Understanding FEMA and Trump's intention to eliminate it

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US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he plans to sign an executive order to overhaul or eliminate the main federal agency that responds to natural disasters during a visit to storm-hit areas of North Carolina.

What is FEMA?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is the US government agency whose mission is to help people before, during and after disasters, including hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and floods.

Its reputation was battered by its poor handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the agency has struggled to recover.

FEMA has a workforce of 20,000 people that can swell to more than 50,000 active members during major disasters, according to its website. It has 10 regional offices and the capacity to coordinate resources from across the federal government.

The agency reimburses state and local governments for recovery efforts during disasters. Funding for the agency has soared in recent years as extreme weather events increase the demand for its services.

What does Project 2025 have to do with it?

FEMA was a target of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term prepared by the president’s allies that the president distanced himself from during the election. The plan called for dismantling DHS and the relocation of FEMA to the Department of Interior or the Department of Transportation.

In addition, it suggested changing the formula that the agency uses to determine when federal disaster assistance is warranted, shifting the costs of preventing and responding to disasters to states.

FEMA has been the target of so many falsehoods it set up a rumour response page on its website to tamp them down.

FEMA failures

The US disaster agency has been much-maligned over emergency responses to hurricanes that fell short, including in Puerto Rico in 2017 when it was hit by Hurricane Maria.

Residents accused then-President Trump of being slow to dispatch aid after Maria and clumsy in his public remarks once it was clear the US territory had been devastated.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans and flooded parts of the city as residents crowded into ill-prepared shelters.

Katrina devastated the Gulf of Mexico coast and caused more than 1,800 deaths. It also shattered the reputation of FEMA, which was sharply criticised for its response.

Why does Trump want to ‘get rid of’ FEMA?

On his first trip since reclaiming the presidency on Tuesday, Trump accused FEMA of bungling emergency relief efforts in North Carolina, which was devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene in September.

During a briefing about recovery efforts, the Republican Trump promised to speedily help North Carolina “get the help you need” to rebuild.

Trump said he would be “signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA.”

“We’re going to recommend that FEMA go away.”

He said he would prefer that states be given federal money to handle disasters themselves rather than rely on FEMA to do the job.

Trump complained that outgoing US president Joe Biden did not do enough to help western North Carolina recover from the hurricane, an accusation the Biden administration rejected as misinformation.

Trump’s threat to withhold California wildfire aid

Trump has also threatened to withhold aid to California and repeated in North Carolina a false claim that the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and other officials have refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires.

The governor greeted Trump at Los Angeles International Airport later on Saturday, telling Trump that California would need his support.

Trump has accused Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of “gross incompetence,” pointing to what he called a lack of preparation and ineffective or harmful water management policies.

After meeting with Newsom on Saturday, Trump said he would work with the California governor to respond to the Los Angeles fires.

“We’re looking to get something completed. And the way you get it completed is to work together to govern the state, and we’re going to get it completed. They’re going to need a lot of federal help,” Trump told reporters after Newsom met him on the tarmac when Air Force One landed in Los Angeles.

Water shortages caused some hydrants to run dry in affluent Pacific Palisades, hindering the early response. When the fires broke out, one of the reservoirs that could have supplied more water to the area had been empty for a year. Officials have promised an investigation into why it was dry.

Bass and fire officials have said the hydrants were not designed to deal with such a massive disaster, and stressed the unprecedented nature of the fires.

Trump has focused some of his criticism on California’s complicated policies for sharing the plentiful water supply found in the northern part of the state with the parched south. The diversion results in the discharge of some water into the ocean, something Trump has depicted as a callous waste.

Newsom has dismissed those attacks as baseless.