Acting FEMA Director Who Didn't Know We Had Hurricane Season Leaves To Celebrate Hurricane Season End

David Richardson, the hands-off acting head
of FEMA is leaving the position at the end
of this month. But FEMA is still in 
crisis big time, thanks to the 
Trump administration. 

FEMA's acting director David Richardson, who alleged didn't know the U.S. has a hurricane season, has decided to resign at the end of hurricane season, which hits on November 30. 

Per Washington Post

"Richardson, who spent about six months as the acting head of the nation's response agency, has kept a low profile and is known for often being inaccessible, including during the early hours of the flood disaster in Texas over the Fourth of July weekend. 

In recent months, five current agency employees said Richardson spent little time in daily operations meetings and shrank away from the role - one that typically demands the administrator be easily reachable. The staffers, like others interviewed of this story and previous coverage, spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation."

Other reports also give a damning view of Richardson's alleged leadership style.

Per CNN:

"Some officials describe his leadership as brash and unpredictable, with a penchant for shouting and swearing. On one occasion, he asked staff whether disaster funds cold be steered to Republican areas but not Democratic ones, a FEMA official who heard the comments firsthand said.

At times, Richardson prohibited staff from bringing cell phones and computers into meetings. He often kept his own phone out of sight and rarely used email, leaving senior FEMA leaders struggling to reach him and making even basic communication a constant challenge."

NEXT FOR FEMA

Richardson reflected the Trump administration's disdain for FEMA. As noted, he was pretty much AWOL for at least part of this summer's huge Texas flood disaster. 

Early in his tenure, he also appeared to state that he did not know the United States has a hurricane season. The fact he decided to call it quits at the end of hurricane season is rich. 

FEMA is obviously critical when it comes to disaster response in the United States, deploying responders in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophe to feed, house and literally save survivors. The agency also is supposed to help with long term recovery aid. 

The agency is getting more crucial as weather extremes and disasters increase in the face of climate change. 

Meanwhile, FEMA has long needed an overhaul, as individual victims, municipalities and states often report walls of bureaucracy when attempting to receive aid for rebuilding and adaptation after the immediate crisis is over. 

That might not be the focus, though. Trump during the beginning of his later term at first thought just getting rid of FEMA entirely was a boffo idea. That sort of morphed into keeping FEMA, but slashing staff and resources. And making states responsible for a much greater share of disaster response and recover. 

The trouble with that is most states don't have the money or resources to handle big disasters. So people whose homes are destroyed in a hurricane, flood or wildfire would more likely be out of luck and on their own. 

As it stands now, everybody is now waiting on a review council to come up with recommendations for FEMA. The council, commissioned by Trump and headed by Department of Homeland Security Kristi "ICE Barbie" Noem.

With Noem in charge, what could go wrong?  We'll let you know when the report by the review council is released. 

There's already signs of discord with this review panel. Most of the panel has reportedly concluded FEMA should become more powerful and autonomous, making FEMA a cabinet level agency,

But Noem wants to keep FEMA under the control of her Department of Homeland Security. She also wants to remove FEMA from its direct role in disaster relief, and turning it into more of a grant-making department, according to the Washington Post. 

 Already, FEMA is a mess. FEMA has lost a quarter of its employees. In August, a whole bunch of employees wrote a public letter warning their leadership was substandard and harming FEMA's mission to manage emergencies. 

Also, Noem still has a rule in which she must sign off on each expense over $100,000. Which slows down responses to emergencies.

Meanwhile, FEMA's current chief of staff, Karen Evans will step into Richardson's role. 

In a statement, the department said they appreciated Richardson for his "dedicated service and wish continued success in his return to the private sector." 

Or something like that.   

Meanwhile, as U.S. citizens try to recover from disasters that have hit this year, and brace for the inevitable new calamities, we all know the U.S. government no longer has our backs. 

 

Flip Flop To Warmth, And Couldn't Resist One More Cold Video

The obligatory throwing of boiling water
in the air during the record cold snap in 
Texas last week.  Such a scene is impossible
now in Texas. Temperatures reached 80
degrees there Tuesday afternoon.

Several days ago, I posted a series of videos about last week's brutal cold wave and winter storms. 

I couldn't resist one more, as Texans on TikTok expressed their humor, frustration and pratfalls as they dealt with the icy weather.  

It has since warmed up dramatically in Texas, so everyone is relieved. The change in just seven days is impressive to say the least. 

Dallas was at minus 2 on February 16.  Yesterday, exactly a week later it was 81 degrees in Dallas. The change in Oklahoma City was even more impressive. It went from 14 below on February 16 to 72 degrees yesterday 

The weather is certainly much better now in Texas and surrounding areas, but unfortunately, problems obviously remain after such a big disaster. 

Many thousands of homes, apartments and businesses remain badly damaged after pipes burst. This will be the most expensive disaster in Texas history, surpassing even Hurricane Harvey. 

President Biden will visit Texas Friday to check out the disaster, as presidents do when calamities are especially bad.

There's plenty of political fallout from this, too.

The now badly named Electric Reliability Council of Texas,  or ERCOT, which manages and operates the Texas electrical grid, clearly badly mismanaged it, as they failed to weatherproof the system over the years, though they were warned to do so. 

The result was the massive power outages in Texas that came with the cold weather. That lead to dozens of deaths and the billions in damage, as we've all heard on the news. 

Five board members of ERCOT resigned Tuesday.   It was the least they could do.  

Anyway, now for some fun with that TikTok compilation. Note that it's NSFW, as there's plenty of understandable swearing in here: