The Cargo-Shorts Brigade Gutted FEMA. Disaster Relief Might Be up to the States Now.

I read recently that a huge cloud of dust from the Sahara Desert has crossed the Atlantic and is about to blow into the American Southeast. This is a lousy break for anyone with respiratory problems, but there also does seem to be something of a bright side to it. The Saharan dust has been known to tamp down the development of tropical storms and hurricanes, especially at the start of the season, which is, like, now. From The Shreveport Times:

The Saharan Air Layer is a warm, dry layer of air, containing dust, that gathers over the Sahara Desert. Trade winds then carry the dust westward across the Atlantic Ocean, and strong winds can transport this dust to the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. ... Saharan dust can limit overall moisture in the air, which can weaken tropical storm systems and be beneficial during hurricane season.

So maybe we caught a break, because the recent reports out of the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been troubling. In fact, they are starting to make me wonder if we weren’t better off hiring luxury horse-show commissioners to run the joint again. First, there was this story from Reuters:

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. It was not clear to staff whether he meant it literally, as a joke, or in some other context.

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. The spokesperson said under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Richardson “FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens.”

I decided quickly that the spokesperson was as full of it as the Christmas goose. His obvious fluency in MAGA-speak was the giveaway. My skepticism was rewarded on Tuesday by a report in The Wall Street Journal:

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials are scrapping a hurricane-response plan that its recently appointed leader, David Richardson, had said was close to completion, according to agency staff.

Lean! Deployable! Defunct!

Richardson told FEMA staff in a Monday call that he didn’t want to create a new plan that might contradict what a newly created FEMA review council, co-chaired by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, might propose.

“Here’s the guidance,” Richardson said, according to participants. “It’s the same as it was last year,” he added.

In other words, Richardson’s plan is to return to the dark, MAGA-less days of President Autopen. However, there’s a fly the size of a B-52 in the ointment. FEMA has been so thoroughly DOGE’d by the cargo-shorts brigade that most of the people who knew how to run the 2024 FEMA plan are gone, baby, gone. So it seems to this reporter that Richardson has two choices—hire all those people back or dump the whole business onto the states. I know which way I’m betting.

President Trump and top White House officials have accused FEMA of failing to adequately respond to disasters. They argue states could do a better job of administering disaster relief money. The president said at a fundraiser last year that he believed the private sector could rebuild more cheaply after hurricanes.

Gee, I wonder if the president knows anybody in the “private sector” who might want some of that sweet, sweet recovery money after the next big one hits.

Under recent scrutiny, including from GOP lawmakers, the agency approved several pending disaster declarations for states and extended employment for more than 2,000 staffers whose contracts were expected to end. The agency also reinstated training for state and local officials that had been paused for months. There have also been some discussions about bringing back programs that work on disaster-mitigation efforts in communities and the one that sends FEMA staffers to go door-to-door to help survivors in disaster areas, following concern from lawmakers from both parties about dismantling them, according to some staffers.

Me? I’m rooting for the dust cloud.