As the nation enters the heart of hurricane and wildfire seasons, talk of a reduced role from the federal government responding to these disasters has many people questioning what the the next natural catastrophe is going to look like.
The traditional agency charged with coordinating post-disaster response — the Federal Emergency Management Agency — is under a microscope, with many conservative politicians calling for it to be drastically scaled back or even eliminated.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump said he plans to phase out FEMA following the 2025 hurricane season, shifting post-disaster funding responsibilities directly to the president’s office and recovery responsibilities to the affected states.
To that end, Trump appointed a Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council to evaluate ways to trim and ultimately eliminate the agency as it currently stands. The council held some of its first meetings earlier this year in New Orleans near the 20th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
FEMA as an agency was established in the 1970s by then-president Jimmy Carter to coordinate emergency management and civil defense. It has three primary responsibilities as it is now organized: post-storm recovery, risk management, and running the National Flood Insurance Program.
Immediately after a destructive weather event, community leaders — specifically state governors — ask the president to issue a disaster declaration under the Stafford Act, allowing FEMA to begin assisting and reimbursing after the disaster.
One of the most visible roles FEMA plays after a disaster is distributing Individual Assistance for Uninsured and underinsured losses. Those grants top out at a maximum of $43,600 and are meant to help disaster victims get back on their feet.
FEMA also sends teams into the immediate aftermath of the disaster and distributes emergency aid including meals, water and tarps to help individuals get back on their feet. And FEMA works with federal, state and local first responders to coordinate search and rescue efforts. Field offices set up by FEMA coordinate local resources to help disaster victims secure temporary housing, which could include hotel rooms or temporary shelters.
Less visible but no less important is FEMA’s work helping communities at large recover. After a storm, communities apply to FEMA for grants to help reimburse them for debris removal and for help rebuilding damaged infrastructure.
Two of the most visible FEMA efforts in the past 12 months include the federal response to Hurricane Helene and to the catastrophic flooding in the Texas Hill Country.
For the Hurricane Helene efforts, FEMA granted $4.3 billion in aid and provided thousands of federal responders to help with recovery efforts. Parts of the federal response to the hurricane drew criticism of partisan favoritism and sluggish responses, despite the widespread impact.
In the Texas Hill Country, the response was a of soft launch of sorts of the model President Trump has floated, with FEMA playing less of a front-and-center role and instead funding state-run efforts. Still, criticism of sluggish emergency response teams and search and rescue teams also plagued the state-run efforts.
Absent an immediate disaster to manage, FEMA as it is currently organized also plays a large role, particularly when it comes to risk mitigation and flood preparation.
Through FEMA’s office of the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration, FEMA runs hazard mitigation programs and provides grants helping communities upgrade infrastructure and response plans for everything from earthquakes and wildfires to floods and other disasters.
FEMA also creates risk ratings and maps to help communities assess their relative dangers when it comes to specific disasters. Additionally, FEMA acts directly as an insurance company, and in many cases, as a reinsurance company through the National Flood Insurance Program. Through the Write Your Own program, FEMA partners with insurance brokerages throughout the country to write flood insurance policies that are backed by FEMA. Aside from a handful of private flood policies and excess-flood-risk policies, the National Flood Insurance Program is the primary place Americans get flood coverage.
The NFIP was set to run out of Congressional authorization earlier this year, but was granted a temporary reprieve, though it is still due for reauthorization by Congress — due in the fall of 2025. Some lawmakers are calling for phasing the program back and a few are calling for eliminating it completely.
With the flood program set for Congressional review, and with FEMA itself under the microscope, the federal role in these programs is up in the air. For now, Trump has said that states and individuals should expect less federal funding and direct federal involvement following a disaster.
When the next disaster comes, homeowners will still be looking for post-disaster assistance, and communities will be looking for potential funding sources for cleanup and recovery. And if the federal government steps back as the flood insurer of record, insurance companies will be looking for a way to help residents protect their properties from financially catastrophic flooding.
How that will all look remains uncertain.
Michael Giusti, MBA, is an analyst at InsuranceQuotes.com.
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