In the Eye Of the Storm ft. Deputy Homeland Security Advisor for Resilience and Response
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As you know, it's Thursday morning. Last night, one of the most catastrophic hurricanes to ever hurricane hit the coast of Florida. And as we're waking up, you're probably starting to look for news and answers. We will have that for you throughout the day. This podcast was recorded on Wednesday at 7 p.m. We were lucky to have the opportunity to speak with the White House to just understand their method for preparing for this.

So now we'll chat with Deputy Homeland Security Advisor Caitlin Durkovich, who is one of the White House leads on the Hurricane Milton response.

She's the gal behind the scenes working on detection, prevention, mitigation, response to, and recovery from natural and man-made disasters. I'm happy that she's here with us today. Caitlin, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here. B, thanks for having me.

So folks have a lot of questions about this work, what exactly your job is, what brought you to this work. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got here? Absolutely. I am the Deputy Homeland Security Advisor for Resilience and Response for President Biden. I arrived here and I took somewhat of a windy path to get where I am today, but in part it is because I'm

I believe in helping people in their greatest time of need. I started off after college in politics. I did a lot of work around the internet.

and around cybersecurity, but that isn't what got me up out of bed every morning. What got me out of bed was making a difference in people's lives. And so I was fortunate enough to be able to have an opportunity to serve in the Obama administration of the Department of Homeland Security.

I was what you call an assistant secretary for infrastructure protection. And when you think about your day and from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, whether it is electricity, water, gas, your phone, driving to work, all those things are what we consider infrastructure. And they work.

all of the time. But when they're disrupted, as we have seen because of Hurricane Helene and now Hurricane Milton, they can have pretty consequential impacts on the lives of Americans, on our economy, and even our national security. And I found that really interesting. And I also had an opportunity not just to work in the government space, but with industry, the people that own and operate the infrastructure. And so you have to be collaborative and work together. And I

It's really, I like to say that I have the best job in the federal government.

Well, that is certainly encouraging because we need you out there with this level of enthusiasm and spirit, right? Because my idea, I lived in Tampa for a number of years. My idea of hurricane preparedness was making sure we had like enough booze and chips. And I'm glad there was someone like you out there making sure that the infrastructure was going to be working. Now, how many people and government agencies are working on hurricane preparedness? This is what's really cool about hurricane preparedness. And I would just say domestic preparedness.

incident management generally is it really is a whole of government. Of course, you have the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which spends a lot of time with our state and local partners, helping them plan for hurricanes and other weather hazards. You have NOAA and the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center that do a lot of the forecasting and the science.

behind not just when a storm is approaching or forming and approaching, but what we are expecting in terms of the outlook for the season, whether it's going to be a normal season, above normal season.

NOAA also has airplanes called Hurricane Hunters that they fly into the eye of the storm. I actually got to ride in one a couple of weeks ago as Helene was approaching. The Air Force has airplanes as well that they fly in to gather data to help with the modeling. NASA is partly responsible for launching the satellites that do the imagery, right? You see those pictures from space of the hurricane. That's NASA data.

And then there are the departments and agencies that are responsible for response when a hurricane actually makes landfall. The U.S. Coast Guard plays a big role in that because they are our presence, the federal presence on our waterways, and we have so many ports there.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Small Business Administration is really a team sport. And in fact, when the president convened his cabinet the other day, you heard him spoke in the Roosevelt Room. There were 16 different departments and agencies at the table that played a role in the response to Hurricane Helene. Wow. Shout out to my Coasties. I spent a lot of time down in Miami with the Clipper Hudson. Love you guys. But

But in the port of Tampa right now, we've got Coast Guard, not just for, you know, monitoring what's going on there, but working on national security. Are you concerned about port and commerce? Is there a plan for, you know, food coming in and out? And the hurricane doesn't care if it's a personal watercraft or a big boat sometimes. How do you guys deal with that? That is a great question. And the Coast Guard, they are awesome at what they do. They are some of the best.

We are closely monitoring the port of Tampa and also the port of St. Petersburg. The port of Tampa is where most of the fuel for the state of Florida comes in, is put into the tankers. I will say that there are 1,200 U.S. Coast Guard personnel that have been activated there.

to support response to Milton. Some of them are going to do search and rescue that amazing scenes of coasties in the orange helicopters, hanging from helicopters, doing high water rescues, but there are also a number of them that will be responsible for assessing the port and working as quickly as they can to get it open. They do that in conjunction. This is another agency that does research.

Hurricane Preparedness, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. You'll remember what happened in March. We had a very large bridge that collapsed into the Chesapeake Bay. And those two agencies working together cleared a channel within two weeks and cleared the bridge out of the bay within a month. And so

The Coast Guard and the Army Corps will be very focused on getting that and other ports that are impacted by Milton up and running so we can get fuel and other critical commodities flowing in. Do we practice for hurricanes? Is there a drill or something you run? I know in the military, you practice for all different kinds of things. How do you practice for a hurricane? We do practice for hurricanes, and we practice at all levels of government, and we actually practice...

with our industry partners too. When I came into the Biden administration, there are a series of exercises that are run during the transition to socialize and get new leadership aware of the plans that we have for hurricane response. And so you, again, bring together the leaders of these agencies. There's a scenario and everybody talks about

what, you know, capabilities and capacity they bring. You often throw in what you call an inject, right, or something crazy happens and in the middle of it, you've got like a cyber attack too. That's one way that we do it. The states that are often impacted by hurricanes are always exercising. You can do what's called a tabletop exercise, which

is the responsible, you know, officials sitting down and having conversations about what they would do in a scenario like we see today. But then you could actually do functional exercises that are real time where you have people, you know, you're testing evacuation routes

or other areas where there may be weaknesses. What is also really important is that in addition to exercising though, is that you do after action reports after every storm. So you understand what worked well, but equally important, what didn't work well. So you can make improvements

and be better the next time. Well, and there certainly was a whole ton of time between Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton to reset expectations. We're barely cleaned up from the first one before this one is coming. How is that impacting the strategy for essentially a double recovery or a compounded recovery? So for reminders, Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday night. It is Wednesday night. Yeah.

A week later, no, two weeks later, sorry, two weeks later, it's like nothing. You know, we expect Milton to make landfall in the next couple of hours. We have a couple of challenges. One is that there is still a lot of debris, as you alluded to, on the ground.

particularly in Florida because of the storm surge and the wind that we saw from Moline. And so we made it clear to the state of Florida that you do whatever you have to do to get that debris removed. That's what you call a state mission. They do debris removal, but we, the federal government, reimburse them for that. And so their contractors have been working 24 by 7 to get the debris picked up and to take it to sites to try to secure it. But you can imagine that

that when you have winds of 120 and 130 miles per hour, that debris becomes projectile and very dangerous. So that's been one concern. Another concern is that we're still in a response mode in some of the states affected by Hurricane Helene, North Carolina and Tennessee, most notably parts of South Carolina. And we can't pull resources

off of those efforts. So we have had to surge, for example, search and rescue teams from California. We have asked, our industry is bringing in the line repair trucks from states as far as California because we don't want to pull it off the efforts in North Carolina and South Carolina. And then I think the other thing that we're just very focused on is the storm surge.

Look, hurricanes are deadly. The category of a hurricane indicates the wind speed, but there are a lot of other hazards associated with it. And in this case, we're expecting significant storm surge. You know this from Tampa. It is at sea level. And so if you're talking nine to 13 feet of storm surge, that can wipe out an entire community.

Yeah, certainly can. Now, another question that we've got on TikTok quite a bit is why do they keep changing the category? Does the category matter so much versus like the volume of water? Can you talk about like what we should actually be focusing on when it comes to how dangerous? The category is signaling is the wind speeds.

of the hurricane and they change, right? This thing, you know, started in the Caribbean and moved into the Gulf and the speed and the wind, the wind gusts are determined by how hot the, or how warm the ocean temperature is. There's a lot of factors in it as it moves across the Gulf of Mexico, the water temperature changes, the atmosphere changes. And so,

I think it was Monday. We woke up and Milton was the category two.

Within four hours, it had become a category five and it's oscillated between five and four and now it's a three. It will probably make landfall as a three. That determines wind speed. I've said that already, but there are other hazards. I talked about storm surge. We are very, very concerned about the storm surge associated with Milton. It could be as high as 13 feet in the central west or the west central part of the coast.

Rain, right? We could see rain totals up to 18 inches. This is an area that's already been saturated because of Hurricane Helene. And then another hazard that we worry about and that we are seeing associated with Hurricane Milton is tornadoes.

Milton has already spawned, I think, 14 tornadoes at last reporting. There are a number of tornado watches and warnings across the state. Then with that comes advice to residents about what they should do if they get that type of alert across their phones.

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These storms are getting more intense, more frequent and more deadly. But there are some people who stayed behind. And there are some people who are on TikTok right now filming from their apartment that they stayed in some ways to film or because they don't totally take it seriously. What is your advice to somebody who maybe stayed and is now starting to realize like, oh, shit. That is a terrific question. They need to get to high ground right up to the highest possible point, right?

in their residence or wherever they may be sheltering. They should bring supplies with them, blankets, water, food. If they've got portable chargers, they have flashlights. I would say one of the most important things, and I have not seen the power outages numbers, but make sure your phone is charged. But that you also have a way to signal if your phone is not working because either it's out of batteries or

or there's no cell service that you do need help, but you have to recognize that it could take time for first responders to get to you. One of the reasons that we urge people to heed evacuation orders is because

Roads can be impassable. We've seen this in Western North Carolina. There's so much debris, it's hard to clear the roads and get to the people who need the help. So they need to be patient and they also need to recognize that there are other critical facilities that may take priority. And this is again, one of the reasons that we tell people to evacuate. There's a hospital in Tampa

Yeah, we should talk about that. Yeah, that's on this island and they have an aqua wall and their evacuation strategy is to do vertical evacuation. You know, the wall, let's hope that the storm surge does not overtop the wall, but there are prioritization decisions that get made if things get really bad. And so, yeah.

Folks who chose not to evacuate, they need to, again, get to the highest point they can and make preparations that they may have to wait. Let's do a quick lightning round because I know I only have you for another three minutes. A couple of questions from the audience. One, what happens to all the cop cars and...

Fire trucks and things. People have been told to, you know, take their vehicles away. We could see 13 feet of water. Some folks were trying to wrap their cars in plastic in case there was storm surge. But as far as the first responder vehicles and whatnot, how are what's the plan for keeping them safe?

safe enough to be able to use after the storm? We move them to higher ground and sometimes higher ground is two or three miles away. It's not like counties away or in another state. And this is actually something that I learned during the evacuation of Tampa is that you can evacuate and again, you don't have to go 50 to 100 miles. It's a matter of finding a place where you're 15 to 20 feet above sea level. So they

They will find property. And actually, this is a great story or fact, is that when I did the Hurricane Hunter flight two weeks ago, they fly out Lakeland Airport in Central Florida. And that is actually where a lot of the first responder vehicles from Tampa go and park until the hurricane passes because it's at a higher elevation. So that's not two or three miles. That's like

But that's where they will go. That makes a ton of sense to me. This is a tough job that you have. There certainly has to be moments of great humanity and human resilience that you've witnessed. What's something that you remember from recoveries of past that you

really gave you hope for the future or sort of the good things that come from these moments of disaster? I have had the privilege of traveling with the president to a number of communities that have been impacted by these catastrophic weather events, these extreme weather events. And it is the resilience of the people. I'm

One of the most poignant moments was when we were in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, after the December 2021 tornadoes that ripped through that community. And to go through the streets, I mean, it was apocalyptic, much like what you've seen in Western North Carolina and families sitting on stoops, but there's no house behind them. But they...

are going to rebuild. They love their community. They are out helping their neighbors. I think, and the president has said this, and it's really true. People know that they ultimately will find a way to rebuild a home. What they want most is to be able to collect and find those personal mementos, the wedding rings, the pictures. And if they are able to have some of that,

I think that helps drive the resilience, right? If there's something left, those personal effects are really important to them. And you hear that time and time again, like we can rebuild the house. You know, what I was able to find was the photo book, the wedding ring, the, you know, the teddy bear. But I will tell you, Americans are incredibly resilient.

And I'm going to take a line from the president's book. In a community that has been impacted by disaster, there is no red community member and blue community member. It is the best of America. People roll up their sleeves. They work together. They know they have to rebuild their community. And that's what makes this work so gratifying.

I appreciate you saying that. And I feel the same. We know it's true. When bad things happen, friends and neighbors come together and we remember that that's who we are first, despite anything else. So are you going to be up all night tonight or do they give you breaks?

I might get a nap here and there, but we, at least right now, have plans to report to the president on a regular basis. We have some thresholds of things are really bad where we're prepared to brief him in person if we need to, but we've got to get reports up. So yes, but I, the great thing is I have an amazing team and we've got a staffing plan and a battle rhythm. And in this business, you kind of live for moments like this. This is why you do it. And so we're ready and-

I have not gotten a lot of sleep over the last two weeks, but my adrenaline is flowing. And so I'm ready. I'm going to be up with you too. I'm going to be covering it. And of course, using government resources to ensure that we're getting the best, most up-to-date information. But for folks who are waking up right now and they might have turned on their social media and got all scared about all kinds of crazy stuff that they heard, where can they go to fact check for themselves and follow the storm? That's a great question. One of my go-to things

resources is actually weather.gov and hurricanes.gov. Right now, I think I have hurricanes.gov open in multiple screens. It is a terrific source for information about both the forecast, but also impacts of

Weather.gov will give you additional information about kind of hazards and other types of impacts, but also listen to your local officials, right? They are on the ground. They are assessing the damage. They understand when it will be safe to go out and the roads are passable. And so using those local official sources is what I would recommend. Yeah.

Now, I did pull up Hurricanes.gov while you were on the phone here, and I'm now seeing another red dot out here named Leslie. Should we be worried about Leslie or is it?

Just one thing at a time. Leslie's going to be okay. Let's get through Milton. Let's get through Milton. All right. Leslie's going to be okay. We'll get through Milton. I'm so appreciative. There's folks like you and your whole team out there who not only are working so hard to ensure that we are prepared and we have great response, but also took time out of your busy day to hop on the Little American Fever Dream podcast. So thank you so much for your time. Best wishes out there. I will see you guys on the other side. All right. Thanks, V. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, Caitlin, so much for coming on the show, giving us a little bit of peace of mind and just a little peek behind the curtain to see exactly all the work that's going on while we were sleeping. Stuff that we don't even think of. I always love thinking that there's this just circle of helpers out there that are working to ensure that our friends and neighbors are taken care of and will be there, as she said, from the beginning to the end to well after the recovery, ensuring that we do rebuild back stronger.

Also, folks, remember that we are going to need a lot more money from the government to ensure that we can recover properly and that people don't suffer. And on Tuesday's episode, we talked about how the only person who can bring Congress back into session to vote on a budget to provide more emergency relief money is Speaker Mike Johnson, not the president, not the vice president, not.

anybody else in the world, because even if the president did use Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution, as I see you guys asking me about, he would still have to have Mike Johnson's approval to go ahead and push that all the way through. Checks and balances keep the president from ordering Congress to do anything. He could only ask the speaker. And as of this recording, the speaker is still refusing to convene Congress, despite many members of his party, the Democratic Party, and the Senate backing

begging him to bring them back so that we can get this money passed and get these people some help. Some of the reasons why he's saying he doesn't want to do that or other people are saying he doesn't want to do that is because he thinks it's being treated politically. I don't think the people underwater in Florida or North Carolina are thinking about who they're voting for right now. They're thinking about how to get through the day. So that's a little bit nonsensical to me.

There's also the horrible, horrible, but possibly not untrue theory that the reason why they're not bringing them back is because the MAGA movement wants to see the current government fail because they think it'll help them win political points or the election. Both are sick reasons. I can't come up with any reason why he's not calling Congress back. So perhaps with enough pressure, we will get Congress back in session to get some people some help.

Remember, folks, you're going to hear a lot of misinformation today. You're going to hear a lot of information really quickly. So make sure that you check reliable sources like FEMA.org, WhiteHouse.org or the White House's new Reddit page. Or, you know, you could just wander over to TikTok and see what's happening on Under the Desk News. I'll have updates for you throughout the day. Until next time, I'm V Spear and this is American Fever Dream.

American Fever Dream is produced and edited by Samantha Gatzik. Social media by Candice Monega and Bridget Schwartz. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Betches News and follow me, Sammy Sage at Sammy and V at Under the Desk News. And of course, send us your emails to AmericanFeverDream at Betches.com. Betches.