From HSToday: When emergency management walks out the door

“Across government, a generational turnover is underway. Many of the men and women who built modern emergency management came of age professionally after 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the wars that reshaped homeland security. They learned through lived catastrophe. Their judgment was forged not just in classrooms but in EOCs at 3 a.m., during fuel shortages, radio failures, and moments when the plan fell apart and improvisation saved lives. 

Now they are retiring. Not gradually, but in clusters. “

From the NYTimes: Department of Homeland Security Shuts Down, Though Essential Work Continues. Though funding for the department ran out early Saturday, officials said its essential functions would continue.

“Most FEMA employees are expected to continue working without pay, and agency leaders have said that its disaster relief fund has enough money for its current and anticipated emergency response activities. Still, the fund would be strained if a catastrophic disaster were to occur during the shutdown, according to agency leaders.”

Two prominent academics, Susan Cutter and Kathleen Tierney, have written an article titled Grandmothers of Invention: A Community on Fifty Years of Hazards and Disasters Research and Practice in the U.S., just published in Progress in Disaster Science.

Please note that the Diva is one of the women featured – details are on page 5 of the article.

From History Today:

Elevating Emergency Management to the Executive Suite

The Strategic Imperative of Emergency Management Leadership

“Emergency management is one of the most consequential functions in state government, yet in most states it is not positioned that way. Today, only about 27 percent of state emergency management directors report directly to their Governor. The rest operate through additional layers of bureaucracy, despite being responsible for coordinating life-saving decisions during disasters. This column makes a straightforward business case: state emergency management directors should work directly for the Governor, with full executive-level access, because the mission demands speed, clarity, authority, and leadership at the highest level of government.”

From AP News: FEMA staff reductions paused during winter storm will resume

“The Federal Emergency Management Agency will resume staff cuts that were briefly paused during January’s severe winter storm, according to two FEMA managers, stoking concern across the agency over its ability to address disasters with fewer workers.”

From HSNW: States Reeling from Winter Storm Encounter a Smaller FEMA
“The Trump administration was quick to mobilize initial aid, but it’s not clear how a shrunken agency will handle the long-term recovery costs.

States slammed by a deadly, multiday winter storm that left hundreds of thousands of people without power in bitter cold are looking to a slimmed-down Federal Emergency Management Agency for support.

The immediate aftermath of the wide-sweeping storm — and the recovery process on the horizon — will provide another test for the second Trump administration’s reshaped disaster response agency.

Trump has approved emergency declarations for 12 states. That opens pathways for state governments to access federal assistance for immediate, life-saving needs, at FEMA’s discretion. The declarations allow hard-hit states such as Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi to tap into federal resources as state and local governments work to restore power, clear roads, and otherwise lessen the disaster’s overall impact.”

From NRDC: Death by a Thousand Cuts: FEMA Under the Second Trump Administration. The agency’s mission is simple: to help people before, during, and after a disaster. This administration is making that almost impossible.

“In a year, the Trump administration has crippled the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) through indecision, layers of bureaucracy, and massive staff loss. The American public is now faced with a FEMA that is too buried in paperwork to respond, too afraid to act, and increasingly too depleted to lead. Communities reeling from catastrophes are left asking: “Will FEMA be there to help?” And increasingly, the answer is “no.”

From Politico: Internal report urges Trump to transform disaster aid

The FEMA Review Council recommends replacing the decades-old system for distributing money to states with a plan triggered by weather conditions, not monetary damage.

The Diva just came across a new resource, an online newsletter published by an experienced emergency manager. See:  Emergency Management Solutions
by Lucien Canton

From the NYTimes: Extra Scrutiny of FEMA Aid to States Has Created a $17 Billion Bottleneck,  Additional layers of review ordered by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, have slowed assistance to disaster-struck communities.

“About $17 billion in federal disaster funds for states is getting an extra layer of review by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, causing unusual delays in payments, according to internal Federal Emergency Management Agency documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The delays stem from a directive issued by Ms. Noem in June that said any expenditure of $100,000 or more must be approved by her office, which oversees the disaster agency, to root out “waste, fraud and abuse.”

The bottleneck includes money that had already been approved by regional FEMA offices for things like debris removal and repairs to roads, bridges and water and sewer systems.”