From the NY Times: Acting FEMA Chief Told Staff He Didn’t Know About U.S. Hurricane Season, In a meeting with FEMA staff, David Richardson said he was unaware the United States had a hurricane season. Two staff members said it was unclear if he was serious, but the agency said he was joking.

A more hard-hitting article on the same topic appeared in the Wall St. Journal Yesterday: FEMA Scraps New Hurricane Plan and Reverts to Last Year’s. Agency’s leader suggested he recently learned there was an annual hurricane season.

From NBC News: Inside the scramble to keep FEMA alive ahead of hurricane season. The Trump administration has been moving to drastically cut or even eliminate the disaster response and relief agency, but without a backup ready, it’s moving to keep some key pieces in place.

From MSNBC: This year’s hurricane season brings fear of storms and Trump’s plans for FEMA. The idea that state and local governments can step up and do what FEMA does is not only unrealistic, it’s reckless.

I represent a state that knows devastation. In 2021, nearly 500,000 Louisiana households were approved for assistance in the 30 days after Hurricane Ida. But we are not alone. FEMA responded to more than 100 declared disasters in 2024, including back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton that battered Florida and Georgia. In North Carolina, communities are still recovering from Helene’s catastrophic flooding.

Disaster recovery is incredibly difficult even with federal coordination and resources. Without it, we are setting communities up for failure. These actions have consequences — and they will cost lives.

The idea that state and local governments — many of which are already underfunded and understaffed — can assume the full logistical and financial burden carried by FEMA is not only unrealistic, it’s reckless.

We need to invest in FEMA. Strengthen NOAA. Restore staffing and leadership at the National Weather Service. Give state and local governments the tools they need, but do not make them do it alone.

Because when the next disaster hits — and it will — we won’t have time to debate funding formulas or organizational charts. We will need help. Fast. Fair. And federal.

That’s the America our people deserve. And that’s the FEMA we must defend.

From MSN: San Andreas Fault Alert: Recent Activities That Could Lead to Devastating Quake. A video with a lot of detail

From the NYTimes: A Hurricane Season Like No Other. Some excerpts:

“But as we head into what NOAA forecasts will be another active Atlantic hurricane season, the Trump administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency are downsizing the agency, which houses the National Weather Service, the hurricane hunters and many other programs crucial to hurricane forecasters. Without the arsenal of tools from NOAA and its 6.3 billion observations sourced each day, the routinely detected hurricanes of today could become the deadly surprise hurricanes of tomorrow.”

“Within NOAA, research and forecasting are inextricably linked. In new budget documents released Friday, the White House proposed eliminating NOAA’s research wing, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, which lends mission-critical support to the hurricane hunters. Taking a sledgehammer to OAR would shatter decades of progress in hurricane forecasting, one of the roaring success stories of predictive sciences. The fate of the agency’s research arm is now in the hands of Congress.”

From HSToday: U.S. Fire Administration to Close Emergency Management Information Sharing and Analysis Center Within Days

The Diva does not have personal experience with this Center and welcomes comments from readers who do.

From the Handbasket: FEMA at ‘high risk’ of disrupting ‘life-saving’ disaster relief, per internal memo. The agency in charge of mitigating disasters is in the midst of its own.

PBS Frontline has a series of feature articles and videos re pending hurricane dangers
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/hurricane-helenes-deadly-warning/

From HSNW: As Hurricane Season Approaches, Trump’s NOAA Budget Cuts Threaten Safety

“President Trump’s NOAA cuts will significantly hamper the public’s understanding of the environment and weather forecasting, negatively affecting people in the United States and abroad.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its initial outlook for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season on Thursday, predicting a 60 percent chance of an “above-normal season” of weather activity. The agency says this could include up to ten named storms developing into hurricanes over the next six months.”

From the NYTimes: A Tornado Came for Cave City. Would Trump’s FEMA?

“On-the-ground reality will show that most small communities don’t have a lot of room in the budget,” the mayor of Cave City, Ark., said after a tornado ripped through town in March.”

From the Congressional Research Service: SBA Disaster Loan Program: Frequently Asked Questions.