Illustration: Livia Giorgina Carpineto for Bloomberg
The US Disaster Agency Was Breaking Long Before Trump
To fulfill its mission, the Federal Emergency Management Agency needs investment in the kind of work that voters rarely see.
When Hurricane Erin brushed the US East Coast last week, it left behind little more than flooded roads, turbulent waves and collective relief. But it’s easy to imagine how devastating a direct hit could have been. Almost exactly 20 years ago, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, displacing more than a million people and submerging parts of New Orleans for weeks.
The two storms couldn’t be more different in their outcomes, but in another sense they are bookends that frame the rise and fall of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. After Katrina, Congress poured money and authority into FEMA, expanding its mandate and professionalizing its operations. But Katrina’s devastation — nearly 1,400 lives lost, thousands of people stranded in the Superdome — also sowed something darker. “Katrina left a pretty enduring legacy of distrust among the American public in the government’s ability to swoop in,” says Jesse M. Keenan, author of North: The Future of Post-Climate America.