WFTND Blog Information

An emergency manager trying to make a difference.

The name of the blog comes from a conversation with my daughter, where she told me that I was always looking to help people be prepared for the inevitable emergencies in life.

I started this blog as a place to assemble all the information that I was getting every day and to share my thoughts and ideas on emergency management.

I had no idea how much of the blog would wind up being what's in the news. While it does not take a lot to add a blog entry, I just did not realize how much of my day was involved with simply keeping up with what's going on. All of the posts, whether what's in the news or comments or just a piece of information, have a purpose; to get us thinking, to get us talking, and to make things better - in other words, to make a difference.

Hopefully this blog will save you some time and energy, or help you in some other way. If you would like to see something, please let me know.

Posting an article does not imply that I agree with the comments in the article. In fact, in many case, I do not agree, but feel that the comments should be part of the discussion. All opinions are welcome. I only ask that you remain considerate and professional of other opinions.

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Favorite Quotes for the Emergency Manager

  • “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
  • “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
  • “Failing to plan is planning to fail”
  • “Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.” Denis Waitley
  • "Station 51, KMG365."
  • “One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” Arnold H. Glasgow
  • “An ostrich with its head in the sand is just as blind to opportunity as to disaster”
  • “The powers in charge keep us in a perpetual state of fear keep us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.” Douglas MacArthur
  • “My ideas have undergone a process of emergence by emergency. When they are needed badly enough, they are accepted.” Buckminster Fuller
  • “Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”
  • "If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, ..." Rudyard Kipling
  • "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." Aldous Huxley

Thursday, March 5, 2009

PR NEWSWIRE: AFGE to FEMA Nominee: We'll Pick You Up!

WASHINGTON, March 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The announcement of Craig Fugate to head up FEMA couldn't have come at a better time, American Federation of Government Employees National President John Gage said today in response to President Obama's announcement of intent to name Fugate FEMA administrator.

"The recent sexual harassment and retaliation scandal in the Louisiana FEMA office was just the tip of the iceberg," said Leo Bosner, chief steward of AFGE FEMA Local 4060. "FEMA is rife with corruption and mismanagement, and our best employees continue to be discouraged and driven out by this.

"This is an agency still suffering from a failure in leadership, the heavy influence of political appointees, a lack of strategic direction and coordination, poor and unqualified management, over-reliance on contractors, undervaluation of employees, hostile work environments, wasteful spending, duplication of effort, and a systemic failure across the agency to integrate proven principles and concepts of emergency and incident management into programs and operations," the Local wrote in its recent report, Shattering the Illusion of FEMA's Progress.

"AFGE gets more complaints than ever from the employees, and we now have a half-dozen major grievances pending arbitration," Bosner said. "FEMA is desperately in need of strong, experienced leadership to get us back on track, and we believe that Craig Fugate is the one to do this.

"How soon can he get here? Tell him to give me a call if he needs a ride from the airport. I'll pick him up myself," Bosner added.

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