What Emergency Managers Say They Want Extra Than Ever — ProPublica

Native emergency managers, the behind-the-scenes coordinators who mobilize assist throughout disasters, have raised the identical level repeatedly: We want ample sources to guard individuals in hurt’s method — earlier than the hurt arrives. 

In some notable circumstances, sources didn’t come quickly sufficient. It wasn’t till after Hurricane Helene devastated Yancey County, North Carolina, in 2024 that commissioners there employed further emergency administration workers, which the previous emergency supervisor stated he’d requested for years. Metropolis officers in St. Louis, Missouri, had been within the strategy of upgrading their defective outside warning system when a twister killed 4 individuals and injured dozens of others in Might 2025. 

We wished to know extra concerning the cracks within the methods meant to maintain communities secure when disasters strike. To try this, we reached out to dozens of emergency administration companies and wound up listening to from greater than 40 present and former emergency managers in 11 states. They described frequent issues. 

Some stated their companies have been saddled with an ever-growing checklist of duties. In Saluda County, South Carolina, the emergency administration director stated his staff of six is accountable for the whole lot from the county’s IT division to a spay and neuter program. In San Bernardino County, California, the emergency supervisor stated that she has had to assist reply to new challenges like a lithium battery hearth and, at a earlier company, was tasked with responding to busloads of immigrants arriving from different states.

Funding for added workers was essentially the most urgent problem they cited. One North Carolina emergency administration director stated an inside examine from about three years in the past really helpful their company have greater than 20 staffers, however they nonetheless solely have 10. Throughout the nation, greater than half of the 1,689 native emergency administration companies that responded to Argonne Nationwide Laboratory’s July 2025 emergency administration survey have both one or no everlasting full-time staff, and a “notable share” of native emergency managers who responded are volunteers.

Given the wide-ranging duties and growing threat attributable to local weather change, part-time or volunteer emergency administration positions shouldn’t exist, stated Samantha Montano, an emergency administration affiliate professor and researcher on the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. 

“To anticipate someone to know methods to mitigate cyber dangers and in addition recuperate from a twister, I imply, these are totally different ability units,” Montano stated. “So to assume that one individual goes to be able to doing all of these issues, particularly working half time or as a volunteer, is ludicrous.” 

In the meantime, President Donald Trump’s administration has brought on delays in emergency administration funding to state and native companies and issued an government order to shift extra of the load of catastrophe preparedness to state and native governments. 

Kelly McKinney, the vp of emergency administration at NYU Langone Well being and a former deputy commissioner on the New York Metropolis Emergency Administration workplace, stated that through the years states have turn out to be “overly dependent” on funding administered by the Federal Emergency Administration Company. However there isn’t a clear plan for different funding streams, in line with McKinney.

“This crisis-management system in the USA is itself in disaster,” he stated.

“There’s Solely So A lot You Can Do” 

A number of emergency managers we heard from stated one of many solely instances they’re in a position to attract consideration to their company’s wants is within the aftermath of a wide-scale catastrophe. Wike Graham, the emergency administration director for the Charlotte-Mecklenberg space of North Carolina, stated the primary query the media usually asks following such a catastrophe is: “Did emergency administration do what they had been alleged to do?”

In response to Graham, that’s nearly all the time the incorrect query. He as an alternative asks: “Did you correctly fund emergency administration workers? And did you present them with the sources that they want? Did you make emergency administration a precedence on your group?” 

Not like firefighters, EMTs or legislation enforcement, emergency managers face a “public id problem” that can lead to companies receiving smaller budgets, Montano stated. 

A number of emergency managers informed ProPublica that as a result of individuals of their discipline function principally behind the scenes or as a part of bigger departments, they usually discover themselves competing for funding with better-recognized companies, they usually say elected officers incessantly don’t have a transparent understanding of their position. Some stated it’s merely troublesome to get individuals to care a couple of catastrophe that hasn’t occurred but.

A number of others informed ProPublica they’re additionally seeing an uptick within the frequency and depth of disasters, which makes it troublesome to handle restoration (which may take years) whereas making ready for the subsequent storm or hearth. In St. Louis, for instance, emergency administration commissioner Sarah Russell was nonetheless within the midst of managing restoration efforts from 2022 flash flooding when the 2025 twister hit.

Through the St. Louis twister, the sirens — which town was within the early strategy of upgrading — weren’t activated, partially attributable to a miscommunication between Russell and a hearth alarm dispatcher, in line with an exterior investigation commissioned by town. Russell, who’s nonbinary and makes use of they/them pronouns, informed ProPublica that the hearth division was accountable for sounding the sirens. 

However even when the activation button had been pressed, greater than a 3rd of the sirens weren’t working, and a later take a look at confirmed that the button on the hearth alarm workplace wasn’t both. 

Russell was terminated in August 2025, partially attributable to their administration of the twister response, in line with their termination letter. However Russell, who’s interesting the termination, stated the incident highlights the necessity to proactively spend money on emergency administration. 

Russell had made a number of requests for added workers who focus on emergency administration to assist with core duties, like updating town’s outdated plan for responding to emergencies.

“There’s all the time issues that you’d do totally different with hindsight,” Russell stated. “However there’s solely a lot you are able to do with so little sources and help.”

St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer, who had been in workplace for a month on the time of the twister and who was an alderwoman for the last decade prior, informed ProPublica that she was conscious of the company’s requests for added funding, however that the majority metropolis departments make such requests. After the tragedy, town totally automated the twister sirens and issued an government order declaring that the hearth division would have major authority over the sirens, changing an unclear protocol. 

A metropolis spokesperson stated the brand new emergency administration commissioner has “carried out a number of enhancements” to the emergency operations plan. 

“Recognizing that funds restraints are sadly the truth throughout many elements of presidency,” Spencer stated through electronic mail, “I’m extremely happy with the enhancements this staff has been capable of implement with nearly no further funding.”

“This Isn’t a Fast Repair”

Strained budgets for native emergency administration companies aren’t a brand new problem. However in current months, federal funding has turn out to be unsure. 

In April 2025, the Trump administration minimize federal grants that pay for native disaster-preparedness initiatives — however a choose later halted the administration’s efforts to shutter the grant program. In Might 2025, federal officers delayed grants that assist fund native and state emergency managers’ salaries. 

In December, the FEMA Overview Council, which Trump created to advise on methods to reform the company, was anticipated to vote on a long-awaited report that may define the company’s future. However after a draft was leaked to CNN, the assembly was abruptly canceled. The work of the overview council has been prolonged till late March. 

A number of emergency managers informed ProPublica they’d welcome change at FEMA. However many voiced issues concerning the federal authorities shuttering grant packages — which fund salaries, upgrades to gear and disaster-mitigation efforts — or drastically lowering reimbursement for native companies responding to large-scale disasters with out different funding in place. They stated such actions could be detrimental, particularly in small, rural areas with restricted native budgets. 

In North Carolina, one emergency supervisor stated that with out federal emergency administration efficiency grants, which can be utilized to pay 50% of an emergency supervisor’s wage, “we’re wanting on the lack of preparedness and response capabilities.” One other referred to as the grant “very important” to every day operations. 

FEMA didn’t reply to requests for remark. 

Claire Connolly Knox, who directs the College of Central Florida’s grasp’s program for emergency and disaster administration, has been finding out what a “decentralized FEMA” may imply for state companies. She stated it may take a number of legislative cycles earlier than states are ready to fill within the gaps that adjustments to FEMA would possibly create. Many states, Knox stated, are usually not carefully monitoring spending throughout a number of departments and a number of phases of emergency administration, that means “we don’t know the true price” of mitigating, making ready for, responding to and recovering from disasters. 

“If you begin breaking that down,” Knox stated. “You begin seeing that this isn’t a fast repair.”