Yikes! There is this from late last night, White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion

A few days ago there was another executive order that paused all foreign aid. Well, who cares about that—I don’t care!  No skin off my back, etc, etc. Now that worm as turned, and it is every grant program everywhere that is in the “pause hopper.” 

Before one can begin to change something like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) you need to understand what is existing.  I found these two articles trying to address that question. The first is an AP story and is much more expansive in defining elements of FEMA’s programs—not too long to reach however. A more comprehensive explanation.

I did an earlier blog post about what might be in the Federal Emergency Management’s (FEMA) future, but I seem to have been a minimalist in some of my thinking. It had been suggested in some quarters that the split in disaster costs should shift more burden on the states, now at 75% federal and 25% state and local. Project 2025 suggested that split should be 25% federal and 75% state and local.

I went looking for something more recent, since I had seen and read it earlier—but could not find it. Instead, I found this:

“The rising cancellation rates [for property insurance] are part of a broader trend captured by the Treasury Department, which analyzed information for 246 million insurance policies issued by 330 insurers nationwide from 2018 through 2022. The result is the most comprehensive look yet at the effect of climate change on the American home insurance market.” This is what is detailed in this article from the NY Times, More Americans, Risking Ruin, Drop Their Home Insurance

There is an interesting story in the New York Times about how individual homeowners and business owners have hired private firefighters/companies to protect their property, ‘Will Pay Any Amount’: Private Firefighters Are in Demand in L.A.

It is likely only the general emergency management community that is vitally interested in who the Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be. In the past they have tapped FEMA Region 9 to have a regional administrator move up and take the reigns in Washington, DC until a permanent administrator is appointed.  Surprise! That did not happen.

You can look up the term “mercurial” which is normally considered a leadership trait. I think that is an era that we will be in for the immediate future when it comes to emergency management in general and disaster aid in particular.  

This is a good thought provoking Los Angeles Times article for you to read, Inconvenient truths about the fires burning in Los Angeles from two fire experts

Hindsight is always 2020 and Monday morning quarterbacking is in full swing when it comes to the Los Angeles firestorm.  See this Washington Post article, A key ‘weakness’ in L.A.’s wildfire strategy went unaddressed for years, Post probe shows

What does increasing natural hazard risk that is going through the roof do to your property insurance costs? Well, there is another roof, the one on your home that burned down or one still in a threatened area. Insurance policy prices are going up exponentially.

In the coming weeks there will be a Disaster Zone Podcast with Professor Jeannette Sutton on the topic of Warnings. She is a warnings expert!  A recent LinkedIn posting by her pointed to the Warn Room article by her, Message personalization - what does that mean for a WEA?

Our typical approach here in the United States is to provide early warning of a wildland fire danger and encourage or in some cases order an evacuation from homes being in the path of a wildfire. This is not necessarily the case across the world.

What price is progress? Watching your own home catch fire and start burning on your own doorbell camera has to be one of the things that most people were not thinking about when they installed various security systems at their homes

One thing huge disasters do is point the finger and elevate the importance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Los Angeles fires are providing the emphasis today on the need for an appointment to be made by the Trump Administration for the position of FEMA Administrator.

This is a different type of Disaster Zone Podcast. The host, Eric Holdeman becomes the interviewee and Kim Guevara, is the interviewer. Kim has been researching different aspects of what it means to be an emergency manager. In her words, “a crisis athlete.”

I previously recorded a Disaster Zone Podcast: Forecasting the Weather as a Business that had Jonathan Porter, quoted below, as my guest. A great listen to learn more about that company and their operations.

AccuWeather has been the source of damage estimates for the ongoing California fires impacting the greater Los Angeles area. Their most recent damage estimate is below, along with excellent commentary on what we can expect for impacts to the insurance industry.

We all have a story for how our journey into emergency management began. Most of the time it starts tangentially with no direct line from fourth grade until we enter the profession and beyond.