Over the course of his eight-year tenure as head administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), W. Craig Fugate led FEMA’s responses to numerous major disasters: the Joplin and Moore tornadoes, Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Matthew, and the 2016 Louisiana flooding. I spoke with him about how church leaders can come alongside government agencies and serve their community together amidst disasters, from mass shootings to wildfires to hurricanes.

How would you recommend churches and congregations go about improving collaboration with FEMA?

Pick up the phone and call your local emergency manager. They’re good folks, but they tend to be more focused on their government functions, and they may not know there’s an interest in participating.

I grew up in north Florida, so I learned a long time ago that some of my fastest, most capable responses—particularly in the rural areas—were our churches. Where I’m from, churches always respond when there’s a crisis in the community. I learned early on that if you give churches a seat at the table, and include them in your plans, it gives everybody a better ability to coordinate. It’s better to work as a team than to work as individual pieces and hope we each get to where we need to go.