It’s been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing nearly 1,400 people and displacing up to 1.2 million more. The storm’s impact overwhelmed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, revealing fatal flaws in its disaster response.
The agency’s failure prompted Congress to overhaul FEMA largely through the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (PKEMRA). This set higher expectations for its leaders and enhanced its autonomy within the Department of Homeland Security. Now, the Trump administration is reversing this progress, and FEMA staffers with something to say about it are being shown the door.
Setting the stage for another ‘Katrina’ debacle
In an open letter to Congress on Monday, nearly 200 current and former FEMA employees argued that the Trump administration has eroded the capacity of the agency and its partners. Since January, the administration has moved to cancel billions of dollars in disaster preparedness grants and tossed around the idea of eliminating FEMA altogether. Additionally, about 2,000 FEMA employees—a third of its workforce—have left their posts through firings, buyouts, or early retirements since the start of the year, Reuters reports.
These decisions are setting the U.S. up for another Katrina-level catastrophe, the signatories warn. “The agency’s current trajectory reflects a clear departure from the intent of PKEMRA,” the letter reads. “Our shared commitment to our country, our oaths of office, and our mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters compel us to warn Congress and the American people of the cascading effects of decisions made by the current administration.”
In addition to denouncing the administration’s handling of FEMA, the letter urges Congress to restore the agency’s cabinet-level status, shield it from DHS interference, and protect its funding and authority. It also calls for safeguards against politically motivated firings as well as greater transparency around internal employment policies and future staff cuts.
“We hope [these changes] come in time to prevent not only another national catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of FEMA itself and the abandonment of the American people such an event would represent,” the letter reads.
Supercharged threats
Now, more than a dozen employees who signed the letter have been placed on administrative leave, the Washington Post reports. This is roughly a third of the staffers who signed with their names on Monday, with the other 141 signing anonymously for fear of retribution, according to the Associated Press.
FEMA did not answer Gizmodo’s questions about exactly how many employees were suspended or when they would be reinstated. “It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform,” an agency spokesperson said via email. “Change is always hard.”
This news broke as the Atlantic hurricane season approaches its September peak. Earlier this month, the eastern U.S. narrowly avoided disastrous impacts from Hurricane Erin as it slid up the coast. Decades of research show that climate change is supercharging hurricanes and other extreme weather events. We’re already seeing this play out this season as experts warn that above-average sea surface temperatures will lead to more frequent and intense hurricanes.
The Trump administration clearly isn’t worried about all that, seeing as it already told FEMA to scrub information about climate change from both public-facing and internal documents. Ignoring the effects of rising global temperatures won’t stop the storms from coming, and gutting U.S. disaster response certainly won’t offset the losses when they do.
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