By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-24 20:31:25 | Updated at 2025-01-25 01:20:09
4 hours ago
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he plans to sign an executive order to overhaul or eliminate the main federal agency that responds to natural disasters during a visit to storm-hit areas of North Carolina.
Trump, on his first trip since reclaiming the presidency on Monday, accused FEMA of bungling emergency relief efforts in North Carolina, which was devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene in September.
He said his executive order would begin the process of fundamentally overhauling or eliminating the agency.
“FEMA has turned out to be a disaster,” he said during a tour of a neighbourhood destroyed by Helene where trees were downed and homes had boarded-up windows. “I think we recommend that FEMA go away.”
FEMA brings in emergency personnel, supplies and equipment to help areas begin to recover from natural disasters, and funding for the agency has soared in recent years as extreme weather events increase the demand for its services.
The agency, which has 10 regional offices and employs more than 20,000 people across the country, was run for the last four years by Democratic US President Joe Biden’s administration.
