Craig Fugate is the former administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), during which time he organized recovery efforts for a record eighty-seven disasters in 2011 alone. Before that, as director of the Florida Emergency Management Division, he coordinated the state鈥檚 response to Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne (the 鈥淏ig 4 of 鈥�04鈥�), and Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina and Wilma in 2005.
At FEMA, Fugate emphasized a 鈥渨hole community鈥� approach to emergency management; spearheaded the effort to build capacity to stabilize catastrophic events within 72 hours; incorporated 鈥淭hunderbolt exercises鈥� using fake disasters and lightning inspections to train emergency operations centers and helped develop smart phone apps for citizens to use to report problems to FEMA.
On a somewhat lighter side, he is also known for the unofficial 鈥淲affle House Index鈥� that FEMA still uses to help determine how much attention a specific disaster area requires. He explains: 鈥淭he Waffle House has a very simple operation philosophy: get open.鈥� So if the local Waffle House is up and running in the wake of a disaster, that鈥檚 probably not the most hard-hit area. If it鈥檚 open but with a limited menu, power outages have probably knocked out freezers. If it鈥檚 still closed, the situation there is really bad and needs immediate attention.
Fugate鈥檚 interest in combatting disasters goes back a very long way. He trained as a volunteer firefighter while still in high school, attended fire college and paramedic school at Santa Fe College, and gradually rose through the ranks of Florida fire and rescue organizations until tapped by Florida Republican governor Jeb Bush in 2001 to become director of the Florida Emergency Management Division. He was then appointed FEMA Administrator by President Obama, with bipartisan support in Congress, and served in that post throughout the Obama administration.
After leaving FEMA, Fugate founded Craig Fugate Consulting LLC. He also founded disastersrus.org, a website with disaster planning advice and resources, and is a licensed amateur radio operator. In November 2020, he was a volunteer member of the Biden presidential transition team for the Department of Homeland Security.
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