FEMA staff confused after head said he was unaware of US hurricane season, sources say

[RandySF]

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were left baffled on Monday after the head of the U.S. disaster agency said during a briefing that he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation.

The U.S. hurricane season officially began on Sunday and lasts through November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast last week that this year's season is expected to bring as many as 10 hurricanes.

The remark was made by David Richardson, who has led FEMA since early May. It was not clear to staff whether he meant it literally, as a joke, or in some other context.

Richardson said during the briefing that there would be no changes to the agency's disaster response plans despite having told staff to expect a new plan in May, the sources told Reuters.



https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fema-staff-confused-after-head-said-he-was-unaware-us-hurricane-season-sources-2025-06-02/

[Blues Heron]

1. Lol we're fucked

[Oneironaut]

16. "How hard can the weather be, really?"

[Torchlight]

2. This *should* be an Onion spoof, but it ain't.

Thought this had to be satire—but no, it’s real. Reality outpaces parody once again.

[Lovie777]

3. Shakes head.....

[struggle4progress]

4. "My only real priority is brown-nosing the President"

[Hekate]

5. "Lordy, I hope there are tapes" to quote Comey

[TnDem]

6. OK, but why did you cut this paragraph out?

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA's parent agency, said the comment was a joke and that FEMA is prepared for hurricane season.

[struggle4progress]

7. Cuts to key federal agencies as hurricane season begins

By SETH BORENSTEIN and GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA
Updated 9:12 AM EDT, May 31, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — With predictions for a busy hurricane season beginning Sunday, experts in storms and disasters are worried about something potentially as chaotic as the swirling winds: Massive cuts to the federal system that forecasts, tracks and responds to hurricanes.

Experts are alarmed over the large-scale staff reductions, travel and training restrictions and grant cut-offs since President Donald Trump took office at both the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which prepares for and responds to hurricanes, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which tracks and forecasts them.

“My nightmare is a major catastrophic storm hitting an area that is reeling from the impact of all of this nonsense from the Trump administration and people will die. And that could happen in Florida, that could happen in Texas, that could happen in South Carolina,” said Susan Cutter, the director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina ...

https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-season-disaster-weather-doge-fema-noaa-cd215947480de9099a53fe20669bb923

[struggle4progress]

8. rump's plans for FEMA

... In addition to countless unnamed storms, in recent memory, we’ve weathered hurricanes Katrina and Ida, which upended lives, decimated neighborhoods and tested every seam of our emergency safety net. In those moments, FEMA — imperfect as it may be — was a lifeline.

But now, that lifeline is under threat.

With Executive Order 14180, President Donald Trump has initiated a dangerous restructuring of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which millions of Americans rely on in their most desperate moments. The president’s plan shifts the responsibility for emergency preparedness and disaster recovery from the federal government to already overburdened state and local governments.

That’s not reform. It’s federal abandonment. It’s like closing fire stations and telling people to buy their own hoses ...

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-fema-hurricane-season-louisiana-rcna210065

[TnDem]

11. Agree with both articles...Not the point

The point is that he meant it as a joke rather than not knowing there was a hurricane season.

Literally, a babushka in Siberia would probably know there was a hurricane season.

Obvious joke, albeit crude.

[RandySF]

9. 1. I'm only allowed four paragraphs.

2. I don’t believe a word he says.

[Ilikepurple]

12. I'm happy to see you give the benefit of the doubt to David Richardson

And this administration’s spokesperson. Now, if you could just extend the someone who posts many news article excerpts every day for our benefit, like Randysf. If his staff can question whether it’s a joke or not, why can’t others? Because a Trump spokesperson said so? It probably was a joke, but that hardly makes the statement much better. I think you overestimate how much people who aren’t directly impacted by hurricanes know about them or their seasons.

[TnDem]

13. I have family in Florida

So I am quite familiar with hurricanes.

However, if you are going to post a news article, don't selectively edit it and then claim you did it because "I can only post three paragraphs"...Post the entire article and we can judge for ourselves.

Editing a news article to bolster your discussion point is disingenuous.

[sl8]

14. Really? You want posters to break the site's rules for your convenience?

You could have made a the argument that the OP should have selected different paragraphs for their excerpt, but you instead say that they should post the entire article, a clear violation of site policy.


https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=copyright

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[...]

[TnDem]

15. Don't selectively edit anything

That's the point....The right does that on a daily basis.

[jeffreyi]

10. No fire season, either.

Who needs experienced, educated, dedicated people for logistics, planning and mapping, fire behavior, fire weather, resource protection, transportation, communications, contract administration, all the other big stuff that happens on big campaign fires. A cr*pload of these people are gone now.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

17. It was a problem when the acting FEMA chief jokingly said he didn't know the U.S. has a hurricane season, but it wasn't

It was a problem when the acting FEMA chief jokingly said he didn't know the U.S. has a hurricane season, but it wasn't the only problem in his remarks.

It was a problem when Trump’s acting FEMA chief said he didn't know the United States has a hurricane season.

It was a bigger problem when he apparently said FEMA wouldn’t come up with a new hurricane-response plan for 2025. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-06-03T13:03:10.958Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/hurricane-season-begins-trumps-fema-chief-fails-inspire-confidence-rcna210569

He was soon replaced by David Richardson, who has no background in emergency management, and who, on his first day as the agency’s acting chief, told FEMA’s staff that he would “run right over” anyone who gets in his way. A month later, as Reuters reported, Richardson continues to make newsworthy comments.

Staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were left baffled on Monday after the head of the U.S. disaster agency said he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation. The remark was made during a briefing by David Richardson, who has led FEMA since early May.

As NBC News reported, administration officials didn’t deny that Richardson made the comments, though the defense was that the acting FEMA director was joking. A statement from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, added that the allegations that Richardson was sincere about his ignorance were “meanspirited.”

Among those who actually heard the comments, there was apparently some question as to whether Richardson was kidding or not, but either way, this was a curious thing for an acting FEMA chief to joke about two days into hurricane season......

Unfortunately, the alleged “joke” wasn’t the only newsworthy part of Richardson’s comments. The Wall Street Journal reported, for example, that the Trump-appointed official also announced that FEMA had scrapped plans to come up with a hurricane-response plan, choosing instead to simply reuse last year’s plan.....

Looking ahead, Americans might get lucky. It’s possible that the projections are wrong and the United States won’t have to deal with any deadly hurricanes this year — or for that matter, in the coming years. Maybe there won’t be any real-world consequences tied to the administration’s latest moves at FEMA, NWS and NOAA.

But as the president and his team move further away from responsible governing and disaster preparedness, counting on good fortune hardly seems like a wise strategy.