Maurstad to leave FEMA

David Maurstad will resign as the assistant administrator for mitigation and administrator of the National Flood Insurance Program for the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sept. 13.

“It was time to wrap up with FEMA and move on,” Maurstad said Thursday morning. “It’s been a very challenging time to be involved with FEMA, but it’s been very rewarding.”

The Beatrice native joined FEMA nearly seven years ago after being appointed to the job by the Bush administration. He started work as Region 8 director. Region 8 includes Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Maurstad was the senior FEMA official on hand for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

His office was in the Denver Federal Center in Denver.

In June 2004, Maurstad moved to Washington, D.C., as acting assistant administrator for mitigation before being named assistant administrator. During his tenure, the Mitigation Directorate has faced a number of storms, and has also been transformed into a world-class, outcome-based organization, said Mitigation Directorate Administrator R. David Paulison.

Maurstad joined the Mitigation Directorate when the agency, and the National Flood Insurance Program in particular, was under fire for the agency’s response to Hurricane Isabel. During that same year, the program faced the record-breaking 2004 hurricane season in Florida, which was followed by the extraordinary challenges of the 2005 hurricane triumvirate: Katrina, Rita and Wilma, Paulison said in announcing Maurstad’s resignation.

After the three hurricanes, he said, 250 million claims were filed with the Flood Insurance Program.

“The National Flood insurance program has been under a lot of pressure with those two events,” Maurstad said Thursday.

Since then, Paulison said, the Mitigation Directorate has updated and digitized the nation's flood maps, administered the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and developed quick and creative solutions to help the Gulf Coast recover as quickly as possible.

Now, he said, more than 16,000 communities have created mitigation plans and more than 1 million more people have chosen to protect themselves from flooding through flood insurance.

In addition, the Mitigation Directorate has refocused America's attention on failing levee systems and supported thousands of grants for safe rooms and building hardening and elevations and acquisitions, Paulison said. It has made people more aware of the risk of earthquakes and wildfires and taught them how to better protect themselves.

“It’s almost an understatement that the years since 9/11 have been interesting for FEMA, and, of course, America,” Maurstad said. “It was a very dynamic time to be working with folks with FEMA who are very dedicated to work with America.”

Before working with FEMA, Maurstad was Beatrice mayor from 1991 to 1994. He also owned an insurance company in Beatrice. He was a state senator from 1995 to 1998 and lieutenant governor from January 1999 to October 2001.

Maurstad would not say what his plans are, other than to say he’ll return to the private sector. He did say he and his wife, Karen, will take a well-deserved vacation.