Local news outlets across the country are amplifying the voices of lawmakers and emergency management experts who have serious concerns about what gutting the Federal Emergency Management Agency — as President Donald Trump has suggested — would look like for extreme weather victims and vulnerable communities that by and large voted for him.

While visiting North Carolina in January to survey damage from Hurricane Helene, Trump suggested that FEMA should “go away and we pay directly — we pay a percentage to the state.”

On February 21, at a meeting with state governors, Trump told them, “It’s called you fix it, you take care of it yourselves,” referring to recovery from extreme weather events. “You don’t have to call some faraway state and have people planed in from areas that they have no idea. … By the time they figure it out, everything would have been fixed.” 

FEMA has been a major target of bad faith attacks from right-wing media and Trump himself, both of whom have made false claims that the agency has deliberately opted out of aiding certain demographics and spent money meant for disasters on migrants.
 
Potential cuts to FEMA would present challenges to economically challenged states, particularly as extreme weather events become more and more expensive and harder to navigate. News reports at outlets based in a number of red states covered the issue.

• Though Trump does not have the authority to abolish FEMA on his own, he can influence implementation of the mandates that established the agency in 1979. For example, Trump directed FEMA to pause a regulation that requires public buildings in flood zones to be built to withstand such events in order to receive FEMA funds. [Harvard Environmental & Energy Law Program, 2/27/25; The New York Times, 2/14/25]
   
• In an executive order, Trump accused FEMA of “political bias” and leaving “vulnerable Americans without the resources or support they need when they need it most.” The order directs Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to co-chair a review council that will “recommend … improvements or structural changes to promote the national interest and enable national resilience.” [Whitehouse.gov, 1/24/25]
   
• Trump is already hobbling FEMA through job cuts and frozen funding. More than 200 FEMA employees have been fired so far, and Trump has directed senior officials in the FEMA resiliency office to target employees who work or worked on “climate, environmental justice, equity, DEIA” initiatives for potential firings. Additionally, Department of Government Efficiency representatives are reviewing FEMA grants and operations, and 23 state attorneys general say at least 140 FEMA grants are still paused despite a court order reversing the funding freeze. [NPR, 2/21/25; CNN, 2/21/25; The Washington Post, 2/7/25; The Providence Journal, 3/1/25]

• Bruce Oakley, town manager of Carolina Beach in North Carolina, told WECT News 6 that local leadership might need to raise property taxes to cover disaster relief if it loses FEMA support. A graphic during the segment showed that the city of Wilmington and New Hanover County have received about $70 million from FEMA since 2018, and Oakley said Carolina Beach is expecting $800,000 to recover from Hurricane Helene. “The agency has helped cover tens of millions of dollars of damage to southeastern North Carolina communities over recent years,” Oakley told reporter Connor Smith for a written report. He said FEMA has been “vital” to recovery and that “we’ve gotten a lot of things that otherwise would’ve come out of our fund balance and weakened our fund balance. ... It’s very crucial to have that money.” [WECT-TV, 2/19/25]
   
• Alan Harris, director of the Office of Emergency Management for Seminole County, told Florida-based WKMG-TV, “Not having FEMA would provide an incredible challenge. We would have to look at restructuring the entire emergency management system.” Reporter Laverne McGee explained that for central Florida, “assistance and grants from FEMA are critical to rebuilding.” [WKMG-TV, 1/30/25]
   
• Nonprofit news site West Virginia Watch wrote that Gov. Patrick Morrisey said federal aid is “required” for current flood recovery in the state but wouldn’t address Trump’s threat to FEMA. Morissey and other West Virginia lawmakers had been urging the administration to declare a major disaster following intense flooding in the state in order to receive additional funding. On February 26, nine days after they made that request, the administration approved the declaration. Reporter Caity Coyne wrote that when asked about Trump’s plan to dismantle FEMA, the governor said he was “not going to get into any of those issues right now.” She also referenced a 2023 University of West Virginia study which found that “94% of West Virginia communities are considered ‘Special Flood Hazard Areas,’ meaning they are at high risk of flooding.” [West Virginia Watch, 2/18/25; FEMA.gov, 2/26/25]
   
• The Acadiana Advocate in Louisiana reported that Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter cautioned against throwing “out the baby with the bathwater” while accepting an award for disaster recovery leadership. While accepting the award, Hunter praised FEMA and said, “There's a lot of really good people that work at FEMA. I don't know where the city of Lake Charles would be without FEMA's help. … My hope moving forward is that we don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.” In 2021, The Weather Channel called Lake Charles “America’s most weather-battered city.” [The Acadiana Advocate, 1/29/25; Weather.com, 5/18/21]
   
• KFOR (News 4) anchor Ali Meyer said “many Oklahomans could be impacted if FEMA is shut down,” and anchor Kent Ogle noted that “so many have already been helped by FEMA.” Ogle added, “The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management reminds us there's been eight federally declared disasters since 2020 in Oklahoma. And in that time, FEMA has provided nearly $450 million in aid.” The report also featured Democratic state Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, who said, “If that goes away, it’s going to cut into the whole bigger picture of the budget.” [KFOR-TV, 2/14/25] 

• When hurricanes Helene and Milton hit North Carolina and Florida last fall, causing historic flooding, both Trump and right-wing media launched false and baseless attacks at FEMA over its response, causing chaos and division during relief and recovery efforts. Both accused FEMA of intentionally abandoning victims in states like North Carolina because of how they voted and falsely claimed that money earmarked for natural disasters was going to migrants. They also made false statements about how much victims were getting from FEMA to help them recover. [Media Matters, 10/4/24, 10/11/24,
  10/15/24; Roll Call, 2/21/25; CNN, 10/9/24]
   
• As misinformation circulated, FEMA employees were met with threats of violence on social media and in real life, impeding their efforts. Media Matters found content on TikTok, Facebook, Telegram, and X in which users expressed interest in traveling to instigate violence toward FEMA workers in North Carolina or said they supported others doing so. The threats forced FEMA to take safety precautions while distributing aid and, in one county, temporarily pause aid altogether. [Media Matters, 10/18/24]

• Congress appropriated $25.3 billion for FEMA in fiscal year 2024, and an additional $29 billion in the December funding deal and disaster relief package, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated that “Helene’s total costs were $78.8 billion.” In 2024, the approved disaster relief was $267.7 million less than then-President Joe Biden’s budget request. [Stateline, 1/28/2; NOAA.gov, accessed 2/27/25]
   
• Billion-dollar disasters are becoming more frequent as more people move to and develop areas that are prone to extreme weather events. Over time, extreme weather will only become more expensive. 2023 saw 28 billion-dollar disasters, the most ever recorded, while 2024 came in close second with 27 disasters. According to Climate Central, a nonprofit new organization that covers climate science, “the overall number of people, homes, and businesses at risk when extreme events occur” has grown, and “accelerated development in fire-prone areas, along coasts, and in floodplains can multiply the damage done by a given extreme event.” [Climate Central, 1/17/24; NOAA.gov, accessed 
  2/27/25]
   
• Climate change is making extreme weather events like hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires more intense or more frequent. Greenhouse gases created by burning fossil fuels are warming the atmosphere. Hot, dry conditions supercharge disasters like the recent wildfires in Los Angeles that burned well over 37,000 acres. A warmer world also means that the air holds more moisture, allowing storms like Helene and Milton to dump more water onto the land and cause devastating floods. [Carbon Brief, 11/18/24; NASA.gov, 2/8/22; NPR, 1/29/25; Naturalresources.house.gov, 2/26/25]