Man responsible for US disaster response ‘didn't know it was hurricane season'
Staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) were left baffled when David Richardson, who has led the agency since early May, said he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season during a briefing on Monday, according to four sources familiar with the situation.
The US hurricane season officially began on Sunday and lasts through November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast last week that this year's season is expected to bring as many as 10 hurricanes.
A spokesman for the department of homeland security (DHS) which oversees Fema insisted Mr Richardson was joking when he made the remark.
Mr Richardson said during the briefing that there would be no changes to the agency's disaster response plans despite having told staff to expect a new plan in May, the sources told Reuters.
There is mounting concern that the departures of a raft of top Fema officials, staff cuts and reductions in hurricane preparations have left the agency ill-prepared for a storm season forecast to be above normal.
Hurricanes kill dozens of people and cost hundreds of millions of dollars annually across the US every year. The storms have become increasingly more destructive and costly.
A DHS spokesman said: 'Despite mean-spirited attempts to falsely frame a joke as policy, there is no uncertainty about what Fema will be doing this hurricane season.
'Fema is laser focused on disaster response, and protecting the American people.'
Mr Richardson's remark spurred confusion among agency staff and reignited concern about his lack of familiarity with its operations, three sources told Reuters.
Mr Richardson, who has no disaster response experience, said he will not be issuing a new disaster plan because he does not want to make changes that might counter the Fema review council, the sources said.
Donald Trump created the council to evaluate Fema. Its members include Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, governors and other officials.
In a May 15 staff town hall, Mr Richardson said a disaster plan, including tabletop exercises, would be ready for review by May 23.
The back-and-forth on updating the disaster plan and a lack of clear strategic guidance has created confusion for Fema staff, said one source.
Mr Richardson has evoked his military experience as a former Marine artillery officer in conversations with staff.
Before joining Fema he was assistant secretary at the department for homeland security's office for countering weapons of mass destruction, which he has told staff he will continue to lead.
Cuts to Fema
Mr Richardson was appointed as the new chief of Fema last month after his predecessor, Cameron Hamilton, was abruptly fired.
Mr Hamilton had publicly broken with Mr Trump over the future of the agency, but sources told Reuters that Trump allies had already been manoeuvring to oust him because they were unhappy with what they saw as Hamilton's slow-moving effort to restructure.
Mr Trump said Fema should be shrunk or even eliminated, arguing states can take on many of its functions, as part of a wider downsizing of the federal government. About 2,000 full-time Fema staff, one-third of its total, have been terminated or voluntarily left the agency since the start of the Trump administration in January.
Despite Ms Noem's prior comments that she plans to eliminate Fema, in May she approved Mr Richardson's request to retain more than 2,600 short-term disaster response and recovery employees whose terms were set to expire this year, one of the sources said, confirming an earlier report by NBC News.
Those short-term staff make up the highest proportion of Fema employees, about 40 per cent, and are a pillar of the agency's on-the-ground response efforts.
Fema recently sharply reduced hurricane training and workshops for state and local emergency managers due to travel and speaking restrictions imposed on staff, according to Reuters.
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