The misery that accompanied Hurricane Helene’s swath of destruction has spotlighted the ineptitude of the agency created to assist the victims. Whenever a natural disaster occurs, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) fails. Helene is only the latest example. There is a solution, and it is the forces most capable of organizing and performing when catastrophe strikes: the US military. It’s time to admit FEMA’s time has come and gone.

FEMA Inadequate

In an attack on the US homeland or a nationwide disaster, immediate response is crucial, and  FEMA would be critical to any recovery effort. But evidence from the current disaster response indicates the agency would be found wanting.

Helene’s amount of rain was unprecedented. Still, FEMA had prior warning as the hurricane made its way across 800 miles of the Gulf of Mexico, Florida panhandle, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Helene’s devastation and the federal government’s faltering response cast a spotlight on FEMA’s anemic and misguided management.

Before Helene struck, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas whined about his department being out of money. DHS is FEMA’s parent agency. This announcement brought an immediate backlash from many Americans, who have watched the agency dole out hundreds of millions of tax dollars to illegal aliens and observed evidence of FEMA’s failure to manage its funding. “An August report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General found unliquidated money that was appropriated for past disasters, including $8.3 million from disasters in 2012 or earlier,” according to a Washington Times report. “‘As of October 2022, FEMA estimated that 847 disaster declarations with approximately $73 billion in unliquidated funds remained open,’ the report said,” The Times explained. Unliquidated funds are monies obligated, appropriated, and costs incurred but not spent.

Staffing shortages are also a testament to FEMA’s leadership failure. In May 2023, the General Accountability Office reported, “As of the beginning of fiscal year 2022, FEMA had approximately 11,400 disaster employees on board and a staffing goal of 17,670, creating an overall staffing gap of approximately 6,200 staff (35 percent) across different positions.” More than a year after that report was published, The New York Times explained: “Still, the most immediate problem for FEMA is finding enough people … some of FEMA’s most highly trained personnel, which are grouped into what the agency calls ‘cadres,’ are at particularly low levels.”

The problems in finding qualified people may stem from the core values the agency has adopted under the Biden-Harris administration. The 2022–2026 FEMA Strategic Plan explains what guides the agency: “Objective 1.1 FEMA is better able to serve the needs of diverse communities when its leadership and staff reflect the communities it serves. Diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] cannot be optional; they must be core components of how the agency conducts itself internally and executes its mission.” When experience, competence, and expertise are suborned to DEI dictates, performance in executing FEMA’s fundamental mission to provide immediate assistance to victims of natural disasters suffers.

In the absence of an adequate FEMA response to Helene, active-duty and National Guard units were called in to fill the void. This level of response should be the first line of effort. When the military is mobilized the full weight of the Department of Defense goes into action.

The Pentagon news service explained:

“About 6,700 guardsmen from 16 states across the US have been activated to provide assistance as part of emergency management assistance compacts in the states hit hardest by the hurricane. Guard members are engaged in operations such as high-water rescues, debris clearance, transportation and distribution of disaster relief supplies, search and rescue, and route clearance.”

US Northern Command (NORTHCOM) has a mission to provide support to civil emergencies. Unfortunately, calling in soldiers from the active-duty and National Guard forces only happens when civil authorities are overwhelmed. As USNORTHCOM’s mission statement clearly explains: “USNORTHCOM’s civil support mission includes domestic disaster relief operations that occur during fires, hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes … In providing civil support, USNORTHCOM generally operates through established Joint Task Forces subordinate to the command.”

However, that support comes with a caveat: “An emergency must exceed the capabilities of local, state, and federal agencies before USNORTHCOM becomes involved.” Additionally, a USNORTHCOM Joint Task Force operates in support of FEMA. That is precisely backward. FEMA should provide whatever support it can to the military. All command, control, and coordination should be the responsibility of USNORTHCOM, which has the most capability to do that job.

Defense Department Has Extensive Disaster Relief Capability

The capability the Defense Department brings to the aftermath of Helene is extensive, including rescue and heavy lift helicopters and the Army Corps of Engineers providing potable water and wastewater treatment plants and making power needs and flood control assessments. USNORTHCOM also coordinates the Civil Air Patrol flying missions supporting relief efforts.

Furthermore, the Defense Logistics Agency located at Fort Belvoir in Virginia is working with USNORTHCOM to “ensure active-duty troops are equipped to help federal, state, and local officials clear routes and transport supplies to remote areas in North Carolina.” Active-duty units supporting USNORTHCOM are from Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) in North Carolina and Fort Campbell in Kentucky. The retired three-star general who ended up running the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief missions echoed the idea that high-ranking military leaders should be in charge of large-scale relief efforts. “Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who led Task Force Katrina that coordinated the federal government’s response to the devastating 2005 storm along the Gulf Coast, told Military.com in a phone interview that an active-duty, three-star general would have more resources than the one-star National Guard general leading the military’s response to Helene,” Military.com reported. Honoré pointed out that an active-duty commander would bring a larger headquarters with experience to handle the joint service effort needed to coordinate and collaborate during extensive operations.

FEMA is an enterprise mired in bureaucracy and divisive philosophies emblematic of the Biden-Harris administration’s aloof attitude toward Americans. Tim Donner explained in his Liberty Nation News article regarding America’s highest two executives responding to Helene, “How could they appear so out of touch? To say the thousands who have suffered life-altering effects from the cataclysmic Hurricane Helene feel abandoned would be an understatement.”

Comprehensive and large-scale disaster relief operations are dress rehearsals for a catastrophic national security event on American soil. Such an occurrence would demand every government recovery asset acting in concert to save as much of the US population, infrastructure, and institutions as possible. FEMA is not the organization to attempt that.

The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.