Hurricane Season Begins Today: What We Know About FEMA’s Readiness
Recent SOS Scorecard Finds Agency Skipped Every Major Pre-Season Preparedness Activity as Staffing Hits Multi-Year Low
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today marks the first day of the 2026 hurricane season — and a recent Sabotaging Our Safety scorecard finds that FEMA has earned an "F" on readiness, having bypassed multiple significant preparedness activities it has carried out in prior years. The scorecard findings align with a stark new assessment from E&E News, which found the agency entering this season with its smallest workforce since 2021, a record backlog of unresolved state disaster aid requests, and fifteen vacant top emergency management jobs. An agency staffer told reporters what both the scorecard and the reporting confirm: "We are in very bad shape for hurricane season."
"Americans living in hurricane-prone communities deserve a federal emergency management system that shows up — not one that skipped training, had its workforce gutted, and is left with half its leadership chairs empty before the first storm of the season," said Sabotaging Our Safety Advisory Council member Rafael Lemaitre. "Today marks the start of hurricane season and is a stark reminder that If a major hurricane makes landfall this year, the gaps Donald Trump created through negligence and politicization of disaster relief will have real consequences for real people."
The preparedness failures sit atop a deeper structural crisis. POLITICO's reporting found that the agency has lost roughly one in five employees since the start of 2025, with senior career staff departing at an even faster clip. Per Sabotaging Our Safety’s review, nearly half of FEMA's top leadership positions are currently vacant, and a majority of its regional offices have no permanent director. The Government Accountability Office warned last fall that staff reductions across FEMA could make meeting disaster response needs "a major challenge" if significant storms hit. That warning was issued before additional cuts took effect.
States and communities are also waiting longer for federal help when disasters do strike. POLITICO found that the current administration has taken roughly twice as long as its predecessor to act on disaster declaration requests — and as of this week is sitting on the largest backlog of pending requests on record for this point in the year.
Florida's own emergency management director has publicly raised concerns about federal capacity heading into the season, and local managers around the country are already building contingency plans that don't count on timely federal support.
What FEMA Skipped Before Season Opened:
The National Hurricane Conference: FEMA led or headlined sessions at this premier annual gathering every year from 2021 through 2025. This year, the agency was absent entirely.
Rehearsal of Concept Drills: These joint exercises with U.S. Army North are designed to pressure-test FEMA's hurricane response capabilities before the season begins. They have run every year since at least 2021. None has been scheduled for 2026.
CDP Hurricane Theme Week: FEMA's Center for Domestic Preparedness cancelled its annual April hurricane training program this year — the first time the training has not taken place since at least 2022.
Read the full SOS FEMA Readiness Scorecard here.
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