What we’ve learned from FEMA’s response in the aftermath of Texas flooding » Yale Climate Connections

It’s been a week since Texas’s Hill Country flooded, sending over 100 people, including 27 campers and camp counselors, to their deaths. 

Let’s take a moment to consider the big picture: What have we learned from this event about what the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Donald Trump will do to protect people and communities when disaster strikes? 

Under previous administrations, FEMA quickly coordinated search and rescue teams to assist communities facing catastrophes. But new spending rules require the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to personally sign off on expenses over $100,000. Her approval for responding to the Texas disaster didn’t come until Monday, delaying the agency’s response, according to reporting by CNN’s Gabe Cohen and Michael Williams. 

At the same time, acting FEMA administrator David Richardson was notably absent on the ground in Texas, in the press, and even within his agency. By Wednesday, July 9, Richardson had yet to make a single internal or public remark about the flooding, according to reporting by Marisa Kabas, who runs the independent news outlet, The Handbasket.

“It is unprecedented for the leader of FEMA to be absent from the public response to a disaster that has killed over 100 Americans,” Samantha Montano, associate professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, told The Handbasket.

Since taking office, Trump and members of his administration have declared their desire to reduce federal disaster support and to eliminate FEMA. Disaster assistance from FEMA was hard to come by for states hit by tornadoes in spring 2025. 

New reporting by Natalie Allison at the Washington Post suggests that the administration is quietly walking back talk of eliminating FEMA, but even so, cuts and uncertainty are likely to persist. An official in the administration told the Washington Post that the Texas response is in line with their new approach.

So it seems that disaster survivors can expect slower and reduced support from the federal government moving forward. All this adds up to more risk for anyone living in a disaster zone. Which could be any of us. 

“Do you live under the sky? OK, you can flood,” Montano posted on Bluesky following the Texas disaster.

As more climate pollution is released by burning fossil fuels, the risk of catastrophic flooding, hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, and droughts is increasing across the U.S. 

“The tragic events in Texas are exactly what we would expect in our hotter, climate-changed world,” Bill McGuire, a professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, said in a statement. “There has been an explosion in extreme weather in recent years, including more devastating flash floods caused by slow-moving, wetter storms that dump exceptional amounts of rain over small areas across a short time.”

For a more detailed look at the changes afoot at FEMA, check out our previous reporting: FEMA is unprepared for the next Hurricane Katrina, disaster experts warn