Emergency Preparedness From The Ground Up

A changing of the guard at the Federal Emergency Management Agency means a Boston-son is coming home.

For the last four years, Rich Serino has been the second-in-command at FEMA, which has undergone a dramatic reorganization since the dark days of Hurricane Katrina when the agency was criticized for its poor response to the catastrophe.

FEMA has tried to move away from a top-down approach toward working more with existing local agencies on the ground.

Serino was a big part of that change. Before going to FEMA, he worked at Boston Emergency Medical Services for 36 years, working his way up from EMT to the Chief of EMS.

Rich Serino, former deputy administrator at FEMA and former Boston EMS chief