The second Sunday after FEMA Public Affairs Officer Ed Conley arrived in Haiti, in the aftermath of the country’s catastrophic earthquake he attended an outdoor multidenominational service at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince.
Gathering amid almost total devastation, and with a growing sense of desperation among the earthquake’s survivors, the chaplain issued an inspiring call to action to the nearly 100 people in attendance — but with a twist.
“He said he wanted to be out digging in the rubble too, trying to free those who might still be trapped, but that would be wrong for him,” Conley said. “He said that was not his job, and that he would just be getting in the way. Then he asked everyone to remember what their jobs were, to think about how they could best help. He said every job, no matter how small, would help build a foundation for Haiti’s recovery, and would make us all part of the same team that was digging in the rubble.”
Photo: Ed Conley is a public affairs officer for FEMA. Courtesy of Michael Rieger/FEMA.
It is a simple yet powerful message, one that can allow determined steps forward even in the face of seemingly overwhelming challenges and insurmountable obstacles. It is a message that Conley has long since taken to heart, developed over the course of 20 years responding to disasters, emergencies and other significant national events for FEMA.
Watched Government's Role Change
Conley had been with FEMA for just a short time when he was deployed to Puerto Rico in September 1989, a few days after Hurricane Hugo struck. From that time on he was hooked.
“Many of the people I worked with on that first deployment are still my good friends today,” he said. “I think that’s what made me think I found my calling — the teamwork, the camaraderie and the chance to help your country, even in a small way, at an historic moment.”
Justo Hernandez, a Puerto Rico native who is now a federal coordinating officer for FEMA, met Conley on that initial assignment. The two have served together often in the years since, developing what Hernandez calls “a friendship that surpasses disaster work. Ed is always the one person running to a meeting that no one wants to go to, especially if the agency is going to get a black eye.”
Conley quickly discovered an affinity for external relations, working with community leaders, news media and congressional offices, and he settled in as the public affairs officer for FEMA Region VIII, based in Denver.
Since then, Conley has been witness to some of the most noteworthy incidents of the last two decades, many so familiar they scarcely require more than a single word to describe, including: Andrew, 9/11 and Katrina. There have also been scores of smaller events, the floods, ice storms, wildfires, tornadoes and other natural disasters that strike the United States with alarming yet predictable frequency.
The California native and father of three estimates he has been part of 150 to 200 disaster responses plus other special events, like the 2002 Winter Olympics and the 2009 presidential inauguration. Every deployment is unique and he keeps in mind that, “Each disaster may be the worst one ever for that community, no matter how it compares to anything else.” Still, he has seen definite shifts in the way FEMA, and the federal government as a whole, prepares for and responds to large-scale incidents.
Prior to Hugo and Andrew the federal government’s role had primarily been to supplement and support communities, with an emphasis on recovery, according to Conley. But the magnitude of those hurricanes showed that some events could so completely overwhelm local and state resources that the federal government had to take a more active stance.
“The agency was not in the best shape after Hugo and Andrew, and we really had to rethink and refine our role,” he said. Beginning in 1993, FEMA started to tap into more of its resources, with mitigation emerging as the cornerstone of its emergency management philosophy. “The Midwest floods affected nine states and 500 counties,” Conley said, “so it was clear that something had to be done to start reducing the impact of those events.”
The 9/11 attacks changed things again, spurring the formation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and adding terrorism to the range of catastrophic incidents the nation had to prepare for and protect against.
“Despite the increased resources at the federal level, strong local leadership will always matter,” Conley said. “FEMA will never know a community as well as the people who live there. They are there before the event, and they are going to be there after we leave.”
Conley pointed to two important new areas of emphasis since Craig Fugate took over as FEMA administrator last year, designed to move the nation toward a less “government-centric” emergency management model: FEMA must not look at people as a liability in an emergency because they are an asset; and FEMA is not the team, it’s part of the team.
“It’s really about building relationships with the public, with our partners at the state and local levels, with colleagues in other federal agencies,” he said. “There has to be understanding, trust, respect and communication. And we need to form these relationships before something happens because they are what will carry us through in a disaster.”
Thinking in Threes
Conley made it to Haiti on the night of Jan. 14, two days after the earthquake struck. He flew to Port-au-Prince on a U.S. Coast Guard C-130 from Miami.
Once in Haiti, Conley joined five FEMA colleagues — Dan Stoneking, Terry Ingram, Darryl Madden, Frank Mansell and team leader Bob Jensen — to provide public affairs technical assistance for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the lead U.S. agency for international humanitarian relief. FEMA also supplied logistics, communications and planning specialists, bringing the total number of agency staff in the country to approximately two dozen, among the thousands of others there from the United States and around the world.
The team lived and worked at the U.S. Embassy (one of two main staging areas, along with the international airport), setting up an interagency Joint Information Center (JIC) to provide information about the ongoing relief efforts. The JIC was primarily a U.S. government undertaking, but it was in regular communication with the government of Haiti, the United Nations, nongovernmental organizations and the international community.
Though the mission of the JIC was clear from the beginning, with so much to do it was hard to know where to start. "It's difficult whenever you step into a disaster with such a huge scope of impact, and the normal basic capabilities you count on to do your job aren’t there," Conley said. "In Haiti you had almost every pre-existing challenge you could think of, and then you had a catastrophic disaster on top of that.”
The entire scope of the event — a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hitting an already weakened infrastructure in a densely populated developing nation; severe impacts to all critical facilities; extremely limited transportation and communication; disrupted service at the port and airport; government offices damaged and destroyed; widespread devastation that affected virtually every local resident — was beyond anything you could prepare for.
One technique Conley has developed over the years that served him well in Haiti is to think in threes: “Especially when it seems so overwhelming, it always helps me to establish a goal and then think of the first three things I need to do to accomplish it. In this case, our initial steps were to get to the embassy, locate a spot to set up and establish basic communication.”
Though phone service was unreliable, the JIC team found that BlackBerrys with international service still worked, and the embassy staff managed to establish Internet capability within a day. A JIC e-mail inbox went online soon thereafter and the staff quickly started coordinating and sharing response and recovery information with Haitian, U.S. and international audiences.
“I’m proud of the JIC’s success as an integrated interagency unit,” Conley said. “It showed that in a crisis, the more you work together and the more you coordinate, not only is your individual component stronger but the entire team is stronger.”
Watch Heroes Emerge
For Conley, one of the most rewarding aspects of his job is seeing people at their best when a situation is at its worst. “It’s amazing to watch local leaders emerge when they are needed most,” he said. “In every disaster people rise to the occasion and help their communities through difficult times. And it’s FEMA’s job to help support that local leadership when it emerges.”
One such leader is Pat Owens, former mayor of Grand Forks, N.D., during the devastating flood in April 1997. More than 50,000 residents were forced to evacuate when, after a winter of record snowfall, the Red River rose and overran its dikes. A fire later broke out downtown, destroying 11 buildings in the heart of the city.
Conley managed FEMA’s field office in Grand Forks and developed a close relationship with Owens, who had been elected to the part-time post just a few months before. “When things looked the bleakest she provided positive leadership,” Conley said of Owens. “She had the right words to express hope for the future, and she worked so hard to build a strong partnership. We all felt like we were part of the same team.”
James Lee Witt, who headed the federal response in North Dakota in 1997, one of more than 350 disasters he oversaw as FEMA director from 1993 to 2001, said caring and committed staff will always be the agency’s greatest resource. “People like Ed are the heart of FEMA,” Witt said. “I’ve worked with him many times over the years, in some very tough circumstances. He is among the absolute best at what he does, and he cares deeply about helping others.”
Upon returning from Haiti, Conley packed another bag and was off to Brussels, Belgium, where he is currently serving as FEMA representative for the U.S. Mission to NATO. While he admits to still trying to find the right personal and professional balance, it is the excitement and promise of traveling into the unknown that continues to motivate him.
“Every disaster is an opportunity to see people rise to the occasion and help their families and their communities,” he said. “And each time, you get to keep a small piece of the good you see in people during those difficult moments, and it becomes part of who you are.”
Brett Hansard is manager of the Risk Communication and Management program at Argonne National Laboratory. He is also a public affairs reservist with FEMA. He can be contacted at bhansard@anl.gov.
