This post was originally published on Word In Black.
OVERVIEW:
After gutting FEMA staffing and budgets, the Trump administration is reversing course as hurricane season nears. But former employees warn the agency is still dangerously unprepared for disasters that disproportionately impact Black communities.
When President Donald Trump returned to power last year, he put the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the chopping block as part of his efforts to reduce the federal government. With his blessing, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem slashed FEMA’s budget and staffing, and Trump himself openly discussed shutting down the agency entirely.
However, as the slash-and-burn approach delayed critical federal disaster declarations and the services they trigger, people within the agency began speaking up — despite risking their jobs.
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“FEMA risks entering hurricane season without the clarity and discipline required for effective response,” Victoria Barton, the politically appointed communications chief at FEMA, wrote in one of a series of memos at the beginning of the year, according to Politico’s E&E News.
And now, just ahead of hurricane season, FEMA’s new leadership appears to be listening.
Katrina Declaration
While hurricanes can hit up and down the eastern seaboard, they are most concentrated in the southeast, where Black people are nearly twice as likely to be affected as other residents living in the same part of the country. Lower-income people in particular disproportionately depend on FEMA, which often ends up playing a major role in the lives of Black residents after a natural disaster.
FEMA risks entering hurricane season without the clarity and discipline required for effective response.VICTORIA BARTON, FEMA COMMUNICATIONS
In addition to the internal memos, there was also the so-called Katrina Declaration, an open letter FEMA employees sent to Congress last year on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the deadly storm that devastated New Orleans. The document detailed to lawmakers how far the agency had drifted from the reforms made to ensure Black and low-income people weren’t stranded as they were after Hurricane Katrina.
Rather than engaging with the critique, however, Noem — whose office has FEMA in its portfolio — suspended the 14 workers who wrote it.
Stormy Weather Ahead
With hurricane season rapidly approaching on June 1, FEMA is finally taking steps to rebuild the agency — at least somewhat.
Trump replaced Noem with former Sen. Markwayne Mullins, an Oklahoma Republican. Last week, along with reinstating the suspended FEMA workers, Mullins rehired hundreds of disaster response workers whom Noem had fired.
“As we approach the 2026 hurricane season and the FIFA World Cup, FEMA is taking targeted steps to stabilize our workforce and strengthen readiness,” Barton, FEMA’s communications director, said in a statement. “Under new leadership, FEMA is addressing outstanding personnel actions to ensure workforce stability and a strong, deployable surge force for upcoming national events and potential disasters.”
The workers Mullin rehired are from FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery Employees program, or CORE. The unit is often the first federal response after a natural disaster, and sometimes continues to work with communities for years as communities rebuild.
First Steps
Still, the agency’s critics are clear that bringing back these workers alone is not enough to solve all of FEMA’s problems.
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“FEMA is arguably in a worse state than it was back in August when I signed the Katrina Declaration,” Abby Mcllraith, an emergency management specialist who signed the Katrina Declaration, told the Washington Post after she returned to work.
“A hiring freeze is still in effect,” she said. “FEMA still has no legally qualified administrator, money isn’t getting to states that need it, (and) we have wildfire and hurricane seasons coming up.”
