In nearly three decades working in emergency response, US Civil Defense Chief Deanne Criswell has learned useful lessons in dealing with the tremendous impacts of Hurricane Ian, but also with the political game that such disasters carry.
The first woman to head FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), Criswell has balanced the tables between radical Republican Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, and Democratic President Joe Biden, who traveled to the stricken state. by Ian this Wednesday (5th).
The most public episode took place on Sunday (2), when she needed to clarify a sentence by the American vice president. “Lower-income communities and communities of color are the most impacted by these extreme events and the problems they didn’t cause,” Kamala Harris said on Friday. “The way to solve this is by distributing resources on an equity basis.”
The speech generated a series of reactions, such as that of Senator Rick Scott, who claimed that the policy had asked FEMA to “treat people differently based on the color of their skin”. It was up to Criswell to go public to ease the tension. “I have committed to the governor, to you here, that every citizen of Florida will be able to get the help available through our programs,” he said.
The White House itself acted to defuse potential friction between Biden and DeSantis. According to spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, “there will be many opportunities to debate the differences between the two, but this is not the time.”
The Democrat flew with his wife, Jill, over the hardest-hit areas of Fort Myers, southwest Florida — the death toll is now over 100, and thousands of people remain without power. According to the president, the federal government will finance the removal of rubble and emergency works for two months, but it will take years to rebuild everything that was destroyed.
With the crisis, Criswell gained exposure, participated in press conferences at the White House and, even subordinate to the Department of Homeland Security, opened a direct channel with Biden. On a public agenda last week, the Democrat even said that she was “the most valuable person” at the time.
The public gesture of recognition echoed a compliment made 17 years ago by another president, George W. Bush, to then-FEMA director Michael Brown. “Brownie, you’ve been doing a hell of a good job [‘heck of a job’]”, he said, referring to the response to Hurricane Katrina, in 2005. The agency, however, was the target of frying for not acting properly in the tragedy, which left more than 1,800 dead, and the president’s deference was the target of criticism —Brown then leave the post.
With the recent exposure, Criswell also has his own controversies. On Sunday, he told CNN that the population should take out flood insurance if they want to live on the coast, which was considered insensitive by part of the local press.
“If you live near water or where it rains, there can certainly be flooding,” he said. “Just because you’re not obligated to take out flood insurance doesn’t mean you don’t have the option to take out flood insurance. People need to understand the potential risk — along the coast, inland, on a riverbed or in of tornadoes.”
Before Ian, Criswell’s most important job in the role, which he took over in April 2021, was coordinating federal aid in the Mississippi water crisis between August and September. At the time, after floods and infrastructure problems, residents of the state capital, Jackson, spent days without drinking water in the taps.
She began her career in Colorado and spent 21 years in the Air National Guard, serving in post-9/11 Kuwait and Qatar. She also headed the New York Department of Emergency Management between 2019 and 2021, a period that became critical with the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit the city especially hard.
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