The Federal Emergency Management Agency

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Mayorkas warns FEMA doesn’t have enough funding to last through hurricane season The Federal Emergency Management Agency is being stretched as it works with states to assess damage from Hurricane Helene and delivers meals, water, generators and other critical supplies. The storm struck Florida last week, then plowed through several states in the Southeast, flooding towns and killing hundreds. Read more.

Why this matters: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was not specific about how much additional money the agency may need, but his remarks on Air Force One underscored concerns voiced by President Joe Biden and some lawmakers earlier this week that Congress may need to pass a supplemental spending bill this fall to help states with recovery efforts.   Hurricane season runs June 1 to Nov. 30, but most hurricanes typically occur in September and October. More than 150,000 households have registered for assistance with FEMA, and that number is expected to rise rapidly in the coming days, said Frank Matranga, an agency representative.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Harris hands out meals, consoles families as she surveys Hurricane Helene devastation in Georgia   As search for Helene’s victims drags into second week, sheriff says rescuers ‘will not rest’   Twin babies who died alongside their mother in Georgia are youngest-known Hurricane Helene victims

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FEMA has faced criticism and praise during Helene. Here’s what it does — and doesn’t do

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is tasked with helping states and communities hit by disasters like Hurricane Helene. 

https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-helene-fema-trump-disasters-b191d88e2ab77d3b79eeeb860e4ae13b?

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FEMA chief issues dire warning on hurricane disinformation

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) warned Tuesday that falsehoods related to hurricanes are significantly impeding their response efforts, and putting hundreds of thousands of lives at risk as Hurricane Milton barrels toward Florida and others pick up the pieces from Hurricane Helene.

https://www.axios.com/2024/10/08/fema-hurricane-milton-helene-disinformation?

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? FEMA funds

By Alex Fitzpatrick and Karri Peifer

Data: Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database; Map: Alex Fitzpatrick/Axios Virginia is getting FEMA help: In response to Hurricane Helene, the agency has approved $500,000 for over 89 households in Southwest Virginia. That's part of $210 million going across the Southeast U.S. Why it matters: More aid is needed. As Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida, FEMA is running out of money to cover the rest of this hurricane season, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has warned. Zoom out: When looking back — between 2015 and April 2024 — the map above shows that most of FEMA's direct assistance to residents went to Florida, Louisiana and Texas, reflecting the toll of storms like 2017's Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Virginia residents have received $10.2 million in FEMA direct assistance in that period, per newly gathered data. Context: The data shows the amount given to recipients as part of the Individuals and Households Program (IHP), which is just a portion of FEMA's post-disaster relief spending. Go deeper

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Officials debunk rumors that FEMA won’t have the resources to respond to Milton

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that the Biden administration has given “approvals for everything that we’ve asked for” in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and the impending Hurricane Milton, the massive storm expected to make landfall in the next 48 hours on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/officials-debunk-rumors-fema-wont-have-resources-respond-milton?

FEMA Isn't Running Out of Hurricane Relief Money Due to Migrant Aid

"FEMA spent over $1 BILLION in taxpayer dollars on providing housing and services to illegal aliens," an X user claimed.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/10/07/fema-out-of-money-for-hurricane-season-migrants/?

ps:The Bull Manure that comes from this cult leader and his minions is just incredible!!!!!

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FEMA workers change some hurricane-recovery efforts in North Carolina after receiving threats

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Federal disaster workers paused and then changed some of their hurricane-recovery efforts in North Carolina, including abandoning door-to-door visits, after receiving threats that they could be targeted by a militia, officials said, as the government response to Helene is targeted by runaway disinformation.

https://apnews.com/article/fema-threats-disaster-workers-rutherford-county-armed-militia-dbb6b5727eaa12e79f307bf38a4b6256?

ps:And all because someone can't be bothered with the truth!!

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? Rising threats to FEMA workers

A FEMA search and rescue team at work in Asheville, N.C., after Hurricane Helene. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images Law enforcement officials in North Carolina arrested an armed man for threatening FEMA workers in the area for Hurricane Helene recovery efforts, Axios' Ivana Saric writes. Why it matters: FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell warned last week that a deluge of misinformation surrounding Hurricane Helene would harm the federal response. Keep reading.

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Hurricane paths, FEMA response spur dangerous misinformation | Fact check roundup

Hurricane Helene left hundreds dead and inflicted life-changing damage for thousands more, but officials leading the recovery effort have had to fight more than just storm damage.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/10/09/hurricane-helene-fema-funding-response-fact-check/75587360007/?

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FEMA

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has resumed door-to-door neighborhood outreaches in some areas affected by Hurricane Helene after authorities arrested one man accused of making a threat against its employees. This comes after aid to several communities was paused in parts of North Carolina over the weekend due to reports of a truckload of militia, amid a backdrop of misinformation about responses to recent storms. Investigators later determined a 44-year-old man in possession of a handgun and rifle acted alone. FEMA has had to deal with a slew of threats and wild rumors about its latest relief efforts, which include an initial $750 payment to many victims. "The contours of this misinformation are unlike anything we've seen before," a senior administration official told CNN last week.

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FEMA resumes door-to-door visits in North Carolina after threats tied to disinformation

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Federal disaster personnel have resumed door-to-door visits as part of their hurricane-recovery work in North Carolina, an effort temporarily suspended amid threats that prompted officials to condemn the spread of disinformation.

https://apnews.com/article/fema-north-carolina-disinformation-threats-militia-04b8f753a82c652bc013d556d22a5d46?

Witnesses saw an armed group harassing Helene aid workers in a small Tennessee town, sheriff says

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Witnesses reported seeing a group of armed people harassing hurricane relief workers in a remote Tennessee community last weekend, a sheriff said Wednesday as a man in North Carolina appeared in court for allegedly threatening aid workers in that state.

https://apnews.com/article/fema-north-carolina-disinformation-threats-militia-c1595fef596d0f78638ba4177bfa76af?

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Florida official warns Hurricane Milton victims about scammers posing as FEMA workers

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — The emergency management chief of the Florida county where Hurricane Milton made landfall earlier this month warned about reports of scammers in the area who are posing as Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and trying to get financial information from the storm’s victims.

https://apnews.com/article/florida-hurricane-milton-fema-1ba3a3b96d6d5840913309cf98de2e8a?

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Who gets more disaster aid? Republican states. Experts explain that and more about FEMA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal disaster aid is nearly everywhere. About 94% of Americans live in a county that has gotten Federal Emergency Management Agency help for disasters since 2011.

https://apnews.com/article/federal-disaster-aid-fema-wildfire-hurricane-money-84e1db303b8abead10a26b95392cd980?

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4 FEMA employees are fired over payments to reimburse New York City for hotel costs for migrants

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four federal employees were fired Tuesday over payments to reimburse New York City for hotel costs for migrants, Department of Homeland Security officials said.

https://apnews.com/article/fema-migrant-hotels-new-york-musk-immigration-3d250d9f64b40858c0f0eda9989bea6d?

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Legislation from 2 Florida lawmakers seeks to reform embattled FEMA

U.S. Reps. Byron Donalds and Jared Moskowitz have a plan to reform federal emergency management and improve the efficiency of federal emergency response efforts.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/03/27/moskowitz-donalds-seek-independence-for-embattled-fema-to-improve-it/?

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FEMA

As extreme weather events become increasingly damaging and costly, the Trump administration wants to shift the burden of disaster response from the federal government to the states. Six months after Hurricane Helene, North Carolina is still trying to recover. Four days into his second term, Trump visited the region and promised to help with rebuilding. But on April 1, the CDC team that was planning to travel to the area to survey residents about their recovery needs was fired. The administration also denied Arkansas’ request for federal aid in response to a recent outbreak of severe storms and tornadoes that left more than 40 people dead. Both Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have made it clear they want to eliminate FEMA, which helps people find temporary housing and provides public assistance after natural disasters. In the coming weeks, FEMA is expected to lose about 20% of its full-time staff due to DOGE's staff reduction efforts.

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Loss of FEMA program spells disaster for hundreds of communities and their projects

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The textile mills that once served as the backbone of Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, have long been shuttered, and officials believed federal money would be key to the town’s overdue revitalization. They hoped an improved stormwater drainage system and secured electrical wires — funded through a program to help communities protect against natural disasters and climate change — would safeguard investments in new businesses like a renovated historic theater to spur the largely rural economy.

https://apnews.com/article/fema-bric-grants-climate-resilience-cbbead8d418e1ff4e53d95f482de3522?

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FEMA

Hurricane season is just a few weeks away and the Trump administration is continuing to restructure FEMA, the government agency that helps people find temporary housing and provides public assistance after natural disasters. With the agency in turmoil, disaster assistance, grant money and hiring have largely stalled. About 20% of FEMA’s full-time staff — roughly 1,000 workers — are expected to take voluntary buyouts as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s staff reduction plan. And on Monday, Trump announced the creation of a “FEMA Review Council” to further reform the agency. In a post on his social media site, Trump said the council will be “comprised of Top Experts in their fields” who will “work hard to fix a terribly broken System.” Some of the council members include: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant and Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley.

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‘Don’t get in my way,’ the new acting head of federal disaster agency warns in call with staff

WASHINGTON (AP) — The new head of the federal agency tasked with responding to disasters across the country warned staff in a meeting Friday not to try to impede upcoming changes, saying that “I will run right over you” while also suggesting policy changes that would push more responsibilities to the states.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/05/09/fema-chief-replaced/?

ps:The arrogance of this administration is just so comforting to everyone!!!!!

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Head of DOGE-Gutted FEMA Admits It’s Not Ready for Hurricane Season

Staffing shortages have forced some weather offices to cease operating 24/7.

FEMA’s new leader has admitted that the all-important disaster relief agency has not completed its plan for hurricane season, which begins in just two weeks.

The stunning admission was made by David Richardson, who was named the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s interim leader by the Trump administration last week despite having no experience in emergency management.

Richardson told staff in a meeting he was about “80 percent to 85 percent” done with a hurricane season plan that he will give to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem next week, The Wall Street Journal reported.

That plan is reportedly being drawn up “without the expertise of FEMA staff who are usually responsible for putting it together.” Richardson is an ex-Marine Corps officer who was the assistant secretary for countering weapons of mass destruction at DHS.

The Journal added that FEMA “is already months behind schedule in its preparations for the hurricane season,” which forecasters expect will be busier than usual, like last year. The season’s official start date is June 1, but storm activity in the Atlantic has begun in late May in recent years.

Likely making Richardson’s task more difficult is that 20 percent of FEMA’s staff opted to take a voluntary buyout as part of a staff reduction push by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, sources told CNN last month.

“It’s likely to be a significant brain drain, which impedes our ability to respond,” an anonymous FEMA official told the network at the time.

The staggering number of voluntary exits may be partly thanks to President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about FEMA, which he says he will shutter.

Richardson addressed the president’s comments in his most recent staff meeting, the Journal said. In his first FEMA meeting, he warned staff, “Don’t get in my way, I will run right over you.”

Richardson expressed “surprise at the vast range of FEMA’s responsibilities” in his latest staff meeting, the Journal reported. This raised “concerns among career officials about his ability to run the nation’s disaster-management agency.”

“I feel a little bit like Bubba from ‘Forrest Gump,’” Richardson said, according to a video obtained by the Journal. “We’ve got hurricanes, we’ve got fires, we’ve got mudslides, we’ve got flash floods, we’ve got tornadoes, we’ve got droughts, we’ve got heat waves, and now we’ve got volcanoes to worry about.”

FEMA employees sounded the alarm about the agency’s lack of preparedness in an internal review that leaked this week. That document said FEMA processes have “been derailed this year” because of staffing and other issues.

“It has not been normal hurricane season preparedness yet,” the review said.

FEMA is not the only federal agency scrambling ahead of storm season.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which issues critical forecasts about severe weather, including hurricanes, has 155 meteorologist vacancies it needs to fill by May 27, reported The Washington Post. That includes “key weather forecasting positions at offices in coastal Texas and Louisiana, states that could face threats when the Atlantic hurricane season begins.”

Such shortages have forced some National Weather Service offices to cease operating around the clock, which could be deadly if severe weather, like a tornado, unexpectedly strikes in the dead of night. These shortages have NOAA asking forecasters to move to offices that are in the most need, the Post reported.

Budget constraints have slowed hiring at NOAA and forced the NWS to pull back on key forecasting practices, like releasing weather balloons to gather information about incoming storms. Federal meteorologists said the nixing of weather balloons harmed their forecasts during a recent spate of severe storms and tornadoes in the American heartland.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/david-richardson-of-doge-gutted-fema-admits-its-not-ready-for-hurricane-season/?

ps:What an administration, lets just tear down every department!!!!!!!!!!

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? FEMA "flying blind" into hurricane season

Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

President Trump's campaign to dismantle FEMA is on the verge of a high-stakes stress test, as the U.S. hurtles toward peak disaster season under uniquely dangerous conditions, Axios' Natalie Daher writes. Why it matters: Extreme weather is growing deadlier and more destructive. But instead of strengthening the systems that help states respond, the Trump administration is gutting FEMA, banning climate change research and urging governors to go it alone. With less than two weeks until the start of Atlantic hurricane season, leaks from inside the government continue to suggest that FEMA is understaffed, underfunded and underprepared. Acting FEMA head Cameron Hamilton was fired earlier this month after testifying to Congress that eliminating the agency — as Trump has called for — is not "in the best interests of the American people." His successor, David Richardson, has no experience managing natural disasters and acknowledged in private meetings that the agency doesn't yet have a fully formed hurricane response plan, the Wall Street Journal reported. ?️ The big picture: Trump — whose budget proposes more than $646 million in cuts to FEMA — has signed executive orders aimed at streamlining the federal disaster agency and shifting more responsibility to the states. FEMA, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, has shed roughly 1,000 workers and over a dozen senior leaders as a result of DOGE cuts.

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‘We’ve been ghosted’

As hurricane season bears down, a new layer of uncertainty is spreading through the disaster response system. Officials across the country say they’ve encountered a wall of silence from FEMA that’s left them scrambling for answers.

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FEMA

For months, officials at FEMA have been warning that the agency is unprepared for disasters due to the mass exodus of experienced emergency managers and the looming threat of it being dismantled. They were proven right last week when floodwaters surged across central Texas and bureaucratic obstacles hindered FEMA's ability to respond, four officials inside the agency told CNN. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a memo in June that said she must personally approve every contract and grant over $100,000. Under that directive, FEMA officials couldn’t pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews closer to the disaster zone because Noem didn’t authorize their deployment until more than 72 hours after the flooding began, multiple sources told CNN. Texas also requested aerial imagery from FEMA to aid search operations, a source told CNN; however, that response was delayed while awaiting Noem’s signature on the necessary contract.

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? As waters rose, FEMA responders were held back. While floodwaters surged across central Texas on Friday, July 4, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency were set to deploy critical lifesaving resources. But they had to wait to get expenses approved by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, as part of her new cost-control process, in which she personally must sign off on every contract over $100,000. As a result, FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue teams weren’t approved for deployment until Noem was back in the office on Monday, more than 72 hours after flooding began, according to CNN. 

• That Sunday, nearly two-thirds of calls placed to FEMA by flood survivors went unanswered after Noem failed to renew the contracts of hundreds of agency call center employees in time, per The New York Times.

ps:What an administration! Put people into positions they can't even do!!!!!

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Some FEMA staff call out Trump cuts in public letter of dissent

More than 180 current and former employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency published a letter Monday warning that debilitating cuts to the agency charged with handling federal disaster response risks a catastrophe like the one seen after Hurricane Katrina.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/08/25/fema-critical-letter-trump/?

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Editorial: Gutting FEMA will spell disaster for Florida

In the howl of hurricane-force winds, in the inexorable rise of floodwaters, there should be no room for politics. Or idiocy.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/08/28/editorial-gutting-fema-will-spell-disaster-for-florida/?