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In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, FEMA faltered. The response was slow, political and disjointed. Mismanaged by someone without extensive emergency management experience, FEMA collapsed under the weight of its mission. Over 1,800 American lives were lost when the federal levees failed, and chaos ensued. It’s taken us nearly two decades to recover, and some communities never did.
As a country, we vowed never to let that happen again. As Bush administration Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend wrote in her Katrina after-action report at the time, “When local and State governments are overwhelmed or incapacitated by an event that has reached catastrophic proportions, only the Federal government has the resources and capabilities to respond. The Federal government must therefore plan, train, and equip to meet the requirements for responding to a catastrophic event.”
For over a decade, the country made substantial progress on strengthening federal, state and local coordination and capabilities. We reformed FEMA, required hiring leaders with emergency management experience, invested in more resilient infrastructure, put in place stronger building and hazard mitigation standards and funding which have a massive benefit, and invested in and coordinated better with state and local emergency preparedness.
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But in just eight months, the Trump administration is unraveling 20 years of hard-earned progress by gutting FEMA and hobbling the federal government’s ability to predict, prepare for and then respond to disasters.
Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, FEMA’s disaster response is an issue again. FILE: Neighborhoods are flooded with oil and water two weeks after Hurricane Katrina went though New Orleans, Sept. 12, 2005. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has set his sights on dismantling the very agencies responsible for keeping Americans safe in times of disaster. He first proposed eliminating FEMA altogether. Elon Musk’s DOGE operation’s terminations and voluntary separations slashed FEMA staff by nearly one third. Of the people left, they recently reassigned dozens of FEMA employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the height of hurricane season. Trump even fired the first appointed acting administrator for saying he thought FEMA should stick around, and the current acting administrator won’t say whether FEMA will continue to exist.
Trump’s FEMA canceled a $3.6 billion program to build stronger infrastructure — the kind of investment that helps communities improve drainage, elevate roads and homes, harden infrastructure like power lines and prepare for the future before disasters strike.
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In an agency known at times for bureaucratic processes, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem began requiring her personal sign-off for every FEMA grant or contract over $100,000, which, in today’s terms, is just about everything, causing delays that risked lives.
This July, over 130 people lost their lives in Kerrville, Texas, after catastrophic floods swept through the Hill Country region. During those Texas floods, FEMA couldn’t deploy Urban Search and Rescue teams in time because they didn’t have clearance. There’s been no course correction.
What would happen if a major hurricane were headed our way? Does anyone really think the current FEMA administration is ready as we enter the peak of hurricane season?
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Despite outcries from state and local officials, emergency preparedness experts and the broader meteorological community, Trump is doubling down. At a recent FEMA review task force, Noem reiterated that “federal emergency management should be state and locally led” and that “this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency.”
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It doesn’t stop at FEMA alone. Trump has floated privatizing NOAA and the National Weather Service, turning life-saving public alerts into paid services. Meanwhile, weather forecasting capabilities are eroding. Entering hurricane season, 30 of the 122 forecast offices across the U.S. no longer had chief meteorologists.
The damage from Hurricane Katrina was devastating. Could FEMA do better now? FILE: The Mound Underpass on Interstate 10, near downtown New Orleans, is flooded as Hurricane Katrina batters the city with wind and torrential rain in 2005. (AP)
Gutting FEMA and hollowing out the agencies responsible for disaster preparedness — saying “states can do it” — is not a plan. It’s federal abandonment, like a deadbeat dad. The scope and scale of responding to major disasters, in particular, requires the might financial, manpower and equipment of the federal government. Even where state and local governments can lead, our system is set up to require a strong federal partnership.
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As a state legislator, lieutenant governor, mayor and White House official, I’ve been part of both good and bad responses to disasters. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: response and recovery can only be as strong as the preparation that comes before them. A good response requires clear command and control, communication, coordination, collaboration and cooperation, and most importantly, an active and rightly ordered federal government acting in partnership with state and local governments.
Disasters will come, and storms are getting more intense more quickly. This we know. But how we prepare, how we respond, and how we help communities rebuild — that’s up to us. On August 29, we marked 20 years since Hurricane Katrina. We cannot let history repeat itself. Too much — and too many lives — are at stake.
