ICYMI: FEMA Enters Hurricane Season Playing Catch-Up

WASHINGTON, D.C. — This Monday marks the first day of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season — and a wave of reporting has made clear that FEMA is entering it weakened, shorthanded, and still recovering from over a year of political chaos under the Trump administration. 

Sabotaging Our Safety has been sounding the alarm all spring: the damage done to FEMA is real, and no last-minute reassurances from the agency can paper over it.

Read coverage below.

CBS News: Top FEMA Official Bob Fenton Says "We're Ready for Hurricane Season"

“Still, Fenton acknowledged the agency is recovering from disruption.

"The lapse had a significant impact on us," he said, referring to the record DHS partial government shutdown. "Any time that you're closed for 70-something days and then 40-something days this year — over 100 days in total this year — it has an impact…’

"We are playing catch-up," Fenton conceded. "But we play catch-up pretty quick here."

He said FEMA is now pushing out funding for past disasters after receiving money from Congress and restarting preparedness work that had been delayed.

‘It impacts our readiness ability," Fenton said of the shutdown, "which translates to the readiness of the nation — whether that's the individual or that state and local government, or whether that's our team.’”

GovTech / The Advocate: Amid Turmoil, Is FEMA Ready for Hurricane Season?

“We don’t know if FEMA is prepared,” U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R- Baton Rouge, said Friday. “There are vacancies and staff turnover in the same leadership positions, including multiple changes at the director level. Additionally, there was distrust of its mission by the President and the first Secretary of Homeland Security. We have to hope after the poor response to the flooding in Texas that they understand America needs a prepared and mission-focused FEMA.”

“Hurricane Season starts Monday,” said U.S. Rep. Troy Carter Sr., D-New Orleans, also noting massive layoffs at FEMA and the lack of a full-time leader. “Right now, we are at-risk of weakening FEMA and leaving Louisiana communities even more exposed when the next storm hits. That is unacceptable.”

CNN: The Race to Fix FEMA After a Year of Chaos Tore It Apart

“It’s unclear how much FEMA funding is still stalled. In an email to CNN, Kiley’s office said his district still has not received the $2.5 million grant.

“It’s extremely disappointing to see government inefficiency at this scale,” the email

said. Kiley is now running as an independent after leaving the GOP.

With the Atlantic hurricane season starting Monday, agency insiders warn that FEMA has been significantly weakened and will likely struggle to respond to a large-scale disaster this summer — the likes of which this administration, remarkably, has not yet faced. 

The agency is racing to fill vacant roles, restart halted trainings and exercises, and close gaps left by funding that was delayed or cut. But sources say it will likely take years to undo the damage that’s been done.

“All of those things made the mission more impossible,” said Pete Gaynor , who led FEMA during the first Trump Administration. “And they’re going to own the wreckage.”

E&E News: 'Holding Our Breath': Hurricane Season Is Here, and FEMA Is Shorthanded

“The writing is on the wall that workforce may not be available to us based on the current footprint for FEMA,” said Lord, who is president of the Florida Emergency Preparedness Association. “It’s local managers’ responsibility to have an alternative ready to go.”

Nine out of 18 FEMA leadership positions are vacant, according to the agency’s website, which also shows that six of FEMA’s 10 regional offices have no permanent administrator.

In Washington, FEMA has rifled through three acting administrators since Trump took office. None of them had emergency management experience. The president recently nominated Cameron Hamilton, who would be the first permanent administrator in Trump’s current term.

Hamilton was fired last year from his position as acting leader, a topic that promises to be raised during his Senate confirmation hearing, which has not been scheduled.”

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