FEMA disaster coordination leader resigns

The leader of the country’s top disaster coordination office has resigned, the latest high-level official to resign from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as President Trump moves to eliminate the agency.

The top FEMA position is currently held by an interim leader, David Richardson, who has no prior emergency management experience. After he was installed in May, Reuters reported more than a dozen top FEMA employees resigned.

Greenberg’s resignation further hobbles the agency, as the U.S. enters its busiest season for extreme weather disasters including hurricanes, floods and wildfires. Climate change is causing more severe weather across the country.

The National Response Coordination Center acts like air traffic control for first responders after a hurricane, tornado, flood, wildfire, earthquake or other national emergency. It’s a crucial role, because responding to deadly disasters requires equipment, employees and expertise from multiple federal agencies and from state and local governments.

For example, when Hurricane Helene barreled ashore last year, millions of people across multiple states were under evacuation orders. Greenberg’s team was activated three days before the storm made landfall, according to Congressional testimony by then-FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell.

The center kept track of where FEMA employees and equipment were prepositioned before the storm arrived, how other agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers and Department of Transportation were responding, where emergency shelters were located and how many first responders had been deployed to help in each affected place.

President Trump says he intends to eliminate FEMA as soon as December of this year, and he has appointed a council of governors, cabinet members and emergency management experts to recommend changes to the agency by mid-November.