A Case Study: Disaster Preparedness

In 2025, Judy Kruger led the Northeast Recovery Office Complex (ROC) for nearly 4 months while simultaneously transitioning recovery operations back to the affected states. The ROC, established by FEMA Region 1 in late 2024, served as the central coordination hub for managing multiple large-scale wind and water disasters across New England under the National Response Framework. Strategically located in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, the consolidated facility replaced scattered joint field offices and brought together federal, state, local, and tribal partners to streamline communication and collaboration. From July 2023 to September 2024, 11 major disasters hit four states (Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island), creating a heavy workload. Even with limited resources, the ROC improved outcomes by centralizing everyone in one place and strengthening teamwork. While at the ROC, she noticed that several communities repeatedly applied for federal assistance after major flooding events. This pattern indicated that some areas lacked the long-term resources needed to rebuild infrastructure and fully recover. An analysis revealed that 40 applicants across two New England states experienced losses from multiple disasters.

The ROC consolidated disaster recovery operations into one 25,300-square-foot facility, supporting up to 220 staff. Through her efforts, she improved coordination among state and federal partners by co-locating teams to streamline workflows and by managing multiple disaster operations simultaneously. The ROC replaced multiple joint field offices and enhanced direct, early engagement with applicants, thereby accelerating recovery efforts. Only the FEMA Integration Team (FIT) staff remained embedded with state emergency management agencies to provide technical support.

Through her actions, she helped secure funding for hazard mitigation to protect public infrastructure from future disasters and increased collaboration across all program areas. She ensured staff from different FEMA programs worked side by side, serving as consistent points of contact for applicants instead of transferring cases when personnel changed. This also helped reduce logistical and administrative costs by consolidating operations under one roof, enabling more than 1,123 applicants to be assisted simultaneously.

She encouraged cross-training and mentoring by providing on-site meetings and training rooms to help new staff learn how the program works, enabling subject matter experts to jointly support applicants affected by multiple disasters. Through this approach, applicants received timely authorization for $24.2 million in direct federal financial assistance.

Under my leadership, multiple disasters were closed out, and $66.3 million was reinvested into the community to rebuild stronger, more resilient infrastructure. Her efforts provided a cost-effective, unified approach that streamlined operations, boosted staff development, strengthened partnerships, cut costs, and reduced future disaster risk.