fema losing staff and knowledge

The inevitable has come to pass. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has started saying goodbye to a thousand or more staff, see this New York Times article, Senior Leaders Are Leaving an Already-Depleted Disaster Agency

If you combine the probationary staff who have been shown the door along with those who took the early out offer, the agency has likely lost close to 20% of their staff. While the article alludes to the total strength of FEMA, those people in the two above categories should be members of the “full time” FEMA employees that number around 5,000.

A multi-disaster scenario, like 2017’s five hurricanes in a row will be the type of event that sinks any ability of FEMA to meet the needs of the moment. And, more personnel cuts are sure to come in the weeks and months ahead. If FEMA is not eliminated organizationally, it might just be “operationally neutered” by the elimination of so many experienced staff members.

Remember folks, DOGE has yet to address the many grants that FEMA administers. What they are calling “Fraud” might end up being Emergency Management Performance Grants (EMPG).