What do you think of Trump thinking of doing away with Fema?
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Pandora (
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7 hours ago
Trump wants to do away Fema or overhaul it. He says states need to pay more for their disasters. So I take it to mean he is asking that states pay for all their disasters.
If he follows through what will happen to states that are poor? How will they pay for their disasters?
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27 Answers
It is a way for him to use disasters as opportunity for extortion, and punishing opposition. Red states will continue to get aid no questions asked. Blue states will get extorted.
After all, that is already happening with California and their wildfires.
Considering FEMA’s track record, it’s not a great loss, and maybe it’s a good idea.
Some disasters are too big for individual states to deal with adequately. That is why Fema is required. Trump himself is a disaster too big for America to deal with.
Even worse it was during a tour he was taking through the LA area, and in North Carolina where a hurricane it, where he was expressing his concern for everybody.
TRUMP DOESNT EVEN KNOW WHAT FEMA IS.
I think he wants the FEMA money sent to the White House in a brown paper wrapper addressed to him !
Florida is SCREWED, the next Hurricane will put the state in bankruptcy if Trump cancels FEMA.
Trump is the emergency that should be done away with.
I can certainly see southern poor states are not going to recover. Texas may do okay but they don’t collect state taxes, so I guess the oil barrons will help. LOL
I know I was reading in some groups on Facebook, after Hurricane Helene, that the people weren’t receiving any money from FEMA because of paperwork problems, which is typical government bullshit but not helpful when you have no house and need help and no money is coming from an agency that’s supposed to help you.
There’s a town about a half hour from me, in CT that had a recent disaster with flooding in August 2024 and I’m in a group for that town on Facebook, where people were posting their photos and discussing the roads and bridges that were wiped out, people whose houses literally floated away, and other sad disasters from the flooding. They, too, were saying that FEMA wasn’t helpful, their claims were denied, and they were very upset.
I don’t know, because there may be two sides to every story, but apparently FEMA has a reputation for denying claims and not being that helpful after a disaster.
I personally have never needed FEMA, knock on wood. The time I lived in a building that burned in a fire, the Red Cross was so helpful with their assistance.
He is just trying to overhaul FEMA, and I hope he succeeds. The response in Asheville is a stain on our whole country. Practically nothing has been done.
Delayed and nonexistant are two different things @jca2.
@Dutchess_III If you have a major flood event, and are now homeless, since August 2024 and it’s now January 2025, delayed and non-existent are about the same thing.
@Dutchess_III Trump knows exactly what FEMA should be and he also knows the sorry state it’s in. This country NEEDS FEMA to be functional. The Donald has some humanity even if it’s self-serving in the end. If he can get some help in the region, I’m all for it.
When there’s a disaster, FEMA should go in, assess the area and assess the dwellings that are ruined, grant money quickly and with a minimum of paperwork.
The local town that had the flooding, that was discussing FEMA in local FB groups, was saying not only that their applications were denied, but there was nobody to discuss it with, nobody to appeal to. They were left out in the cold, literally and figuratively.
It’s a goverment entity. It’s as sluggish as any other government agency. Sure it could be restructured. That’s not the same thing as getting rid of it.
Does he want it privatized?
August to January and stil no answer yet is inexcusable.
Yes it is. So what would you do? Get rid of it completely?
I don’t know. Apparently the paperwork process is too cumbersome, if people don’t have an answer six months later.
FEMA was a big help to my area after Sandy. I think we definitely need a Federal agency to lend support to areas hard hit by storms. I’ve heard good reports of FEMA’s help in North Carolina and dissatisfied reports. I wouldn’t base my conclusions on anything Trump is saying as he is basically looking to dismantle the government.
My opinion is based on people’s personal posts in Facebook groups.
@jca2 Fema only helps to restore your home to make it livable and in most cases people can get assistance for low interest loans to help rebuild, but they do not give you the value of your home to rebuild.
Facts about fema
They also do a lot more. As for what you read on groups on FB, you should take that with a grain of salt. You do not know what these believe they are entitled to vs. what they are really entitled to. You also do not know if they did the fill out the paperwork properly to show they are making claims on their home.
We all know people who cry about not getting something they feel they were entitled to who never even bothered to fill out the proper paper work or bother to try to follow up.
As I see it their primary job is to provide assistance before during and after an event. They help coordinate groups to help.
I think it will be difficult to get help if they have to rely on all the volunteers being from in state to begin with. Local government offices will be closed so how do they help?
Fema isn’t a magic bullet and billions of dollars of damage is going to take months to recover from.
I remember a snow storm on the east coast over 14 years ago that damage roofs beyond repair. When I tried to get a roof patch job done, I couldn’t find anyone. Everyone from my area was working on storm victims homes. It took about 4 months to get someone out to my house to look at it. Luckily it was a small leak that didn’t cause to much damage but it took another 2 months for their schedule to open up for them to replace my roof. (It was over 30 so I figure it was best to replace it.).
I know good people who work in Fema and volunteered and spend weeks without much rest and no days off, and away from family, trying to help people in immediate need.
What they do is hard and what people expect is a miracle.
I know that the money from FEMA isn’t going to be dollar for dollar on the value of the loss, and I’m sure they’re hard working people (being a government worker for 30 years, I know it’s often hard work and under appreciated). I just think (my opinion) tjat it seems the process needs streamlining. If enough people are unhappy and complaining about the process, eventually word gets to the top.
I agree. It needs to be streamlined. That’s called “restructuring,” which isn’t the same as getting rid of it.
Did I say they should get rid of it? I don’t see that I did.
I can tell you that what happens at government agencies is that there are layers and layers of bureaucracy (which is often the criticism of government – all the bureaucracy), and everything requires many forms and multiple departments to handle. I used to say they had a form for when you want to wipe your ass. Things become a very cumbersome process, and everyone just does their little piece of the process, and if you ask anybody in the “chain” why is it done this way, they’ll say “because it just is.” So things become so cumbersome, and nothing changes, and nobody has any incentives to change things. It can’t be a bad thing to look at FEMA and maybe figure things out – why do things take so long? What is the holdup? Can we eliminate some steps so people can get some relief faster, instead of six months?
With the fires in California, the number of claims are going to be so huge, there needs to be a way to speed things up.
Maybe there needs to be a re-set.
And I agree 100%. So would doing away with FEMA help?
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