FEMA admits it's 'short a few thousand employees' as hurricane season begins

FEMA admits it’s ‘short a few thousand employees’ as hurricane season begins
The agency under Trump doesn't have enough people to properly respond to climate-fueled disasters, experts say.
E.A. Crunden
Jun 12, 2019, 12:40 pm


The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said Wednesday that the disaster aid and recovery agency is still significantly understaffed, nearly two years after recovery efforts during the devastating 2017 hurricane season were hindered by a lack of staffing.

In a hearing June 12, acting FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor told the House Committee on Homeland Security that the agency is prepared and ready to tackle any potential disasters in coming months. But Gaynor’s exchange grew heated as Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) pressed the FEMA head about staffing levels.

“Are you fully staffed?” Thompson asked repeatedly. Ultimately, Gaynor asserted that the agency’s full-time staffing quota has been met, but that the agency is significantly understaffed with regards to the part-time employees who are critical to addressing disasters and wide-scale crises.

“It has been a struggle for FEMA to make sure that we have enough disaster responders,” Gaynor said, acknowledging that “we’re probably short a few thousand employees.”

That acknowledgement comes with Atlantic hurricane season underway as of this month, while wildfires are once again surging in the western United States. Meanwhile, extreme flooding across the Midwest and parts of the South is imperiling local communities and economies.

more...

https://thinkprogress.org/fema-short-staffed-hurricane-season-2019-74093f98acb4/