A Preventable Disaster Lies Ahead
Disasters happen. It's a fact of life. Mother Nature occasionally decides to wreak havoc, and there's not a whole lot humanity can do about it. Steps can be taken to mitigate the worst features of a disaster (such as strengthening building codes), people do what they can to cope with disasters when they strike, and then the affected area goes through a phase of recovery and rebuilding after the disaster is over. Natural disasters can't be prevented, but we do everything we can in their aftermath to ameliorate the suffering. That's the way it is supposed to work, in any case.
Sometimes it doesn't work out that way. Sometimes the response to the disaster is so woefully inadequate that it creates a secondary -- and eminently avoidable -- disaster afterwards. The textbook example of this was Hurricane Katrina. Many people were just abandoned by the government, and the whole world watched in horror as New Orleans turned into a postapocalyptic refugee camp while FEMA floundered around doing not much of anything for days. While nobody could have stopped the hurricane itself, what happened afterwards was a totally preventable disaster of its own.
We now stand at the brink of such secondary preventable disasters actually becoming commonplace here in America. Because the new plan for the federal government is going to be to pass the blame to state governments, while the feds shrug their shoulders, stand back, and refuse to help. I would have said "pass the buck" in that previous sentence, but it's doubtful many actual bucks will be passed along to the states to aid in disaster recovery -- each state will essentially be on its own.
In an article Politico ran today on the continuing aftermath of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina (and how Trump's FEMA is falling down on the job), this new "the states are on their own" plan was outlined:
Meanwhile, [Donald] Trump's FEMA has halted $10 billion in disaster relief funds intended to help people across the country, cut off housing assistance for thousands of Helene survivors and ended a policy of fully reimbursing the state of North Carolina for debris removal.
Now, in further evidence of how political attacks can create a reality of their own, Trump officials are using FEMA's struggles in western North Carolina as a rationale to dismantle the agency.
"I think we're going to recommend that FEMA go away," Trump said during a January visit to Asheville to survey the damage shortly after taking office.
At a congressional hearing on May 6, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees FEMA, called the agency a failure and reiterated that Trump believes "FEMA as it exists today should be eliminated." Trump fired then-acting FEMA chief Cameron Hamilton on May 8, just one day after Hamilton told a House committee the agency should not be abolished. His replacement, David Richardson, warned staff: "I will run right over you."
Staff reductions, programmatic cuts and leadership changes at FEMA have raised questions about the preparedness of the nation's premier disaster response agency. Its performance will be closely watched as the nation readies for the Atlantic hurricane season, which federal forecasters will preview Thursday.
This is Trump's answer (aided and abetted by Elon Musk) to a lot of things: "This government agency isn't working perfectly, so we will solve the problem -- by eliminating it!" You will note that eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency doesn't actually eliminate emergencies -- just our ability as a country to provide meaningful relief when they do happen.
They've already got the blame game all worked out, too. Trump's going to just wash his hands of the problem entirely and redirect everyone's anger at the state governments instead:
As to the president's plans for FEMA, a White House official said the federal government will focus "on truly catastrophic disasters" while continuing to provide assistance for search-and-rescue missions after devastating events. But the official said state and local governments "often remain an impediment to their own community's resilience," and that Trump's policies aim to prod them into more proactive posture.
"States must have adequate emergency management staff, adoption and enforcement of modern building codes, responsible planning and strategic investment to reduce future risk," the official said, saying states must have their own "commonsense policies that prioritize preparedness over politics, disaster reserve funds to handle what should be routine emergencies, pre-negotiated mutual aid and contingency contracts that speed up recovery, and above all, an appetite to own the problem."
Got that? States must now have "an appetite to own the problem," since the federal government under Trump is not going to own even a tiny little piece of it. FEMA will go away, and it'll be up to the state to provide any assistance at all to the survivors of natural disasters, period. And if anything screws up, well, that's their fault, not Trump's.
This is already causing problems. In a Newsweek article amusingly entitled "Republican Wants FEMA Help After Voting To Cut Funding," Senator Josh Hawley is now begging for FEMA's help in the aftermath of devastating storms in his home state, mere months after voting against expanding FEMA's disaster relief funds. The article quotes a Trump social media post from February, where he laid out his new scheme: "FEMA SHOULD BE TERMINATED! IT HAS BEEN SLOW AND TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE. INDIVIDUAL STATES SHOULD HANDLE STORMS, ETC., AS THEY COME. BIG SAVINGS, FAR MORE EFFICIENT!!!" "Big savings," because the federal government just won't care about disaster relief anymore, but "far more efficient" is nothing short of a cruel joke -- or it will be, the first time a major disaster strikes and FEMA just does not show up.
You have to wonder how the state governments feel about this new paradigm. Especially since a lot of them are run by Republicans. There are many types of disaster that hit many different areas of the country, but one that is pretty predictable is the upcoming hurricane season -- which is now projected to be worse than normal.
The states that regularly get hit the hardest by hurricanes are almost exclusively run by Republicans: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and the biggest target of all, Florida. Hurricanes do occasionally cause major damage in other states, but it's much rarer than the states along the southern Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf coast being the primary targets.
The problem may even be exacerbated by the fact that Trump is also working to gut the federal departments that track and predict the weather. Maybe he's still mad about Sharpiegate? Or perhaps it's just that they give credence to the scientific fact of climate change, which Trump thinks is a "hoax" -- that's a more likely explanation. But for whatever reason, having fewer meteorologists is likely to make the hurricane season harder to cope with all around.
We've already had a preview of how this is all going to play out, of course. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Trump left it up to the states to secure their own necessary medical equipment. States got into bidding wars over medical masks and protective clothing for hospital workers. It was ugly -- a dog-eat-dog scramble that pitted each state against all the others. That's how disaster response is now going to work as well -- the federal government will be completely hands-off while each state's government has to scramble to try to make up for the fact that FEMA has abdicated their main responsibility (or has been completely eliminated).
Most Americans watched the unfolding preventable secondary disaster after Hurricane Katrina and were justifiably horrified. Trump apparently saw it unfold and thought it'd be a dandy model for the future. We won't know until it happens, but if Trump does tell FEMA to just stand down and do nothing in the wake of a major disaster, perhaps he will be convinced to change course by the public outcry which is sure to follow. Or perhaps not. He may double down on heaping all the blame on the hapless governor of whatever state is hit hardest, and try to convince everyone that nothing is his fault.
This is all preventable, of course. Anyone with half a brain can see that dismantling the federal agency that deals with emergencies -- and then replacing it with absolutely nothing -- is going to be completely catastrophic when disaster strikes. Here at the very start of hurricane season, few people have noticed Trump's plans to gut or eliminate FEMA. But soon enough, we're all going to see the results, as we see another Katrina-level preventable disaster happen after the natural disaster has done its worst.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
This is very bad. As you say, the idea that each state must pre-insure and prepare for every possible disaster on its own, so that that preparation if not needed in a given season is essentially unavailable to help a neighbor state that is overwhelmed by a 'big one', goes against the entire idea of a federal union of 50 states constituting one nation, under God (as the phrase goes).
Why even have a federal government at all? Why not assign national defense to each state's National Guard, as well?
Wait, I know: as Republicans put it, in not so many words, "Government is bad". The less government, the better - because people should take care of themselves, without assistance from their neighbors and fellow Americans. It leads to lower taxes and less regulation of private enterprise - and what could be more desirable than that?
So tell FEMA to screw up and underserve the people of southern Appalachia after the recent storm damage. Then point to that screwing up and underserving, which you directed, and explain that that shows that FEMA cannot and should not exist at all. Uh-huh.
Well, let's see what happens after the coming tropical storm season. Maybe people, especially Republican voters and the fabled 'base' will buy into the story that it's all the states' fault when people die and suffer en masse in the aftermath of terrific storm damage, absent any federal aid at all from the now-missing FEMA.
Or maybe some of them - perhaps - will finally wonder if their faith in the 'less government the better' mantra and the 'Trump can do no wrong, it's always somebody else's fault' theology has been, somehow, slightly misplaced.
Gah. As they say. Thanks for this post.
COVID response redux
i wonder if the tune changes when a hurricane puts Mar a Lago underwater
Great article, CW. This gutting of FEMA issue seems like it's one that people aren't going to notice until disaster happens to them. They're definitely beginning to notice in Missouri, Kentucky...
The plans to gut FEMA weren't exactly unknown; they were outlined in Project 2025.
Trump fired then-acting FEMA chief Cameron Hamilton on May 8, just one day after Hamilton told a House committee the agency should not be abolished. His replacement, David Richardson, warned staff: "I will run right over you."
In a staff meeting about a week later, Richardson said that FEMA has somewhere between 150-175 obligations mandated by statute and explained how those tasks "can be binned into categories." We know this because independent news outlet Drop Site News obtained 30 minutes of leaked audio from the May 15 town hall meeting and provided a transcript as well as 10 minutes from the May 9 introductory meeting:
Hope somebody explained to this prattling moron how the Trump Tariff Tax is going to affect the cost of the "bananas" pile.
Interesting plans they've got for FEMA, which can basically be described as doing what they are required by law and likely "you're on your own" beyond that.
nypoet22
3
i wonder if the tune changes when a hurricane puts Mar a Lago underwater
Heh. Exactly.
In an article Politico ran today on the continuing aftermath of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina (and how Trump's FEMA is falling down on the job),
Uh... Hurricane Helene happened on the Basement Biden/Headboard Harris junta's watch...
Why you blaming PRESIDENT Trump for their frak up???
If Basement Biden and Headboard Harris had done their job right the first time, there wouldn't be any reason for this now, right??
Having said that, let's look at REAL news sources and get the ACTUAL facts, not the POLITICO fearmongering Trump/America hate spin, shall we??
PRESIDENT Trump was forced to take actions on FEMA because FEMA had completely and utterly dropped the ball on practically EVERY disaster response of the last few decades.
PRESIDENT Trump’s decisive FEMA reforms are a game-changer, tackling an agency that’s botched disaster responses for decades while empowering states to lead with stellar results.
FEMA’s track record is a disaster itself:
FRAK UP #1
Hurricane Katrina (2005) left 1,833 dead due to delayed aid and poor coordination {CITE: History.com, Aug 2020}
FRAK UP #2
Hurricane Maria (2017) saw 2,975 deaths in Puerto Rico with FEMA’s slow supply delivery {CITE: CNN, Aug 2018}
FRAK UP #3
Hurricane Helene (2024) stranded thousands as FEMA misallocated $1.4 billion to non-disaster programs {CITE: NY Times, Oct 2024}.
PRESIDENT Trump saw all this death and destruction due to FEMA incompetence and took bold action. As ANY **GOOD** leader would do
On January 24, 2025, PRESIDENT Trump signed an executive order forming a 20-member FEMA Review Council, led by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to gut bureaucratic bloat costing $30 billion EVERY FRAKIN' YEAR!!!.
PRESIDENT Trump slashed 200 FEMA jobs and targeted 1,000 buyouts, excising “deep state” waste like $59 million spent on migrant hotels in New York {CITE: CNN, Mar 2025}.
By April 4, Trump axed the BRIC grant program, redirecting funds to immediate relief, not bullshit climate fantasies. The BRIC program, or Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, is a bloated, eco-green-worshipping boondoggle that funnels taxpayer dollars into climate change bullshit under the guise of disaster prep.
This FEMA complete and utter fiasco, launched in 2020, squanders millions on climate-obsessed projects (think solar panels for flood zones :eyeroll:) while ignoring real recovery needs.
It’s a typical woke progressive Democrat bureaucratic black hole, prioritizing woke agendas over actual infrastructure, leaving storm-ravaged Americans in the lurch. PRESIDENT Trump was DEAD ON BALLZ RIGHT to gut this useless, tree-hugging cash grab {CITE: UCS, May 2025}.
PRESIDENT Trump took all that wasted BILLIONS of dollars wasted on Climate Change bullshit and converted it to DIRECT AID to states that were STILL hurting from a disaster that happened on the Basement Biden/Headboard Harris junta's watch. {CITE: FEMA.gov, Mar.2025}.
When STATES take the lead, results soar and Americans are well taken care of.. The FACTS prove this beyond ANY doubt..
Florida’s response to Hurricane Ian (2022) under Gov. Ron DeSantis saw 90% of power restored in days, compared to FEMA’s weeks-long delays in Puerto Rico CITE: AP, Oct. 2022}.
Texas’ rapid debris clearance post-Hurricane Harvey (2017) outpaced FEMA’s sluggish efforts CITE: Houston Chronicle, Sep 2017}.
PRESIDENT Trump’s state-led model, backed by federal funds, delivers speed and efficiency.
Woke progressive Democrats’ hysterical whining about cuts COMPLETELY and UTTERLY ignores PRESIDENT Trump’s genius.
Streamlining a broken agency to save lives and money.
So, yea.. PRESIDENT Trump "gutted" FEMA... But ONLY the part of FEMA that NEEDED "gutting".. The part that was more concerned about bullshit woke progressive ideology that TOTALLY IGNORED the American people..
GOOD JOB PRESIDENT Trump!!!
CITES:
PBS, Jan. 24, 2025
CNN, Mar. 26, 2025
UCS, May 1, 2025
FEMA.gov, Mar. 24, 2025
History.com, Aug. 31, 2020
CNN, Aug. 28, 2018
NY Times, Oct. 15, 2024
AP, Oct. 5, 2022
Houston Chronicle, Sep. 10, 2017
PRESIDENT Trump saw all this death and destruction due to FEMA incompetence and took bold action. As ANY **GOOD** leader would do
Interesting comment over in QUORA I came across yesterday..
While I can't vouch for the factual accuracy of the original comment, my response was dead on ballz accurate..
These men just played Trump...
They found a way to try and drive a wedge between him and Putin.
Yesterday, the leaders of France, Germany, Poland, and the UK gathered in a room with Zelensky. They then made an unscheduled phone call to Trump.
In that call, they disclosed a plan to give Putin an ultimatum: agree to a 30-day ceasefire and begin negotiations for peace, or they would supply Ukraine with overwhelming military support and coordinate additional sanctions that could suffocate a Russian economy finally beginning to show the mortal wounds of economic isolation.
In this call, they convinced Trump that this threat alone would force Putin to the negotiating table.
And they convinced Trump that if this worked... he would get the plaudits.
The truth is, they know Putin doesn't want peace. As has been explained countless times, anyone who actually understands Putin and his geopolitical priorities knows he doesn't want a democratic Ukraine to survive.
Trump, evidently, has failed to grasp this. He still sees everything as a real estate deal and fails to appreciate the deeper ideological aspirations at play.
He is also notoriously easy to persuade, especially by someone like Macron. Starmer, meanwhile, is Trump's new best friend after he went along with his charade of a bilateral trade agreement. They've been buttering him up for this whole time.
Macron, Starmer, Merz, Tusk, and Zelensky appealed to Trump's vanity and his ignorance... and it looks like it worked.
They managed to get his verbal approval for the ultimatum during the call. And before anyone had the chance to explain the implications to Trump... they announced it. One by one, they gave speeches to the media where they made it absolutely clear that Trump was in on the deal. The USA was party to the ultimatum.
Putin then had to either accept an immediate ceasefire by Monday... or defy Trump.
As expected, before the deadline even came close, Putin rejected the offer outright. Because he does not want peace.
Trump has now effectively sanctioned the European plan for complete and unrestricted support of the Ukrainian military and agreed to cooperate on additional economic sanctions on Russia.
Just like that, the USA appears to be back on Ukraine's side, and it's all thanks to an unscheduled phone call.
I don't know whose plan it was, but it was brilliant.
As I said, I don't know if any of this ^^^^ actually happened..
But the fact is, PRESIDENT Trump was presented with a better plan than his original plan..
So he adopted THAT plan..
That's not "getting played"....
That's called "BEING A GOOD LEADER!!!!"
What IS it about Trump/America hating morons that they can't see past their own greed, hatred and bigotry!??
And, in other news... PRESIDENT Trump scores ANOTHER SCOTUS win!!! :D
PRESIDENT Trump scored another resounding SCOTUS victory on May 22, 2025, cementing his unstoppable streak in reshaping the federal government for the better, to better serve the American people..
The 6-3 ruling in Trump v. Wilcox upheld Trump’s removal of Biden appointees Cathy Harris (Merit Systems Protection Board) and Gwynne Wilcox (National Labor Relations Board), obliterating outdated limits on executive power CITE: Fox News, May 2025}.
This win, following Trump’s triumphs on deporting Venezuelan criminals (Trump v. J.G.G., April 7, 2025) and ending TPS protections (Trump v. National TPS Alliance, May 19, 2025), proves SCOTUS backs his AMERICA FIRST agenda {CITE: NPR, May 2025}.
Solicitor General John Sauer’s argument that congressional protections like Humphrey’s Executor (1935) infringe on presidential authority crushed hysterical woke progressive Democrat whining, with Justice Kagan’s dissent ignored {CITE: Yahoo News, May 2025}.
X posts from @HANKonX (May 2025) celebrate this as a “Deep State death blow”.
Trump’s firings, impacting over 8,000 pending labor cases, ensure that loyal patriotic AMERICA FIRST Americans will replace obstructionists, streamlining agencies CITE: Reuters, April 2025}.
Woke progressive Democrats, flailing at 29% favorability {CITE: NBC, March 2025} can’t stop PRESIDENT Trump’s judicial juggernaut.
PRESIDENT Trump's conservative court, with Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, continues delivering victories, from immigration to executive power, proving Trump’s vision reigns supreme.
Keep winning PRESIDENT Trump!!!
SCOTUS has your back!! :D
NOW do ya'all see the consequences of woke progressive Democrat short-term strategy???
Do you think Harry Reid would have been so quick to frak with the rules if he knew that THIS is where it would lead???
CITES:
Fox News, May 2025
NPR, May 2025
Yahoo News, May 2025
Reuters, Apr 2025
NBC Poll, Mar 2025
X post by @HANKonX, May 2025
Aww right people... You can come out of hiding now.. :D
I gots ta get ready for work.. :D
So, ya'all got the next 3 days of minimal-Michale..
Enjoy yer respite... :D
@kick[4],
i tend to agree, they are signaling the intention to do ONLY what is required by law and not a single thing more.
not to worry however, even though there won't be any other help, a federal response will be forthcoming to bring hope to the masses. just like he did for Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria four years ago, Donald will still be there to throw paper towels to the masses.
JL