FEMA employees placed on leave after claiming Trump leadership could spark next Hurricane Katrina

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees who signed an open letter slamming the Trump administration's leadership of the office have been placed on leave, with FEMA leadership subsequently slamming the "bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency" for "objecting to reform."

More than 190 current and former FEMA employees signed an open letter Monday criticizing the Trump administration over leaders they say lack the qualifications to oversee an agency focused on the nation's preparation and response to disasters. The letter claimed a catastrophe on par with Hurricane Katrina could unfold due to the current climate of the office. 

By Wednesday morning, more than a dozen FEMA employees who signed the letter were placed on leave, the Washington Post reported. 

"It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform," a FEMA spokesperson told Fox News Digital when asked about the letter and employees who were placed on leave. "Change is always hard. It is especially for those invested in the status quo, who have forgotten that their duty is to the American people not entrenched bureaucracy." 

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The spokesperson did not reveal how many FEMA employees were placed on leave following the letter's publication. 

"Under the Biden Administration, the American people were abandoned as disasters ravaged North Carolina, and needed aid was denied based on party affiliation in Florida," the spokesperson continued. "Our obligation is to survivors, not to protecting broken systems. Under the leadership of Secretary Noem, FEMA will return to its mission of assisting Americans at their most vulnerable."

The nonprofit Stand Up for Science published an open letter Monday, directed to Congress, claiming the agency is allegedly led by individuals who lack the "legal qualifications, Senate approval, and the demonstrated background" to oversee federal disaster preparation and response. The letter took direct aim at FEMA and Department of Homeland Security leaders such as Secretary Kristi Noem. 

"Decisions made by FEMA's Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator (SOPDA) David Richardson, Former SOPDA Cameron Hamilton, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem erode the capacity of FEMA and our State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) partners, hinder the swift execution of our mission, and dismiss experienced staff whose institutional knowledge and relationships are vital to ensure effective emergency management," the letter claimed. 

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Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was one of the worst disasters to hit the United States in recent history, leading to 1,833 fatalities, more than $100 billion in damage and thousands of homeless New Orleanians, data from the National Weather Service shows. The letter claimed that such a disaster could rock the U.S. again due to the current state of the agency. 

"Hurricane Katrina was not just a natural disaster, but a man-made one: the inexperience of senior leaders and the profound failure by the federal government to deliver timely, unified, and effective aid to those in need left survivors to fend for themselves for days, and highlighted how Black, Indigenous, and low-income communities are disproportionally affected by disasters," the letter states. 

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"These failures prompted Congress to pass the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (PKEMRA), which introduced safeguards to ensure such shortcomings of disaster preparation and response would not be repeated," it continued. "However, two decades later, FEMA is enacting processes and leadership structures that echo the conditions PKEMRA was designed to prevent." 

President Donald Trump and Noem both have expressed dissatisfaction with FEMA since taking their respective offices, including Trump warning just days after his inauguration that the agency would face a reckoning over its failures to respond to the devastating floods that rocked North Carolina when Hurricane Helene ripped through the southeastern U.S. in September 2024. 

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"Get rid of FEMA the way it exists today," Noem said in February on CNN when asked what she would advise Trump if he requested her to do away with the agency. 

Both Noem and Trump have advocated for local officials - such as county emergency management directors, mayors, city council members and commissioners - to run point on disaster preparation and response as opposed to federal leadership. 

The letter published Monday included the full names of at least 35 former and current FEMA employees, while the majority were "unlisted" signatures.

Signatories took issue with six initiatives under the Trump administration specifically, including: "reduction in capability of FEMA to perform its missions;" the "failure to appoint a qualified FEMA administrator;" the "reduction of FEMA's disaster workforce;" and "the censorship of climate science, environmental protection, and efforts to ensure all communities have access to information, resources."

FEMA is currently led by David Richardson. Richardson replaced former acting FEMA chief Cameron Hamilton in May following Hamilton's departure from the agency just days after telling members of Congress that he does not believe FEMA should be eliminated.