, you do not understand, mr. vice president. people need to hear this and need to hear it from you. the final surprise is that it was powerful. announcer: richard norton smith with his book "an ordinary man." you can listen to q&a and all our podcasts on the free c-span now app. announcer: c-span is unfiltered view of government, funded by these television companies and more, including comcast. >> you think this is a community center? it is more than that. >> comcast is partnering with a thousand community centers to provide wi-fi so students and familiesan have the tools they

need to be ready for everything. announcer: comcast supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. we are joined by the former fema administrator during the obama administration, craig fugate, to talk about federal disaster response. welcome. you are currently in florida. can you tell us what you are seeing their and if you can assess the damage of hurricane a donya compared to other -- hurricane idalia compared to other hurricanes in the past? guest: this is in an area that does not usually see hurricanes. back in 1993, there was a storm called "storm of the century" that devastated these communities. one thing i was watching as i

started seeing images come out was the difference between homes built after those storms and the ones that were not. in florida, the building codes work. the homes that were built later stayed up. the homes that were not were destroyed. but this is a very remote area. this is a very agricultural based region. there is not big populations like you would see in south florida. and a lot of the responses being driven by power restoration. then the potential is focused back on coastal communities were storm surge bank and areas got a lot of damage. host: president biden is set to visit florida today. tell me about how the presidential visits help. to they help better inform the president, do they help the people affected?

guest: several things. this goes back to the role the president has to come down and reassure residents that the federal government will be here well after the cameras leave. once a big disaster happens, everyone is paying attention to it, then there are other crises that occur. people in the community say, what about us? i think the president wants to understand it does not matter the national media coverage. fema and other places will be working with these communities over the next few years. host: how would you rate the biden administration's response to the hurricane? guest: i was watching. to me, it is unfortunately a very typical response, well in their will house. this was not a large population center. one of the things we did was make sure we have the ability to

go in with the boats and do water rescues. our service direct -- i also served under governor bush who has a very robust mechanism to respond to the storms. it started in 2005 and continued with hurricane arm a and hurricane ian. with florida, this was not where a lot of the response capabilities were, to they were able to pool resources from south florida and central florida to help with the response. host: can you talk us through the role fema plays in a run up to a hurricane in preparation, and during and after? guest: what is the first things fema will do as we start seeing hurricanes and other things occurring is many reach the threshold that require federal assistance. they will work with the state and counterparts, and send teams into the state, as they begin

operating from emergency operating center's. fema does not wait until there is a formal disaster request. fema sends teams in to get ready. the lesson we learned from hurricane katrina. you cannot wait until the governor is asking for help until you mobilize the resources. fema runs into states. other states may be affected, as we saw with this hurricane. you had it getting into georgia and the carolinas. first, get people in so you are synced up. then, start with the at what they need. they started moving search and rescue teams in, ending commodities ready and generators ready. one of the concessions as fema is a big part of the initial response, but they are not. there are generally coming in behind the state and local

responders. this is true in this case. as the storm hits and he starts getting an idea of impact, fema begins shifting to what we call immediate needs. that will be after search-and-rescue is done. a question a lot of people have is, public shelters, longer-term and housing, maybe immediate financial assistance like people who did not have insurance to get started. fema, at the request of the governor, start turning on these programs and getting people to help register for these programs to start assessing what these needs will be. and looking at the longer-term responsibilities. all this is taking place, synced up with the state. fema supports the government. when you think there may be something happening, getting in with the state, putting people

in