New leadership at Florida Department of Emergency Management

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There is new leadership at the Florida Department of Emergency Management.

Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed State Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue to lead the division.

Perdue spoke Wednesday in Miami at an appearance with DeSantis and said he is optimistic the transition will be smooth.

“The good news is FDOT and the Division of Emergency Management have been working shoulder to shoulder for years, responding to natural disasters and those other things that pop up like wildfires, tornadoes. So we’re very well prepared and we’re going to continue to serve,” Perdue said.

Perdue replaced Kevin Guthrie, who had led emergency management since 2021. Guthrie resigned to become the running mate for Lt. Gov. Jay Collins ahead of last week’s primary election, which Collins lost to Byron Donalds.

Craig Fugate, former FEMA director and former director of the Florida Emergency Management Division in the early 2000s, says there shouldn’t be any issue with the transition.

“A new governor or state director doesn’t come into a system that they have to start over. They add to it. They improve it,” Fugate said.

During Perdue’s role as transportation secretary, he worked closely with emergency management during recent hurricanes.

Fugate said the agency is a well-oiled machine and that the experienced staff in place will keep it running smoothly, adding that after he left, the agency didn’t fall apart, saying the next director built on the foundation he had left, just as every director does.

Meanwhile, counties are responsible for managing local emergency programs, but they rely on the state for resource distribution and coordination.

It has been quiet at the Pinellas County Emergency Management Center, but the place can come alive quickly if a hurricane is barreling toward the Gulf Coast.

“We’re always in a monitoring mode,” said Cathie Perkins, director of Pinellas County Emergency Management.

Perkins said the center is always improving and learning from past events like Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024.

“So one of the things was there were a lot of requests for real estate, open space. We needed places to put debris,” Perkins said. “So we actually have a whole new unit that works on kind of that coordination. Also working with our local hotels, motels, working with our real estate partners. So just in case we need to find a vacant big box store or maybe a parking lot, whatever we can use for disaster response.”