Calvin I. Brown Director of the Montgomery City/County Emergency Management Agency
Interview by Dylan Williams.
Calvin Brown, a career public safety professional with more than 30 years of experience, was appointed director of the Montgomery City/County Emergency Management Agency in August 2013.
He began his career with the New Orleans Fire Department, where he served for 26 years, earning promotion to the rank of captain and serving the department as provisional chief. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he was appointed deputy director of the New Orleans Office of Emergency Preparedness, with significant responsibilities in designing, developing and guiding recovery efforts.
In 2007, he was named Emergency Management officer for Fort Worth, Texas, where his achievements included creation of the Metroplex West Shelter Hub and Distribution Plan and the Special Needs Assistance Program, an initiative which received FEMA’s Best Practices award. Two years later he accepted a position as coordinator of Emergency Management for the University of Texas at Dallas. In that position he developed and guided an emergency management program considered to be one of the best among the nation’s universities.
Director Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Southern University and an associate’s degree in fire technology from Delgado Community College, where he also has taught as an adjunct instructor. He holds numerous certifications in emergency management and related areas of expertise.
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GTM: What is your view on Accountability?
CALVIN: As the Director of the Montgomery City/County Emergency Management Agency, I am responsible for planning and preparing for disasters and to mitigate and recover if a disaster was to occur here. However everyone has a personal responsibility to have a level of personal preparedness. All should monitor conditions and be prepared to survive for a short period until recovery efforts or first responders can assist. They can do this by family planning and having a personal preparedness kit.
GTM: Does split second decision making negatively affect logical thinking?
CALVIN: Since no disasters are the same, some decisions are made as the incident occurs in order to have positive impacts on the results. That’s why planning and trainings impact the decision making process by having some knowledge on what the results of the decisions may have on outcomes. However it is always better to think things through if times and the situation allows and not make split second decisions.
GTM: During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina what was your most revered accomplishment toward the relief efforts?
CALVIN: Following Hurricane Katrina, (the biggest disaster to ever hit this country) we were all doing things that had never been done before, and by all I mean the federal government (FEMA), the state and the local government of which I was a part. There are several things I’m very proud of including:
· The repopulation of the city – There has never before or after been an evacuation of a major city in the United States. We systematically repopulated the city using zip codes as a reference as the infrastructure would allow.
· The Look and See Program – Because of the extensive damage to the infrastructure (Power, water and sewerage) we could not let people into the areas until the area could support them. We developed a program where people could come into the city during the day, work on their homes and stay at shelters during the night.
· The Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) of the Lower 9th Ward – Because of the massive damage and the remaining debris fields of the Lower 9th ward we knew there was a lot of people unaccounted for. The Lower 9th Ward was an area of the city populated by lower to middle income African Americans who settled there in the 50s and 60s. Most had owned the homes and had been through many storms before and were reluctant to evacuate. I developed a program to do a grid search using cadaver dogs and overtime fireman to systematically search the area. We discovered over 300 human remains during the search. That would be my most revered accomplishment following Katrina.
GTM: What inspired you to pursue a career in public safety?
CALVIN: It wasn’t a calling for me, I guess you can say I stumbled upon it. However once you become a firefighter (or public servant) and do some of the things that is required of you, you become inspired. I still remember my first fire, my first rescue, and I will always remember the faces of the people I helped and the gratitude they showed.
GTM: How has your experience in public safety directly affected your family and the way you prepare them for emergencies?
CALVIN: One thing you learn in Emergency Management is that if your family is safe or prepared from the disaster you cannot give your full potential to the event because you are worried about you family. With that being said, I think my family has the highest level of personal preparedness that is, and that allows me to do the things I need to do to mitigate the situation. Sometimes, by me being on the forefront on the incident, tit causes my family to worry and have fears, however they know that I am trained and prepared to handle almost anything.
