To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. FROM FLORIDA TO FEMA from a citizenry lulled into complacency by tales of the state’s hurricane magic. “What we did was set unreasonable expectations in people’s minds,” Sallade said. “We’re good, but it’s not going to be instantaneous.” It wasn’t for want of trying. Fugate had spent the summer trying to get residents out of a victim mentality and into taking a more active role in their own survival. He, in fact, dropped the word “victim” from his public vocabulary. Increasingly,he challenged Floridians to look after themselves and each other, especially within the first 48 hours after a disaster. He continues that mantra today. During numerous public appearances together on the emergency management circuit, Mayfield said Fugate continues to hammer home the idea of preparedness and personal responsibility. “When people ask him if the state was prepared for the hurricane season, he often turns the question on its head,” Mayfield said. “He’d say: ‘Are you and your family prepared?’” Katrina hits and Fugate says “no” “The timing wasn’t right” was all Fugate would say when recently asked why he turned down the top job at FEMA to replace Michael Brown, the disgraced administrator who was fired in the wake of Katrina. Riding a wave of public confidence in his home state, Fugate pulled his name from consideration, saying publicly that he was needed and happy where he was. But the chaos that surrounded FEMA in the wake of Katrina was at least partially to blame. The fact that numerous emergency managers had already turned down the job didn’t help, either, Fugate told the NewYork Times. “To a lot of people, that would be an insult,” Fugate said. Though careful not to criticize fellow emergency responders publicly,in private Fugate was critical of the way local,state and federal officials were taken so flat-footed by such a calamity. After all, hurricanes,like Super Bowls,come with plenty of advanced notice and more than a modicum of hype. Asked about the mayhem and lawlessness that followed the levy breach in New Orleans, Fugate in 2005 noted that, when Katrina was threatening to make landfall in southeast Florida, a much more immediate response had already been set in motion. “We can tell you right now that to secure Miami-Dade (County) would take 6,000 National Guard troops,” Fugate said in a 2005 post-Katrina interview. “That’s our plan.” What to expect During testimony before the US House Committee on Homeland Security in May 2007, Fugate outlined what he called an “all-hazards” approach to disaster management, emphasizing that “all disasters are local” and response should be coordinated, as much as possible, from the ground up. An eight-page transcript of his testimony lays out a framework for emergency response tested in Florida and rethought after Hurricane Katrina. It provides a hierarchy of response that clearly states the role of the federal government in responding to disaster. “This team approach is imperative when addressing the federal role in responding to disasters,” Fugate told the committee. “It is important that the response from the federal level is [that] of 32 June 2009 | Homeland Security Today Magazine This month’s issue is now available online at…