'Invisible': Trump's FEMA head reportedly MIA as flood death count rises

The administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) appears to be missing in action, said a report from EE News (a Politico site).

It has been nearly a week since the massive flood in southern Texas; another flood has happened in New Mexico, and another tropical storm brought floods to North Carolina over the past week.

"David Richardson, the agency’s acting administrator, has not been to the site of one of the nation’s deadliest floods in the U.S. in the past 25 years, upending a long practice of FEMA leaders making themselves visible after major disasters," the report said.

Richardson made news when he first came into office by admitting he didn't know that there was a hurricane season, as reported by Reuters at the time.

Speaking to MSNBC on Wednesday, former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell outlined what she would do in the role if she were still in it. It involved being on the ground and coordinating with local and state officials, as well as aid groups. However, she confessed that Richardson's lack of experience means his absence isn't necessarily a bad thing.

"Well, I think one of the biggest things, first, is he doesn't have any actual emergency management experience, and so, he's hopefully relying on the experts that are there at FEMA still, and getting input into what it is that they need to do to be able to support this community. But having leadership from FEMA on the ground or at least in communication with state officials is critical," Criswell said.

She also noted that every local official had access to call her directly when needed.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has transitioned from participating in ICE raids to observing the damage caused by the floods in Texas. She renewed her calls this week to completely eliminate FEMA altogether, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

“This entire agency needs to be eliminated as it existed and remade into a responsive agency,” she said to the FEMA Review Council in New Orleans over video chat. “Federal Emergency Management should be state and locally led, rather than how it has operated for decades."

"We, as a federal government, don’t manage these disasters. The state does,” she said. “We come in and support them, and that’s exactly what we did here.”

It's a little different from what another Homeland Security person told EE News, however.

“DHS and its components have taken an all-hands-on-deck approach” to the Texas flooding, said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin to EE News in an email. She referred to help from the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection. “FEMA has deployed extensive staff to support Texas response and recovery operations based on staff skills and requirements.”

Either way, it took Noem three days to deploy FEMA rescuers to Texas.

The overall concern, the report said, is that Noem is simply taking over FEMA, adding to an already massive portfolio of duties that include traveling to the brutal prison in El Salvador and frequently visiting the border or overseeing ICE raids in Los Angeles.

"Former FEMA officials said Richardson’s absence — and his lack of public appearances, statements, and social media postings—raise concerns," the report said. "Noem, who visited the flooded area of central Texas on Saturday, oversees 22 agencies, of which FEMA is just one."

“The secretary has a huge portfolio, and she will quickly get pulled in different directions to handle all of the things she needs to manage. You need the FEMA administrator, whose job is only to manage the disaster,” said Criswell when speaking to EE News.

After leaving Texas, Noem held a press conference where she discussed the need for travelers not to remove their shoes at the airport and the importance of limiting foreign investment in U.S. farmland. On Wednesday, she met with the Qatari Minister of Interior to discuss the 2026 World Cup.

“It shows governors and emergency managers around the country that when they have a need from the federal government, Richardson is probably not going to be their first call,” said former FEMA chief of staff Michael Coen of Noem.

Meanwhile, as the death toll in Texas hit 120 on Wednesday, Richardson was in New Orleans attending a meeting of the panel that wants to eliminate FEMA. He didn't say a word during the meeting, and only gave a greeting when he was introduced at the end, the report said.

The infamous FEMA choice of Mike Brown, a former chief of the International Arabian Horse Association, put then-President George W. Bush in a politically difficult position as the disaster unfolded in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to US News and World Report on the tenth anniversary of the crisis.

MSNBC columnist Jarvis DeBerry, in New Orleans, said that Brown "was as useless as a leaky boat when Hurricane Katrina landed on the Gulf Coast." However, Bush cheered Brown's work by saying, "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job," drawing outrage and anger from those watching the disaster continue on television. The columnist noted that even in that case, Brown was on the ground nonstop, even if it was only for the photo-ops.

"Richardson, on the other hand, is invisible," DeBerry wrote.