Posted on 01/29/2025 11:41:17 AM PST by Jacquerie
Governors and state legislatures may have to bolster their natural disaster response and recovery efforts in the coming years as President Donald Trump looks for ways to shift the federal government’s role onto states.
Trump, who proposed doing away with the Federal Emergency Management Agency altogether last week, has since established a 20-member committee via executive order to review the agency and propose ways to overhaul its work.
The fate of the National Flood Insurance Program, managed by FEMA and relied on by more than 4.7 million homeowners, will also be up in the air as the process gets underway.
“I think, frankly, FEMA is not good,” Trump said in North Carolina on Friday. “I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to go and — whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA.”
Trump said he planned to recommend that “FEMA go away and we pay directly — we pay a percentage to the state.”
“But the state should fix this,” Trump said. “If the state did this from the beginning, it would have been a lot better situation.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will co-chair the 20-member group.
The council is supposed to release a report later this year comparing FEMA’s response to various natural disasters with how the state affected by the emergency responded.
(Excerpt) Read more at floridaphoenix.com ...
It would be great if they would put a couple of regular folks who have been affected by disasters and had to deal with FEMA on this committee.
Overhaul or dismantle NFIP as well. I’m aware of multiple homess that got NFIP payouts 4 or 5 times for flood events. Anything after the first is insuring the uninsurable at all other participants’ expense.
It should be. We seen 2 decades that adding FEMA and other layers of Fed “management” does nothing to get aid to people. Instead FEMA is a direct barrier to effective action at the state and local level
Instead of adding more layers of unless bureaucracy, give the state and locals the money directly as disaster relief appropriations as needed
States are much more organized and accountable to their citizens. When disasters occur in a state or region it would be up to the governor(s) to muster the resources and entreat the feds to release needed funds to offset the costs of recovery.
Carrot
Stick
Kewel
It is my understanding that the act that gave birth to FEMA specified that each state would have a FEMA office that would coordinate disaster preparation and such with the locals. Each state would contribute to the funding of the local FEMA office. FEMA WDC was only to be a oversight office and would only be involved with disasters if the state folks needed an assist. But the state folks were to be the primary source for aid and reparation.
It sounds like the CA FEMA office may have dropped the ball or allowed CA to skip disaster planning.
AT THE MINIMUM-—INTERVIEW RESIDENTS OF N CAROLINA...AT LENGTH
“fdem” florida department of emergency management does an outstanding job of getting mres (meals ready to eat), emergency drinking water, and temporary showers to my area of florida after hurricanes roll through...
it’s all about priorities...
When you have FEMA employees politicizing recovery efforts like they did in North Carolina, its time for a change. Can still happen at a local level but less likely. The challenge I see would when an event occurs over state boundaries & coordination of services but its not unsurmountable with proper planning.
As far as I know, the governor of NC has not visited western NC....at least not NW NC. Where is the democrat governor???
I’m not sure I agree with this. Certainly, FEMA should be made more efficient, but natural disasters aren’t that predictable as to location. This year it was Florida and North Carolina; next year it might be Alabama and Missouri or even some blue state. How would the money be distributed beforehand?
Meanwhile...
Matt Van Swol
@matt_vanswol
🚨#BREAKING: The Mennonite Disaster Service has confirmed that a group of Amish crews from Ohio installed a MIND-BLOWING 150 temporary bridges and culverts in Western North Carolina.
These bridges were a lifeline to those who lost access to their homes.
God bless the Amish!!!!
7:40 AM · Feb 7, 2025 730.6K Views
https://x.com/matt_vanswol/status/1887843881712013329
Amen!
Bless them
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