Part 1: After Fugate, Prospects for FEMA’s Top Job
Part 2: After Fugate, Prospects for FEMA's Top Job
Craig is leaving behind big shoes to be filled. The Louisiana flooding, Texas flooding before that and now the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew are the most recent tests of FEMA's response capabilities. While the blogger above mentions that FEMA has escaped any big negative stories, I'd disagree because of the media light that was shown on the National Flood Insurance Program following Superstorm Sandy and the debacle that the claims process became for people with damages.
As for the cast of characters provided in the links. It appears to me that those personalities mentioned in Part 1 are much stronger contenders than those mentioned in Part 2. The wild card remains that this is a political appointment. And while I think the person selected will have emergency management "somewhat" in their background, the person's political connections may have more pull than qualifications. Just sayin', I've seen this play out before.
Personally I'd advocate for someone with both local and state experience in emergency management. Plus, a person coming from a "big state" and ideally, a person who has been tested already "by going through the fire" of a big disaster. I'm not in favor of anyone who has just had a security background or only federal experience. A little mud on the boots is very helpful to being able to counter HQ staff who are blowing smoke about how good a response is going.
Craig has not been perfect. Just look into the status of the disaster reservist program today to know there are some holes in their ability to field experienced people. But I'll take his performance over almost any of his predecessors.
