Olivia of Troye - The Storm Is Coming. FEMA Isn't.
I’ve worked firsthand with FEMA during some of the most devastating natural disasters to hit our country. I’ve sat in Homeland Security briefings when lives were on the line, when every hour mattered, and when we relied on every ounce of preparation and foresight the federal government could offer. What’s happening now, the systematic erosion of our nation’s disaster preparedness infrastructure, is not just bureaucratic negligence. It’s a slow-moving domestic threat with real-world consequences.
The federal government's capacity to respond to disasters has always been a lifeline for millions of Americans, especially those in vulnerable, underserved, and often forgotten communities. But in Donald Trump's second term, FEMA is being gutted, NOAA is being hollowed out, and hurricane season will soon be barreling toward us. The warning signs couldn't be more obvious or more alarming.
On May 1, NPR reported that the Trump administration quietly canceled billions of dollars in FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, funds specifically designed to help communities better prepare for disasters BEFORE they happen. These grants were already allocated. Local governments had invested time, planning, and hope into projects that would make their communities safer, from wildfire buffers to stormwater upgrades and hurricane shelters. Now, those communities are left empty-handed, many of them in rural and red-leaning regions that overwhelmingly voted for Trump, trusting he would protect them.
And it's not just about what's been cut. FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, the pot of money that helps communities recover after disaster strikes, was already running at a dangerously low level during the last hurricane season. Then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned that FEMA could be tapped out before the worst of the storms even arrived. That warning came in late summer of 2024, and it turned out to be true, FEMA barely had enough resources to respond to overlapping disasters. Now, Mayorkas is gone. Kristi Noem is in charge. And we're in an even tougher spot. With funding gutted, grants canceled, and the agency increasingly sidelined under Project 2025 (see page 153), FEMA is no longer the robust federal backstop it once was. The next major storm or wildfire could hit while the federal government stands empty-handed and unapologetic.
https://www.livingitwitholiviatroye.com/p/the-storm-is-coming-fema-isnt