FEMA's Leadership Shake-Up: What Went Wrong?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has seen a lot of changes lately. David Richardson, who was temporarily in charge, stepped down after just six months. This happened around the same time that President Trump suggested shutting down FEMA after the hurricane season. Richardson's time at FEMA wasn't easy. He faced a lot of criticism, especially for how he handled the terrible floods in Texas in July. More than 130 people died, including 27 girls and counselors at a summer camp. Richardson was hard to reach for a full day after the disaster. It turned out he was on vacation during the holiday weekend. Before joining FEMA, Richardson didn't have any experience in emergency management. He was a former Marine Corps officer and was also working in another role in the Trump administration. This raised some eyebrows, as many felt he wasn't the best fit for the job. FEMA has been under a lot of scrutiny this year. Climate change is making extreme weather events more common and more severe, and the agency's ability to respond effectively has been questioned. In August, nearly 200 FEMA employees wrote an open letter criticizing the Trump administration's disaster preparedness. They said that new rules requiring approval for large expenditures had slowed down the agency's response to the Texas floods. Richardson took over from Cameron Hamilton, who also didn't last long in the role. Hamilton had testified on Capitol Hill that he didn't think it was a good idea to eliminate FEMA, which went against Trump's suggestion. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem later clarified that Trump didn't want to completely eliminate FEMA but rather overhaul it. Some of Richardson's critics were happy to see him go. Rafael Lemaitre, a former FEMA official, compared appointing Richardson to putting someone with no flying experience in the cockpit during a hurricane. Karen Evans, FEMA's current chief of staff, will take over as acting administrator starting in December.