For months, Trump has argued that Fema, which coordinates disaster response and issues supplies and other aid for affected Americans, is wasteful and ineffective. Some experts agree to a limited extent – Fema’s historic role has expanded not only as disasters have become more frequent due to global heating but also as states have casually pushed on with development in risky places, with the complacent view that the federal government will bail out any losses.
But, at the same time, many of the smaller or poorer states – ironically the ones that typically voted most enthusiastically for Trump – do not have the resources to respond fully to a serious flood, wildfire or other catastrophic event. Already, Fema has lost a quarter of its staff as well as an acting administrator, who had the temerity to suggest the agency not be scrapped. His successor, a former US marine with no disaster management experience, has said he didn’t even know the US has a hurricane season (Fema has insisted this statement was a side-splitting joke).
The compounding extreme weather impacts of the climate crisis will not end at the turn of the hurricane season, either – witness Los Angeles which, before it became the staging ground for Trump’s federalised troops conducting immigration raids, was torched last winter by some of the worst fires on record.
The termination of Fema – which would need the acquiescence of Republicans in Congress, not an outlandish prospect – is perhaps the starkest example of a Trump term that is not only ignoring or belittling climate science as many expected, but is also dismantling any response to it.
Even the basics of weather forecasting are not immune – more than 600 staff have been removed or have fled the National Weather Service, with routine weather balloon releases scaled back and key hurricane monitoring equipment set to be idled this summer. More than a dozen weather service offices along the hurricane-prone Gulf of Mexico (or is that America?) coastline are currently understaffed.
Will Americans be fully informed of the capricious twists of approaching hurricanes, let alone respond properly to them? One veteran TV weatherman recently warned his viewers in south Florida, a region repeatedly battered by severe storms, that they will be “flying blind” into this hurricane season. “I am here to tell you I’m not sure I can do that this year,” John Morales, an NBC meteorologist, said of his ability to track hurricanes and warn viewers. “Because of the cuts, the gutting, the sledgehammer attack on science in general.”
Trump may have a lot to mull at the moment – an unfolding war in the Middle East, the aftermath of his birthday military parade, the launch of his own mobile phone service complete with $499 gold smartphone – but the vulnerability of many of his voters to hurricanes over the next few months may soon become painfully clear. The best the US can hope for right now is that it’s a stormy season of near misses.
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