Word: fema
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...native of Wildcat Hollow, Arkansas, Witt, 49, had only three months earlier taken charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, long derided as a dumping ground for political hacks and feckless bureaucrats. Most recently, FEMA was blamed for mishandling relief efforts after Hurricane Andrew. Witt has brought to the agency the frontline verve he had shown in official posts in Arkansas where, when snowstorms closed rural roads, he could be found standing on the tailgate of a pickup truck, spreading salt to clear the way for motorists. In times of flood, Witt stacked sandbags and drove a bulldozer...
...Since FEMA's founding in 1979, Witt is the first director to have emergency- management experience. And his 20-year friendship with the President has given Witt clout among Cabinet agencies with which his agency must coordinate $ emergency relief. But Witt has also won praise for his energetic efforts to reform and streamline the hapless agency. On his desk, he placed a warning, penned on a plain sheet of paper: WHEN ENTERING THIS ROOM, DO NOT SAY "WE'VE NEVER DONE IT THIS WAY BEFORE...
Witt has made four visits to the flood region and has swiftly provided victims with cash and other help, including a fleet of massive trucks that offer emergency communications, electrical power and water purification. Even FEMA's most vociferous congressional critic, Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, seems to have softened, saying of Witt, "He absolutely gets A's for effort." His midnight bus ride to Madison might indicate that he has a lot to learn about the high-powered ways of Washington. Then again, maybe Washington could learn a thing or two from James Lee Witt...
Suffering and losses may be eased this time because the Federal Emergency Management Agency is moving with uncharacteristic speed and vigor. From its creation 14 years ago right through Hurricane Andrew in Florida last summer, FEMA built a reputation for bumble-footed sluggishness. Democratic Senator Ernest Hollings once called its officials "the sorriest bunch of bureaucratic jackasses." Under a new administrator, James Lee Witt, however, FEMA has moved quickly to set up offices in at least eight flooded states. Regional staffs actually went into some areas before flooding became serious to help state officials apply for disaster assistance. Witt...
...FEMA HEAD JAMES LEE WITT...