FEMA

The new head of the federal agency tasked with responding to disasters across the country warned staff in a meeting Friday not to try to impede upcoming changes, saying that “I will run right over you” while also suggesting policy changes that would push more responsibilities to the states. David Richardson, a former Marine Corps officer who served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa, was named acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday just after Cameron Hamilton, who’d been leading the agency, also in an acting role, was...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency faced fresh upheaval Thursday just weeks before the start of hurricane season when the acting administrator was pushed out and replaced by another official from the Department of Homeland Security. The abrupt change came the day after Cameron Hamilton, a former Navy SEAL who held the job for the last few months, testified on Capitol Hill that he did not agree with proposals to dismantle an organization that helps plan for natural disasters and distributes financial assistance. “I do not believe it is in the...

The acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was fired on Thursday amid the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on the division tasked with handling disaster response. Cameron Hamilton’s termination was reportedly carried out by Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Troy Edgar and longtime Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, who is serving as de facto chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. No reason was given for Hamilton’s dismissal, according to a White House spokesperson.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem canned her acting FEMA chief on Thursday morning, a mere day after he publicly opposed President Donald Trump‘s plan to cut the agency’s resources by $644 million. Former Navy Seal and failed congressional candidate Cameron Hamilton, who was appointed FEMA’s acting administrator by Trump in January, was escorted out of FEMA’s headquarters on Thursday morning, CNN reported. Sources told Politico that Hamilton was given the pink slip after he was summoned to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters in Washington, D.C.

In “Leader of FEMA Is Dismissed as Trump Administration Takes Aim at the Agency”, the New York Times’s Christopher Flavelle reports that FEMA’s acting head Cameron Hamilton was fired today, evidently because he testified to Congress yesterday, “I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” The Trump administration’s official position is that FEMA should be eliminated.

Ending door-to-door canvassing, one FEMA worker says, will “severely hamper our ability to reach vulnerable people.” The assistance provided by workers going door-to-door, they say, “has usually focused on the most impacted and the most vulnerable communities where there may be people who are elderly or with disabilities or lack of transportation and are unable to reach Disaster Recovery Centers.” This person spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press. More cruelty, more complete disregard for the most vulnerable in...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is making significant changes to how it will respond to disasters on the ground this season, including ending federal door-to-door canvassing of survivors in disaster areas, WIRED has learned. A memo reviewed by WIRED, dated May 2 and addressed to regional FEMA leaders from Cameron Hamilton, a senior official performing the duties of the administrator, instructs program offices to “take steps to implement” five “key reforms” for the upcoming hurricane and wildfire season.

When I saw this wording in an online search I was taken aback by the choice of words, which seemed to be from some right-wing source using emotional language to influence the reader rather than reporting facts. But it turned out this was an actual FEMA press release. FEMA is ending the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which helps states, local and territorial governments and Tribal Nations reduce their hazard risk by planning ahead, with actions such as rebuilding shoddy infrastructure with greater robustness to withstand disasters. FEMA...

President Donald Trump has appointed former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant to the FEMA Review Council, which Trump has tasked to “fix a terribly broken system” and shift disaster response and recovery from federal to state government. The appointment comes as Mississippi awaits a response from the Trump administration on whether it will approve Gov. Tate Reeves’ request for a federal disaster declaration for deadly tornadoes in mid-March. The federal declaration, which Reeves requested April 1, would allow families and local governments devastated by the storms to receive federal assistance.