Be afraid. The Trump Administration has “put on leave” — effectively fired — 35 experts from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for signing a letter to Trump saying that his mass elimination of emergency experts is threatening the lives of Americans. Another 155 signed but masked their names.
Trump’s announced scheme: completely eliminate FEMA and turn over emergency evacuation to privateers.
The firings were pushed by Elon Musk when he headed DOGE. The cuts were the core cause of the deaths in the Kerr County, Texas flood.
Trump’s own appointed FEMA director, Cameron Hamilton, criticized the cutting of 2,000 emergency workers (a third of the agency’s staff) and the interference by political hacks, especially by Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem, slowing down life-saving response to floods. Trump fired him, too.
In my new investigative film, All Washed Away, the Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans and Texas, I expose the privatization of the New Orleans hurricane evacuation plan before Katrina hit.
All Washed Away — now available on Substack
The result of replacing the government plan with the private plan was, according to Prof. Ivor van Heerdon, then director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center: “Bottom line: 1,500 people drowned.”
The company who came up with this let-’em-drown plan was Innovative Emergency Management IEM. And guess who got a contract that starts this week for emergency evacuation work? IEM.
IEM was also given a contract in 2017 by the first Trump Administration to help Puerto Rico prepare for a hurricane. In 2022, Hurricane Fiona killed 33 and nearly wiped out the island.
For more on the story, read my report, “His Arm Fell Off Like a Chicken Wing”.
How many Katrinas will it take, how many kids swept away, before we stand up to a bully who is more concerned with hunting down critics and saving face than saving lives?
I’m asking you to watch All Washed Away on YouTube or Substack. Then send around the links, sign up for our reports and consider a tax-deductible donation for the Palast Investigative Fund.
If you make a tax-deductible contribution of $50 or more, I’ll send you a signed copy of my bestseller Armed Madhouse with a special chapter on the drowning of New Orleans, or, if you prefer a signed copy of the DVD Big Easy to Big Empty, the original investigation with a special half-hour interview with Amy Goodman.
Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits and the book and documentary, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
His latest film is All Washed Away: The Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans and Texas. Palast is currently working on a new documentary Long Knife, exposing the Koch Brothers' theft of Osage oil, to be released in 2025.
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