A somber President George W. Bush addressed the nation from Jackson Square in New Orleans on Sept. 15, 2005, while the city was still reeling from one of the most violent natural disasters in American history: Hurricane Katrina.
Two weeks earlier, the category 5 storm breached the levees in several neighborhoods due to strong winds, causing nearly 1,400 deaths and immense flood damage that displaced thousands of citizens.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) faced a mountain of criticism regarding its unpreparedness and late response to the needs of the storm. The U.S. government say they took this as a “lesson learned” — a lesson that’s still being evaluated 20 years after Hurricane Katrina hit.
Urged by then-Mayor Ray Nagin, nearly 30,000 people, mostly African American, congregated at the Superdome as a last resort for safety and shelter. Among them were the sick, elderly, poor and disabled.
Initially, officials promised immediate resources like food, water and medical aid from FEMA, as well as transportation out of the city.
But for days, survivors waited, and conditions at the Superdome would gradually worsen.
Michael D. Brown, the head of FEMA during Hurricane Katrina, had ordered emergency officials not to respond to areas affected by the storm until requested by state and local authorities. Additionally, misinformation around events transpiring at the Superdome had halted supplies that were gravely needed.
“I saw then that a lot of these institutions were failing American citizens, especially the poor,” says Dwight Cunningham, a retired journalist and former FEMA employee. “There were a lot of issues with disaster recovery, and Black Americans were treated unfairly.”
In his address, President Bush said that “We’re going to review every action and make necessary changes, so that we are better prepared for any challenge of nature [that] could threaten our people.”
So, what necessary changes were made to FEMA’s disaster response in the last 20 years?
In the summer of 2006, the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act was enacted, distinguishing FEMA as a prominent entity within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and forbidding discrimination based on language barrier and disability.
The act also added specialized roles such as the Director of Response and Recovery, Director of Preparedness and Director of Disability. It established ten regional offices as well, with each one having a sole administrator.
Additionally, the act stated FEMA administrators must have at least five years of emergency leadership experience, something that the currently acting administrator, David Richardson, lacks.
“FEMA was elevated in visibility and resources, with greater emphasis on leadership accountability,” says Joe Scata, senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council. “The act’s eligibility requirements for FEMA administrators are crucial for ensuring experienced emergency management professionals are in charge.”
Additionally, the federal government would pour more than $14 million into funding for levee repairs in New Orleans, but Gregory Lee, a native and professor at Loyola University of New Orleans, says that the job isn’t finished just yet.
“We have not fully recovered,” Lee says. “There are pockets of the city, especially in the St. Bernard Parish, where a lot of work still needs to be done.”
After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, President Barack Obama signed the Sandy Recovery Act, making disaster aid easier and faster to get. The measure also encouraged projects to be done on time and within budget and gave Tribal Nations the power to request disaster declarations on their own.
Then, in 2018, President Donald Trump signed the Disaster Recovery Reform Act to set up a fund for state and local governments to receive money for disaster planning, especially if they had a recent federal disaster declaration.
Whatever progress has been made in the last two decades are now at risk due to the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to FEMA, which would slice $646 million off its spending for the 2026 fiscal year.
On May 2, 2025, the Office of Budget Management sent a budget request to DHS and declared FEMA’s current grant programs “wasteful” and “woke,” Additionally, it dropped $7 million from funding in loan guarantees in non-federal dam safety projects.
“The administration’s actions are setting the nation on course to experience another Katrina,” Scata says.
Former and current employees wrote a letter to Congress last Monday, warning about the long-term effects of these budget cuts and how they will affect disaster relief in the future.
“We the undersigned — current and former FEMA workers — have come together to sound the alarm to our administrators, the US Congress, and the American people so that we can continue to lawfully uphold our individual oaths of office and serve our country as our mission dictates.”
While lessons were learned after Hurricane Katrina, many people say that FEMA still has a long way to go in terms of true disaster relief policy reforms.
“It bothers me to see this vital agency almost go away,” Cunningham says. “It’s unfair. I don’t think FEMA is equipped to help anybody now.”
Kevin Vaughn is a reporter for HUNewsService.com. He covers environmental, energy and transportation stories.
