State Perspective - Mississippi

Mike Womack has served as executive director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) since 2006, working previously as MEMA’s response and recovery director, then for two years as deputy director, during which he helped lead the state’s response to Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of the University of Mississippi, Womack served seven years as an Army officer, then in 1985 he joined the Mississippi Army National Guard, serving in operations, intelligence, civil affairs, and other posts until retiring in 2001 as a lieutenant colonel. Womack is the recipient of multiple Army Commendation and Meritorious Service medals, and the Mississippi Magnolia Cross, the highest peacetime award presented by the state. (His remarks have been edited to accommodate space limitations. Read the full interview online.)

Q. What are your responsibilities? What’s a typical day or week like?

A. We’re responsible for coordination of all state response for emergencies and disasters. We basically serve the same function that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) does on the national level. There’s a separate state Office of Homeland Security that reports to the Commissioner of Public Safety. They focus on prevention of terrorist incidences, and then we share the responsibility for terrorism response preparation.

A typical week? I’m not sure there is such a thing. If we do not have an emergency, then our efforts are focused on preparedness, planning, training, exercises, and mitigation activities. We’re also the agency that handles all recovery activities that deal with FEMA programs, so we have a large public assistance section and a smaller individual assistance section.

Q. How has your job background helped you on the job?

A. As a full-time national guardsman I was involved in various state responses to natural hazards, and that was very valuable because I understand how the state responds. I got to know a lot of different people around the state.

The military also provided me overall operational and organizational skills. A state Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is not substantially different than a tactical operations center for a military organization. The structures are very similar in dealing with people and having to manage large amounts of personnel, equipment, and commodities.

Q. Can you describe your role in the response to Hurricane Katrina?

A. I was the deputy director under a very, very good director, Robert Latham. Robert and I managed the state EOC jointly prior to landfall, though he felt it was important that he actually get to the coast on Saturday for the landfall on Monday morning (August 29, 2005) to encourage local governments to issue early evacuations. So on Saturday I was in charge of the emergency operations center and preparedness for the response.

Robert returned on Sunday and stayed through landfall Monday, and then late Monday evening or early Tuesday morning he went to the coast along with a couple of other key leaders. He was down there for a few days until Gov. Haley Barbour decided to bring the primary agency heads back, because it was almost impossible to communicate via radio or cellular phone.

So for the first four or five days post-landfall I was in charge of the EOC, and then Friday morning Robert and I switched positions. I went to the coast to head up the direct coordination of the resources down on the coast with FEMA and our key state agency partners. We operated in our mobile command centers for the first few weeks, and later a casino hotel powered by a large generator. We spent the next couple of months there, managing all the resources flowing into the state, and identifying what additional resources we needed.

Q. Were you focused on physical recovery or on feeding and sheltering the people still there?

A. It was kind of a sequenced event. As soon as landfall and the winds died down enough to begin search-and-rescue operations, that was our first operational priority, along with emergency medical response. And that was the case for about the first 72 hours.

While that continued to be a priority we had to shift into commodity distribution. And the first commodities we had to get out were water and ice. In a subtropical setting—and the Mississippi coast is pretty close to subtropical the first week in September—you have a great need for water and ice. In the absence of electricity for refrigeration, you need ice to preserve medication and food. So that was our focus up until about Saturday or Sunday.

Then, about a week into the process, in addition to the water and ice distribution, and of course the medical supplies, we start pushing food into the area.

Then finally, we focused on making sure everyone was sheltered in some form or fashion. Within weeks, FEMA started moving residents into temporary trailers, and we worked with them trying to make sure that they knew where to put them; how to work with local governments to set up the placement areas.

Q. What was different about emergency management in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina?

A. Well, prior to Katrina, we were a pretty small agency. We had approximately 60 people. Right now, we have 130 full-time state employees plus approximately 100 temporary employees and contractors.

The other thing that’s very different is the overall focus of the state on preparedness. Prior to Katrina, some agencies really didn’t see the importance. Now they do. And throughout the state you see local governments that are very concerned with it. I think that’s the big difference—that there’s an overall heightened awareness of exactly what could happen.

Q. What did you learn from Katrina that you couldn’t have otherwise?

A. First, I was absolutely amazed by the number of responders that are able to accomplish amazing things with little or no direct guidance. They flow into an area and instinctively know what to do. These responders came in with a spirit of cooperation, worked with local governments, and got the job accomplished.

The second thing that was just amazing was the spirit, courage, and tenacity of the citizens impacted by this storm.  We had done an exercise a few years prior where we forecasted many, many more deaths than actually occurred. And the reason is that if homes are completely inundated or destroyed, you assume that people would die from drowning or other injuries, but that really is not the case. There’s hundreds of stories from the Mississippi Gulf coast of people whose homes fell apart, who then held on to wreckage or held onto the top of a tree, or a neighbor would pull them to a rooftop.  So that’s another lesson; the spirit of the people.

Q. How would you characterize your agency’s relationship with the federal government?

A. Our relationship with FEMA is actually pretty good. During Katrina, there were a number of really great people working at FEMA, there just weren’t enough of them to go around.

I think our biggest problem with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FEMA is the lack of a true all-hazards approach. People at DHS tend to think in terms of terrorism, and FEMA is for the most part concerned about natural hazards. After 9-11, certainly our response to terrorism was up at the top. After Katrina, we may be swinging too far back the other way, but I don’t think so, because there’s still so many resources that are being diverted strictly toward terrorism prevention and response.

Q. Is your agency collaborating with the private sector? If so, how?

A. We have a very good relationship with the private sector, but that’s something that I really want to build on. We’re very strong with our large utilities and with the transportation sector, but what we’ve got to do a better job of is coordinating the large retail companies whatever the commodity is, but particularly those things dealing with medicine, food, and fuel. Some companies are trying to partner with us, but it’s something that we’ve, quite frankly, got to do a better job in Mississippi.

Q. Has the state conducted any major drills recently?

A.  We have a yearly exercise prior to the beginning of hurricane season. It’s more a series of smaller exercises where we work different emergency support functions or different parts of the overall plan, and then, it is finished off with a large-scale state-level exercise that the governor and his cabinet participate in. The one we did this last spring was very good with representation from all state agencies and a lot of local governments as well. The intensity level was just tremendous, and the participation of the governor really set the tone.

We participate with other exercises whether they’re regional or even national. In fact we’re in preparation now for a large-scale planning initiative for the New Madrid Fault, where we’re working on local plans. We’ll develop modifications to our state plans in February, and then that’ll be rolled into the regional plan for what amounts to the central and north Mississippi Valley, all the states along there.

Q. What are your goals for the coming year?

A. There are still a lot of counties in Mississippi that don’t have a lot of resources, and we’ve got to increase the capabilities of the emergency functions there. The other goal would be regional planning and exercising with other Southeastern states. It just doesn’t make sense for each state to try to develop all the resources to respond to a major storm or type of event alone when we can be in Georgia in eight hours or in Arkansas if they got the brunt of an earthquake. So this work between the regions is really important to me, and I’m going to try to develop that.