Peter Gaynor, acting administrator forthe Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), stands for aphotograph following an interview in Washington, D.C., U.S., onFri., April 26, 2019. (Photographer: MelissaLyttle/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) — Americans must assume more responsibility forprotecting themselves from the rising toll of natural disasters, the headof the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned this week.

"Most people think, 'I see it on TV, it'll never happen to me;I'm not going to make the time or investment,'" Peter Gaynor, the acting FEMA administrator,said in an interview at his office at FEMA's Washingtonheadquarters. "We haven't solved the problem in a significantway."

With just five weeks to go until the start of hurricane season,FEMA has made changes to better handle increasingly severe storms,Gaynor said. That includes keeping more supplies in places such as PuertoRico, Hawaii and Alaska, which can be harder to reach inemergencies. Congress has also given the agency the ability tospend more money preparing communities for disasters, which ischeaper than rebuilding afterward.

"We're a much more ready agency, a battle-hardened agency, basedon those two most recent disaster years," Gaynor said.

But he said those changes won't be enough to deal with theeffects of increasingly powerful storms. "We are just a bridge tosafe, secure and sanitary," Gaynor said. "We cannot be everythingto everyone. This is a partnership."

Acting administrator challenges

Gaynor took over as acting administrator in March, assumingcontrol of an agency with almost 10,000 staff and a budget of morethan $17 billion. He had been second-in-command under Brock Long,who resigned after leading the agency's efforts in several naturaldisasters, including its much-criticized responses to thehurricanes that devastated Puerto Rico in 2017.

President Donald Trump has nominated another top FEMA official,Jeff Byard, to become the new administrator; Byard's nomination hasyet to be confirmed by the Senate.

The escalating threat from unstable weather means that morepeople should carry flood insurance, Gaynor said. After Hurricane Harvey struck Houston in August 2017,the average payout in emergency disaster assistance was about$3,000, he said. But for people with flood insurance, the averageinsurance payout was more than $117,000.

"Our programs don't make you whole, and that's probably onething that we need to say more often," Gaynor said. "We would liketo be more direct with survivors about what their responsibilityis."

State and local officials also need to do more, Gaynor said,starting with imposing tougher building codes. "I know that's hardto do, when your family's owned property for 50 years, to insist onsome modification to that property, because it costs money," Gaynoradded. "But it's in everybody's best interests. The cost ofdisasters is not lessening."

Gaynor said one of his key goals was to find the "secret sauce"of previous public safety campaigns, such as warnings not to smokeor text while driving, and apply that to disaster preparedness.

"It's going to be a perennial challenge," Gaynor said. "Tochange the culture is hard to do."

Gaynor's comments echoed arguments made by Long, sometimes instronger terms.

"Until we get building codes passed at local and state levelsthat are meaningful, then we're going to continue to see a lot ofdamage and destruction," Long said during a press conference onHurricane Michael last October.

He also called for people to get insurance, and heedevacuation warnings.

"We're just one part of the formula that's needed in this wholecommunity to stop this madness," Long said. "You see this enough inyour career, you get ticked off."

See also:

• 8 ways to prepare your insureds for adisaster
• Seven months after Hurricane Maria, PuertoRico struggles to rebuild

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