EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
David Halstead accepted the governor’s invitation to serve as deputy director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management when the former
director Craig Fugate left to become FEMA Administrator in May 2009.
Halstead Keeping His
‘Boots on the Ground’
By KENNETH SCHROEDER, CBCP
David Halstead obviously has not strayed far from his back- ground of the ready boots and bunker suit, the klaxon, and the
highly polished red engines. With office
walls adorned with pictures and memorabilia reflecting his fire-fighter background,
Halstead is head of the Florida Division
of Emergency Management. He has had a
life-long career in the emergency management world, with his roots in the fire-fighting community in the city of Altamonte
Springs, Florida. After his retirement
from that arena, he came to Tallahassee to
work for the State Emergency Response
Team (SERT). When the former director Craig Fugate left to become FEMA
Administrator in May 2009, Halstead
accepted the governor’s invitation to serve
as division interim deputy director. He
was confirmed as the permanent director
in April of 2010.
However, this year has proven diffi-
cult to meet that training challenge. The
Florida Emergency Operations Center
(EOC) was activated for almost half of
2010 – 29 days for Haiti Earthquake Relief
and 120 days for the Deepwater Horizon
event. He said the problem with both of
these events was “Nobody had ever done
it before! The scope of both disasters was
overwhelming.”
According to Halstead, the Haiti relief
effort presented unique organizational
challenges as it involved the repatriation of
some 26,000 individuals and moving mas-
sive relief supplies in and out of Florida,
with all the logistical coordination
issues associated with that effort.
The Deepwater Horizon event
presented some other
unique challenges.
“While ICS func-
tions worked well at
the local level such
as at the well-head, the
functions seemed to break
down when all activities were
directed out of the Unified Command
Center in Mobile,” said Halstead. “They
tried to run the operation like the Exxon
Valdez, which was a localized event. It
wasn’t! We’ve never had an event that
His “boots on the ground” philosophy
permeates the division.
“Our mission is to support the local
emergency manager in any way we can,
We have some really sharp people,
but suffer from a lot of turnover, as staff
answer the call to higher paying offers.
Keeping our organization honed to be
able to come together and react rapidly
is vital.”
