Louisiana Earthquakes, Tornado Watches, and Why Kristi Noem Just Lost Her Job

Source: USGS

Plus, what actually happens at the points of impact

Welcome back to This Week in Disasters! This newsletter combines expert perspectives with a weekly roundup of upcoming threats, recent natural disasters, and available survivor assistance. If you’re an HR, Risk, Insurance, Employee Assistance, or Emergency Management professional (or you’re just really curious about disasters in the United States!) you’re in the right place.

Kristi Noem was recently replaced by Senator Mullin of Oklahoma. We'll be at NEMA next week where we'll be discussing it with all of you. We look forward to having that conversation, and then we'll be back with the wisdom of the crowds and Pete's perspective.

Major Disasters of the Last Week

Forecasted Risks for Next Week

A storm forming high in the atmosphere over the Southwest will bring Santa Ana winds to Southern California from Friday into Saturday. Spotty power outages are possible with some wildfire risk.

Heavy rain and storms will sweep across the central US over the next week, offering drought relief but also risking floods, as moisture from the Gulf clashes with cold air to bring severe thunderstorms and tornadoes to the Plains and Mississippi Valley. The Northeast can expect snow and ice as the storm system pushes through.

Source: X/kamizar

Trump ousts Kristi Noem, names Oklahoma senator as homeland security nominee

Reuters

Resilience Districts: Unlocking Tax-Increment Finance for Climate Adaptatio

Epicenter Insights

3D-printed homes hit the market and can be built in just 24 days for $280k

The Sun

How Diversity Shapes Cooperation After Natural Disasters

Pro Market

PRO PERSPECTIVE

The Clock is Ticking: What Mullin Must Do to Save FEMA

President Trump announced Thursday that Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin will replace Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security, effective March 31, 2026. Noem served just over a year before a very public falling out ended her tenure. During congressional hearings this week, she told senators that Trump had personally approved a $200 million self-deportation ad campaign featuring herself, a claim the White House flatly denied. The contradiction proved fatal to her standing.

But the circumstances of her departure matter far less than what comes next. Mullin inherits a department with a critically weakened disaster response capability, a demoralized workforce, and a hurricane season that is just 88 days away. The margin for error is zero.

FEMA: An Agency in Crisis

The damage is real and well-documented. Under Noem, DHS stripped FEMA of the authority to renew its own on-call disaster response staff, the CORE workforce that forms the backbone of federal disaster operations, without direct DHS approval. Dozens were let go with little notice in January. Billions in recovery funding sit frozen in bureaucratic backlogs. States have begun cutting their own emergency management budgets, no longer confident that federal dollars will flow. A 2023 Government Accountability Office report found FEMA was already operating 35% below its target staffing level before the cuts began. The agency that Americans depend on in their worst moments has been systematically hollowed out.

What Emergency Managers and the Private Sector Should Watch

Mullin, a first-term senator with a business background, will face decisions immediately upon confirmation that will define not just his tenure but the nation's readiness for the next catastrophe. Congress has included provisions in the FY2026 appropriations bill requiring FEMA to maintain staffing sufficient to fulfill its legal missions, providing some legislative guardrails. But legislation alone will not rebuild an agency. Leadership will.

Five Priorities That Cannot Wait

1. Put a qualified emergency manager at the helm of FEMA. This is the single most important early decision Mullin can make. FEMA needs a seasoned, credible administrator, someone with deep operational experience and the respect of the emergency management community. That nomination process should begin immediately.

2. Rebuild the workforce. FEMA's professionals have been depleted, demoralized, and driven out. Mullin must halt further staffing cuts, move aggressively to bring back key personnel, and launch a serious recruitment campaign to fill the gaps. An agency without people cannot respond to disasters. It is that simple.

3. Get ready for hurricane season. June 1 is 88 days away. The new Secretary and FEMA Administrator must be operationally ready, not still getting oriented, when the first storm of the season forms. Secretary Noem and the bureaucratic decisions made under her watch have left the agency in a fragile state. There is no time to waste.

4. Rebuild the team. Disaster response is not a solo mission. Mullin and the new FEMA Administrator must immediately engage mission partners across the federal enterprise, including NOAA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and others, as well as state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, to ensure coordination is tight, relationships are strong, and the full weight of government at every level can be brought to bear when needed.

5. Turn the money back on. Among the most damaging and least visible decisions of the Noem era was a $100,000 expenditure threshold requiring DHS approval on FEMA spending, a bureaucratic chokehold that has paralyzed the agency's ability to act. That threshold must go, immediately. Equally urgent is releasing the frozen disbursements owed to states and localities, who in turn owe payments to private sector partners that have been waiting months to be paid for disaster recovery work already completed.

The Bottom Line

FEMA cannot fail. When a hurricane makes landfall, when wildfires jump containment lines, when floods swallow communities, Americans expect their federal government to show up. Right now, that expectation is at serious risk. Mullin has a narrow window to reverse course. How he uses it will determine whether the nation is ready for what is coming.

Someone You Know Needs This. SBA Disaster Loans Are Open in 25 States.

Across 25 states, SBA disaster loan deadlines are still months away, some as late as November 2026. But most survivors don't know they qualify. If you work with or know anyone affected by a disaster in the past year, this list is worth passing along. A few seconds of sharing could mean thousands of dollars for someone still trying to recover.

Find the SBA Disaster Declarations here

Active Federal Major Disasters

There is usually a 60 day window to apply for help after a disaster is declared.  The following disasters are still actively taking applications from survivors for financial support.

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.

Sign up for This Week in Disasters here.

Did you know we're hiring? Check out our open roles below.

Check out our open roles.