Keynote: Craig Fugate

Thursday, 9:15-10:00 a.m., Interlocken A/B

Craig Fugate
FEMA Administrator

Are you personally prepared for the next disaster? Have you developed a personal disaster plan? Administrator Craig Fugate will discuss the importance of coordinating the entire national emergency management team—from federal and local partners to communities to the general public—and the role we all play in managing and minimizing risk before, during, and after the next disaster.

About Craig Fugate

W. Craig Fugate began serving as administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in May 2009.

Previously, Fugate served as director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. From 2001 until coming to FEMA, he managed 138 full-time staff and a budget of $745 million. His agency coordinated disaster response, recovery, preparedness, and mitigation efforts with each of the state's 67 counties and local governments.

Fugate began his emergency management career as a volunteer firefighter, emergency paramedic, and lieutenant with the Alachua County Fire Rescue. Eventually, he became the emergency manager for Alachua County in Gainesville, Florida. He spent a decade in that role until May 1997, when he was appointed bureau chief for preparedness and response for the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM).

Within FDEM, Fugate's role as chief of the State Emergency Response Team (SERT) kept him busy during 1998. That year, the SERT team was active for more than 200 days as a result of numerous floods, tornadoes, wildfires, as well as Hurricane Georges.

In September 2003, under Fugate's stewardship, Florida's emergency management program became the first statewide program in the nation to receive full Emergency Management Accreditation Program accreditation.

While at FDEM, Fugate also served as state coordinating officer in Florida for 11 presidentially-declared disasters and managed $4.5 billion in federal disaster assistance.

In 2004, Fugate managed the largest federal disaster response in Florida history as four major hurricanes—Charlie, Frances, Ivan and Jean—hit the state in quick succession. In 2005, Florida was again struck by major disasters when three more hurricanes made landfall in the state (Dennis, Katrina, and Wilma). The impact from Hurricane Katrina was felt more strongly in the Gulf Coast states to the west, but under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, Florida launched the largest mutual aid response in its history to support those states.

Recently, Florida has been spared major hurricane impacts (allthough in 2008 Tropical Storm Fay made history by making landfall in Florida four different times). Fugate spent this time focusing FDEM on preparedness and planning for the future.