By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
With the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina this week, current and former employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are warning that budget cuts to the agency could soon become a major problem with several months left in the Atlantic hurricane season.
“One of the biggest things that I’ll be watching is whether or not FEMA’s going to be able to preposition resources ahead of a storm’s impact like they have had in the past,” said Deanne Criswell, who served as FEMA administrator during the Biden administration in a Zoom call on Monday.
“What we’ve heard is that (they) want to turn the responsibility for managing disaster to the state and locals, but they already had the responsibility. FEMA can only come in and support if the state asks them to, but they have the ability to be proactive and get resources ready and anticipate what they think a state may ask for.”
Warning to Congress
Earlier on Monday, more than 180 current and former FEMA employees issued a letter to Congress warning that the Trump administration has set back much of the progress in disaster response and recovery since Katrina smashed New Orleans in 2005.
The group listed six “statements of opposition” to what is going on with FEMA, such as the requirement by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that she personally must review and approve all contracts, grants and mission assignments over $100,000.
“That means every single decision that goes into the response and recovery would require additional approval, and that’s what we saw as a failure during Hurricane Katrina. And I would fear that that’s really going to have an impact on the ability for some of these really large-scale events to slow down FEMA’s ability to support the people who have been impacted,” said Criswell.
In their letter, the group opposed the “failure to appoint a qualified FEMA administrator, as required by law.”
Lack of experience
Cameron Hamilton, former acting head of FEMA, was fired in May after he told lawmakers the day before that he didn’t think it was in the public’s interest to dismantle the federal agency. He was replaced led by David Richardson, who has no experience managing natural disasters.
Criswell noted that was also the case when Katrina hit in 2005, when Michael D. Brown served as FEMA director under President George W. Bush. Brown had been a lawyer active in GOP politics in Oklahoma who had supervised police and fire departments as an assistant city manager in an Oklahoma City suburb before being appointed to lead FEMA in 2003.
And she said she’s concerned that there have been several regional administrators who have stepped down in recent months. “If you’re a good leader, you’re going to rely on the knowledge and skills and abilities of your staff, yet we’ve seen much of the leadership across FEMA also leave,” she said.
The Zoom call was organized by the group Sabotaging our Safety, and included Jacksonville Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon and two other Democrats running for office next year: former Miami-Dade County state Sen. José Javier Rodríguez, who is running for attorney general, and Colonel Darren McAuley, running for Congress in Florida’s 15th District.
“We need to be very clear that FEMA cuts will have a direct impact on the health, well-being and medical care of our neighbors and our communities,” McAuley said. “FEMA helps us prepare us for a storm, but it also helps us to mitigate the response after a storm.”
President Donald Trump said in June that he intended to phase FEMA out after this year’s hurricane season. In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had said that the state could handle emergencies without federal funds but said he didn’t believe the president would do so without the federal government giving grants to the states.
FEMA approved more than $1 billion in individual assistance last year to Floridians following the destruction from Hurricanes Milton, Helene and Debby.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: in**@************ix.com. Banner photo: Former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell speaks about Hurricane Helene at a press briefing in 2024 at the White House (The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
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