From CNN: ‘We’ve been ghosted by FEMA’: Officials across country say they can’t get answers on critical funding

“As hurricane season bears down, a new layer of uncertainty is spreading through the disaster response system: a wall of silence from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that’s leaving officials from across the country scrambling for answers.

“We’ve been ghosted by FEMA,” Robert Wike Graham, deputy director of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management, told CNN, describing repeated, unanswered requests for information on vital emergency preparedness funding for his North Carolina community.

In Wyoming, where more than 90 percent of the state’s emergency management budget comes from the federal government, officials say their requests for clarity on emergency management funds also have gone unanswered. rom Cnn: ‘We’ve been ghosted by FEMA’: Officials across country say they can’t get answers on critical funding.”

From Politico: No alternative funding sources’: Trump’s stifling of disaster aid leaves cities adrift. The president canceled $4.5 billion in FEMA grants that helped communities prepare for rising disaster damage.

Thanks to Chris Jones for the citation.

FRom HSToday: Critical Hurricane Forecast Tool Abruptly Terminated
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced it would immediately stop ingesting, processing, and transmitting data essential to most hurricane forecasts.

The announcement was formalized on Wednesday when NOAA distributed a service change notice to all users, including the National Hurricane Center, that by next Monday, June 30th, they would no longer receive real-time microwave data collected aboard three weather satellites jointly run by NOAA and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The permanent discontinuation of data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) will severely impede and degrade hurricane forecasts for this season and beyond, affecting tens of millions of Americans who live along its hurricane-prone shorelines..S. Department of Defense announced Tuesday it would no longer process and deliver data essential to most hurricane forecasts

From the NY Times: As FEMA Shrinks, a Grassroots Disaster Response Is Taking Shape. Aid groups, some of which helped after Hurricane Helene, are preparing to take on more responsibility when storms, floods and wildfires strike.

From the NYTimes: Critical Hurricane Monitoring Data Is Going Offline

“The loss of access to the data could hamstring forecasters’ ability to track hurricanes and warn residents of their risk.

The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration has said that in the next few days it will stop providing data from satellites that have been helping hurricane forecasters do their jobs for decades, citing “recent service changes” as the cause.

The satellites are jointly operated by NOAA and the Department of Defense as part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. They are old, dating to the early 2000s, but they have reliably helped improve hurricane forecasting for decades. The data will be halted by Monday, June 30, the agency said, without giving further explanation.”

From TheConversation: Natural hazards don’t disappear when the storm ends or the earthquake stops – they evolve

“Hurricane Helene lasted only a few days in September 2024, but it altered the landscape of the Southeastern U.S. in profound ways that will affect the hazards local residents face far into the future.

Mudslides buried roads and reshaped river channels. Uprooted trees left soil on hillslopes exposed to the elements. Sediment that washed into rivers changed how water flows through the landscape, leaving some areas more prone to flooding and erosion.

Helene was a powerful reminder that natural hazards don’t disappear when the skies clear – they evolve.”

Wildfire Management: Technologies for Forecasting, Detection, Mitigation, and Response. GAO-25-108589

From the NYTimes: As FEMA Shrinks, a Grassroots Disaster Response is Taking Shape. Aid groups, some of which helped after Hurricane Helene, are preparing to take on more responsibility when storms, floods and wildfires strike.

“The bigger the gap is in terms of what the government isn’t doing, the more we’re going to expect from nonprofits and the larger their role is going to be,” said Daniel Sledge, a professor at the University of Oklahoma who has studied disaster relief. “Whether nonprofits actually have the capacity or the ability to step in and fill in the gaps that, in all likelihood, we’re going to be creating is a completely different question.”

From the Advocate: Trump’s plan to shutter FEMA leaves U.S. ‘more vulnerable,’ says former head of agency

“Criswell told The Advocate in an interview that the Trump administration’s plan would strip away not only FEMA’s high-profile disaster response efforts but also the underlying infrastructure that helps local and state governments prepare for, survive, and recover from catastrophic events.

“It’s important to remember the mission statement of FEMA—to help people before, during, and after disasters,” she said. While state and local emergency managers already carry significant responsibility, they rely heavily on FEMA funding to maintain preparedness. “They get funding through training, through exercises, through preparedness grants that help them buy equipment,” she explained, citing programs such as fire department grants and the Emergency Management Performance Grant.”

From The Conversation: How to stay safe during heat waves – and the heat stroke warning signs to watch for