, was working out of a closet,” May said.
Fugate was an employee of May’s for about seven years while May was chief of Alachua County Fire Rescue.
Fugate was appointed Alachua County Emergency Manager around 1987.
“He’s always able to deliver on the response side of things,” May said. “He’s a natural at that.
“I knew within a couple years that Craig had the talent and he had the desire to go far beyond this local government.”
Rodger Mallard, EMS coordinator for the North Florida Regional Medical Center, said Fugate had an interesting nickname while serving as a paramedic.
The nickname stemmed from when Fugate had to deal with seven deaths in one day, from a car accident and a plane crash to people getting carbon monoxide poisoning inside a camper.
“We used to call him Dr. Death,” Mallard said, who was serving as EMS district chief at the time.
Mallard said that Fugate can put anyone at ease, whether they are government officials or hometown folks.
“He can eat backyard barbecue with us rednecks, then he can sit at the table with the President of the United States,” Mallard said.
“He’s a foot soldier, so to speak, who’s gone up through the ranks. He can wine and dine with whomever, whatever the situation is.”
Fugate’s family is good friends with Mallard’s family, and Mallard knew Fugate during his high school days.
Fugate received his state certification, but he never got a 4-year college degree, Mallard said.
“He’s got a doctorate in life just from experience,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anyone else comparable to him in the nation who knows the ins and outs of emergency management like Craig Fugate.”
Fugate attended Mebane Middle School, and he graduated from Santa Fe High School in 1977.
He served as a Future Farmers of America officer for four years, and he was vice president his senior year.
Fugate said his agriscience teachers were his mentors, and they taught him responsibility and leadership.
Santa Fe agriscience teacher Billy Farrell said Fugate showed cattle at the Alachua County Youth Fair.
He was quiet in ninth grade, and he was known as “academically inclined” and as a “genuinely good person.”
“As his leadership skills developed, he became more and more assertive,” Farrell said. “I knew when I had him as a student, I knew he was destined to be a successful person. You just know these things.”
Santa Fe history teacher Warren Buck said Fugate was a better than average student.
“As we say as teachers, he had his head on right,” Buck said.
Since being appointed, Fugate has traveled across the country, visiting FEMA’s 10 regional offices as well as state and local officials.
Now that three Atlantic storms have been named, with the worst being Hurricane Bill slowly inching toward the East Coast, Fugate is going to have his hands full as FEMA makes preparations.
He said one of his important goals for the agency is to focus on individual preparedness for natural and manmade disasters.
“The most important thing that I think we bring to the team is that the team includes the public, and the public has to be prepared,” Fugate said.
In 1989, North Florida was hit by an ice storm that left about 75 people stranded on I-75.
Big chunks of the interstate, from Gainesville to Lake City and the state line, were frozen over.
Local folks came out on their tractors and brought people back to town, gave them coffee and kept them warm, Fugate said.
“It always struck me that sometimes our best response isn’t a government response,” he said. “It’s neighbors helping neighbors.”
When Fugate would respond to tragedies while he worked in Alachua County, he said there was always a sense of community. A neighbor was always a shoulder to cry on and a person who could help others get through a disaster.
“Everything that I ever saw going on calls and growing up has taught me that the best resource in a disaster is each other,” Fugate said.