From CNN: Who Gets the Last Drop?
https://www.cnn.com/videos/title-2601003?iid=related-embed_streaming-now
” A megadrought has drained Lake Mead by 70%, exposing sunken boats and a bathtub ring now nearly 19 stories tall. Bill Weir travels to the West’s largest reservoir as the states face a reckoning over who gives up their share first.”
From NPR: Inside the failed mission to eliminate FEMA
” The Federal Emergency Management Agency is no longer in the Trump administration’s crosshairs, according to its former leader.
But despite his own significant efforts to dismantle FEMA, the man who ran the agency at the time says FEMA isn’t going anywhere.
“I think they’re probably in a go-along-to-get-along kind of mode,” says David Richardson, who led FEMA as acting administrator for much of 2025 and has since left the federal government. “I don’t see there being a whole lot of change.”
That shift is apparent inside the agency. In recent months, the fear of wholesale agency abolition or mass layoffs has dissipated among FEMA workers, according to multiple current FEMA employees who requested anonymity because they fear retaliation for speaking to a journalist. But the attempts to kill it have compounded some of FEMA’s longstanding problems, like understaffing and delays in getting disaster recovery money to survivors.
From the NYTimes: Nepal Puts Cost of Disaster at $5 Billion, Blaming Climate Change
The country is seeking urgent help from a special U.N. climate fund, but the program lacks money because the United States and others have been reluctant to contribute.
From Wilky.com: New FEMA program aims to expedite disaster recovery aid after Indiana flooding
“Indiana will serve as the testing ground for FEMA’s new public assistance model, which aims to streamline disaster recovery funding.
The initiative shifts away from traditional reimbursement processes toward upfront, advance payments based on early cost estimates.
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Hoosiers faced devastating flooding in August, which impacted several counties.
Any county in the state that gets a disaster declaration can qualify.”
https://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/u-s-rep-advises-hawaii-rethink-approach-to-disasters
U.S. Rep. Advises Hawaii Rethink Approach to Disasters
Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, said Hurricane Lala, and other recent disasters, should prompt a broader reassessment of how Hawaii approaches recovery, and that rebuilding infrastructure exactly as it was may not make sense.
Thanks to Chris Jones for the citation.
“Two decades ago, scientists working for Venezuela’s government pinpointed the danger zone for the next big earthquake. But officials, trying to meet political pledges to house tens of thousands of displaced flood victims, raced to build public housing there anyway.”
From the WashPost: How to Beat An Earthquake: The Columbian City Where No One Died.
When disaster struck this time, the city was ready. Sadly this was a notable difference from other countries in So. American where buildings were not constructed to sesimic standards.
After a computer crash, it has taken some time to get back to work.
The Diva
Homeland Security Today’s article on the AIDE report.
The AIDE report from the Markle foundation.
“As natural disasters become more frequent, intense, and complex, emergency managers and frontline responders face even greater challenges. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to help meet this need.
Developed by the Markle Foundation in collaboration with Aspen Digital and RAND, the AIDE Report, “AI for Disasters + Emergencies: A Way Forward,” provides a first-of-its-kind assessment of the state of AI adoption across the emergency management community and what is needed to support its future potential to help save lives and protect communities. The Report highlights key findings from working groups with the nation’s leading emergency management experts and practitioners, analyzes available AI-enabled technologies, and offers recommendations to advance responsible use of human-centered AI to save lives, protect communities, and support recovery.”
GAO Report on Staff Reductions and Lack of Planning May Impact Mission
Readiness
“What GAO Found:
The increasing number and complexity of disasters demonstrates the need to
ensure that the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) workforce
can meet its core mission to help people before, during, and after disasters. In
response to 2025 presidential directives, many federal agencies have taken
steps to reduce the size of their workforces. In fiscal year 2025, FEMA employed
about 25,134 employees, on average. However, over 4,300 employees
separated from FEMA in fiscal year 2025—a 55 percent increase in separations
from fiscal year 2024 (see figure). These separations have resulted in a loss of
institutional knowledge and experienced personnel, according to FEMA officials,
and have exacerbated longstanding workforce challenges.
In 2025, FEMA rescinded its strategic plan. As a result, the agency has no
overall strategic direction on which to base workforce planning—a systematic
and continuous process for identifying the size and composition of a workforce
needed to achieve an agency’s mission. Without a strategic plan that outlines
clear goals and objectives, FEMA cannot effectively determine its future
workforce needs, potentially putting its mission at risk.
In addition, GAO found that FEMA did not base its 2025 and 2026 workforce
reduction decisions, proposed future workforce actions, or workforce policy
changes on the results of a workforce analysis—an assessment of the current
state of the workforce and a forecast of future organizational requirements.
FEMA took these actions without assessing whether it had the necessary staffing
capacity to meet its mission, including its statutory requirements. Without
workforce planning, FEMA is not positioned to determine whether it has the right
number of people with the right skills in the right positions at the right time to
meet its mission. “