US President Barack Obama nominated top emergency response coordinator in Florida, Craig Fugate as chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Fugate has been the director of Florida's Division of Emergency Management since 2001. Craig Fugate was largely criticized for his failure to handle the situations during the hurricane Katrina in 2005. In fact, Obama had also lambasted the Bush administration for its response to the hurricane disaster in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast.

 

While announcing the name of Craig Fugate as his nominee for the federal agency, Obama stated that Craig holds good experience as far as emergency management is concerned and he is the appropriate official to lead FEMA. During the regime of George W Bush, Fugate coordinated some 23 declared state emergencies in Florida, including four major hurricanes in 2004 and four in 2005. FEMA, which operates under the supervision of US Department of Homeland Security, was constituted after the September 11 attacks on World Trade Centre in 2001.