A leading expert warned that the Trump administration’s overall cuts to disaster management would cost U.S. lives, and hollowed out agencies cannot accurately predict, prepare for or respond to extreme weather events, earthquakes and pandemics.

Samantha Montano, professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime College, said the number of deaths from disasters including hurricanes, tornadoes and water pollution in the United States will increase in the U.S. unless the scope of mass layoffs and funding for funding is reduced. These include the Federal Emergency Administration (FEMA), whose work relies heavily on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is also being removed.

"The overall risk of threats and hazards in the United States has increased since this administration took over, and the capacity of our emergency management system is declining," Montano said in an interview.

"Emergency managers will run blindly, and we're used to the data from NOAA and other scientific institutions. This is what we rely on to issue warnings and evacuation orders and front-end resources. It's really scary. It's really scary because we didn't have good weather data in the past and the death toll is high."

"It's hard to know that this is the next hurricane that has completely failed or completely failed from now on. But I'm confident that if the cuts continue, we'll see higher death tolls and greater damage, absolutely absolutely. It's absolutely crazy because we're providing dangerous funding for these institutions, especially in this case, especially with increasing volumes of climate change, because climate change is Montano,"

Emergency management involves mitigation, preparation, response and recovery from a variety of disasters, including common and other major disease outbreaks, as well as floods, fires, tornadoes, earthquakes and explosions. FEMA works closely with state and local government agencies to provide resources, coordination, technical expertise, leadership and communication with the public.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has threatened to disband the FEMA and often devalue the agency in its ongoing efforts to help Los Angeles wildfires and Hurricane Helen destroy communities, a Category 4 storm that killed at least 230 people in southern Aparach.

"What happened to Helen is horrible, such a huge destruction and so much life. I don't want to minimize that, but for people, it's probably worse to know Helen," Montano said. “If it weren’t for accurate predictions, it could result in the death losses of thousands of people, if it wasn’t for the FEMA mobilization and resources to flow as quickly and efficiently as they did.”

FEMA’s preparation program and billions of dollars in disaster aid and grants have stalled as the hurricane and tornado season begins. The report shows that more than one-third of FEMA's permanent full-time workforce has been fired or accepted for acquisitions, including some of the most experienced and knowledgeable leaders who coordinate disaster responses, which can involve multiple federal agencies for months or years. Internal memorandum shows that about 75% of the agency's workforce is candidates or bookmakers who may not renew their contracts.

“FEMA has already experienced brain loss. We won’t let people respond to major disasters like Helen, but they will also have problems to deal with multiple smaller disasters – fires, floods, floods, storms happen at the same time, and climate crises are becoming more and more common.

Under Trump, FEMA has so far denied federal aid from the Arkansas tornado, flooding in West Virginia and a storm in Washington state. It also rejected North Carolina’s request for an extension of federal relief as Helen’s recovery efforts continued.

Retreatment of resources will have a direct impact on individual families and communities, many of whom vote for Trump. It is difficult to measure the impact of narrowing the FEMA and the National Weather Service on messaging, which is a key element of emergency management, which has been challenged in increasing misunderstandings and disinformation on extreme weather, covid, covid, covid, measles and even FEMA itself.

"Effective communication depends on trust, and I don't know how the American public trusts one thing this administration says and extends to FEMA, and extends to FEMA.

Hamilton expanded Trump and Musk's false claims that the FEMA had spent disaster on immigration and blocked help to North Carolina. Montano said:

“In an already confusing communication ecosystem, we have now lost FEMA as a universally reliable source. It’s hard to see how people will get accurate information in a major disaster, let alone deal with complex recovery processes…it’s incredible…but every stage is incredible, but every phase, every aspect of an emergency is in the attack for Trump’s first 100 days.

“While the cuts to HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) and U.S. International Development are most important to preventing disease outbreaks, everything the emergency management system does has also made us less prepared for the next pandemic.”

NOAA's workforce and budget are also shrinking, the agency's National Weather Service (NWS) and its worst popularity. Trump’s Project 2025 policy blueprint calls on NOAA to “destroy and reduce”, claiming that the agency is the driver of the “climate change alert industry.”

Trump and his billionaire donor Elon Musk also tried to remove Americorps, a federal volunteer service that plays a major role in disaster recovery and deports immigrants who make up most of the disaster workforce.

Cuts to FEMA, NOAA, NWS and other institutions involved in disaster prevention have little economic significance. For every dollar the federal government has on mitigation measures, it can save at least $6 in taxpayer funds to respond and recover.

"National Weather Service and Emergency Management are really clear examples of where you need government operations, because it's not something the private sector will be interested in and cannot make a profit," Montano said.

Most disaster mitigation or prevention occurs behind the scenes, a complex process involving testing, standards, expertise and law enforcement that rarely produces scrutiny unless there is a problem.

"I feel very sure we'll see the death toll from storms and other disasters increase because the public - and many in this administration - may not understand the complexity of risk reduction happening across federal agencies, which prevents these larger disasters from happening."

For example, according to Montano, the Clean Water Act of 1972 (Cleaning Water Act of 1972) represents an ongoing mitigation project that, along with other key environmental laws, is now under attack: “With these regulations erosion, the risks will not be mitigated and potentially turn into disasters. We are working for more water-related health diseases, more health diseases.”

The impact of federal cuts will depend in part on the extent to which state and local governments fill federal funding gaps. Historically, investments to prevent potential disasters in the future have rarely been a political priority.

"Community organizations will be crucial here to ensure that local and state officials are under pressure to reduce some of the slack pressure. But some of them are beyond the scope of what a country can do on its own, which is why we are starting federal regulations."

Montano also believes that if courts and voters push back, Trump may still be forced to back off some of his rollbacks. "I don't think they've removed FEMA, but the biggest wildcard here is the disasters that followed the next few months and where the disasters happened - politics. The climate crisis is here, and these disasters haven't stopped," she said.

Founded by Jimmy Carter in 1979, FEMA requires reforms in an increasingly destructive climate causing disasters, an overly complex application process, and increasingly calls for improved state and local emergency management capabilities.

"Our emergency management system is good in many ways, but it needs to be changed significantly. Now, we need to focus on creating a better system that is more effective, effective and equitable so that we can be prepared for some reasonable and sane reward," Montano said.