FEMA response to deadly Texas floods delayed & deficient with Noem in charge

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Disaster struck in Texas on July 4th when the Guadalupe River rapidly overflowed, resulting in lethal flash floods. As of Monday, local officials said at least 104 were confirmed dead across six counties. In Kerr County where 84 people perished in the floods, 28 were children, most of whom were campers at Camp Mystic. It is every family’s worst nightmare; and now the agency typically tasked with assuaging the pain of a disaster are slow-walking the recovery response. 

Since Donald Trump regained office in January he’s made no secret of his desire to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In May I reported on an internal memo that warned “critical functions” were at “high risk” of not operating properly, and said if improvements weren’t made, it “may disrupt life saving” operations. The deadly Texas flooding isn’t the first natural disaster of this administration—devastating tornadoes ripped through Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri this spring—but it’s the first to gain widespread national attention. But according to sources within FEMA, “barely any staff” have been deployed, and the Acting Administrator David Richardson “is nowhere to be found.” Per one source, “if this is how they are going to do a major hurricane response, people are fucked.”

In June, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem sent out a memo announcing she’d have greater control over FEMA operations moving forward. The memo, first obtained by CNN, said that every contract and grant over $100,000 must be personally approved by Noem. “Officials inside FEMA warn the new approval process could severely disrupt the distribution of emergency funds during natural disasters,” CNN reported at the time.

Now a month later, while not a hurricane, the first big natural disaster since Noem tightened her grip has struck–and it shows. 

“We would have hundreds of people on scene in FEMA jackets registering people for assistance, regional coordination center fully activated, national at least partly activated,” a current FEMA employee whose identity is being protected for fear of reprisal told The Handbasket. “Setting up disaster recovery centers with federal partners, we’d have our search and rescue there already. We would have mission assigned other agencies like USACE (US Army Corp of Engineers) to clear debris and establish power.”

Despite Trump officially activating FEMA on Sunday, FEMA has just 86 total staff deployed at this point, according to figures shared with staff Monday evening. That includes a national incident management team, plus regional and headquarter staff. In the past it would normally be in the several hundreds at this point in the disaster recovery process. “We are doing a lot less than normal,” the FEMA staffer said.

Though a formal emergency declaration was announced Sunday, which makes it possible for people to apply for FEMA funding, the teams meant to help victims implement the process have yet to be deployed. Typically in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, FEMA will set up multiple disaster recovery centers to give locals information and educate them about eligibility. But because of the DHS bottleneck, the FEMA staffer says, everything is delayed. “This means people are going to have a hard time getting assistance.”

In an email Monday evening, FEMA staffers finally got word that search and rescue teams were being deployed to Texas. Thus far the search and rescue teams who have been working tirelessly since Friday have been deployed by Texas and neighboring states.

Since the floods enveloped Texas Hill Country, there has been speculation of the role played by drastic cuts by the Trump administration to the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration–key agencies in predicting natural disasters and minimizing casualties. With approximately 30% of FEMA staff cut since January, including most of its top leadership, its emergency preparedness is getting the ultimate test, with life and death results.

I emailed the FEMA press office asking why the response is taking so long but haven’t heard back. Trump is expected to visit Texas later this week to survey the damage. Reporters present should ask him about it.