This has to be the shortest turnaround ever, between when grant applications were announced and then when they were due for submission. See this article from August 1^st, FEMA Announces Billions in Federal Funds to Empower States to Prepare for Disasters he three is “fast.”

Check out this Disaster Zone Podcast, Disaster Preparedness Beyond Food and Water

While emergency managers do many a presentation on how individuals and families can become better prepared for a disaster—our message should go beyond “having all your important documents in one place. In this podcast we learn of a system that can help people do that in advance of a disaster. The podcast guest is Maria Fraietta the founder and visionary behind The Nokbox https://www.thenokbox.com/, a pioneering estate planning tool and home organization system designed to support an individual’s Next of Kin.

“There’s nothing we could have done” is a phrase that rings hollow to me. This is what the Kerr County officials who were responsible for emergency management said about their lack of response to the flooding that killed over 100 people.

The tragic flooding in Texas has once again reminded us how quickly water can become deadly — and how much is still at stake when it comes to protecting lives. My thoughts are with the families and communities reeling from this loss.

The Texas flood event is still in the news. Rescues have turned into searches and there has been more rain in the area. I noted that some elected officials said something like, “Now is not the time to figure out what went wrong.” That was early in the event. It reminded me of such statements following an incident of gun violence. I say, you need to capitalize on the event and learn from it, to ensure that the same mistakes are not made again, either by yourself or another agency who might just learn from your disaster.

I think that so far in 2025 I’ve read countless numbers of articles and listened to many different podcasts about legal matters surrounding the powers of the President. While there have been a number of Supreme Court rulings favoring the powers of the executive branch, the lawsuits continue. Such as this one, 20 states sue FEMA for canceling grant program that guards against natural disasters

With the Texas flash flooding dominating disaster news for the last several weeks, numerous emergency management topics have been in the media. They have included flood planning, issuing of warnings, warning methodologies, emergency management responsibilities, at the city, county and state, zoning, land management, permitting, search and rescue, etc. The list includes FEMA’s performance in the response.

Check out the most recent  Disaster Zone Podcast, Destroying FEMA

he head line tells the story, Camp Mystic’s leader got a ‘life threatening’ flood alert. They evacuated an hour later

It is literally a “read it and weep” story. The National Weather Service did its job to the best of their ability. The storms were detected. Flood watches and warnings were sent in a timely manner. The final aspect of warnings that I’ve written about time and again was the fact that people/leadership did not act on the warnings that they did receive.

My only question that I’d add that was not asked is this one, “If as you say negative reports on call center’s not being fully operational are fake news, and FEMA responded perfectly to the Texas flooding, what aspect of FEMA do you want to reform?”

This is one of the more recent newspaper articles about FEMA and their current capacity to do the work, FEMA Didn’t Answer Thousands of Calls From Flood Survivors, Documents Show

Previous statements from the Secretary of Homeland Security Christi Noem have pushed for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to be eliminated. Now the caveat has been added “in its current form.”  I still think that they might figure out that getting rid of FEMA is not the same as gutting USAID. Who cares about some poor child in another continent. However, if you are an “American First” type of leader that means that “Americans” need to get the disaster aid.

Readers of this blog know that I’m a big advocate for using technology to advance the cause of disaster resilience in all its forms. AI is in all our futures. Eventually we will have AI being a key element of programs we use for a multitude of purposes. 

I thought this was an accurate assessment for some aspects of the Texas flood disaster, Why Texas’ floods are a warning for the rest of the country

This comes from Craig Fugate’s LinkedIn profile.

There have been some pretty dumb moves by the Trump administration, but this one ranks right up there with some of the worst, Feds Cutting Satellite Data Used to Forecast Hurricanes

For the foreseeable future, every disaster event will include a mention of issues with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). See this New York Times article, In Flooded Texas, Questions About FEMA’s Role and Fate

I expect that if you ask the “average citizen” what the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) does, the response would be something like, “They deal with disasters.” Likely they have no information about their own state and local emergency management offices. 

I found it interesting that a private industry group had this article/commentary, The Next Disaster: Who Will Manage Our Response?

As they note, without FEMA each state will have to reallocate their priorities on disaster spending. 

Emergency managers are not usually involved with things like keeping machinery out of the mud. I can tell you from many “engagements” in the US Army and two armored divisions, mud and unstable ground can make a mess of things. That is why they have an armored vehicle that is a “tow truck” for tanks, for when they get stuck in the mud.

jq@changeupadvisors.com