State-based disaster response being explored
Acting FEMA Director Cameron Hamilton (center) meeting with local Florida government officials on March 17, 2025. Courtesy, Kevin Guthrie via LinkedIn
Last week, FEMA and state disaster management officials paid a visit to areas along Florida’s Big Bend that were damaged in last year’s hurricanes, in an effort to better understand how to foster recovery.
Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie was joined by FEMA Acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton, and shared a post on LinkedIn, writing “Yesterday I visited areas of the Big Bend with Cameron Hamilton to meet with local officials & residents impacted by the 2024 hurricane season. I was happy to connect with communities on long-term recovery & mitigation strategies & our efforts to get Floridians back into their homes.”
Acting FEMA Director Cameron Hamilton. Courtesy, FEMA
This comes at a time when it may be most necessary, as top FEMA officials have signaled the beginning of more staff cuts and increasing state involvement in disaster recovery efforts. Narrowing FEMA’s mission is also a point of discussion, as well as possible office closures in response to the President’s calls to shrink the federal government and cut costs alongside the reduction.
Hamilton outlined some of FEMA’s plans in an email obtained by Bloomberg Law last week, stating that the agency’s transformation will focus on a “core mission” of building disaster response capacity at the state level – providing critical support when needed. This has been the culmination of months of crisis headlines, including the supposed politicalization in recent disaster response efforts for both North Carolina and the California fires, leading the President to pass an executive order emphasizing state preparedness. He also created a council to look at overhauling FEMA. Since then, FEMA has reduced its workforce, terminating more than 200 employees in February although the agency has had to reinstate many of their workers because of ongoing litigation.
The sentiment that a serious fix is needed was echoed recently in an op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times from Melissa Roberts, Executive Director of the American Flood Coalition, and Chirs Sprowls, former Speaker of the Florida House. In it, they echoed the President and Hamilton’s positions on state-led response efforts, championing the cause as a way to streamline access to aid and eliminate the federal hurdles that have left some Floridians in disaster recovery limbo for years. Empowering local efforts can drastically reduce wait times and help us rebuild better and faster after each year’s storms. With the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season right around the corner on June 1, it’s a timely policy issue for consideration, where states could be equipped with a new set of strategies and more agency in their own recovery process.
LMA Newsletter of 3-24-25
