RE: The Cost of Climate Denial: America's $1 Trillion Wake-Up Call

I find it questionable to attribute the increased cost of weather-related damages to climate change. There is inflation, more people and more homes (growing population), insurance-required improvements that drive up cost, and a gaggle of other factors that influence the increase in cost of disaster recovery. Climate change seems to be the catch-all bogeyman for anything that goes wrong. It's like six degrees of separation, but instead of Kevin Bacon, it's climate change.

FEMA, for the most part, isn't directly responsible for emergency response. The emergency response framework designed by FEMA, known as NIMS (National Incident Management System), which uses ICS (Incident Command System), is bottom-up. Local responders are ALWAYS in charge of emergencies. From there, they work their way up. For example, a city can request resources from the county, and the county can request resources from the state. The state, in turn, will request federal resources. Most needs can be resolved at the county and state level. FEMA's role is largely in supplementing coordination and in reimbursing local agencies for their emergency response expenses, and providing otherwise unavailable resources. For example, you wouldn't expect Arizona to have an abundance of rescue boats at any level of government, which FEMA could provide. One of their main contributions are mobile morgues and body bags.

What NIMS does is that it makes emergency responders interchangeable in any community. The response is handled the same in any community that has the NIMS training. They have the same language, same forms, and same roles in any incident from an auto accident to a hurricane.

You are correct in your assessment that emergency response is down to the local level. That is by design. Most municipalities have MOUs (memorandum of understanding) with nearby communities to share resources in major emergencies, which include terms for reimbursement of cost. When emergencies are anticipated, counties and states will often pre-deploy resources to be on standby if/when they are requested by local communities. Texas, in particular, isn't highly reliant on FEMA. TDEM (Texas Department of Emergency Management) is constantly training emergency response personnel in field work and use of NIMS and ICS. It's even to the point where our largest grocery store chain, HEB, has its own emergency response team at the ready to roll out supplies to affected areas, both to give away and have available for purchase upon reopening their grocery stores. I can't speak for the other 49 states; however, Texas has it together when it comes to emergency management.

Although, one thing Texas has that other states don't have is a separate militia, the Texas State Guard, which only answers to the Governor of Texas. TSG is highly active during emergencies. If TSG isn't sufficient, there is also the Texas National Guard, which answers to the Governor or President, depending on who called them up. Suffice it to say, FEMA getting sidelined won't have much effect given that their role is mostly reimbursement, if they haven't given away their budget to pet projects already.