Community Leaders in Florida Say Trump’s FEMA Pullback Leaves Them Struggling to Fill the Void
Key takeaways
- “Those are the people that are reliant on FEMA to come in and help,” said Alan Harris, emergency manager in suburban Seminole County, Florida, outside of Orlando.
- During his first week in office, President Donald Trump appointed a task force to evaluate FEMA and identify reforms.
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Republish FEMA representatives take information from people displaced by Hurricane Ian at a shelter in Estero, Fla., on Oct. 3, 2022. Credit: Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post/Getty Images Related Trump’s Budget Proposes Massive Cuts for Climate and Environmental Programs FEMA Skips National Hurricane Conference Amid DHS Shutdown In Hurricane-Prone Florida, Legislators Reconsider New Growth and Development Law Share This Article Republish Most Popular Wildfire Crews Race to Keep Fierce California Blaze From Former Nuclear Reactor Site Top Climate Scientists Accuse the Livestock Industry of Pushing Fuzzy Math to Downplay Its Climate Warming Emissions EPA Claims ‘Overwhelming Rejection’ of EVs as It Moves to Loosen Air Pollution Rules When disaster strikes, those who turn to government agencies for assistance tend to be the most vulnerable: senior citizens, individuals with special needs, homeowners who had insurance and a disaster plan but were living paycheck-to-paycheck and suddenly have no place to go.
“Those are the people that are reliant on FEMA to come in and help,” said Alan Harris, emergency manager in suburban Seminole County, Florida, outside of Orlando. “If they’re not coming in to help us at the local level, we’ll help to the best of our ability, but with no funding I don’t know what that is going to look like.”
That is the kind of concern circulating now among state and local emergency managers and others engaged in the work of disaster response, as the Trump administration aims to streamline the Federal Emergency Management Agency and hand over more of the agency’s responsibilities to state, local and tribal entities.