US emergency agency plan requires nearly all staff to be deployed, draft memo shows
Source: Reuters
April 24, 2025 7:05 PM EDT Updated 11 hours ago
WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. agency that manages disasters plans to require nearly all employees, including full-time headquarters and regional staff, to be deployed to emergency zones, according to a draft memo to agency employees seen by Reuters. This spring, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will assign all full-time employees roles in leading, managing and supporting disaster response and recovery, according to the draft memo dated "April xx, 2025," from acting head Cam Hamilton to all employees.
"This memo redefines the emergency management categories, outlining how every employee within FEMA has a role in emergency management," the memo says. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has said it will move FEMA's disaster preparedness work to state and local governments. He has floated shuttering the agency altogether.
Experts have warned that shrinking or reorganizing FEMA could leave local and state governments more vulnerable to natural disasters, such as this year's wildfires in California and severe flooding in West Virginia. The notion that FEMA office staff could be called on to support disaster response is not new, but mandatory deployment minimums will likely create anxiety for them, said Michael Coen, former FEMA chief of staff under the Obama and Biden administrations.
FEMA staff are already under pressure after about 2,000 employees accepted incentives to leave or were terminated since the start of the Trump administration, Coen said. "It's just one more lever being pulled that's making it unpleasant to work there," Coen said. FEMA did not respond to a request for comment.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-emergency-agency-plan-requires-nearly-all-staff-be-deployed-draft-memo-shows-2025-04-24/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Check out how that's working for Arkansas after the week of tornadoes recently. Even tom cotton is begging for FEMA help.
Author: Xan Dorsey
Published: 4:46 PM EDT April 23, 2025
Updated: 4:46 PM EDT April 23, 2025
KENTUCKY, USA — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced on Wednesday the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) denied assistance for eight Kentucky counties after severe flooding in February. FEMA denied public assistance for two counties and individual assistance for six counties affected by the February floods.
In a letter to Beshear, FEMA said “(B)ased on the results of the joint Preliminary Damage Assessments, it has been determined that the impact to the individuals and households in Butler, Franklin, Knox, Laurel, Lawrence, and Whitley Counties is not of the severity and magnitude to warrant their designation under the Individual Assistance program.”
They also said the impacts to infrastructure in Simpson and Woodford counties also does not meet the "severity and magnitude" to warrant use of the public assistance program.
“While we are grateful to have gotten an Expedited Major Disaster Declaration for the February flooding, which has authorized at least some level of public assistance for local governments in 68 counties and individual assistance for Kentuckians in 16 counties, we are disappointed to receive this latest news,” Beshear said. “We are actively comparing the damage assessments, and we plan to appeal this decision.”
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Will see if Turtle and SPAWN OF RON can shake any loose.
Includes the right to fund your own disaster relief.
Billionaires need relief more than pee-ons.
Get them all.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219770873