Disasterology: February 2025
This newsletter is a compilation of recent disaster ~things~ that I think are cool, important, or otherwise of interest to people who are intrigued with disaster (broadly defined). There’s a little something for everyone!
Greetings Loved Ones,
I hope you have survived the blissfully short month of February. I got taken out by the flu and bronchitis but am on the mend and allowing myself to fall into the delusion of “fake spring” here in Boston.
Meanwhile, has anyone figured out what’s going on yet? No? Okay, me either. In many ways, it seems the future of emergency management is stuck in limbo until some big questions shake out such as does America have a King now? Does the rule of law still exist? Will Congress grow a pair?
I want to be conscious about not letting this newsletter turn into just a reactive accounting of what has happened each month so here are some actionable things you might like to know about:
FEMA canceled the FEMA Higher Education Symposium (*massive eye roll*) so we’re having our own! If you’re a part of the emergency management higher education community I hope you will join us. It will be held completely virtually on June 3-4th. If you had submitted a presentation to Hi-Ed, you will need to resubmit it. More information here.
Anytime a new disaster newsletter comes to town I am GIDDY. The more people who write accessibly about disasters, the better, and especially now. Therefore, I’m thrilled to share that Dr. J. Carlee Purdum has started a newsletter called Punishment and Disasters which is about the intersection of prisons and disasters. You should subscribe and read her first post here!
Consider joining Disaster Researchers for Justice. While this group is primarily made up of researchers we welcome practitioners, students, journalists, and others with an interest in disaster justice. This month we held a meeting which was really just an open forum for people to share what’s been happening to them, what they are concerned about, share resources, and just generally be there for one another. It turns out that having a Zoom call where everyone can just vent among people who understand is useful (s/o community!). We will be doing this again so make sure you are signed up for updates.
The Rundown
The month began with continued confusion over federal funding freezes (illegal) with impacts on emergency management. For example, Washington state had concerns about losing access to $200 million in wildfire preparedness funding. Everyone got especially freaked out when $80 million in grant funding from FEMA to NYC was taken back (?!). This was also illegal and NYC is now suing the Trump administration. I made a longer TikTok video explaining this situation in simple terms.
Lest you thought the private sector was off the hook here, FEMA also embarked on a journey to review the agency’s private contracts. Godspeed.
Across the federal government, Elon Musk and his DOGE bros decided to just wholesale fire probationary employees because they have the fewest protections. Insane behavior. These firings seem to have hit emergency management particularly hard. First and foremost are the hundreds of people fired from FEMA. This has further deepened the urgent understaffing problem that has long hampered the agency’s ability to be effective. It is expected that more will be cut from FEMA as managers have been instructed to compile lists of employees who work on issues related to equity and climate change (so, everyone).
Employees at other federal agencies who support emergency management efforts across the disaster life cycle have also been affected. For example, 3,400 people were fired from the US Forest Service including those who had been working on Helene recovery efforts. Also from the Department of Agriculture, employees who were working on the Bird Flu response were fired. Employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration who oversee the country’s nuclear weapons stockpile were fired. 1,000 employees from the Department of Energy most of whom are involved in managing the western power grid were fired. 10% of the CDC was fired including employees working on infectious disease preparedness efforts. We lost 240 from USGS. The entire USAID debacle. Chaos in DOT as 400 were fired from the FAA and some within the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration were fired. And of course, employees working on environmental justice within the EPA are gone. The Office of Community Planning and Development within HUD took probably the biggest hit this month with the Trump administration planning to fire 84% of the office. This could have far-reaching implications for recoveries across the country but especially in North Carolina.
Emergency managers need those employees to be at their posts if we have any chance of effectively and efficiently responding to disasters across the country.
It does seem firefighters are being swept up in the federal hiring freeze in a particularly infuriating way. The consequences of losing support staff will be severe both for the safety of firefighters and for communities affected by wildfires. This really makes me sick with worry for the summer wildfire season. It sure is something to see that it is the Republican party defunding first responders.
The language police are in full force within FEMA and the censorship and purging is wide-ranging. This includes everything from requiring FEMA employees to use the term “alien” instead of “immigrant” to removing disability information from Ready.gov. Also, FEMA employees aren’t allowed to talk to the media without “prior authorization”. Chilling authoritarian shit.
This has gotten less attention but there have also been efforts to reverse mitigation policy. First is the intention to eliminate the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard which requires mitigation to be integrated into rebuilding efforts. Second, FEMA revoked building code recommendations that had been submitted to the International Code Council.
It is worth noting that much of what is happening here does seem to be illegal. So, while these changes have been announced – and some implemented – where exactly we land here is still up for debate depending on how the legal system reacts. I’m not necessarily going to hold my breath here but there are two things that I am looking to as little bits of good news to cling to in these times.
First, I will say that there is a pretty complete consensus (also this) that while there needs to be emergency management reform, it cannot happen like this. There are some notable Republicans outside the Trump administration who are on record as supporting FEMA. Does that matter? I am not sure but I think it’s good we (normal people) are on the same page that this is bad (a low bar, I admit). The other bit of good news is that Kentucky got its IA declaration. How much should we read into that? Hard to say. But a week ago there was a non-zero chance that Trump wasn’t going to sign it. The fact that he did is good.
MEME Break
Other News
These Roads Aren’t Built for Wilder Weather Driven by Climate Change in Bloomberg
FireAid Concerts Raise Estimated $100 Million for LA Wildfire Relief in NPR
The American Climate Corps Fades Away in High Country News
WNC Woman, 96, Dies From Hypothermia Complications After Helene Flooded Her Home from Blue Ridge Public Radio
California Governor Requests Nearly $40 Billion From Congress For Fire Aid in The Washington Post
Paperback, Baby!
Disasterology: Dispatches From The Frontlines of The Climate Crisis comes out in paperback on March 4th. Pre-Order it here!
Sorry if this is cringy but if you see Disasterology out and about in your travels, would you take a picture and tag me in it? When it first came out we were still in the earlier days of the pandemic so book tours and signings weren’t happening. I was so sure when it came out that no one would read it and that those who did would hate it. Never in my whole life have I been more shocked than when I saw that USA Today reviewed it with 3.5 out of 4 stars. It turns out many people have read it (although I still wish more would!) and that people pretty universally like it. I am feeling a little sad about it coming out because this will be the last time it gets attention on its own, I assume.
I am often asked if I’m writing another book. The short answer is no. The longer answer is that I will but not just quite yet. Disasterology is the book I wanted to write and I got to write it – almost completely on my own terms. I like the idea of cherishing that a little longer. I think many authors, especially academics writing for a popular press, do not get to have that experience.
I have noticed that many authors hurriedly write their second book because of editors and publishers and agents and tenure. I have noticed that sometimes those second books are not that good because the author doesn’t yet have more to say. What a silly thing, I think! Writing a book – or at least a good book – is a painstaking process. Why put yourself through that for anything less than a book that has a point! If I’m going to write a book its going to be because I think that book explains something about the world that hasn’t yet been explained and needs to be explained. There’s a lot that still needs to be explained about emergency management so I know I will write another book but right now the future of emergency management is too cloudy for me to see what exactly it will be.
The End Bits
It’d be cool if you forwarded this newsletter to your friends, post it on social media, or undertake any other form of newsletter sharing you deem appropriate. I’ve heard some of you print out the memes to hang in your emergency management offices! Incredible.
In case you signed up for this newsletter without knowing who I am (a bold choice!) you can listen to this interview with me on Ologies. If you really want to dive in you can read my book Disasterology: Dispatches From The Frontlines of The Climate Crisis to catch up (here’s a USA Today review). You can order it here and get it as an audiobook here.
Other places to find me: Blog. BlueSky. Instagram. TikTok.
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You are so cool, Sam. Keep up the INCREDIBLE work you're doing.