AccuWeather spoke with FEMA's acting Deputy Director of Response and Recovery to learn how the agency is responding in the immediate aftermath of Francine.
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00:00It is less than 24 hours since Hurricane Francine made landfall. That was about, what, 20 hours ago
00:06or so. And already this afternoon, FEMA's response team, including FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell,
00:12has been on the ground in Louisiana. Leilani Stansby is FEMA's Acting Deputy Director of
00:19Response and Recovery. Thank you so much for joining us. Could you describe some of the
00:23impacts from Hurricane Francine that your team is dealing with? Sure. Thanks so much for having
00:29me today. I would say, first and foremost, we just want to say that our thoughts are with
00:33everybody impacted by this storm. You know, we know that there have been significant impacts
00:40on the ground. There's a large amount of standing water. And as you mentioned, hundreds of thousands
00:46of people are currently without power. Our administrator actually traveled down to Louisiana
00:53today to see firsthand those damages. As roads are continued to be clear and we get a better
01:00picture of the situation on the ground. And what are FEMA's response efforts? What are the greatest
01:06needs and how will FEMA help in this case? Well, FEMA stands ready in support of our state and
01:13local partners to any disaster, including this one. Prior to the storm, we actually deployed search
01:19and rescue teams, incident management teams and power restoration teams just to make sure that
01:25we had the resources that were ready to go at a moment's notice as soon as the storm passed.
01:30Those teams are certainly being put to use. We're, you know, working hand in hand to make sure that
01:37as the state is clearing roads, we get a better understanding of what the situation looks like.
01:43And if those search and rescue assets or certainly power restoration, you know,
01:47those will continue to be ongoing as we go forward over the next couple of days. It really
01:53is still very much an evolving situation. And so we have to make sure that we're really prioritizing
01:58life safety at this stage of the disaster. And this was our third U.S. landfall so far this year.
02:05And we're dealing with still plenty of time to come with potential for additional impacts from
02:10other storms. So is FEMA prepared for more possible hurricanes in the coming days and weeks?
02:16Absolutely. You know, FEMA was built for this. You know, we really make sure that we do everything
02:22that we can to be ready for the current storm and anything that comes along with us. It's a
02:28real partnership with our state and local partners, as well as, you know, with our federal
02:34partners. As you can see behind me here right now, we have our National Response Coordination
02:38Center set up. And that's full of partners from across the federal interagency so that we can
02:45bring the full breadth of the federal government, you know, to help states and locals and people
02:51who are in need for this disaster and any to come.
02:54Well, thank you so much for your time, Leilani Stansby,
02:57Acting Deputy Director of Response and Recovery with FEMA.
03:02Thanks for having me.