Hot Takes From the NEMA Annual Forum

Norte Fire. Source: Orange City Fire.

Plus, Guam can't catch a break with super typhoons

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Major Disasters of the Last Week

Forecasted Risks to Watch for the Next Week

Severe storms and heavy rain shift from the Southwest into the western High Plains through the weekend. The Pacific system behind this week's Utah flooding and Arizona severe weather keeps producing strong thunderstorms and locally heavy rain as it moves east, per the NWS national forecast.

The St. Johns River near Astor, Florida could approach major flood stage next week. NWS Melbourne forecasts the river to keep climbing through moderate flood stage into the weekend, with levels potentially nearing major flood stage as northeasterly winds increase.

Heavy rainfall and isolated flash flooding threaten South Florida this weekend into early next week. NWS forecasts repeated rounds of heavy rain with gusty winds across the southern peninsula.

Hurricane City flooding. Source: Hurricane City Power Department.

Disasters in the Headlines

"Giant ‘heat storms’ are scorching the Earth. This is the story of the biggest one on record."​

Reuters

"FEMA Launches New Option to Buy National Flood Insurance Program Policy Online"

FEMA

PRO PERSPECTIVE

Preparing for the State-Led Future

Sit in on the sessions at the 2026 NEMA Annual Forum, and a shared premise runs underneath them. The AI workshop was built around states taking on more emergency management responsibilities. The rural power panel started from federal disaster support that may decline or become less predictable. The program treated a state-led future as its starting assumption.

Between sessions in Little Rock, October 19 to 22, we asked attendees anonymously for their hottest take. Six responses circled the same conclusion. The people best equipped to decide what a state needs are the ones who have done the work, and the colleagues sitting next to them.

Local Experience Is the Credential

The boldest answer came from an attendee who spent years at the local level before moving into their current role. Having learned local needs and how to meet them firsthand, this attendee bristles at prescriptive direction from outside. "When FEMA tries to tell me this is what you need and this is what we're going to do, it immediately turns me off because they do not know," they said.

The objection is specific. It targets who defines the need. A requirement written far from a jurisdiction misses what years inside one already taught. For anyone designing a program that states will run, the practical move is to put local operators in the room before the requirements are set.

The Shakeup Opens a Policy Window

Knowing what communities need is half the job. The other half is having the authority to act on it. Another attendee sees that authority opening up. With so many changes and shakeups in emergency management, they said, "there's a real opportunity for states to strengthen their regulatory policies and enforcement that promote and support health, safety and welfare of the public."

Regulation and enforcement are levers states already own, and they do their work before disaster strikes. They also answer the local practitioner's complaint head-on. A state that writes and enforces its own rules stops waiting to be told what it needs, and the people closest to the work set the terms.

The Answer Is Usually Another State

Authority helps only when a state knows what works, and no single state has seen everything. The NEMA Annual Forum fills that gap. One attendee's favorite part was having all 50 states and the territories in one place, trading lessons learned and best practices so each could serve its residents better. "This is one of those conferences where it's not about egos, it's not about peacocking," they said.

A first-time attendee saw the same thing from the outside: a big family reunion where everybody already knows everyone. NEMA administers the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), the mutual aid agreement adopted nationwide among states. When a state runs out of personnel or equipment, EMAC is how its neighbors send more. In this field, that trust is part of the response plan.

Private Partners Are the Open Question

Peers cover part of the gap. Another attendee pointed to the part states have not solved. With more federal work expected to land on states, they said, many are struggling to define the role of private industry. They see "a lot of gaps to be filled" through public and private partnership. The hard part is capacity: knowing which partners a state needs and building those relationships now, ahead of the challenges coming in the next few years.

Technology Is Catching Up

Many of those partners arrive with technology, and one attendee thinks the timing finally works. Asked for a 2027 prediction, they said, "We're at a time where technology can catch up with ideas." The Forum gave that prediction a classroom. RAND delivered a workshop on AI for disasters and emergencies, funded through the Markle Foundation's AI for Disasters + Emergencies (AIDE) Initiative and built to help emergency managers see what these tools do and where they fit in existing workflows.

Knowing where technology fits starts with knowing the work, which brings the argument back to the local practitioner. Technology chosen from outside a jurisdiction meets the same objection the practitioner raised about federal direction: the people choosing it do not know the need.

The Bottom Line.

The sessions framed a state-led future as something on the way. In the hallways, attendees talked about it as already here. What's left is building the policies, partnerships, and technology to carry it before the next disaster tests them.

Active Federal Declared Disasters and Deadlines

There is usually a 60 day window to apply for help after a disaster is declared. The following disasters are actively taking applications from survivors for financial support. To apply, survivors can visit DisasterAssistance.gov or call the FEMA Helpline at 1-800‑621‑3362.

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