Aid groups weigh how much more they can help if FEMA reduces its disaster response

Volunteers with the humanitarian nonprofit Team Rubicon are accustomed to filling in the gaps of disaster recovery — they chainsaw downed trees after wildfires, muck out flooded homes and rebuild roofs blown off by hurricanes.

But with concern and confusion over how the federal government will respond to disasters this summer, the group is readying to possibly help in ways it hasn’t before.

“The one thing certain this hurricane season is the uncertainty of what’s going to happen at the federal level,” said Jeff Byard, Team Rubicon senior vice president of operations.

Byard and his team are evaluating how else they can help communities if the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees federal response to disasters, reduces its capacity or is deployed less often. President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his intent to overhaul FEMA, if not totally dismantle it.

Team Rubicon is good at being agile, Byard said, but nonprofits and funders are already under pressure from more frequent and severe climate events. “It’s going to be harder in a really hard situation already,” he said.

Experts worry Trump might approve fewer major disaster declarations, which unlock federal funding and resources, and that FEMA’s response could be slowed or diminished. Trainings have been reduced, and around 2,000 employees have left or been fired since January, including high-level staff.

“Whether it’s a hurricane or earthquake, the federal government is not prepared the way it has been in the past,” said Michael Coen, who held posts at FEMA under three presidential administrations.

Nonprofits and funders across the United States say there is too much at stake for communities to just wait and see what happens. “From the nonprofit perspective, we have to really lean in,” said Marcus Coleman, vice president of community resilience strategy for United Way Worldwide.

FEMA is “fully activated in preparation for Hurricane Season,” and is “shifting from bloated DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens,” according to a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency.

How FEMA cutbacks could be felt

Leaders in disaster relief say FEMA’s absence would make it harder to coordinate resources across federal government, set up effective communications, and deploy emergency supplies. “FEMA is a key partner, we need them,” said David Guadalupe, chair of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster.

They worry the sudden policy changes could leave many states unprepared and under-resourced, intensifying the need for donations and volunteers.

“The worst case scenario is that that money gets pulled back and we have to fill in those gaps,” said Ann Lee, CEO of the relief organization CORE.

It would be especially difficult, they say, to replace the services under FEMA’s Individual Assistance program, like temporary housing and grants to repair or replace damaged homes and vehicles.

For direct assistance alone, FEMA has approved over $460 million for 160,000 households in North Carolina since Hurricane Helene, and more than $136 million for 34,500 households after the Los Angeles fires.

“If the funding to the people gets eliminated, that’s all they have,” said Michael Capponi, president of Global Empowerment Mission, adding that while nonprofits are often faster and more efficient at getting people help, they still need the money to make it happen. “The private sector can never take that on,” he said.

FEMA also funds disaster case managers, who help survivors navigate paperwork, and legal and mental health support. Providing those services “will require even more robust volunteer organization,” said Byard.

Other needs could include supporting smaller, less experienced emergency management departments, collecting data about survivor needs, or hauling away debris if federal dollars don’t pay for the pickup.

Even when FEMA help is available, it could look different than recent years, said Coleman. He points out that the agency already canceled its door-to-door canvassing program that helped survivors enroll with FEMA, and worries the feds could give survivors less time to apply. “The effort to get the word out about FEMA assistance is critically important,” he said. “Nonprofits will have to move quickly.”

Relief organizations like CORE and Good360 are also pre-positioning more supplies in storm-vulnerable areas, in part in case FEMA supplies arrive more slowly. Trump took up to eight weeks to approve some declaration requests this spring, making aid groups even more important as survivors waited for help. “That preparation is the biggest thing to focus on,” said Lee.

Under strain from cuts, and more disasters

The new responsibilities could come at a time when states, nonprofits and funders are already under strain from worsening disasters and federal funding cuts across government.

A United Way Worldwide AmeriCorps cuts.

“The groups in the community 365 days a year are getting beat up significantly,” said Noah Patton, director of disaster recovery at the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, adding community-based organizations are already under pressure from housing shortages and other crises.

“When you’re working at a homeless shelter that is 100% utilized and then you drop a disaster on it, it’s ‘How will I continue to do my job,’ not ‘How can I expand my mission.’”

Funders that fuel recovery work say they can’t replace federal money. “It’s not just unrealistic, it’s a dangerous abdication of public responsibility,” said Ryan Eller, executive director of the Appalachia Funders Network. “There’s a reason these agencies were brought about in the first place when local resources just can’t meet the need.”

Philanthropy committed over $300 million to recovery to Hurricane Helene alone, and hundreds of millions more each for the fires in LA and on Maui. Eller said it’s getting harder to fundraise for recovery. “There is a general fatigue around disaster philanthropy because of the volume and frequency of storms,” he said.

Even if a nonprofit can’t take on more, simply building relationships with state and local government, residents, and fellow relief groups ahead of an emergency will make everyone more prepared, said Byard. “Take FEMA out of it, now we’re really looking at communities supporting communities,” he said. “That can build some really really strong resilience.”

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