Retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore, who led the response to Hurricane Katrina, sounded the alarm Friday over what he characterized as the mismanagement of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the control of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, warning that its mismanagement could very well put the “nation at risk.”
“There was talk of deconstructing FEMA in the last six months, and that went from talking to DOGE cuts which stripped one-third of the employees out of FEMA,” Honore said, speaking on CNN nearly 20 years following Hurricane Katrina, among the deadliest storms in American history.
“The Department of Homeland Security has taken FEMA money to build [Alligator] Alcatraz detention center in Florida, that's concerning; and recently, the Department of Homeland Security have told FEMA employees to volunteer to do detention work, and if they refuse, they'll be fired. So we're degrading FEMA at a rate that is concerning.”
While Honore has been universally praised for his efforts in leading the response and rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina, FEMA was widely condemned for being unprepared, disorganized and slow to deliver aid and supplies. Changes to the agency have been implemented since its inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, but Honore warned that under Noem’s leadership, the disaster that was the Hurricane Katrina response “could happen again,” and soon.
“This is concerning, and the nation could be at risk under the current attitude in Homeland Security, and we hope the president will bring FEMA back under the White House and take it out of Homeland Security because it's being abused,” Honore said.
The first signs of trouble at FEMA under Noem’s leadership were front and center following the deadly Texas flood in July, when thousands of calls to the agency went unanswered due to a new policy requiring Noem to personally sign off on all FEMA expenditures over $100,000. Honore called out Noem for her "missteps."
While FEMA’s inadequate response to the Texas flood acted as a sort of “wake up call” to the White House that the agency needed to be maintained “for the time being,” Honore said, he urged for the agency to be stripped away from DHS.
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