To be clear, Trump is not trying to eliminate FEMA. He couldn’t if he wanted to, it was created by Congress. He is trying to seriously cut it back, though
Deanne Criswell has spent years sounding the alarm about busier disaster seasons. Just days before the former chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped down at the end of the Biden administration, Criswell was directing the federal response to the deadly and destructive wildfires in Los Angeles.
“We’re seeing hurricane season last longer, we’re seeing spring severe weather season get more significant and we’re seeing the fire season go year-round now,” Criswell told CNN at the time. The agency is “more engaged in wildfire response than we ever have been before.”
It’s not just FEMA’s perception that threats are increasing — there were 90 declarations of “major disasters” in 2024.
Declaring disasters quickly is not the same as actually having them. Why? Because governors are quick to declare disaster in order to get that sweet, sweet federal money, and presidents are happy to follow along in order to look good and spread their benevolent money around to help with re-election.
Researchers also found that 41% of the US population lived in a county where a major disaster or emergency was declared — about 137 million people.
“Our analysis of FEMA data shows the agency has been responding to a growing number of climate-driven disasters over the past few decades. This is in line with what scientists warned us would happen,” said Sejal Patel, senior climate finance researcher at IIED, in a statement to CNN.
Again, the problem is that FEMA is way too involved and way too bossy. That is not their purpose. They’re also way to politicized and incompetent. Remember the failure of all those FEMA trailers after Hurricane Katrina? How many were left unused? And the rest with things like formaldehyde? They’ve failed other times, including in Western NC.
It comes as the Trump administration plans for deep staff cuts at FEMA.
“As global temperatures continue to rise, all levels of government will have no choice but to help people adapt to the realities of climate change,” Patel said, adding political leaders should be focusing on how to adapt and build resilience against climate change threats, including solutions like stronger building codes, early warning systems, reenvisioning the homeowners insurance industry and infrastructure like flood barriers.
Sigh. And that’s one of the ways they have been politicized.
The US president can declare a major disaster or emergency for any natural event, such as hurricanes, storms, tornados and landslides, when they determine an event is severe enough to surpass the ability of state and local government to respond. It provides access to federal funding for emergency needs and permanent repairs.
But, they are making that declaration for just about everything. Was a federal one necessary for the Malibu fires? No. But, FEMA would be helpful in coordinating resources coming from outside of California to help. That’s what FEMA does: coordinate. Not take control. Or determine who gets help due to politics, like when FEMA officials were telling helpers to skip Trump supporting houses.
Let FEMA do what it was meant to do, not be in full control. It’s literally about “we’re here to help” not “step back, we’re in charge.” A lot of disasters have little need of federal disaster declarations: we didn’t get them after a big tornado 40 years ago. Now we get one after everything. How much are they helping? The Maui homes have barely been seen any rebuilding. Not much is going on in Malibu. It took Trump surging resources the Army Corps Of Engineers into Western NC. Take a scalpel to FEMA, let it go back to doing the base job.
Cut FEMA’s budget by 99%. Transfer Emergency Management over to the National Guard. Both the Air and the Army National Guards already have Emergency response plans in place. It’s not unusual for ANG crew chiefs and ARNG tank commanders to be employed full time in the building trades. They know more about recovery than politically appointed bureaucrats.
Most FEMA aid, 57% goes to Red States
National Guard members might be on forced deployment for weeks at at time which would be hard to manage for some. FEMA is more administrative then hands on disaster relief. They typical hire local contractors to do things like repairs and reconstruction, YES, THOSE VERY SAME PEOPLE THAT “ARE” THE Tank Commanders.
The ONE (not plural officials) who DID tell his workers to skip Trump houses was immediately fired. there were 8500 FEMA deployed to NC, only about 1000 National Guard were called up. My guess is that “Wyllie1” was never in the National Guard, or spent much time in residential or commercial building trades.
3% of the civilian workforce work in Construction, and you want the National Guard in to rebuild bridges?