Current and former employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency just sounded the alarm over their agency's ability to continue their mission. In an extraordinary letter they warn of another impending disaster on the scale of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In fact, the title of their open letter is: "Katrina Declaration And Petition To Congress." In it, they warn that another man-made disaster on the same scale could easily happen soon, as a direct result of the changes the administration of Donald Trump has been making to their agency.

Trump began his second term with the stated intent of just abolishing FEMA altogether. So far that hasn't happened, but it still seems to be a goal of his, simmering on the back burner. So far, Trump has appointed two people as acting heads of FEMA (one replaced the other after he balked at supporting the goal of eliminating FEMA), neither of which has any prior experience in disaster response. Remember George W. Bush and "heckuva job, Brownie"? Trump wants the states to handle disaster recovery, because they if they screw it up it'll be the governors who get blamed, not him.

Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, is in essence now in charge of FEMA. She now has to sign off on any expenditure they make that is over $100,000. These requests have piled up on her desk and even the ones that are signed by her are needlessly delayed. This resulted in the search-and-rescue operations in the recent Texas flooding being delayed for 72 hours -- three whole days -- which kind of defeats the purpose of "rapid-response teams."

Recently Hurricane Erin grew to Category 5 strength, but did not make landfall within the United States. It instead headed north over the Atlantic Ocean, a few hundred miles off the Eastern Seaboard. The high surf and storm surge was bad, but not catastrophic. But sooner or later a hurricane is going to make landfall. And, as the letter warns, the federal government's response may be just as bad as it was during Katrina.

Because this is such an extraordinary warning, I am going to run large portions of their letter intact. I did cut out a few sections (for length), and I did remove the citations to sections of federal law (links to the laws' actual text). If you'd like to read it in full (and with these links intact), it is available at the Stand Up For Science website. All emphasis is from the original, as well. The letter was addressed to "Members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council" and the congressional committees with responsibilities over the agency.

KATRINA DECLARATION AND PETITION TO CONGRESS

Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane, claiming an estimated 1,833 lives, leaving millions homeless, and causing approximately $161 billion in damage. Hurricane Katrina was not just a natural disaster, but a man-made one: the inexperience of senior leaders and the profound failure by the federal government to deliver timely, unified, and effective aid to those in need left survivors to fend for themselves for days, and highlighted how Black, Indigenous, and low-income communities are disproportionally affected by disasters. These failures prompted Congress to pass the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (PKEMRA), which introduced safeguards to ensure such shortcomings of disaster preparation and response would not be repeated. However, two decades later, FEMA is enacting processes and leadership structures that echo the conditions PKEMRA was designed to prevent.

Since January 2025, FEMA has been under the leadership of individuals lacking legal qualifications, Senate approval, and the demonstrated background required of a FEMA Administrator. Decisions made by FEMA's Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator (SOPDA) David Richardson, Former SOPDA Cameron Hamilton, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem erode the capacity of FEMA and our State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) partners, hinder the swift execution of our mission, and dismiss experienced staff whose institutional knowledge and relationships are vital to ensure effective emergency management.

The agency's current trajectory reflects a clear departure from the intent of PKEMRA. 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. We the undersigned -- current and former FEMA workers -- have come together to sound the alarm to our administrators, the US Congress, and the American people so that we can continue to lawfully uphold our individual oaths of office and serve our country as our mission dictates.

The following are our Six Statements of Opposition from FEMA's workforce and our Petition to Congress, which we hope 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:

 

1) We oppose the reduction in capability of FEMA to perform its missions.

Secretary Noem has impounded agency funds by requiring a personal review and approval of all contracts, grants and mission assignments over $100,000 which reduces FEMA's authorities and capabilities to swiftly deliver our mission. Consequences of this manual review became tragically clear during the July 2025 floods in Kerrville, Texas, when mission assignments were delayed up to 72 hours; FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Branch Chief resigned, citing these delays as cause.

PKEMRA states: "the Agency shall be maintained as a distinct entity within the Department" and the "Secretary may not substantially or significantly reduce the authorities, responsibilities, or functions of the Agency or the capability of the Agency to perform those missions, authorities, responsibilities." Noem's review of contracts is superfluous, given that FEMA is already required to develop "pre-scripted mission assignments", per PKEMRA, in conjunction with federal partners that also have legal responsibilities to ensure rapid federal disaster response.

Additionally, PKEMRA states that transfers of assets are prohibited, "except for details or assignments that do not reduce the capability of the Agency to perform its missions." Despite this prohibition FEMA employees have been detailed and reassigned to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when the agency is already operating at reduced capacity due to staff losses through deferred resignation and voluntary retirement. Any who refuse the transfer to ICE are threatened with termination.

 

2) We oppose the ongoing failure to appoint a qualified FEMA administrator, as required by law.

Since January 2025, there have now been two individuals placed in charge of FEMA who lack proper qualifications and the authority to lead this agency. Hurricane season has begun, yet FEMA continues to lack an appointed Administrator with the mandated qualifications to fulfill this role.

The dangers of unqualified leadership were a significant lesson learned from Hurricane Katrina. PKEMRA requires that: "The Administrator shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Administrator shall be appointed from among individuals who have a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management and homeland security; and not less than 5 years of executive leadership and management experience in the public or private sector."

[Statements 3 and 4 both oppose the elimination of "life- and cost-saving risk reduction programs" and "preparedness programs" in great detail, with specific examples of programs either cancelled or subject to unnecessary political influence.]

5) We oppose the censorship of climate science, environmental protection, and efforts to ensure all communities have access to information, resources, and support.

Decades of empirical evidence shows the effects of climate change on disasters and how disasters exacerbate existing inequities, especially in Black, Brown, Indigenous, rural, and low-income communities. This administration's decision to ignore and disregard the facts pertaining to climate science in disasters shows a blatant disregard for the safety and security of our Nation's people and all American communities regardless of their geographic, economic or ethnic diversity.

Beginning in February 2025, FEMA employees were tasked with removing climate change related information from both public-facing and internal documents. The Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act of 2022 requires the President to maintain a program that shows where natural disasters are most likely to strike and which communities are most socially vulnerable -- like those with fewer resources to prepare or recover. That information must be shared publicly so people can see the risks in their own neighborhoods. In February of 2025, the Future Risk Index was removed from FEMA's website, significantly decreasing the nation's ability to properly prepare for and mitigate against the risks of tomorrow and support underserved communities. This action represents increased risk for communities and an incalculable waste of time, information, and taxpayer dollars.

 

6) We oppose the reduction of FEMA's disaster workforce.

FEMA's current capacities have been significantly limited due to a loss of personnel through programs designed to incentivize our workforce to leave federal service, ongoing hiring freezes, and the cancellation of critical support contracts. One-third of FEMA's full-time staff have departed the agency this year, leading to the loss of irreplaceable institutional knowledge and long-built relationships.

Multiple federal partner agencies play a role in disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. The diminished response and recovery capacities of partner agencies due to this administration has cascading effects that reduce FEMA's ability to carry out its mission.

We find ourselves -- on the 20th anniversary of a disaster that reshaped the nature of emergency management -- only two months removed from a mass casualty flooding event in Kerrville, Texas, which proved the inefficiencies, ineffectiveness, and dangers of the processes and decisions put forth by the current administration. As that disaster unfolded, FEMA's mission to provide critical support was obstructed by leadership who not only question the agency's existence but place uninformed cost-cutting above serving the American people and the communities our oath compels us to serve.

 

Our Petition for Action to the United States Congress

As provided under the Lloyd-La Follette Act, the signatories respectfully petition Congress to:

1. Establish FEMA as a cabinet-level independent agency in the executive branch.

2. Defend the agency from further interference from DHS, including illegal impoundments of appropriated funding; ensuring FEMA retains its full authority, responsibilities, functions, and capabilities to perform its missions.

3. Protect FEMA employees from politically motivated firings and ensure continued protection under merit-based personnel systems.

4. Demand transparency from OMB, DOGE, and FEMA leadership regarding internal employment policies and future agency reductions.

This extraordinary letter was signed by (as of this writing) a total of 181 people with experience at FEMA, although 146 of them had to sign anonymously, since they (quite rightly) fear dismissal or retribution for blowing this particular whistle. That's a sad commentary right there -- that experts now fear blowback for telling the truth -- but that's a whole different subject.

This is more than just a wake-up call, it is a clear warning to the American public. FEMA is being gutted and hobbled right before our eyes, and it is only a matter of time before it is going to be needed in a big way. The South and the Atlantic Seaboard may have dodged a bullet on Hurricane Erin, but they're not always going to be so lucky. Sooner or later a big hurricane is going to hit. Or a big fire, or a big earthquake, or tornadoes -- the list of disasters FEMA responds to is a long one.

FEMA was created to provide governmental help in preparing for, surviving, and the recovery from such disasters. Katrina showed us all that when FEMA falls down on their job, the natural disaster is followed by a man-made disaster, as the lack of government response can cause even more death and misery for the survivors. This is precisely what these people are now warning could very easily happen in the next big disaster to hit America.

Except this time, unlike with Katrina, nobody will be able to say they weren't warned.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant