Deanne criswell talks about the role of Emergency Managers and cyber threat during natural disasters. This portion is about 45 minutes. Good morning and welcome, everyone. I am the executive here at the Atlantic Council. On behalf of the Atlantic Council good morning and l welcome, everyone. My name is jenna. I am the executive Vice President here at the Atlantic Council. On behalf of the Atlantic Council as well as our formal Defense Program within that scope cross center for strategy and security, i am delighted to welcome all of you to the latest event under our future of dhs project titled resilience in u. S. Communities. To our esteemed speakers, thank you so much for joining us here today. The future of dhs project convenes leaders and divides recommendations to assist u. S. National Security Officials as they transform the department of Homeland Security to protect the u. S. Homeland from threats such as natural disasters, pandemics for terrorism and other future threats. Todays event is the final installment of the future of dhs project series. Over the course of the project, we have had the honor of hosting a series of really important convenings, all of which you can find online. These include hosting three former secretaries of dhs. For a conversation exploring how the agency should realign their priorities to meet todays pressing threat to the homeland. We hosted former chairman of u. S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, bennie thompson, to discuss streamlining congressional oversight at dhs. We had customs and Border Protection commissioner troy miller for a conversation on how the vp can measure biometrics at u. S. Borders and most recently posted the undersecretary for intelligence and analysis for a discussion on the current challenges facing Homeland Security enterprise. In todays event, we are going to do a deep dive into another side of dhs within the federal Emergency Management agent the index or its role in working with federal, state, and local governments to prepare u. S. Communities to withstand and recover from disasters. We are truly delighted to host the administrator, as well, so that she can discuss the agencys goals surrounding the 20 ,24 resilience initiative. The 2024 year might not be the only year of resilience. I think its something that we will need for some time to come. Perhaps the administrator agrees your so grateful for you spending time with us here today. I am really looking forward to hearing your insights over the next half hour. After we hear from the administrator, she will be immediately followed by a panel consisting of federal, state, and private sector Emergency Management expert. Tom warrick, senior fellow with us malik the future of dhs, will moderate the panel. You will all be in excellent hands. With that, it is my pleasure to introduce alex haseley, who will make a few announcements and further introduce our s and guest. Alex is a principal at deloitte. Responsible for helping for their relationship with fema. He and his team are focused on getting communities to a place where theyre not just bouncing back from disasters but jumping forward after the fact. He started his career in the army 20 years ago and has since been focused on addressing key challenges from cyber attack to National Natural disasters and mass migration. He is a big lever in using the latest tech like generative ai to ensure that the u. S. Is not just ready but ahead of future threats. We are delighted to partner with you. Please join me here at the podium. Its wonderful to have you. Thank you. Thank you for the warm introduction. I could not agree more that 2024 should not be the first and only year of resilience. Im thrilled to join you at the Atlantic Council representing deloitte. To kick off todays forum on a crucial role of the emergent management of community bolstering resilience. This is a challenge for leaders at all of role of government. Local, tribal, territorial, and private sector. A special thank you to the administrator deanne criswell. We also have the region 10 administrator. Strickland, secretary of the Maryland Department of Emergency Management and president of the national Emergency Management association. Gary oneill, president of the National Hazard mitigation association. The deloitte managing director, internationally recognized on climate disaster and resilience. And senior climate reporter from axe us. Your insights are valuable to our discussion today. As we witness increasing climate related extreme weather events like the malley fire last august and the fires in texas and oklahoma, alongside increasingly expensive hazards and mission set, it becomes more urgent to elevate our national resilience. The focus on how we build resilience, especially in marginalized and disadvantaged communities, cannot be overstated or it i am honored to introduce deanne criswell, fema administrator, at the home of these efforts. Her extensive background leading the nation through emergencies. Her roles have spanned from emergent the manager in aurora, colorado to the new york city commissioner of Emergency Management, culminating in her historic confirmation is the first woman fema administrator. She stands on top of an ecosystem with an evolving mandate and mission of bending beyond just traditional Emergency Management response and recovery. While those roles are enduring, the Emergency Management community and its workforce are shifting to instill preparedness, mitigation, information sharing and technology into its responsibilities with a mission set that also includes natural and person made events. Cyber, biological and more. Todays discussion focuses on resilience, which is fundamentally about our ability to adapt and recover from adversity. However, building resilience is an increasingly complex task due to the fast changing pace around us redan 2022, the report underscores this challenge, noting the evolving roles of regulators and leaders fostering national resilience. As we dive in todays topics, administrators like our esteemed panel members. Our goal is to transform the dialogue into Actionable Strategies that enhance Community Safety and resilience against these challenges. We are grateful to the Atlantic Council for providing platform to this critical work. Please join me in welcoming administrator deanne criswell. Good morning, everybody. It is really exciting to be here. I think this is just a nice way to cap off a really amazing week where we hosted all of our state direct is, territorial direct is here for the week, talking about some of these important topics. Im really excited to be able to be here today at my very First OfficialAtlantic Council event. And im equally excited to see how many people are so interest did in this topic and you are interested in building resilience across america. Its something i think as you heard alex to say that i think a lot about grid while 2024 is our year of resilience, i think that a big piece of that is that when you think about fema and our Emergency Managers, you think about us as a response and recovery agents. We have such an important resilience role and we want to use that as the platform to left that up. This event right here is really like a book and to the national Emergency ManagementAssociation Event that we held earlier in the week. The top of my keynote at that event was really around these resilience building efforts, but also about the evolution of emergency manager meant. The im really excited to have an opportunity to further discuss some of these topics today. We start by setting the scene for all of you. The theme today, Emergency Management profession in general, is a far cry from where we started, back in the 1970s. I talked a lot about this evolution earlier this week. Let me just give you a quick summary of that. Since fema was created nearly 45 years ago and nina created 50 years ago, fema has evolved from being an agency solely focused on civil defense, to one focused on response to those that include Homeland Security and to one that is essential in recovery. We hold all of these truths simultaneous wave. Because thats what it means to be an emergency manager. We are chief problem solvers. You will hear me say that a lot around the community. We are expert conveners. We are first responders. In recent years, weve also had to learn how to engage in Public Health and cyber security. The list can continue and go on and on. The reality is our operational tempo continues to increase. The scope of our work continues to expand. The title of emergency manager continues to gain new definitions. Just look at the weather events of the past year, and i think you will understand why. Atmospheric rivers. Fires in the tropics. Hurricanes in the desert. Drought. Extreme heat. Extreme cold. 2023, the hottest year on record. Permafrost is melting in alaska. 10 feet of snow just blanketed the sierras in march. The Severe Weather events of today defy these historic models that we have been used to. Still, there are other threats that continue to lurk at the periphery that ed to those we face. The fbi recently testified before congress about chinas ability to strike our power and transportation infrastructure. The fbi has even warned about the potential for foreign influence in the 2024 elections michael. So why do i tell you all of this . The moral of the story is we have a lot on our plate. All of us. So what is it that we should be able to do . What can we do together . The answer is Work Together to build a more resilient nation. 2024, as you heard, femas year of resilience your kid is an opportunity for us to increase individual community and household readiness. To train and better resource the Emergency Management workforce. To build up local capacity, enhance response capabilities, and enable effective and efficient recovery strategies. We want communities across america to inc. Of fema and know that we have the resources that they need that they can use to do this important work, to make their communities more resilient. And we want them to invest now today, so that if and when and this should just be when an emergency occurs, the and respond faster and recover more effectively. It sounds pretty simple, right . What does this all really mean . What actually is resilience . Its not a new concept. Thats for sure. But its kind of a buzzword, it seems, these days. It can mean Different Things to different people depending on the length that you are approaching it from. Let me explain a little bit. I met a woman on a visit to saipan recently whose home was mostly destroyed by a typhoon. She sheltered under her recently replaced roof, waiting for the rest of her home to be rebuilt. She moved her bed into her kitchen and did most of her cooking on an outdoor stove, while the rest of her house was pretty much unusable. While i was there that week, the repairs on her house were finally wrapping up. When i asked her why she did all this, why she stayed and she never left, why she did not seek out the resources that were available or her, like temporary housing, her answer was very simple. This is my home. This is where i want to stay. She was determined to stay and she did. I tell this story because to me, this is what personal resilience can look like. Grid, determination, and a willingness to make it work regardless of the circumstances. I also heard another great example of Community Resilience a few weeks ago during a meeting that i had with tribal leaders. There i heard a story about how the native village in alaska not only has a newfound understanding of what the resilience programs offer, but is leveraging resources now to invest in preparedness and resilience back home. To them, as i said earlier, they always thought of us as a response for recovery agency, but they are using the resources we have like direct Technical Assistance to become better prepared for their greatest threat, tsunamis, which is a huge threat in their area, and now they have the ability to protect their people. They analyze the risk, understand that they need to take steps to mitigate it. Then they find the resources needed to become more resilient. We need more communities across the United States to think like this village. To take a hard look at the risk that they face, and find ways that they can be more resilient in the future. This is one of my biggest priorities. As the administrator of ima it also is heart of the entire biden harris administration. President biden has invested historic levels of funding towards building a more resilient nation. He even created the First Ever NationalClimate Resilience framework to help guide all of our efforts. The framework unites the entire federal family and this and working work and it spells out how we should collaborate with nongovernmental partners while building state and local, tribal and territorial capacity. Because the truth is government from the federal level to the local level cannot do this all on our own. We need to widening our circle and include partners from all sectors of the economy in this critical work. From academia to nonprofits, from the private sector to philanthropy, we need to Work Together in lockstep to create a more resilient nation. And i have seen this work begin to take root around the country on all the trips that i take. In Florida International university, scientist have created a wall of simulator to test how buildings can survive a category 5 hurricane. In guam, there are organizations, volunteers and local government s l who came together to form guam strong and help reconstruct homes and build resilience after the typhoons. Look at the work from the walmart foundation. They are really doing some amazing work in this space. They regularly Fund Resilience hubs and communities to help residents navigate power, housing and communication challenges stemming from these types of Severe Weather events. The foundation is even referencing our newly released Community Disaster resilience zones to help inform them on where they should build these new hubs in the future. These are the partners we need at the table. Partners who understand that for every dollar that we invest in mitigation and resilience, saves six dollars in recovery. Partners who are ready to pull up a chair, help us connect the dots and extend our reach into the corners of communities that we had a hard time reaching. Many partners who can help us meet the poor they are at instead of making them come to us. We need them to help us build capacity. Help us inform communities across america about the importance of understanding their risk, their unique risk. Making a plan and taking action. Because like i said before, we cannot do this all on our own we need all of you with us at the table. So before i close, i will leave you with this. Broader. You are all here today, so i know you are already interested in this work. But look around you and see who is missing from the room today. What other partners, one of the collaborators and voices do we need to have at that table, in the rooms where the decisions are being made . And then think ahead. What will our future look like five, 10 or 15 years from now . What can we do today to improve tomorrow and have and we do it together . And then consider the individual. With all of this talk about coming together, making big change, i want to ensure that we never forget that this work is about people. Its about the woman in saipan who lost the majority of her home, but resilience and determination, now has a Stronger Foundation and a roof over her head. It is about the tribal citizens in the last who will be safer things to the action that the village took to help mitigate their specific and unique risk. Its about your neighbors, your loved ones, and your friends coming more resilient, building a resilient community, and together with our help, becoming more resilient as a nation. Thank you for your dedication and your commitment to this ongoing important work. One that will last long beyond 2024. And i look forward to the rest of our conversation today. Thank you. Well, thank you for that. That was interesting and enlightening in terms of how your thinking about this this year and beyond. I guess my first question is a broad question. Probably one that an emergency manager get set every single experience. What keeps you up at night . Is a lot of things that keep me up at night. When it comes to the space of resilience right now, theres a couple of things that i focus on. One is you know, we have so many communities today that are having repetitive climate related events. In their ability to recover, you know, makes them weaker for the next event that is following them, but they also get this response fatigue. Especially in small jurisdictions, in our Emergency Manag