As an organizer with the Altadena Tenants Union who has been helping renters with their FEMA applications, Clark knows just how common her experience has been for fire survivors. She believes federal and local agencies severely underestimated the need and cost of housing for the 150,

July 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called on Wednesday for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be eliminated in its current form, even as the disaster-relief agency deployed specialists and supplies to Texas to help respond to devastating floods.

Some governors and mayors are concerned over how current or potential cuts to agencies will impact how the government can respond in the future to major weather events.

On a FEMA color-coded hazard map, Alameda, Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties are shaded dark red, indicating an area with nearly 4.7 million Californians that face the most dire risks of

FEMA officials are two months behind in posting grant application guidelines, which are expected to reflect President Trump’s demand for cooperation on his priorities.

Many states rely on the federal government for the vast majority of their emergency management funding. Now, local leaders are looking for clues about the money — and the future of FEMA itself.

Future FEMA needs to have a process and guidance to ensure project costs are validated and estimates are verified by qualified, subject matter expert staff. This needs to happen across all of the different Grants. Telling future FEMA to do this more thoroughly is insufficient.

North Carolina, New Mexico and Texas have all suffered deadly floods in the last week after intense rain storms. Climate change is causing even more rain to fall during the heaviest storms.