By Leah Douglas, Tim Reid, Nichola Groom, Nathan Layne
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. federal disaster agency FEMA has sharply reduced training for state and local emergency managers ahead of the start of the hurricane season on June 1, according to current and former officials, memos seen by Reuters, and three sources familiar with the situation.
The training cutbacks could leave storm-prone communities less prepared to handle the often devastating aftermath of hurricanes, the sources and some of the current and former officials warned.
Leading forecasters predict a busier-than-average Atlantic hurricane season this year, with 17 named tropical storms, including nine hurricanes.
If state directors and local emergency managers are not briefed on the federal government’s latest tools and resources, it will impact their ability to prepare for and warn communities of impending storms, said Deanne Criswell, who headed FEMA during President Joe Biden’s administration.
Some 2,000 FEMA employees – or about a third of full-time staff – have been fired or accepted incentives to quit since President Donald Trump took office in January and declared that the agency should be abolished and its functions handed over to the states.
Last week, Trump fired FEMA’s acting chief, Cameron Hamilton, a day after Hamilton told lawmakers that the agency should be preserved.
Hamilton’s successor, David Richardson, told FEMA employees on Friday that he would “run right over” any staff opposed to his implementation of Trump’s vision for a smaller agency.
ONLINE TRAINING
FEMA’s National Hurricane Program and the National Hurricane Center typically conduct in-person workshops and presentations for state and local emergency officials each spring to help them prepare for hurricane season.
These training sessions are used to share the latest data on hurricane modeling, build relationships between local, state and FEMA officials to improve coordination on disaster preparedness and relief, and review evacuation routes and other planning measures.
Relationship building is critical for coordination in the event of a storm, according to three emergency managers and experts. Some planned hurricane training sessions and workshops have been moved online.
FEMA, which is overseen by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, confirmed the training cutbacks in a statement to Reuters.
“At the direction of President Trump and Secretary Noem, we’re done offering duplicate trainings that promote waste, fraud and abuse and that are not a good use of American taxpayers,” the statement said.
“The National Hurricane Program continues to deliver readiness trainings ahead of the 2025 Hurricane Season to emergency managers nationwide with virtual trainings.”
Steve Still, the emergency manager for New Hanover County, a hurricane hotspot on North Carolina’s Atlantic Coast, said online training, while useful, was less effective than in-person events.
“If there’s any practical applications or exercises, you need in-person training,” Still said.
Despite the reduced training, emergency management officials in North Carolina and Louisiana – states regularly battered by hurricanes – told Reuters they have FEMA-certified trainers on staff who can lead in-person disaster training.
“FEMA courses have continued as planned in the state without issue,” said Justin J. Graney, a spokesman for North Carolina Emergency Management.
TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS
Since February 5, FEMA staff have been barred from travel unrelated to disaster deployment and other limited purposes. Since early March, staff must have their speaking engagements and presentation materials approved by the Office of External Affairs and Office of Chief Counsel, according to two internal memos seen by Reuters.
Few speaking requests have been approved, leading the National Hurricane Program to cancel some trainings for emergency managers in storm-prone areas or move them online, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Organizers of April’s National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans canceled several FEMA-led sessions – including one aimed at helping emergency managers make evacuation decisions during hurricanes – after FEMA staff dropped out due to the travel restrictions, said John Wilson, chairman of the conference.
Wilson said the director of the National Hurricane Center usually speaks at the conference about lessons learned from past hurricane season and shares forecasting model updates, but did not this year.
“It was kind of bizarre to have a National Hurricane Conference without the National Hurricane Center director opening it up,” Wilson said.
NHC Director Michael Brennan said in a statement that he did not attend the conference due to travel restrictions but noted that the center recently organized a virtual course with 500 participants. He said the NHC’s “dialogue with partners continues and remains unchanged.”
CONCERNS
Lynn Budd, president of the National Emergency Management Association, an organization of state emergency managers, and director of the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security, said states need more time and resources if they are expected to make up for cuts to FEMA staff and activities.
“There is room to reduce the footprint of FEMA in their regular deployment activities, but there is also expertise provided by FEMA for state and local jurisdictions that the states simply don’t have at this time,” Budd said.
NEMA would not comment specifically on the reduced trainings.
The lack of training sessions at disaster preparedness conferences leaves state and local emergency managers more vulnerable to inaccurate or inadequate advice ahead of the storm season, said Bryan Koon, the former head of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management who now heads a disaster preparedness consultancy.
“These conferences are really important, because lots of FEMA trainings are normally done at them,” Koon said. “That’s one of the critical things – new information is released to state and local emergency managers.”
If local emergency managers are not trained in new forecasting models, for example, then there might be critical information the public won’t get ahead of a hurricane, Koon said.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas, Nathan Layne, Nichola Groom and Tim Reid, editing by Ross Colvin and Suzanne Goldenberg)
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