Amidst FEMA staff cuts, worries grow about summer hurricane, tornado seasons
The Trump administration wants to rethink FEMA's role in disasters. So far it's mostly 'caused a lot of confusion.'
Federal Emergency Management Agency employees are trained to respond to disasters, but have struggled this spring with the situation unfolding at their agency.
While they've been deployed to wildfires in Los Angeles, flooding along the Kentucky River and throughout the southeast in response to Hurricane Helene, FEMA workers have watched a roiling turmoil of staff cuts, slashed budgets and threats to dismantle their agency. They're fielding difficult questions from friends, co-workers and disaster victims about what the future holds.
“It’s caused a lot of confusion,” said Michael Coen, a FEMA veteran of more than 15 years who left his position as chief of staff on Inauguration Day.
At least 2,000 of the agency's roughly 6,100 full-time employees have either left or plan to leave under the waves of terminations and voluntary retirements ordered by Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency, Coen told Paste BN. That doesn't include a reduction in force expected to take place in the federal government in the coming weeks.
President Donald Trump also has launched an agency review and cut funds for some FEMA grant programs, outraging officials in states where those funds already had been committed. The controversy taps into a long-running debate over the role of states and the federal government in disaster response.
It's hard to find a public official who doesn't think the way the nation responds to disasters could be improved, but the 30% cut in its full-time staff raises concerns about whether FEMA will be able to respond to major disasters during the approaching summer storm season that could bring hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires.
Jay Inslee, whose term as the Democratic governor of Washington State ended in January, is among those gravely concerned about FEMA's ability to respond.
“Gutting FEMA is just going to make more and more families have to be living under blue tarps for years, and not to have the financial assistance they deserve when they pay their taxes," Inslee said. “I’m outraged on their behalf.”
States can't go it alone, workers are worn out
Major disasters require federal resources, and state and local governments cannot cope on their own, said Shana Udvardy, senior climate resilience policy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists
“With the summer danger season of extreme weather, including climate-fueled disasters, getting underway soon, these attacks on FEMA could not come at a worse time,” Udvardy said. "Congress must push back assertively on these egregious plans in a bipartisan way ‒ disasters do not discriminate based on politics.”
When enormous natural disasters befall communities, especially small ones, they just don’t have the local resources, Inslee said. “It's basically everybody pitching in together from the county to the Red Cross to the state, to the federal government.”
FEMA's remaining full-time employees, even those who work at headquarters and don't typically deploy, have been warned to be ready to deploy to disasters this summer.
The agency has been short-staffed for years, federal documents show. The staff flexes up and down as the need arises, with roughly 12,000 employees who respond as reservists or local temporary hires.
Among the cuts this year to the permanent employees were 200 probationary staff, dismissed because they had been either recently hired or recently promoted. Coen said another 800 took the “fork-in-the-road” plan that placed employees on administrative leave with pay until the end of the summer, when they'd lose their jobs.
“A lot of people with the agency were just exhausted,” he said. “Last year was a very challenging year for FEMA employees with all the disasters that took place, plus all the (Hurricane) Helene misinformation.” In the aftermath of Helene, some FEMA officials found their personal information had been made public on the web, and some were threatened.
The inauguration opened a new chapter. Trump had been critical of FEMA during the campaign, and his first official trip was to visit the Helene disaster zone in western North Carolina, where he said the administration was "very disappointed" in FEMA.
After information was leaked from one early meeting with the new FEMA officials, at least a dozen staff members were asked to submit to lie detector tests, Coen said.
Employees are afraid to talk, even to former colleagues, because they’re afraid they might be subjected to a lie detector, Coen said. “If the head of the agency isn’t even respected by the Secretary’s office, if he’s being subjected to a lie detector test, you know, why would I stay here?”
Even some of the younger staff are thinking, “I don’t need this anxiety," he said.
FEMA's role in disaster response
FEMA responds to every major natural disaster, assessing damage and providing assistance under pre-established guidelines and state agreements.
In Washington State, "FEMA has been a tremendous, absolutely essential partner," Inslee said. "From a boots-on-the-ground perspective, FEMA has been incredibly valuable."
In recent years, FEMA has seen an enormous increase in the number of disasters that require a response. That's, in part, because the number of extreme weather events is rising, with more intense rainfall and larger wildfires brought on by climate change, Inslee said. That's backed up by numerous federal reports. The scope and complexity of disasters are also growing because more people live in vulnerable areas, where they're more exposed to storms and fires.
In the current fiscal year, the agency carries financial obligations for 30 major disasters, dating back to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to its February 2025 monthly report. Its actual and estimated total obligations for those disasters are around $57 billion. Its budget authority for this year was $33 million.
FEMA's reputation problems
The agency's reputation has struggled in part because FEMA meets people when they are likely to be at their lowest, most desperate point, and, in part, because its mission is often misunderstood, Coen said.
FEMA is supposed to function primarily as a backstop for people who don't have insurance. It covers uninsured losses, so if you have homeowners insurance, "you're probably not going to be eligible," he said. "That frustrates people who feel like they did everything right."
Victims often expect FEMA to be there first, even though the agency must wait to be requested by state government. That message is often hammered home by emergency management officials, who remind residents to store enough supplies for five to seven days after a disaster.
The agency's mission has evolved and it walks a tightrope at times between trying to battle fraud and not attach so many rules that money can't get where it needs to.
State and local officials often refer to the recovery phase as the "disaster after the disaster." A General Accounting Office Report in 2022 made numerous suggestions for addressing "red tape" in disaster recovery.
Coen said a prime example of the misunderstandings is the frustration from states where the Trump administration recently denied claims for disaster assistance and denied extensions of certain assistance in others.
"I'm personally not critical of that," he said. When the federal government takes the bulk of the financial responsibility, it often slows down recovery, he said, adding that when new bridges or other infrastructures are complete, other officials and organizations sometimes take credit and forget to acknowledge FEMA's role.
What happens next with FEMA?
By executive order on Jan. 24, Trump ordered a "full-scale review" of FEMA. Federal responses to Helene and other disasters "demonstrate the need to drastically improve" the agency's efficiency, priorities and competence, his executive order stated..
Appointees to the review council, announced April 28, will be tasked with taking a sweeping look at everything from disaster aid during periods before and after FEMA, the traditional role of states and citizens in securing life, liberty and property and how FEMA could serve as a support agency if the states were in control of disaster relief. They're expected to make recommendations to Trump for improvements or structural changes to promote the national interest and enable national resilience.
Members include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Florida's emergency management chief Kevin Guthrie and Tampa, Florida, Mayor Jane Castor. Noem already has stated she wants to eliminate FEMA.
On Truth Social, Trump posted: "I know that the new Members will work hard to fix a terribly broken System, and return power to State Emergency Managers."
Udvardy, with the Union of Concerned Scientists, is among many who agree there's room for reform at the federal agency. Genuine reforms, she said, "should be informed by science, expertise, and the experiences of disaster survivors."
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. The start of the Atlantic hurricane season is just a month away.
Dinah Voyles Pulver covers climate change, disasters and the environment for Paste BN. Reach her at dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.