The acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has stepped down after being missing in action during a deadly hurricane season.
David Richardson has departed the embattled agency just six months after he was appointed acting chief by President Donald Trump. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, said he will be replaced by FEMA Chief of Staff Karen Evans—previously a senior adviser at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency—starting Dec. 1.
“FEMA and the DHS extend their sincere appreciation to the senior official performing the duties of the administrator, David Richardson, for his dedicated service and wish him continued success in his return to the private sector,” a DHS spokesperson said.
Sources told CNN that there were already behind-the-scenes plans to oust Richardson, who filed his resignation letter on Monday.
Richardson was elevated to the helm of the disaster management agency in May after his predecessor, Cameron Hamilton, was abruptly terminated when he disagreed with Trump’s vision to “wean off of FEMA” and delegate its job down to the states.
“I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” Hamilton told a Congressional hearing in May. “Having said that, I’m not in a position to make decisions and impact outcomes on whether or not a determination as consequential as that should be made.”
Richardson, a Marine veteran who taught history and martial arts, was pulled into FEMA from the DHS’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, where he had been serving as assistant secretary.
Richardson joined FEMA with no prior disaster response experience, which became apparent to staff in June when he said at an all-hands meeting that he was unaware the U.S. has a hurricane season. The DHS waved off the comment as “a joke.”
Hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration earlier predicted an “above-normal” season that is likely to see five to nine hurricanes, two to five of which could become major.
Two weeks before the start of hurricane season, Richardson admitted to FEMA staff that the agency had not yet fully formed its disaster response plan, according to The Wall Street Journal.
As flash floods lashed Texas on the 4th of July, Richardson was on vacation with his two sons and inaccessible to FEMA staff, according to eight current and former officials who spoke to The Washington Post. His absence hampered the deployment of emergency resources that required his sign-off under new rules set by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“Nobody could get ahold of him for hours and hours,” one senior official who coordinated search-and-rescue resources told the outlet.
Richardson later faced a grilling by lawmakers who questioned his disaster response.
“I spent the entire vacation in my vehicle speaking on my phone to either the state of Texas or DHS coordinating for the events in Texas,” he said.
The Texas floods claimed over 100 lives, making it the 10th-deadliest flash flood in U.S. history, according to Yale Climate Connections.
“Do the victims and survivors in Texas deserve an apology?” Arizona Rep. Greg Stanton asked Richardson in the aftermath.
“What happened in Texas was an absolute tragedy. It’s hard to fathom. I went to Texas. I flew over. It was an absolute tragedy. My heart goes out to the people in Texas,” Richardson responded.
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