County Employee Recognized at White House

Hours after Hurricane Sandy touched down and devastated the East Coast in November, Leslie Luke with the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services answered a call to join FEMA’s Innovation Team. He was honored for his service this month at the White House.

“It was an honor to be selected for the team and provide input on disaster recovery that will hopefully make a difference to disaster survivors in future emergencies,” said Luke.

Last Wednesday, Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, thanked the FEMA Innovation Team members in the nation’s capital and spoke to them about the Hurricane Sandy challenges and outcomes. The team was later recognized for their contributions in a ceremony at the White House.

As a FEMA Innovation Team member, Luke was given full access to the disaster, recovery centers and FEMA operations. He was tasked with critiquing services offered to disaster survivors. His job was to come in and spot when things weren’t working and to help redesign FEMA’s disaster recovery centers if necessary. The recovery centers are similar to our Local Assistance Centers where disaster survivors can get assistance and information from government and nonprofit groups in one place.

The day-long meeting in Washington D.C. also included a FEMA “think tank” discussion about the response to Hurricane Sandy and about connecting formal to informal channels to provide faster relief to survivors in the future. Key White House staff and FEMA administrators were among the participants.

Overall, Luke said deploying to Hurricane Sandy has given him valuable knowledge and experience which he can apply to emergency management planning in San Diego County.

“It was really interesting to look at a disaster of that magnitude in an area that has the same challenges that we would have in San Diego in an urban setting,” Luke said.

 While a hurricane would be a rare occurrence, some of the resulting damage from flooding, debris management and emergency housing are problems we could encounter and have encountered on a smaller scale during the 2007 wildfires.