Disaster responders say ending FEMA would move tasks and costs to states, local governments

Yahoo

30-01-2025

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (center) joins then-State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha in her Elkhorn-area district, visiting people in Douglas County who had homes damaged by the tornadoes that hit the area April 26, 2024. (Courtesy of the Governor's Office)
LINCOLN — President Donald Trump's call to possibly eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency has Nebraska officials waiting and worrying, with two former disaster response officials saying that doing away with FEMA would leave a void that would prove difficult to fill.
'If they do away with FEMA, Nebraska would be in a world of hurt,' said Al Berndt, a former assistant director who managed the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency on a day-to-day basis for 14 years until 2014. 'We just didn't have the people to do what FEMA does.'
That sentiment was echoed by Dave Maurstad, a former Nebraska lieutenant governor who went on to serve 15 years as a top FEMA administrator, visiting dozens of disaster sites, from Hurricane Katrina to the tornado that ripped through Joplin, Missouri.
Maurstad, who retired in July, said it's certainly appropriate to review FEMA and see if federal disaster response might be streamlined. But, he said, with the increase in severity and frequency of natural catastrophes such as floods, hurricanes and wildfires, someone has to coordinate the response of the 27 federal agencies that provide help.
'At the end of the day, someone has to coordinate that,' Maurstad said.
He added that shifting that responsibility to the states would take years — and the hiring of many new employees.
FEMA was created by then President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and is charged with coordinating the federal response to natural disasters. If damages meet federal requirements, the agency provides federal funds for repairs and rebuilding. It also helps Americans prepare for and mitigate such calamities — helping fund flood-control dikes, for instance — and works with local disaster response agencies to calculate damages.
Since 2017, FEMA has provided more than $1.3 billion in financial aid to Nebraska agencies to deal with natural disasters, according to federal records.
NEMA, an agency with fewer than 60 employees, is a subsidiary of the Nebraska Military Department, which includes the Nebraska National Guard. The Military Department, which operated on a $240 million budget during the last fiscal year, is anticipating getting nearly $98 million from FEMA in the next fiscal year, and $68 million in fiscal year 2026-27, according to the fiscal office of the Nebraska Legislature.
All told, 56 federal disaster declarations in the state since 2000 have qualified for federal assistance. Thirty three were severe storms, seven were wildfires and five were floods, including the devastating 'bomb cyclone' floods of 2019, which did in excess of $3 billion in damage to public and private property and infrastructure.
FEMA also had a role in the response to COVID-19.
Trump, during a recent visit to North Carolina to view flood devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, slammed FEMA for what he perceived as a less-than-effective response, calling the agency 'a disaster.'
Later, he signed an executive order creating a council to review FEMA, suggest changes or recommend its elimination. Trump added that federal disaster relief funds might instead be sent directly to states for them to administer.
But FEMA does more than just write checks to state and local governments, according to Maurstad and Berndt. The agency does damage assessments, handles individual claims for assistance and helps double check that funds are being used as intended.
So, they said, states would have to hire more employees to handle those tasks.
Generally, the feds provide 75% of disaster aid, with states and local entities (like cities and counties) evenly dividing the remaining 25% match. Federal disaster aid can only be claimed after local damage reaches a certain threshold.
Maurstad said there's an 'urban myth' that FEMA is there to make victims of disasters 'whole again.' That's the role of insurance, he said. But only about 30% of properties within high-risk flood zones are insured, he explained.
For instance, he said, flood insurance paid an average of $120,000 per household following the flooding in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey, while FEMA's individual assistance grants averaged $16,000.
Maurstad said there's a natural tension between FEMA rules and how quickly locals want to rebuild. He said coordinating a response is complex due to the multiple agencies involved. And the nation spends far less than needed to make communities more resilient and mitigate damages, he said.
Still, he's never heard administrators direct a response to favor 'red' or 'blue' areas.
FEMA, though, has gotten wrapped up in politics, particularly during election years. He cited recent claims that FEMA workers were bypassing flood-damaged homes in North Carolina that had Trump signs in their yards, or when Hurricane Katrina victims claimed that then President George W. Bush was slow to mobilize a federal response because New Orleans has been a Democratic stronghold.
Get rid of FEMA? Trump-appointed group to look at shifting disaster response to states
Maurstad said with the cost of responding to disasters rising, there has been a bipartisan push to see if local governments can pick up more of the costs and do more to mitigate damages.
'There's no question,' he said, that the severity and frequency of disasters is growing, which is backed up by data. Whether that's human caused, Maurstad said, is another question.
He added that if the review of FEMA results in the elimination of the agency, it would take five years or more for states to ramp up state agencies, and for Congress to adopt rules to govern how federal funds could be spent.
'They're not just going to send a blank check,' Maurstad said. 'Congress isn't going to allow states to spend this money how they like.'
Retired Major Gen. Roger Lempke, who as adjutant general of the Nebraska National Guard was the official director of NEMA from 2000-2007, said the state had 'no major issues' with FEMA during his tenure and that his staff had a good relationship with the feds.
But, he added, the federal disasters during his term — which included the Hallam tornado of 2004 — paled in comparison to the widespread devastation caused by flooding last year from Hurricane Helene and the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
Nebraska is somewhat unique in what it gets from FEMA, which only provides aid for damage to public property and infrastructure.
As the only state in the union that has 100% public power, damages to electrical lines and power stations owned by the Omaha Public Power District, the Nebraska Public Power District, OPPD, rural electric cooperatives and the labor to restore power are eligible for reimbursement from the federal government. That is not true for privately owned utilities.
For instance, NPPD has received $18.5 million from FEMA since 2019, according to a spokesman from the Columbus-based utility. OPPD, meanwhile, has received more than $31 million over the past three years.
Both utilities declined to say whether the elimination of FEMA was a good idea or not.
The utilities do the work, then seek reimbursement for a portion of their costs, which can take up to two years or more depending on the seriousness of the disaster. Thus, the OPPD figures include some reimbursement from the 2019 floods across Nebraska.
Requests this week for comment from Gov. Jim Pillen and a former governor, now U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts — both of whom have dealt with federal disasters and FEMA — were not returned.
Nebraska emergency management officials reportedly met Tuesday to discuss the president's actions concerning FEMA. But Erv Portis, the current assistant director of NEMA, did not return requests for comment.
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