Craig Fugate Consulting LLC

04/08/2026

Beyond The Blog, Community Preparedness Recovery and Resiliency
Lessons in Disasters: A Look Inside the Rising Resilience Podcast Episode Featuring Former FEMA Administrator, Craig Fugate
Posted on March 30, 2026 by Leah Verier-Dunn, consultant with The Patterson Foundation

Following the inaugural Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Summit: Rising Resilience, Ready Together, I had the pleasure of sitting down with our Keynote Speaker, Craig Fugate, for an in-depth discussion about the disaster ecosystem. Craig, former FEMA Administrator, has served roles in...

08/22/2025

PERSPECTIVE: Public Broadcasting Saves Lives

Here’s the bottom line: local public broadcasting stations save lives. That’s not a slogan. It’s a fact.

07/07/2025

Craig Fugate's Deadly Seven Sins of Emergency Management

Former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, drawing from decades of disaster experience, identified critical flaws in how emergency management is often practiced. These "Deadly Seven Sins" serve as warnings against complacency, bureaucracy, and shortsighted planning.

1. We plan for what we are capable of responding to. Instead of preparing for catastrophic events, we often design plans around what systems can currently deliver. This guarantees failure when the event exceeds those limits.

2. We plan for our communities by placing the "too hard to do" in an annex. People with access and functional needs, children, the elderly, and pets are frequently sidelined into planning annexes—rather than being part of core planning. This marginalizes those who are often the most vulnerable.

3. We exercise to success. Too many drills are scripted to "go right." Real preparedness means stress-testing systems, embracing uncertainty, and discovering failure points.

4. We think our emergency response system can scale up from emergency to disaster. Emergency response systems don't automatically scale to meet catastrophic needs. Disasters break the system—they don’t just stress it.

5. We build our emergency management team around government, leaving out volunteer organizations, the private sector, and the public. A government-centric approach ignores the real capabilities of the Whole Community. Effective emergency management integrates all sectors.

6. We treat the public as a liability. Communities are seen as problems to manage, not partners in response. This mindset underestimates the resilience, resourcefulness, and critical role of the public.

7. We price risk too low to change behavior, and as a result, we continue to grow risk. Risk is underestimated in markets, policies, and development decisions. Without true pricing of risk, society continues to build vulnerability into the system.

Takeaway: Avoiding these seven sins requires bold thinking, uncomfortable conversations, and a commitment to inclusive, realistic, and scalable preparedness. As Fugate often says: "Hope is not a plan."

07/07/2025

Statement from Craig Fugate, Former FEMA Administrator, on the Deadly Flooding in Texas
July 7, 2025

“The tragic flooding in Texas has once again reminded us how quickly water can become deadly — and how much is still at stake when it comes to protecting lives. My thoughts are with the families and communities reeling from this loss.

In the wake of disasters like this, we often ask: ‘What went wrong?’ But too often, we don’t have a system that answers that question clearly, independently, or publicly — and even more important, we rarely ask: ‘What can we change before the next event?’

That’s why I continue to support the creation of a National Disaster Safety Board.

Modeled after the National Transportation Safety Board, this kind of independent review body could be instrumental in examining deadly floods in Texas and beyond — not to assign blame, but to identify missed opportunities and recommend improvements across the board: in weather forecasting, emergency communication, response coordination, and public education.

We investigate plane crashes to make the next flight safer. We should treat disasters the same way. A National Disaster Safety Board would help us learn faster, act smarter, and ultimately save lives.”

06/30/2025

W. Craig Fugate has seen reluctance to wean off FEMA grants from all levels of government. He served as FEMA administrator under Obama and, before that, as head of Florida’s emergency management division under then-Govs. Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist.

“My experience tells me locals will not step up unless they are dealing with a catastrophe,” Fugate said.

Because most of the preparedness grants require no match from state or local governments, he said, it strips away any motivation for them to do so — especially with other pressing needs vying for those dollars.

“The real question is how much of this is actually critical and should be the responsibility of local governments to fund?” Fugate said. “Neither local governments nor states have been very forward in funding beyond the minimums to match federal dollars.”

Many states rely on the federal government for the vast majority of their emergency management funding. Now, local leaders are looking for clues about the money — and the future of FEMA itself.

06/10/2025

NPR and FRONTLINE investigated how communities are building back from disasters.

10/02/2024

The ‘only explanation’ for a striking pattern
The idea that storms cause a long-term spike in death rates comes as no surprise to W. Craig Fugate, a Florida native and veteran of too many hurricanes to count. In more than a decade leading Florida’s emergency management division and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Fugate has seen how “the trauma is not over when you’re finished rebuilding.”

Of more than 500 hurricanes that have hit the United States, the average storm led to up to 11,000 excess deaths, hundreds of times higher than official estimates.

07/19/2024

Hospital preparedness for one of the worst predicted hurricane seasons on record – why this time is different

07/19/2024

Futuri Media is Hiring

Director, Futuri Public Safety Platforms

About the role Futuri is seeking an experienced emergency management professional to represent our cutting-edge public safety technology in...

07/12/2024

https://apnews.com/article/tropical-weather-hurricanes-berly

Former Federal Emergency Management Director Craig Fugate has some advice for people following storms: Don't judge their severity on how big a number they've been assigned.

05/09/2024

Had the honor of speaking today at the
25th Anniversary of the University of Florida Fire and Emergency Services program. https://dcp.ufl.edu/rinker/academics/online/fire-and-emergency-services