A new piece from the Council on Foreign Relations takes a look at the potential impact of cuts to early warning systems in the U.S. after President Trump already cut staff at the NOAA and halted research into natural disasters.

Washington

Recent severe flooding across several US states has drawn attention to the effectiveness of emergency warning systems. A Council on Foreign Relations analysis highlights concerns over proposed federal funding cuts to these systems and a policy shift towards state-level responsibility for disaster response. 

Experts point out that many states, such as Texas and Wyoming, rely heavily on federal funding for emergency management. Sudden withdrawal of these funds could leave states ill-equipped to respond to disasters, potentially creating gaps in preparedness and response capabilities. The debate centers on the speed of implementing such changes and whether states can quickly build the necessary infrastructure to manage emergencies independently.

Impact of Trump's federal cuts to early disaster warning systems

Recent floods across the U.S. this summer has raised some questions about emergency warning systems. A new piece from the Council on Foreign Relations, that's an American think tank, takes a look at the potential impact of cuts to early warning systems in the U.S. This summer alone, flash floods in Central Texas killed at least 130 people, and we've also seen heavy rains flood transit systems and block homes in New Mexico, New York, and New Jersey. Here to help break this down is Alice Hill from the Council on Foreign Relations, who is also the author of this piece. Alice, really appreciate you being with us here today to talk about this. Start me off with how do these warning systems work across the U.S. as they currently stand? Well, Kelly, it depends on each jurisdiction. That is, it could be a state, local, tribal system. The foundation is a sound forecast, warning of a danger, and then some way to get that forecast out to people so they can act in advance of disaster. Making sure it hits the last mile is the key, and that's certainly one of the challenges we saw in Texas. It didn't reach the last mile, so people were surprised by those flash floods. And what kind of information is needed by these systems to give a reliable warning to communities? Well, first of all, you need to know what's the threat. Is it a wildfire, is it a flood, is it a tornado? And that, so you need a risk assessment, and then you need a really sound forecast that can warn, this thing is coming soon, or two weeks, a day, an hour, minutes with an earthquake. And then you need the system that gets it out through multiple sources so that people receive it and then know they should act. They have to believe it's a crisis, I need to do something, save my family, save my house, whatever it is. So all those pieces need to be in place before we can be sure that people will act on early warnings. I also wanna ask you, the Trump administration wants to shift responsibility for disaster response and recovery from the federal government to the states. Some people would argue that the states might be better equipped to know exactly what they need, but how would that impact the ability of officials to respond to disasters in the future? Well, that is the apparent attempt to shift this response that's rested in the federal government. It's largely grown in the last 50 years to be a federal response in many instances for big catastrophes, but the Trump administration wants to move it to the states, and that's a philosophical call. In fact, in the Obama administration, there were efforts to try to move some of the disaster response to the states. The challenge right now is the rapidity with which that would occur. To pull the money away from states, as that's what's happening now, means that some states are just not going to be ready. Texas gets something like 90% of its budget for emergency management from the federal government. Wyoming also gets about 80%. You can't turn on a dime to build an emergency response when you pull those funds away. And those funds, by the way, support a firefighter. They support the emergency response team. They might build out a search and rescue team. If you pull those funds suddenly, the states are on their own, and that can leave a big gap when disaster strikes right at this moment. Well, I really appreciate that context about the Obama administration, that there's actually been bipartisan support, but as you said, it's sort of the speed at which you do something like this that's really gonna create the impact one way or the other. Well, really appreciate your insight today. Oh, thank you so much.

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