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FEMA Isn’t Ready for Disaster Season, Workers Say
Instability, cuts, and a looming sense of dread have FEMA employees unsure the agency is ready for hurricanes, fires, and floods. “We are being set up for a really, really bad situation," says one.
But last year, after Hurricane Helene tore through parts of North Carolina, Donald Trump, encouraged by right-wing influencers, amplified misinformation around the agency’s response to the storm, putting a political bullseye on FEMA leading into his second presidency. When town council member Robin Williams began searching for other grants to replace the federal funds, she says she realized information from FEMA designating Middletown as a specific at-risk disaster zone had been deleted from the agency’s website, just a few days after the canceled call. An internal FEMA communications memo seen by WIRED sent in early March instructs employees that activities—ranging from webinars to conferences to external meetings—not related to current disasters now require submitting an authorization form to get approval before staff can attend or participate.
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