Fugate: FEMA videographer wrong to ask Miss. tornado volunteers not to show faith logo

FEMA: Sorry photog asked faith shirts not be worn

JACKSON, Miss. — The top officer at FEMA says one of the agency’s videographers was “absolutely wrong” to ask Mississippi church volunteers to not wear religious T-shirts for a video about tornado cleanup.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate said Tuesday that the photographer’s actions in the small town of Ebenezer this past Saturday “in no way reflect FEMA’s policies or priorities.”

Angela Lott and Pamela Wedgeworth told The Associated Press that the FEMA worker who was videotaping the cleanup asked them to do on-camera interviews but requested that they change out of their T-shirts because of a Salvation Army logo. They say he didn’t want anything faith-based.

In a statement issued Monday and sent to AP on Tuesday, Fugate apologized to Crossgates Baptist and to the Salvation Army.