Welcome to hurricane season!

It starts in two weeks, anticipates 17 major hurricanes, and FEMA, the agency in charge of federal emergency management is both gutted and hand-tied, leaving it thoroughly unprepared for the season. Thanks Dear Leader!

Here are some of the consequences:

- Reduced training for state and local emergency managers.
- Reduced briefings for state and local emergency managers on current FEMA capabilities.
- About 30% of FEMA’s 20,000 staff are no longer.
- The administration is considering dramatically raising the threshold of death and destruction required for FEMA to help states.
- FEMA’s third acting administrator this year has one (1) week of disaster-management experience, which began last week when he was made acting FEMA administrator. Here’s how he inspired his team in his introductory remarks: “Don't get in my way if you're those 20% of the people … I know all the tricks. …Obfuscation. Delay. Undermining. If you're one of those 20% of the people and you think those tactics and techniques are going to help you, they will not because I will run right over you. … I am as bent on achieving the president's intent as I was on making sure that I did my duty when I took my Marines to Iraq."

Why does any of this matter: thanks to climate change, catastrophic weather events are more frequent and more.. well… catastrophic. Coincidentally, most ‘red’ states (aka tRump supporters) are in the path of such events. Maybe there will be reckoning. But at what price?

H/T to TFN, CNN, Alt NPS