Facing a New York Times report citing documents showing that thousands of calls to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) went unanswered in the days following the devastating Texas floods earlier this month, Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem deployed a favored strategy among Trump and his cronies: cry fake news.
“False reporting, fake news,” Noem told NBC’s Kristen Welker on Sunday’s Meet the Press responding to the Times report. “It’s discouraging that during this time when we have such a loss of life, and so many people’s lives have turned upside down, that people are playing politics with this. Because the response time was immediate. And if you talk to anyone in Texas that was there, that was a part of this operation, they would say the federal government and President Trump immediately responded.”
The Times reported that FEMA answered all nearly calls from disaster survivors on July 5 following the storms. But the next day, the agency only answered 846 out of 2,363 calls. On July 7, FEMA answered just 2,613 out of 16,419 calls.
The calls went unanswered, according to Times sources, because Noem implemented a new policy requiring her signature on any contract worth more than $100,000, and she had not signed off on contracts with the call centers. On July 8, a FEMA official wrote in an email to colleagues, “We still do not have a decision, waiver or signature from the DHS Secretary,” referring to Noem’s failure to renew contracts with four companies that run call centers that answer most calls to FEMA, causing the firing hundreds of contractors.
“Just to be very clear,” Welker told Noem. “On July 7, 15.9 percent of calls were answered. I mean, does that concern you that only 15 percent of calls were answered? These are people in a desperate state. FEMA often the first call that they make. Only 15 percent were answered on July 7, several days after the flood.”
“I’m not certain it’s accurate, and I’m not sure where it came from. And the individuals who are giving you information out of FEMA, I’d love to have them put their names behind it,” she told Welker. “Because the anonymous attacks to politicize a situation are completely wrong. These emergencies need to be conducted exactly how President Trump handled this one.”
Noem also claimed her signature on the contract did not cause delays.
“These contracts were in place, and those people were in those call centers, and they were picking up the phone and answering these calls from these individuals. So that report needs to be validified,” Noem said, making up a new word — “validified.”
She continued, “I’m not certain it’s accurate, and I’m not sure where it came from. And the individuals who are giving you information out of FEMA, I’d love to have them put their names behind it. Because the anonymous attacks to politicize a situation are completely wrong.”
At least 129 people died in the floods that hit Texas, including 27 victims from a children’s Christian summer camp. More than 160 people are listed as still missing, and rescuers are rapidly losing hope of finding any victims alive. Emergency search and rescue crews had to cease operations Sunday as new rain brought additional flooding threats.
Noem’s attempts to cut costs delayed search and rescue crews, according to CNN. She failed to authorize the deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until three days after the floods started, multiple sources told the news outlet. Noem and Homeland Security have said that they deployed other DHS search and rescue assets first. CNN also reported that when Texas requested aerial images to help with search and rescue, FEMA’s response was delayed until Noem could approve the contract.
Trump and Noem in the past have suggested or outright stated they want to dismantle FEMA. In January, speaking about an executive order creating a FEMA Review Council, Trump said his administration would “begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA.”
“I think, frankly, FEMA’s not good,” Trump added. “The FEMA thing has not been a very successful experiment.”
Noem in March said, “We’re going to eliminate FEMA.”
The administration has fired hundreds of employees, including the acting FEMA administrator Cameron Hamilton after he publicly testified that he opposed plans to shutter FEMA.
“I do not believe it is in the best interests of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” Hamilton said in a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing in May.
The day before Hamilton testified, Noem told the committee that Trump thinks “FEMA, as it exists today, should be eliminated — empowering states to respond to disasters with federal government support.”
On Sunday, Noem said, “The president recognizes that FEMA should not exist the way that it always has been. It needs to be redeployed in a new way, and that’s what we did during this response.”
With the hurricane season already underway, it’s reasonable to worry how the changes at FEMA will impact federal disaster response. An internal FEMA review in mid-May found that the agency was “not ready” for the hurricane season.
“As FEMA transforms to a smaller footprint, the intent for this hurricane season is not well understood, thus FEMA is not ready,” the document said. Limits on staff and hiring, plus a lack of coordination with states, will affect operations, the report found.
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