FEMA loses another chief as hurricane season still rages

The US emergency management bureaucracy just shed its second leader in six months, right in the middle of hurricane season.

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that acting FEMA head David Richardson is stepping down. No explanation, no context, just a quiet exit for a man whose tenure was anything but.

Richardson, a former Marine, arrived in May with a swaggering promise to “run right over” anyone who resisted his changes. Instead, he stumbled through a string of crises — most memorably telling staff he “didn’t know” the United States even had a hurricane season. His absence during July’s catastrophic Texas floods, which killed 130 people, only deepened the sense that FEMA’s leadership vacuum was becoming dangerous.

He now follows Cameron Hamilton, the previous FEMA chief fired in May after resisting President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the agency. Trump has long questioned why FEMA should exist at the scale it does, arguing that states can handle disaster response themselves.

The reality is grimmer. FEMA is bleeding out. More than 2,500 employees have left since January — buyouts, firings, frustration — shrinking the agency to roughly 23,350 workers. A Government Accountability Office report warned in September that the cuts were already eroding core capacity.

To fill the gap, DHS says FEMA chief of staff Karen Evans will take over. Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem continues to serve as the administration’s public face during disasters, a role previously held by FEMA administrators themselves.