WASHINGTON—Federal Emergency Management Agency officials are scrapping a hurricane-response plan that its recently appointed leader, David Richardson, had said was close to completion, according to agency staff.
With hurricane season kicking off this month, Richardson told staff Monday that the agency would be returning to the same guidance for hurricane response as last year. Some were confused how that would be possible, given the agency had already eliminated key programs and sharply cut its workforce.
For example, FEMA’s hurricane guidance typically includes plans for staffers who go door-to-door helping storm survivors. But that program has been rolled back, leaving it unclear how the agency should now adjust those operations, which could have a domino effect on other responses.
Richardson told FEMA staff in a Monday call that he didn’t want to create a new plan that might contradict what a newly created FEMA review council, co-chaired by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, might propose.
“Here’s the guidance,” Richardson said, according to participants. “It’s the same as it was last year,” he added.
The new FEMA leader suggested he recently learned there was an annual hurricane season, stunning members of the workforce of the agency tasked with responding to disasters. He has expressed surprise in meetings at the scope of the agency’s mission, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
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