More than 180 brave FEMA employees sent a letter yesterday to members of Congress and other officials, saying the agency’s direction and current leaders’ inexperience could result in a disaster on the level of Hurricane Katrina. Via the Washington Post:
The letter, on which three dozen employees signed their full names, says that since January, staffers have been operating under leaders — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, acting FEMA administrator David Richardson and former leader Cameron Hamilton — who lack the legal qualifications and authority to manage FEMA’s operations. This has eroded and hindered the agency’s ability to effectively manage emergencies and other operations, including national security work, the letter says.
After Hurricane Katrina became one of the worst disasters in the nation’s history, in part because of failures by local, state and federal governments, Congress passed the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act to give FEMA more power and responsibility. The hurricane made landfall in southeast Louisiana in August 2005, leading to at least 1,800 deaths and $100 billion in damage. The resulting legislation allowed FEMA to better prepare communities for and help them recover from disasters.
But the letter warns that the Trump administration is sending the agency and the country back to a pre-Katrina era by not having a Senate-confirmed and qualified emergency manager at FEMA’s helm; by slashing mitigation, disaster recovery, training and community programs; and by thwarting officials’ ability to make decisions because of a restrictive new expense policy.
