Staff of Federal Emergency Management Agency He was disconcerted on Monday after the US Disaster Agency chief said in a briefing that he had not been aware that the country had a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation.
The American hurricane season officially started on Sunday and lasts until November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration planned last week that the season of this year should bring up to 10 hurricanes.
The remark was made by David Richardson, who has managed the Fema since early May. It was not clear for the staff if he literally wanted it, like a joke or in another context.
A spokesperson for the Department of Internal Security, the Parental Agency of FEMA, said that the comment was a joke and that the FEMA is prepared for the hurricanes season.
The spokesperson said that, as part of the Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem and Richardson, “FEMA is swollen and centered on DC with a lean and deployable disaster force which allows the actors of the State to relieve their citizens.”
Richardson said in the briefing that there would be no change in the agency’s disasters’ response plans, despite having told staff to expect a new plan in May, sources told Reuters.
Richardson’s comments are largely worrying departures of a tower of senior officials of FEMA, staff cuts and discounts In Hurricane preparations, the agency will leave the agency poorly prepared for a storm season forecast be above normal.
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Hurglanes kill dozens of people and cost hundreds of millions of dollars per year every year in a band of the United States. Storms have become more and more destructive and costly due to the effects of climate change.
Richardson’s comment claiming ignorance of the hurricane season spreading among the agency staff, stimulating confusion and concerns reviving concerning its lack of familiarity with FEMA operations, three sources said.
Richardson, who has no experience in response to disasters, said a daily meeting on Monday, a daily meeting all the hands organized by telephone and by videoconference, that he will not publish a new disaster plan because he does not want to make changes that could counter the FEMA examination board, the sources said.
US President Donald Trump created the Council to assess the FEMA. Its members include the chief of the DHS Noem, governors and other civil servants.
In a town hall on May 15, Richardson said that a disaster plan, including table exercises, would be ready to be revised on May 23.
The back and forth on updating the disaster plan and the lack of clear strategic guidelines have created confusion for FEMA staff, said a source.
Richardson spoke of his military experience as a former maritime artillery officer in conversations with staff.
Before joining the FEMA, he was deputy secretary to the DHS office to have weapons of mass destruction, which he told staff that he would continue to lead.
Richardson was appointed new FEMA chief last month after his predecessor, Cameron Hamilton, was suddenly dismissed.
Hamilton had publicly broken with Trump on the agency’s future, but sources told Reuters that Trump’s allies had already been maneuver to avoid it Because they were unhappy with what they considered Hamilton’s slow efforts to restructure FEMA.
Trump said FEMA should be narrowed or even eliminated, arguments can assume many of its functions, as part of a broader reduction in the federal government. About 2,000 full -time FEMA staff members, a third of its total, have been dismissed or voluntarily left the agency since the Trump administration in January.
Despite Noem’s previous comments according to which she plans to eliminate FEMA, in May, she approved Richardson’s request to keep more than 2,600 reaction employees in the event of short -term disaster and recovery, the conditions of which were to expire this year, according to sources, confirming a previous report by NBC News.
These short -term staff members constitute the largest proportion of employees in FEMA, around 40%, and constitute a pillar of response efforts on the agency’s field.
Fema recently Highly reduced training of hurricanes And the workshops for emergency managers for states and premises due to travel and speech restrictions imposed on staff, according to previous Reuters reports.