Latest FEMA Headlines
All the headlines from our FEMA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Flood Insurance Uptake Rates Rise in Texas Following Harvey
Jul 31 2018 // Little more than two months before Hurricane Harvey slammed the Gulf Coast of Texas, Alberto Castaneda let his home’s flood insurance lapse. He had never filed a claim on the policy in 10 years and he needed the...
Former FEMA Head Wright Now Leading IBHS
Jul 16 2018 // The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) selected Roy E. Wright in April as the next president and chief executive officer of the organization, succeeding Julie Rochman who retired after more than 10...
FEMA Staffing Stretched Thin as Hurricane Season Gets Underway
Jun 14 2018 // As Hurricane Irma bore down on Florida last September, the top U.S. disaster response official ordered all hands on deck. With 4,500 Federal Emergency Management Agency staffers already helping survivors of Hurricane...
FEMA Assessing Tornado Damage in Connecticut
Jun 14 2018 // Federal Emergency Management Agency officials on Monday began assessing damage from a tornado and a macroburst that hit Connecticut during severe storms last month, a process that could lead to federal aid. Officials...
FEMA Looking to Expand Disaster Reinsurance Program
Jun 13 2018 // The federal government, seeking to protect itself from the growing cost of natural disasters, is borrowing a technique from the private sector and buying reinsurance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which started...
Cities Still Owed Funds from Last Hurricane Season as New Season Gets Underway
Jun 1 2018 // Allen Owen, the mayor of Missouri City, Texas, wants to do more to protect his town from the next disaster. But the city hasn’t gotten any of the roughly $1 million in federal disaster funds he said it’s owed...
FEMA Reorganizing, Top Jobs Unfilled as Hurricane Season Gets Underway
May 29 2018 // With the hurricane season beginning, top jobs at the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency remain vacant and critics say that will make it harder for the government to respond to disasters. FEMA lacks a...
Delaware DOI Working With FEMA to Fine-Tune Disaster Response
May 21 2018 // The Delaware Department of Insurance (DOI) has worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as part of a National Level Exercise designed to help FEMA and other federal partners, state and local governments,...
Delaware DOI Working With FEMA to Fine-Tune Disaster Response
May 4 2018 // The Delaware Department of Insurance (DOI) is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during the next two weeks as part of a National Level Exercise designed to help FEMA and other federal partners,...
FEMA Proposes Allowing Owners to Rebuild Homes After Taxpayer Buyouts
Apr 26 2018 // The Federal Emergency Management Agency is proposing to allow owners of homes destroyed by storms and bought out by the government to rebuild on the same flood-prone land. Currently, FEMA offers to buy homes that have been...
FEMA Hosts Flood Insurance Roundtable in West Virginia
Apr 25 2018 // The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region III and the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (WVDHSEM) hosted the first-ever West Virginia Flood Insurance Partners Roundtable in...
FEMA Criticized for Suppliers Not Delivering Hurricane Aid as Promised
Apr 11 2018 // The Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded contracts for hurricane supplies without adequately researching whether winning bidders could deliver what they promised, according to a new investigation by Democrats on a...
FEMA Chief Says Puerto Rico Needs $50 Billion to Rebuild
Apr 9 2018 // The administrator of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency said Friday it will take up to an estimated $50 billion to help rebuild Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria and warned that the U.S. territory is not ready for...
Wright Leaving FEMA to Head IBHS, Succeeding Rochman
Apr 5 2018 // The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) announced that Roy E. Wright has been selected as the next president and chief executive officer of the organization, succeeding Julie Rochman who is retiring...
FEMA to Issue First Catastrophe Bond for Flood Insurance Program
Apr 5 2018 // In another step shifting risk to private markets, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said it intends to secure additional reinsurance for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through issuance of a...
Florida Keys Request Additional $16M from FEMA for Irma Damage
Mar 29 2018 // County officials in the Florida Keys are looking to get federal money to reimburse them for expenses related to Hurricane Irma. Monroe County officials traveled to Washington D.C. last week to meet with FEMA officials. The...
Why Storm-Prone States Continue to Balk at Tough Building Codes
Mar 19 2018 // The showdown in the Florida statehouse last year had all the drama of a knock-down political brawl: Powerful industries clashing. Warnings of death and destruction. And a surprise last-minute vote, delivering a sweeping...
Some Houstonians Spend Huge Sums to Elevate Their Homes After Harvey
Mar 14 2018 // This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune. When Marni Axelrad and her family moved to Houston’s Meyerland neighborhood in 2015, they planned to stay there for years to come. They loved the community, and...
FEMA to End Short-Term Shelter Program for Florida Irma Victims
Mar 9 2018 // Federal disaster officials are ending a program that paid for hotel rooms for more than 27,000 Florida households in the wake of Hurricane Irma. FEMA officials announced Tuesday that the short-term emergency sheltering...
Harvey Survivors Critical of Texas Governor/FEMA’s Disaster Response Plan
Mar 1 2018 // This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2018/02/27/texans-left-limbo-gov-abbott-fema-use-harvey-reinvent-disaster-respons/. In the weeks immediately after Hurricane Harvey,...
