With the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina this week, current and former employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are warning that budget cuts to the agency could soon become a major problem with several months left in the Atlantic hurricane season.

“One of the biggest things that I’ll be watching is whether or not FEMA’s going to be able to preposition resources ahead of a storm’s impact like they have had in the past,” said Deanne Criswell, who served as FEMA administrator during the Biden administration in a Zoom call on Monday.

“What we’ve heard is that [they] want to turn the responsibility for managing disaster to the state and locals, but they already had the responsibility. FEMA can only come in and support if the state asks them to, but they have the abili

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