Butch Kinerney
Butch Kinerney
Butch Kinerney is Chief of Communications for the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration of the Federal Emergency Management Agencyand an expert in risk and crisis communications. He served as acting press secretary for FEMA in 2005-2006, rising to the position immediately following landfall of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. During Katrina and the ongoing recovery in the Gulf Coast, he was quoted more than 30,000 times in the press, from Katrina's first landfall in Florida throughout the tumultuous fallout from FEMA's...
cards everybody gets needs order plenty shelter sure thousands tremendous
This is a tremendous undertaking to try to get debit cards out with $2,000 on them to thousands of people. We've got plenty on hand, and we've got some more on order to make sure that everybody who is in the shelter down there that needs a card gets a card.
everybody mean
Is everybody a little tired? Sure. Does that mean we're not going to go when we get the call? No.
houses lines miles talking trailers
We don't want to put in trailers or houses without utilities. We're talking about miles and miles of lines down.
housing pipeline plenty
We've got plenty of housing units on the road, in the pipeline right now, but we are going to need more.
across changes
There are going to be some significant changes across the board.
building depth improved lucky science situation
It was a combination of both. We got lucky because of the depth of the quake. But without the improved seismological science and improved building codes, I think the situation would have been much more deadly.
affected dangerous door emergency needs open recovery texas tragic
This will open the door for short-term emergency needs as well as long-term recovery needs for all of those affected by the Texas wildfires during this very dangerous and tragic wildfire season.
aside future housing space state time
To our knowledge, this is the first time a state has set aside housing or space for housing for future disasters.
ready storm whatever
We're ready for Wilma and, whatever the storm brings, we're set to go.
anyone build compliance rates wait
You don't need to wait on us, and you don't need to wait on these maps. Rates are not going up for anyone in compliance. As long as you're in compliance now when you build your house, you'll always be in compliance.
backward bent coming fewer gone hotel moving people reach refused rooms run saw six
We've bent over backward to reach out. We've gone door-to-door to all of the 25,000 hotel rooms no fewer than six times. And there are individuals who have refused to come to the door, refused to answer. There are people who have run when they saw us coming -- those are the ones that are now moving on.
active region unusual
This is not a seismically active area. It's unusual for the region to be shaken that way.
breathe days gives options
This gives them another 60 days to breathe and see if there are other options available.
alleged backwards bad bent certainly characters fema happen quickly request
I think that certainly FEMA bent over backwards to try to make this very specialized request happen as quickly as possible. The most important thing is, there are 13 alleged bad characters off the streets.