# Who the hell is this Fema Director guy?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-this-fema-director-guy/320305>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 6, 2005, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-this-fema-director-guy/320305 "2005-09-06T04:58:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-this-fema-director-guy/320305/21 "2005-09-06T20:13:51Z")

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> [@RickJay](#):
>
> I could cite a litany of people who did a fantastic job heading up organizations in field they had no prior experience in; indeed, sometimes that is exactly the sort of person you need. Brown screwed up because he’s a screwup, not because of his resume.

Having an able administrator come in and shake things up may be just what some agencies need - but for something as technical and detailed as emergency response, I’d think you would want to have someone in charge that has actual experience in the field. Medicaid, for example, is a health-care program, but one that also has a huge finance/insurance component. An insurance executive may be able to come in and do a great job as head administrator at Medicaid. I wouldn’t want him organizing relief efforts during a national disaster.

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**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-this-fema-director-guy/320305/22 "2005-09-06T20:27:13Z")

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> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> Does the head of a department like FEMA _need_ to have experience in emergency response? It has always been my impression that at that level those guys are adminstrators. .

Maybe, but he doesn’t seem to have any experience as administrator of any large organization, either…

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**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-this-fema-director-guy/320305/23 "2005-09-06T20:48:26Z")

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> [@ShibbOleth](#):
>
> I found this the most chilling part of the Post article:

Talk about chilling. Read the first several paragraphs of [this](http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/) National Geographic article from last year.

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**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-this-fema-director-guy/320305/24 "2005-09-06T21:03:11Z")

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> [@jshore](#):
>
> Talk about chilling. Read the first several paragraphs of [this](http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/) National Geographic article from last year.

:eek:

Wow.

The scenario is slightly different; the levees didn’t overtop due to Katrina, but were breached. But still.

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