EXCLUSIVE-FEMA staff confused after head said he was unaware of US hurricane season, sources say

By Leah Douglas, Ted Hesson and Nathan Layne

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were left baffled on Monday after the head of the U.S. disaster agency said during a briefing that he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation.

The U.S. hurricane season officially began on Sunday and lasts through November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast last week that this year's season is expected to bring as many as 10 hurricanes.

The remark was made by David Richardson, who has led FEMA since early May. It was not clear to staff whether he meant it literally, as a joke, or in some other context.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA's parent agency, said the comment was a joke and that FEMA is prepared for hurricane season.

The spokesperson said under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Richardson "FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens."

Richardson said during the briefing that there would be no changes to the agency's disaster response plans despite having told staff to expect a new plan in May, the sources told Reuters.

Richardson's comments come amid widespread concern that the departures of a raft of top FEMA officials, staff cuts and reductions in hurricane preparations will leave the agency ill-prepared for a storm season forecast to be above normal.

Hurricanes kill dozens of people and cost hundreds of millions of dollars annually across a swath of U.S. states every year. The storms have become increasingly more destructive and costly due to the effects of climate change.

Richardson's comment purporting ignorance about hurricane season spread among agency staff, spurring confusion and reigniting concern about his lack of familiarity with FEMA's operations, said three sources.

Richardson, who has no disaster response experience, said during Monday's briefing, a daily all-hands meeting held by phone and videoconference, that he will not be issuing a new disaster plan because he does not want to make changes that might counter the FEMA Review Council, the sources said.

President Donald Trump created the council to evaluate FEMA. Its members include DHS head Noem, governors and other officials.

In a May 15 staff town hall, Richardson said a disaster plan, including tabletop exercises, would be ready for review by May 23.

CONFUSION

The back-and-forth on updating the disaster plan and a lack of clear strategic guidance have created confusion for FEMA staff, said one source.

Richardson has evoked his military experience as a former Marine artillery officer in conversations with staff.

Before joining FEMA, he was assistant secretary at DHS' office for countering weapons of mass destruction, which he has told staff he will continue to lead.

Richardson was appointed as the new chief of FEMA last month after his predecessor, Cameron Hamilton, was abruptly fired.

Hamilton had publicly broken with Trump over the future of the agency, but sources told Reuters that Trump allies had already been maneuvering to oust him because they were unhappy with what they saw as Hamilton's slow-moving effort to restructure FEMA.

Trump has said FEMA should be shrunk or even eliminated, arguing states can take on many of its functions, as part of a wider downsizing of the federal government. About 2,000 full-time FEMA staff, one-third of its total, have been terminated or voluntarily left the agency since the start of the Trump administration in January.

Despite Noem's prior comments that she plans to eliminate FEMA, in May she approved Richardson's request to retain more than 2,600 short-term disaster response and recovery employees whose terms were set to expire this year, one of the sources said, confirming an earlier report by NBC News.

Those short-term staff make up the highest proportion of FEMA employees, about 40%, and are a pillar of the agency's on-the-ground response efforts.

FEMA recently sharply reduced hurricane training and workshops for state and local emergency managers due to travel and speaking restrictions imposed on staff, according to prior Reuters reporting.