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MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

Event: Tom Davies, Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO), Office of Regional Director, Region
III, FEMA
Type of event: Interview
Date: December 2, 2003
Special Access Issues: None
Prepared by: Mark Bittinger
Team Number: 8
Location: GSA NCR Office, Washington, DC
Participants - Non-Commission: Tom Davies; Linda Davis (Associate General Counsel for
Program Law, Office of the General Counsel, FEMA)
Participants - Commission: Mark Bittinger
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1. Tom Davies' Background: Davies serves as a Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO). A FCO is
the senior federal official appointed in accordance with the provisions of P.L. 93-288, as
amended, to coordinate the overall response and recovery activities. The FCO represents the
President as provided by Section 303 of P.L. 93-288, as amended, for the purpose of
coordinating the administration of federal relief activities in the designated area. Additionally,
the FCG is delegated responsibilities and performs those for the FEMA Director as outlined in
Executive Order 12148 and those responsibilities delegated to the FEMA Regional Director in
Title 44 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 205.

2. Events on 9/11: Davies recalls 9/11 as a "very vivid day, just like [the assassination of] JFK."
He was at the shore in New Jersey on vacation. When he got news of the WTC towers
collapsing and the disaster at the Pentagon he assumed he would be going somewhere. He
assumption was correct and he got a call from Ted Monette, a fellow FCO at FEMA.

3. Events on 9/12: Davies arrived in Arlington, VA at 5 p.m. on 9/12. The county made
available to FEMA an entire floor for lease (possibly the 9th floor) at 2200 Clarendon Blvd next
to the Arlington County Government Office Building at Court House Plaza.

4. An Overview of the Pentagon: "The Pentagon was a microcosm of the World Trade Center."
Michael M. Cline was the State Coordinating Officer (SCO), the person appointed by Governor
Warner for the purpose of coordinating state and local disaster assistance efforts with those of
the Federal Government.

FEMA's top 6 priorities were as follows:

• Assess individual assistance needs
• Assess damaged infrastructure

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• Provide environmental monitoring and technical monitoring for Pentagon workers

• Implement Victim's Assistance Program
• Support the Commonwealth of Virginia in addressing economic impact (i.e. the closure
of Reagan N ational Airport)
• Assess debris management (USACE)
o FBI/DoD overseeing recovery of debris
o FEMANDEM in the North Parking Lot
o This was not a normal FEMA debris removal. The cost of debris removal was
paid by DoD.

5. Situational Awareness: Two FEMA points-of-contact (POCs Steve Pressgraves and Mary
Roundtree) operated between Arlington County and the US&R teams. Steve Pressgraves is with
Response and Recovery Directorate, FEMA Operations and Planning Division was the FEMA
representative on the Unified Command team. He worked in a trailer just out of the "hot zone."
Mary Roundtree was the ESF -9 representative. Both were on-scene with the Incident
Commander:

Tom Davies made two appearances at the Pentagon and met with Chief Plaugher and the
Assistant Chief Schwartz, the Incident Command.

During a disaster you are not all-knowing at least initially. You are "going to have some chaos
and confusion in an event."

6. Communications: No problem with communications. Davies had contact with FEMA POCs
and FEMA HQ. MERS assisted with setting up the Disaster Field Office (DFO).

6. Arlington County: Davies commented that "Arlington County impressed me." He said he
"treated Arlington County like a State" and that this was "mutually agreed" to.

Davies assigned Darrell Hammonds, from FEMA' s Preparedness Division as a special assistant
to the Arlington EOC. So there was a Federal POC right at the county level participating with
the county's Recovery ETG and developing a good relationship with county officials.

7. US&R Teams: There were 5 US&R teams at the Pentagon.

8. Costs: $23.6 million was spent by FEMA for the Pentagon operation, of that amount, $14
million went for counseling.

9. Reimbursement: FEMA waived the policy for reimbursement that required mutual 'aid
agreements. The AAR comment on page 50 regarding reimbursement delays is not accurate in
FEMA's view. Delays could have existed between FEMA and the Commonwealth of Virginia,
as well as between Virginia and Arlington County. FEMA reviewed records to ensure they were
legitimate expenses, but it was the "multiple contacts that could cause delay" of reimbursements
after FEMA had completed its review.

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10. EPA: EPA had the lead for monitoring air quality and other environmental concerns.
Initially there was a "hiccup" between OSHA and EPA over who had the lead in this area at the
Pentagon.

11. Individual Assistance Program: This program involved the American Red Cross (the lead
agency), insurance companies, Department of Justice and FEMA. There were less than 300
applicants. There were two FEMA representatives working this program in Crystal City at the
Military Family Assistance Center.

One of the great ideas involving this program was the decision to utilize the Virginia Victims of
Crime hotline as a phone number for "one-stop shopping."

12. Donations Management: FEMA helped the SCO, Michael Cline.

13. Volunteer Coordination: Davies was not sure what role FEMA played in this area, he thought
it might have been Arlington County and DoD.

14. Debris Removal: The Commonwealth of Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality

was involved as the debris from the Pentagon was contaminated.

15. Indemnification Issues: Davies is not aware of any issues.

16. Information Sharing: Davies is not aware of any issues.

17. Clearance Issues: Davies did not have a Top Secret clearance on 9/11 and the lack of a
clearance had no impact on his ability to perform his job. Post 9/11, the FCO program is being
revamped to have all FCO's cleared for a Top Secret clearance.

18. Enhance US&R Capabilities: Davies is not sure.

19. FEMA-maintained Caches: Davies believes this would cost a fortune. A bigger issue is the
interoperability of SCBA packs. One option for.caches would be "on-demand contracts."

20. Authority of the Director ofFEMA: Davies does not believe the FEMA Director's authority
has been applied sufficiently to ensure adequate levels of coordination and planning between and
among Federal, State and local jurisdictions. There are no standards and accountability of the
States. We "throw money to the States with no standards or priorities, the level ofperformance
in return is suspect." There is a need for standards, goals and objectives. Davies would like to
see the FEMA regions given greater authority.

21. State and Local Emergency Management Capabilities: See the Senior Leaders Homeland
Security Group - 9 points. DHS Secretary Tom, MD, VA, DC.

322 Plan - mitigation

All-Hazards Approach is still needed.

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There is a new FCO format, now a management cell within ICS .

. 22. Lessons Learned:

(1) A bigger issue is the interoperability of SCBA packs.

(2) Interoperability of communications
(3) Accountability, Goals, Standards for the States
a. Plan
b. Train
c. Exercise
(4) "The wheel isn't broken, [but] you can enhance [it]."
(5) RELATIONSHIPS & TEAM BUILDING ARE KEY
(6) An "extremely important position" was the Defense Coordinating Officer (DCO), Col.
Fred Turner

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