Lucy Vickers, a resident of Suvarnanoa, who was supported by FEMA after Hurricane Helene hurt her property, holds a sign of support from the government’s disaster agency while awaiting a route to visit US President Donald Trump’s Motorcade in Suvarnanoa, North Carolina on January 24, 2025.
Jonathan Drake | Reuters
As the Trump administration moves to overthrow federal emergency management agencies, it could be difficult for homeowners to recover from natural disasters, experts say.
FEMA is not intended to provide assistance to states and individuals in the event of a federal declared natural disaster, according to Charles Nice, a risk management and insurance professor at Florida State University.
“There are a lot of things FEMA does really well, but one thing they haven’t designed is that it replaces personal insurance coverage,” says Nyce.
How FEMA changes
President Donald Trump said at a press conference on June 10 that he plans to “start Facing (FEMA)” after this year’s hurricane season, ranging from June 1 to November 30th.
Trump also said the administration would “give less money” with disaster aid to the states and “give it directly” from the president’s office.
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“In the coming months, we will work on reform and what FEMA will look like in the future as another agency under the Department of Homeland Security,” DHS Director Christy Noem said in a briefing.
Asked about the potential change, a FEMA spokesman told CNBC that it is “focusing on lasers” on disaster response and “protection of the American people” this hurricane season.
The Department of Homeland Security proposed cutting $646 million from FEMA’s budget for fiscal year 2026, according to a May letter from the Office of Management and Budget. In April, FEMA announced it had ended its Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Grant Program and returned $882 million in funds to the Treasury Department.
Such actions are “reckless,” Sen. Rafael Warnock, DG.A. I wrote it in a letter to Noem on June 5th.
The administration and DHS have “taken accidentally and irresponsibly to dismantle the country’s major disaster response agencies without a sense of viable alternatives or direction,” he wrote.
It places more responsibility for citizens to prepare.
Charles Nice
Professor of Risk Management and Insurance at Florida State University
“We’re not a fan of climate risk,” said Jeremy Porter, director of climate impacts at the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit research organization focusing on climate risks.
He and other experts say the administration’s proposed changes will put states and local governments more accountable to come up with financial resources to help individuals recover from natural disasters.
Types of assistance provided by FEMA
FEMA provides grants and resources to help individuals and municipalities recover from federally declared disasters, but this aid is designed to be a supplement to something that is not covered by your homeowner’s insurance policy, Nyce said.
The way agents can provide assistance to individual homeowners is by providing small grants for uninsured losses, Nyce said. For example, money can be used to cover temporary housing for a day or week.
According to a 2024 report from Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington DC, the average payment for individual support grants by FEMA was $3,522 from 2010 to 2019.
The agency also offers low-interest disaster loans through the Small Business Association, which covers losses that are not covered by insurance, grants or other resources. According to FEMA releases from earlier this month, interest rates are 2.688% for homeowners and tenants, 4% for businesses and 3.25% for nonprofit organizations, with lower conditions for up to 30 years.
“They are really designed as a way for people to have enough money to understand what the next step is,” Porter said.
Typically, FEMA will support state emergency management agencies after a disaster, Nyce said. But now, the hope is that the state will play a major role in disaster recovery.
“Federal level cuts for disaster recovery will put more financial strain on the states to enable recovery,” Nyce said.
“Responsibility of citizens being prepared”
Experts say it is unclear how much FEMA natural disaster aid will be available to individuals as agencies go through changes.
“It puts more to prepare for the public,” Nice said.
One way to do that is to take a closer look at the insurance coverage of your home. Check if you need to make changes to the policy. Do not take out insurance. Alternatively, there is the risk that the insurance company will pay less than the full claim. Additionally, additional coverage, such as flood insurance, may be required.
Make sure you have enough supplies to “do the 1-2, 3 days”; This includes dry food, batteries, water and radio. It is also wise to collect important financial documents to keep them in a safe place.
Additionally, if your local staff are advised to evacuate in the face of a disaster, he said, you should consider doing so rather than trying to evacuate at home.
“Maybe it’s wiser to leave,” Nice said.
