The head of FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue Branch has resigned, telling colleagues that the Trump administration’s disastrous response to the deadly flooding in Texas had driven him over the edge, CNN reported.
Ken Pagurek, who had worked in that branch for more than a decade, reportedly told colleagues that his departure Monday from FEMA had come after mounting frustrations with the Trump administration’s efforts to gut the disaster aid agency. But Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s pitifully delayed response to the flooding over the Fourth of July weekend was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Noem had severely botched FEMA’s Texas response by failing to renew contracts with companies staffing FEMA call centers, resulting in a majority of calls going unanswered for days as the floodwaters raged. The secretary dismissed the reporting as “fake news.”
She also reportedly delayed FEMA’s initial response by instituting a policy that required her to personally sign off on all DHS expenditures exceeding $100,000. FEMA officials, who were unaware of the new rule, didn’t receive Noem’s go-ahead for 72 hours.
In his resignation letter, Pagurek didn’t mention the floods at all. “This decision was not made lightly, and after much reflection and prayer, it is the right path for me at this time,” he wrote. “I have been continually inspired by the unwavering dedication, unmatched courage, and deep-seated commitment we share for saving lives and bringing hope in the face of devastation.”
One DHS spokesperson defended the response to the floods, while another criticized Pagurek’s decision, saying that it was “laughable that a career public employee, who claims to serve the American people, would choose to resign over our refusal to hastily approve a six-figure deployment contract without basic financial oversight.”
“We’re being responsible with taxpayer dollars, that’s our job,” the second spokesperson said.
Last month, Donald Trump said he plans to “phase out” FEMA after this year’s hurricane season, and future disbursements would come straight from him. “We’re going to give it out directly. It’ll be from the president’s office. We’ll have somebody here, could be Homeland Security,” Trump said at the time.
Clearly, putting Noem in charge of personally approving decisions in a disaster comes at a cost, and the Trump administration’s mismanagement of relief is more far-reaching than just the flooding in Texas.
