3 days ago
As FEMA Shrinks, a Grassroots Disaster Response is Taking Shape
They were just drills, but each felt urgent and real. A group of volunteers searched a wooded area for someone who had been injured and stranded, ready to provide aid. Then they practiced a river rescue, attaching a rope near the bank to help pull the victim to shore.
This was Rescue HQ, a gathering in rural Tennessee last month where the founding members of several newly formed disaster response groups ran through emergency scenarios and discussed how to better coordinate in the chaotic aftermath of a storm or a flood.
Groups like this are growing in number — a new model of disaster response taking shape outside of government channels. Many volunteers are deeply religious and have military backgrounds.
They're an unequal match for what the government can do, especially when it comes to long-term rebuilding efforts after natural disasters. But with the Trump administration pulling back staffing and funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency — and even pledging to eliminate it — communities may soon rely far more on volunteer help.
'The bigger the gap is in terms of what the government isn't doing, the more we're going to expect from nonprofits and the larger their role is going to be,' said Daniel Sledge, a professor at the University of Oklahoma who has studied disaster relief. 'Whether nonprofits actually have the capacity or the ability to step in and fill in the gaps that, in all likelihood, we're going to be creating is a completely different question.'
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