As Hurricane Season Looms, FEMA Is Being Torn to Shreds

With the official start of hurricane season less than a week away, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is facing a storm of its own.

Donald Trump’s administration has begun gutting the agency, slashing budgets and cutting staff. The president has made clear from the start of his term that he wants to shift the financial burden for disaster relief from the federal government to states — the same vision outlined in the far right Project 2025 playbook — if not eliminate FEMA entirely, as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has pledged. While emergency management experts agree that states should play a role in funding their disaster relief efforts, recent government leaks have raised concerns that the Trump administration is leaving FEMA dangerously underfunded — and leaving the states that rely on it unprepared in the face of upcoming severe storms.

In a May budget draft, Trump proposed slashing FEMA grants by $646 million, even as the agency is projected to run out of disaster relief money by this summer for the third consecutive year. The administration also canceled a grant program called Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, which funds community-level emergency preparedness efforts. The popular program had enjoyed bipartisan support.

In internal meetings, newly appointed FEMA head David Richardson admitted himself that the agency isn’t ready for hurricane season. Like many of the efforts undertaken by the Trump administration this term, FEMA’s transition to a “smaller footprint” has been hasty and disorganized. An internal review found that understaffing and other issues had derailed FEMA’s usual processes for hurricane season preparedness. The agency is also scrambling as it adjusts to new leadership after the Trump administration fired acting FEMA head Cameron Hamilton earlier this month. The sudden firing was in response to Hamilton’s public testimony at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, during which he said he does not “believe it is in the best interests of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later told reporters that Hamilton had been dismissed because he said “something that was contrary to what the president believes.”

Scientists say that warming ocean temperatures are causing more intense and destructive hurricanes. And many months later, states are still reeling from last year’s devastating season: In North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene killed at least 100 people last September and caused nearly $60 billion in damage, residents and town leaders are still waiting for disbursements of federal funds. Data released this month by North Carolina’s Office of State Budget Management found that $5.95 billion has been allocated by federal and state governments for Helene recovery — only about 10 percent of the total amount needed to rebuild homes and public infrastructure. But just because money has been earmarked doesn’t mean it’s been disbursed. “The money is there,” Zeb Smathers, the mayor of Canton, North Carolina, told The Charlotte Observer. “It’s the will to act. I’m very tired of excuses.”

In April, FEMA denied North Carolina’s request for the federal government to continue matching 100 percent of the state’s spending on Helene debris removal for another six months. “The need in western North Carolina remains immense — people need debris removed, homes rebuilt, and roads restored,” North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said in a statement. “I am extremely disappointed and urge the President to reconsider FEMA’s bad decision, even for 90 days. Six months later, the people of western North Carolina are working hard to get back on their feet; they need FEMA to help them get the job done.”

It’s clear that FEMA needs reforms. Bureaucratic red tape and procedural lags have left vulnerable people in limbo. Ironically, as the Trump administration has preached streamlining the agency, a memo obtained by southwest Virginia outlet Cardinal News outlined new, additional “manual review processes” implemented by FEMA that were slowing Helene recovery efforts in the region. John Scrivani, the acting state coordinator of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) wrote to local emergency managers on April 11, that FEMA had provided “revised guidance” on how documentation should be submitted for grant programs. After submitting the requested documentation, Scrivani wrote, VDEM still had not received feedback from FEMA, leaving the state agency without guidance as it awaited payment for a range of disaster reimbursements and emergency preparedness funds — seven months after the storm.

“Unfortunately, at this time, we do not have an update as to when and if these funds will be made available,” wrote Scrivani. “We are asking for your patience and understanding as we navigate this together.”

In a statement to Cardinal News, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) voiced his opposition to the new procedures, noting that allocated federal funds had already undergone a thorough review process. “FEMA and DHS’s announcement to conduct additional reviews of grants, including for emergency management and disaster assistance, is ridiculous. These communities need funding as soon as possible, and the Trump Administration is unnecessarily making it harder for these communities to rebuild,” said Kaine.

Similarly, in North Carolina, state lawmakers are wrangling over what to do as they await clarity on federal relief funds. “The continual line from the Republicans in the North Carolina legislature is ‘Well, we got to wait and see what the feds are going to do,’” North Carolina Rep. Eric Ager told The Assembly. “We’ve been doing that for six months now, right? And it’s still not completely clear what the feds are gonna pay for and what they’re not.”