WASHINGTON (AP) — While Hurricane Florence barreled through the Carolinas, a different type of storm was brewing within the federal disaster relief agency tasked with responding to the fallout.
The fate of Brock Long, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was cast in doubt with revelations that he was being investigated by Homeland Security’s internal watchdog and a congressional committee for the possible misuse of government vehicles.
The watchdog, the inspector general’s office, has turned the review over to federal prosecutors to determine whether any criminal charges are warranted, according to a person familiar with the probe. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation and requested anonymity.
Long, a well-respected emergency manager, says he is not focused on the probes.
“I am fully focused on those impacted by Hurricane Florence,” he said in a statement Monday evening, after being asked for comment on the investigation.
But some emergency management experts say the investigations are a distraction for the beleaguered agency as it deals with the worst storm of the year.
Beverly Cigler, co-chair of a Hurricane Katrina task force set up by the American Society for Public Administration, said Long has been working hard but that “any organization has to have active engaged leadership at the very top.”
“You don’t want your FEMA administrator to be under investigation that’s going to distract you somewhat no matter how focused you are,” said Cigler, a Penn State distinguished professor emerita.
Rafael Lemaitre, who was a senior FEMA official in the Obama administration, said the timing was troubling.
“For these allegations to emerge in the hours before landfall of a major hurricane is a huge distraction to the work the FEMA administrator is doing,” he said.
The agency is already under pressure after a grueling hurricane season last year that included Harvey, Irma and Maria. The federal response to Maria in Puerto Rico was widely criticized; President Donald Trump has lashed out over the criticism and suggested without evidence the revised death toll of nearly 3,000 was a conspiracy made up by Democrats.
Long has not been asked to resign. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversees FEMA, has said she has confidence in him. Other Trump administration officials have lost their jobs over ethics issues related to travel, but they involved more outsized allegations.
Long, 43, took over as FEMA administrator in June 2017. He has extensive emergency management experience — a federal requirement for the job since the Bush administration’s bungled response to Katrina. He previously served in Alabama as the director of emergency management.
The investigations center on whether Long used government-owned vehicles for visits home to Hickory, North Carolina. It’s not uncommon for an inspector general to refer cases so federal prosecutors can determine whether charges are warranted, and it doesn’t mean he’ll be charged with a crime.
Meanwhile, Long has until Oct. 1 to turn over documents to the House Oversight Committee related to travel and hotels possibly used by FEMA employees who were required to accompany him on the personal trips.
Long has largely kept a low public profile during Florence. He’d been front-and-center at press briefings as FEMA managed Hurricane Lane in Hawaii earlier this month.
After the news broke of the investigation last week, Long appeared at a briefing in Washington to say he was fully focused on the storm preparations and would fully comply with the probe.
“Doing something unethical is not part of my DNA and it’s not part of my track record in my whole entire career,” Long said then.
But on Tuesday, he spoke at a North Carolina news conference with other emergency managers.
“It’s really important for me to get out of D.C. and to be on the ground to be able to help North Carolina,” Long said.
State emergency management head Mike Sprayberry thanked him for his work, as did Gov. Roy Cooper.
“Right now FEMA is giving us what we need,” Cooper said.
Before the storm struck, FEMA had deployed more than 8 million bottles of water and meals, plus generators, blankets, tarps and cots to North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. It was acting on lessons learned following Maria, when it had underestimated the food and fresh water needed, and how hard it would be to get supplies to the island.
It’s too early to gauge FEMA’s response. While the storm has moved away, the rivers are still rising.
This is emblematic of one of the things that’s wrong with our government. Top officials don’t get into trouble for doing a lousy job. They get in trouble for using charter flights, or for filling up the Wagon Queen Family Truckster with a government credit card. Somebody like Pruitt, for example, should have been shitcanned for doing absolutely nothing to protect the environment. But no.
Brock Long is going to make ‘THE WETTEST WATER LESS WETTEST’ Per The Dumpster!
Great Job Brockly!!
@COLLEENLONG
If you had taken five minutes with Mr. Chrome you would have been able to report the following about Long’s “extensive” experience.
Brock Long
Long was an emergency management official in Georgia, where he served as the Statewide Planner/School Safety Coordinator for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency from September 1999 to November 2001.[3] He worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency as Hurricane Program Manager from November 2001 to January 2006.[4] Long was the Southeast Regional Director for Beck Disaster Recovery from February 2007 to February 2008.
Long headed the Alabama Emergency Management Agency from 2008 to 2011 under Governor Bob Riley and developed the state’s response to the H1N1 influenza. During the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, he was the State Incident Commander for the Alabama Unified Command.[5]
In 2011, Long joined the emergency management consulting firm Hagerty Consulting, where he was executive vice president.[6]
Steve Hagerty
Hagerty worked in the Office of Government Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers, consulting with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, before founding his own emergency management firm, Hagerty Consulting, in 2001.[7] After the September 11 attacks, Hagerty and his firm managed the federal government’s $7.4 billion public assistance fund.[6] Hagerty Consulting also assisted in rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Katrina.
First I’m not too sure just how much extensive emergency planning was being done at the state levels in Alabama and Georgia, but I suspect it was less than stellar.
The big thing I noticed about Long’s “extensive” experience is that almost all of it was managing emergencies AFTER they happened. There seems to be no experience with planning how to avoid emergencies.
Hmm… but if you make your living from 2011 onward by working on federal contracts dealing with the aftermath of emergencies, just how interested are you in preventing them?
I find it amazing that almost every article I read about this guy describes him as ‘super competent’, but then also points out what a disaster the response was in Maria and how ‘nobody knew how hard ot would be to repond on an island’. Doesn’t sound so competent to me, and I am living in the hurricane response zone for this one, so here’s to hoping that that ‘super competence’ starts showing itself? (Unlike the wildfire responses, the other hurricane responses, or the rest of the incompetently managed disaster responses he has overseen). Maybe one of the problems in this country is our habit of ‘respecting’ people ‘in charge’ before we can actually determine whether they are actually good at what they’re doing? I know our ‘president’ wants advance credit for everything he does, but do we really have to give it to his ‘friends’ too?