The American president said in early June wanting to “delete” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), deeming it too bureaucratic and too slow. On the sidelines of the July 4 floods which left at least 120 dead in Texas, he nevertheless signed a decree to provide reinforcement to local authorities.
After amazement, the questions. President Donald Trump did not cut on Friday, during his visit to Texas on the places affected by the floods. On July 4, the day of national holiday in the United States, torrential rains caused floods sudden in the center of Texas, surprising many inhabitants in their sleep. At least 120 deaths were identified. “I have never seen anything like it”admitted the president during a round table with the local authorities.
The Potus visit was specially awaited while questions and criticisms emerge on the effectiveness of help. First, around a bureaucratic cover at the local level in the county of the Kerr (the hardest hit with 96 dead, including 36 children) who would have delayed the sending of the alarm message to the phones. Then, around the policy of budget cuts decided by the Trump administration, which in particular aimed at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
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Since the coming to power of the Republican president, this organization, attached to the Department of Internal Security of the United States, which has an annual budget of approximately $ 30 billion and employs more than 20,000 people, has lost approximately a quarter of its staff. In early June, Donald Trump explained to aim for a «suppression progressive» of the agency and, ultimately, transfer the responsibility and costs of emergency management to the states themselves.
Late alert message
Asked about the deadline for sending alert messages by a journalist during his trip, the billionaire, not content with the question, attacked his author with mood. “I don’t know who you are, but (…) Only a bad person would ask such a question”, he said, defending local authorities: “Everyone in this room did an incredible job, and people know it. I admire you, I consider you heroes and heroines, and I think you have done an extraordinary job ”, hammered the president, recalling that“It was a deluge that only happened once every thousand years.” Before attacking Democrats, “Who only want to criticize”.
What exactly happened? At the local level first, an audio recording, obtained by the American media, raised the question of a possible bureaucratic slowness which would have proven to be murderous. Friday at 4:22 am, while the Texan region of Hill Country was starting to be flooded, a firefighter asked the Sheriff’s office in Kerr if it is “Possible to send a red code to the inhabitants of Hunt to ask them to get high up or stay at home”. “Wait, we must obtain the approval of our supervisor”he is answered. However, the first alert of the Codered system of Kerr’s county was not sent until 90 minutes later. This system, in place for more than ten years in the county, allows you to alert a large number of subscribers in a few minutes via automatic messages, provided that these are registered on the white pages. Since 2021, the county of Kerr has integrated the more efficient FEMA alert system into Codered, which allows these messages to be disseminated to all phones in the area – including tourists and people who do not appear in the database.
The period between the firefighter’s alert and the reception of messages by residents testifies to an abnormally long time. The mayor of Kerrville, Joe Herring Jr., told Texas Tribune that he had received the Codered message at 6 am. Still others only received it … after 10 am. At this hour, hundreds of people had already been swept away by the waters.
FEMA in the process of deletion
Behind, the American media raised the issue of the budgetary cutting policy started by the Trump administration. As part of the floods in Texas, the commitment of FEMA as part of the floods was minimal. Tuesday, July 8, the Federal Agency had only mobilized 70 agents in the County of Kerr, while the authorities of Texas, they had deployed 1750 rescuers and more than 975 vehicles and other equipment in search of the missing. For the American media, recent layoffs were able to cause the agency’s idle operation. CNN also notes another consequence of budget cuts: for better control of expenses, Kristi Noem, the secretary of domestic security, now requires giving personal approval to any expenditure greater than 100,000 dollars. Including the deployment of research and rescue teams.
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A rule that would significantly slow decisions. According to the New York Times, since the flood episode, the Federal Agency has not, for example, responded to almost two thirds of the calls for an assistance request, due to hundreds of subcontractors whose contract ended on July 5, and who were only renewed five days after their expiration, having required the approval of Kristi Noem herself.
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For the federal government, no anomaly in this functioning, but an application of the doctrine they wish to set up: “Delete gradually” FEMA and delegate crisis management to the states themselves, as announced by Donald Trump in early June. Last fall, after the Hurricane Helene who left more than 200 dead in the south-east of the United States, the president had strongly criticized the agency’s intervention. “Fema was a great disappointment. It is very bureaucratic and it is very slow ”said the republican president, saying that he wants to “rid”. On July 6, however, the billionaire signed a decree raising the flood episode in the category of “Natural disasters”allowing the FEMA an federal aid available to complete the efforts of the State of Texas.
“As a federal government, we do not manage these disasters; It is the state that does it. We intervene and support them. And that’s exactly what we have done in this situation “defended Kistin Noem on Friday who, on Thursday already assured on X that the response of the federal state had been “Fast and efficient”.
Asked about the relevance of a suppression of FEMA after the floods in Texas, the spokesperson for the White House, Karoline Leavitt, somewhat dodged the subject: “The president wants to guarantee that American citizens still have what they need if necessary. Whether it comes from states or the federal government, the political debate will continue. And the president has always said that he wanted the states to do everything possible, or more ”.
