Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
Finally, a decision I can get behind…I hope. Or at least one that I can say makes me hopeful. The President appointed Craig Fugate, the Emergency Manager for the State of Florida to head FEMA. I wish him well. It will be good for us Emergency Management types to have someone at FEMA who’s been around the block a time or two. I sincerely hope the bureaucracy doesn’t get to him.
BUT…the media….OMG…the media! Here are the headlines on MSNBC:
Obama picks Florida’s Fugate to head FEMA
President nominates Republican emergency manager to lead agency
See the whole article here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29512415/
<sigh> First let me say that I haven’t a clue whether Mr. Fugate is a Republican or a Democrat. The point is that is shouldn’t matter. He was APPOINTED to his position at the State of Florida and has been APPOINTED to his position at FEMA. He’s not elected…he’s not representing constituents…he’s not making laws. He’s performing duties assigned to him. It shouldn’t matter if he’s Republic, Democrat, Independent or Klingon! You know, it seems odd to me that the current state of affairs has made it ok to discriminate against people because of their political affiliation, but it’s not ok to discrimate because of their race. I can be hated because I’m Republican but you can’t hate me because I’m white. I don’t get it. But I digressed a little…
The point is the media can bend a word here and twist a phrase there and suddenly, Mr. Fugate seems like the enemy (again, he may or may not be Republican…I have no idea). But you can bet…there are people all over the country overlooking his skill as an Emergency Manager and saying things like, well FEMA ain’t gonna get no better because he’s just another damn Republican. Sad….
Posted in Managing Emergencies, Politics and Current Events | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
I just had to get these pictures up on the blog. Monday and Tuesday of this week I spent in HazMat First Responder Operations Training. Most of the training was kind of “death by powerpoint,” but I did learn some stuff. Emergency Management is kind of a funny field, but mostly it’s made up of people who once (or in some cases still) worked in law enforcement or fire fighting. Occasionally I feel like a duck out of water because I’ve never worked “in the field” as a first responder. One of my coworkers said that I wasn’t so far behind because I do have experience in dispatching and working with police officers so I have an awareness of what happens in the field. I thought that was nice of him.
But anyways…I didn’t suit up in the HazMat suits today. It was a little muggier than I wanted and one of the instructors said he didn’t want us suiting up if we had high blood pressure. The other issue is that I’m EXTREMELY claustrophobic. They were willing to work with me on that. I did put on an airpack but didn’t hook it up. They’re not heavy but I imagine they would get that way after a while. I did manage to put on one of the SCBA masks and keep it on for a bit…long enough to snap a picture.
Breathe Normally
And finally we got a picture of the whole group taking the class in front of the exercise trailer. The guys on either side of me are my coworkers. On my right is Lee and on the left is Colin. It was actually a pretty fun day. We passed the test. They both aced it, but I let the team down. I missed one for a 96.
Here’s the group!
HazMat First Responder Operations Training - January 27, 2009
Posted in Managing Emergencies | 6 Comments »
