Region I Private Sector Outreach
Transcript of Marty Bahamonde Comments
I want to start this out and just basically tell you a quick little story as to for me personally how this all came together. As you know, FEMA has been in existence since 1979, and we've all had a role in emergency management, but most of that role is dealing with the general public and dealing with our other government partners, both from the state, local and tribal [levels]. There really hasn't been a large interface with the private sector, and it's crazy to think there hasn't been a bigger interface with the private sector, because you make up the majority of the citizenry in this country. There had also been some - trying to do some partnership with them, but really in a disaster situation it really was lacking.
I had the fortune to be down during Hurricane Katrina, and I was put in charge of the External Affairs operation for the three states - Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. It was early on, that from a communications standpoint - you all saw the stories and saw the coverage from the media and stuff like that. From the seat that I sat in, it was very difficult to get information to the general public, to the private sector so to speak through the auspices of the media. They weren't so much interested in the information that we were trying to provide, they were interested in the stories and duly warranted that they were covering during Hurricane Katrina.
What we found is that for the first two or three weeks, it was virtually impossible to communicate to the general public. It was about week three or four after the disaster - I had a conversation with a gentleman who was a business owner in Louisiana and he had roughly 12 to 15 thousand employees in his company throughout Louisiana and I talked to him about that situation and he said to me "You know, if there was some way that I had a relationship with the federal government, or FEMA and if you'd have just sent me some information - through my own internal network, I could have gotten that out to all of my employees. Instead of them having to worry about whether they read the newspaper or watched it on TV or found it out through word of mouth."
He said "I have the capability, because we have business continuity within our company, to reach our employees. I could have gotten that information to my 15 thousand employees."
And a light bulb went off in my head, and I said, you know what that really is a new way of doing business with communication. It's crazy to think that we hadn't come of with that light bulb prior to that event. But once I got back from Hurricane Katrina and got back to the office in Boston, I met with my with my bosses and I said that we have to do something different here in New England. I've talked to my state counterparts, Peter [Judge, the public information officer for Massachusetts Emergency Management, who was in attendance] and we've had several meetings about this and said that there has to be a better way to do this in the event of a catastrophic event that could hit New England.
And we are in a region that has the potential for a catastrophic event. Certainly a hurricane, we're certainly susceptible to earthquakes. I think there was a large earthquake back in the 1800s that did a lot of damage. So we have the potential. Certainly from a terrorist standpoint - Boston and a lot of New England has a lot infrastructure in place - harbors and stuff like that - that are susceptible for a terrorist attack. I came back and said "we need to pull this together".
I've met with several of you on other occasions, but I'm really trying to bring people together and saying "How do we as one big community do this for all of New England and not just you as business, but you as employees. How do I tap into you to get the information out that I'm trying to provide and then how do we know what it is that you need from an emergency standpoint when something happens - when a catastrophic event takes place. Not only for your business, but for your employees. Because the sooner your employees are taken care of, the sooner you can get back to business and the sooner the economy in the area of a catastrophic event can get back on its feet. And so we all have a role together, it's just pulling that together.
What I'm going to be doing after this meeting and I'm certainly going to be tapping in to several of you. I want to form a task force here in New England with all of the state partners and many from the private sector to say "How do we take this to the next step?" I have a lot of great ideas that come from the federal government and that emergency response, but I truly need help from the private sector to say what is it we really need from the private sector. How can we be better partners with you and you be better partners with us? And so, that's a lot of the stuff that I want ot discuss today and get out on the table and really start to come together. Because I think that if we have a catastrophic event here in New England, as they say "that's not the time to be exchanging business cards."
I want to know how to reach the general populace without having to rely on the media. There is a role for the media to play, but it doesn't have to be the beginning and the end for the information that gets out. And so, those are just some of the goals that I'd like to achieve here, and I think by your participation and participation in other meetings that I've held, there's a real interest in moving this kind of initiative forward.
I look forward to your participation today and in the future in really starting to pull something together. DHS is looking very closely at what we're doing here in New England to see how we develop this partnership with the eye of "Where do we take this in the future?" and "How do we spread this throughout the country?" and what I told DHS is while we have a lot of corporations that are headquartered here in New England, they have reach all over the country. And so, while we can start it here in New England, you can't just be a New England initiative. It really has to go somewhere else and become a national initiative. And that just takes time and just takes partnerships and the cooperation of everybody wanting to make a differance. So, like I said, I'm appreciative that you're here and I think we can really make a differance not only for our business, for our government, but for our employees and the citizens of New England.
Opening Comments at Private Sector Outreach Conference - Windsor, CT 7/13/07
Last Modified: Wednesday, 18-Jul-2007 11:06:16 EDT