FEMA Staff Placed on Leave after Warning about Hurricane Katrina-like Disaster

Emily Goodin

Miami Herald

(TNS)

Several of the FEMA employees who signed a letter expressing concern about the state of the agency have been placed on administrative leave.

More than 180 current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency employees endorsed a message to lawmakers on Monday expressing concern that another Hurricane Katrina-like disaster is on the horizon due to staff cuts at the agency and management decisions made by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and members of President Donald Trump’s administration.

By Tuesday evening, several of those FEMA staffers had received notice from the agency’s Office of the Administrator that they were being placed on paid leave.

“Effectively immediately, and continuing until further notice, you are being placed on administrative leave, with pay,” it read.

Stand Up For Science, a nonprofit organization aiding the employees, confirmed the action and described the move as retaliation.

“Once again, we are seeing the federal government retaliate against our civil servants for whistleblowing — which is both illegal and a deep betrayal of the most dedicated among us,” the group said in a statement.

FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The notice to the affected employees did not provide a reason for the administrative leave but did say it “is not a disciplinary action and is not intended to be punitive.”

Those placed on leave were told they could not visit FEMA facilities or access their government email or phones but were instructed to remain available for work during working hours.

A few of the staffers placed on leave were directly helping relief efforts in Kerr County, Texas, in wake of the flooding in that state, according to Stand up for Science.

It’s unclear how many FEMA staff were put on leave.

“The situation is developing, so we cannot provide a number at this time: it seems likely they’ve retaliated against all public signers,” Stand Up For Science said.

Monday’s letter was signed by 181 employees, but only 35 publicly listed their names. The other 146 employees stayed unnamed, explaining they “choose not to identify themselves due to the culture of fear and suppression cultivated by this administration.”

The signees asked that the employees who signed the letter be protected from “politically motivated firings.”

It is not the first time the Trump administration has responded in such a manner to public dissent from federal employees.

Last month nearly 140 staffers at the Environmental Protection Agency were placed on leave after they published their own letter of concern.

In their letter, the FEMA staff said they were worried that staff shortages would delay response efforts if a natural disaster strikes and called out acting FEMA administrator David Richardson for not having emergency management experience.

They said they hope their warning comes in time “to prevent not only another national catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of FEMA itself and the abandonment of the American people such an event would represent.”

FEMA, in response to the letter, described the employees who signed as bureaucrats objecting to change.

The agency, which is part of DHS, has lost about one-third of its staff, who were terminated or voluntarily left the agency after Trump took office in January.