A family grieves in Kerrville, Texas, at a July vigil honoring lives lost in flash floods along the Guadalupe River that month.
Photo by Branden Bell, courtesy Getty Images
“You cannot have political leanings or actions determine whether the federal government is going to help.”
— Irwin Redlener
For decades, grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have allowed cities, counties and states across the nation to upgrade stormwater management systems, reinforce levees and clear dry brush.
The preparedness measures allowed communities to protect their residents from the impacts of natural disasters such as flooding, wildfires and hurricanes, which are growing in frequency and intensity with human-caused climate change. But under the Trump administration, those grants came to an abrupt end this year, leaving state and local governments scrambling to safeguard communities.
“This is the No. 1 issue for all emergency managers across the United States,” Robert Graham, MPS, deputy director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management Office in North Carolina, told The Nation’s Health in July. “We’ve got to get those funds released.”
The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Community program is FEMA’s largest grant program that supports community preparedness. Launched during the first Trump administration, the program has received bipartisan support and issued billions of dollars in grants since 2020.
But with the Trump administration’s slash and burn of federal funding this year, $3.6 billion in funding was cut from the resiliency-building program. Every state will lose tens of millions of dollars in disaster prevention, with disaster-prone states such as California losing $765 million; Louisiana, $196 million; and Florida, $78 million, according to the Urban Institute.
North Carolina, which experienced major flooding and destruction last year under Hurricane Helene, will lose 75 resiliency-building grants worth $151 million, including three grants to Mecklenburg County. Graham said that millions of dollars are being withheld from the county for urban security and hazard mitigation. A third grant pays the salary of two employees in the county’s 10-person emergency response office.
James and Monica Marsh stand by their home destroyed by the Eaton fire in Altadena, California, in January.
Photo by Keith Birmingham via MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News/Getty Images
In July, North Carolina and 19 other states sued the Trump administration for ending the disaster resilience funding without congressional approval.
“North Carolina will step up, I have no doubt,” Graham said of the loss of local and state FEMA funding. “But it’s going to get ugly for a while.”
Emergency staffing, disaster relief at risk
The damage to FEMA by the Trump administration extends far beyond grant funding, however. Officials had slashed 2,000 FEMA staff as of this summer and another 4,000 workers were expected to be cut later this year.
In addition, FEMA disaster funds may now come with political strings, according to Irwin Redlener, MD, founding director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump threatened to hold back federal aid for California wildfires if the state does not change its voter identification laws and water policies. Trump has also threatened to withhold future FEMA funding to cities and states with diversity, equity and inclusion measures.
“You cannot have political leanings or actions determine whether the federal government is going to help,” Redlener, a former health adviser to the Clinton administration who has worked with FEMA, told The Nation’s Health.
In March, Trump announced plans to move most federal emergency disaster response to states.
While states have always taken the lead in disasters, they cannot do it alone, according to Trina Sheets, executive director of the National Emergency Management Association. FEMA’s funding support and expertise are critical for disaster prevention and recovery.
“The governor is in charge, but the federal government is an impor-tant partner,” Sheets told The Nation’s Health. “National preparedness is a shared responsibility between local, state and federal governments.”
If FEMA’s role is lessened, states will need to figure out how to pay for emergency management and disaster costs and carry out preparedness work on their own. Rural communities may be especially harmed by the change in policy.
Thousands of homes in North Carolina, including these in Chimney Rock, were destroyed by Hurricane Helene last year.
Photo by Matt McLain, courtesy The Washington Post/Getty Images
In the face of federal cuts, Sheets recommended emergency staff look to state leaders for help.
“Our organization has been encouraging the state emergency management directors to have conversations with governors and legislators, helping them understand what could be coming and being proactive to get state-funded disaster assistance programs in place,” Sheets said.
Given the uncertainty surrounding FEMA, officials in North Carolina are ready to tap state emergency disaster funds should another hurricane strike, while also exploring ways to increase its balance.
“Recovery will occur whether the (federal) government is involved or not,” Graham told The Nation’s Health. “We just don’t know how it happens, what it looks like, how long it will take.”
For more information, visit www.fema.gov and www.nemaweb.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
