Local emergency managers, the behind-the-scenes coordinators who mobilize aid during disasters, have made the same point over and over again. That means there needs to be sufficient resources to protect those at risk before harm occurs.
In some notable cases, resources did not arrive quickly enough. After Hurricane Helen devastated North Carolina’s Yancey County in 2024, the county’s commissioners hired additional emergency management staff, a request former emergency managers say they had been asking for years. When a tornado killed four people and injured dozens in May 2025, city officials in St. Louis, Missouri, were in the process of upgrading a defective outdoor warning system.
We wanted to learn more about the cracks in the system that keeps communities safe when disasters occur. To that end, we reached out to dozens of emergency management agencies and ultimately heard from more than 40 current and former emergency managers in 11 states. They discussed common concerns.
Some say agents are burdened with an ever-growing list of responsibilities. The emergency management director for Saluda County, South Carolina, said his team of six is responsible for everything from the county’s IT department to its spay/neuter program. San Bernardino County, California’s emergency manager said he has had to help respond to new challenges like the lithium battery fire, while his previous agency was tasked with responding to large numbers of migrants arriving from other states.
The most pressing issue they cited was funding for additional staff. One North Carolina emergency management director said an internal review about three years ago recommended the agency have more than 20 employees, but it still only has 10. Nationally, more than half of the 1,689 local emergency management agencies that responded to Argonne National Laboratory’s July 2025 Emergency Management Survey had one or no full-time staff, and a “significant percentage” of responding local emergency managers said they were volunteers.
We know that it is not a question of if disasters will occur, but when and where they will occur. And ProPublica’s reporting team wants to be well prepared in advance. If you’re a local or state emergency manager, sign up to be part of our long-term network of sources to help power ProPublica’s investigative reporting.
Samantha Montano, associate professor and research associate of emergency management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, said there should be no part-time or volunteer emergency manager positions given the broad responsibilities and increased risks from climate change.
“To expect someone to understand how to mitigate cyber risk and how to recover from a tornado means those are different skill sets,” Montano said. “So it’s ridiculous to think that one person can do all of these things, especially part-time or as a volunteer.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s administration issued an executive order that shifted more of the weight of disaster preparedness to state and local governments, delaying emergency management funding to state and local government agencies.
Kelly McKinney, vice president of emergency management at NYU Langone Health and former deputy director of the New York City Office of Emergency Management, said for years states have been “over-reliant” on funds administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But McKinney said there are no clear plans for alternative funding sources.
“The very American crisis management system is in jeopardy,” he said.
“There’s only so much you can do.”
Several emergency managers we spoke to said that one of the only times they can focus their attention on an agency’s needs is right after a major disaster. Wyke Graham, emergency management director for Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, said the first question the media usually has after a disaster like this is, “Did emergency management do what they were supposed to do?”
According to Graham, that’s almost always the wrong question. He asked instead, “Have you adequately funded your emergency management staff? And have you given them the resources they need? Have you made emergency management a priority for your community?”
Unlike firefighters, EMTs and law enforcement, emergency managers face “official status issues,” which could mean agencies receive less funding, Montano said.
Several emergency managers told ProPublica that because those in the field work primarily behind the scenes or as part of larger departments, they often compete for funding with higher-profile government agencies, and elected officials often don’t have a clear understanding of their roles. Some said it was simply difficult to get people interested in a disaster that hasn’t happened yet.
Several others told ProPublica that the frequency and intensity of disasters are also increasing, making it difficult to manage recovery, which can take years, while preparing for the next storm or fire. For example, in St. Louis, Emergency Management Commissioner Sarah Russell was still managing recovery efforts from the 2022 flash floods when the 2025 tornado struck.
Josh Morton, president of the American Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers and emergency management director for Saluda County, South Carolina, said local emergency management is “where reality meets the road,” but local governments are often “the most limited in terms of resources.” By Donaven Doty, ProPublica The Saluda County Emergency Management Office, where Morton works, has installed the first image of a memorial memorial to two volunteer firefighters who lost their lives responding to Hurricane Helen. ProPublica’s Donaven Doughty
Sirens, which the city was in the early stages of upgrading, did not work during the St. Louis tornado, due in part to miscommunication between Russell and fire alarm dispatchers, according to an outside investigation commissioned by the city. Russell, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, told ProPublica that the fire department is responsible for sounding the siren.
However, even when the activation button was pressed, more than a third of the sirens did not activate, and subsequent tests found that the button on the fire alarm station also did not activate.
Russell was fired in August 2025 for managing the tornado response, according to the termination letter. But Russell, who is contesting his dismissal, said the incident highlights the need to invest aggressively in crisis management.
Russell had requested several times to add additional emergency management staff to assist with core responsibilities, such as updating the city’s outdated emergency response plan.
“There are always things you would do differently in hindsight,” Russell said. “But there’s only so much you can do with so few resources and support.”
St. Louis Mayor Carla Spencer, who was in office at the time of the tornado for a month and served on the City Council for 10 years, told ProPublica that she was aware of the agency’s request for additional funding, but that most city departments have made such requests. After the tragedy, the city issued an executive order that fully automated tornado sirens and declared the fire department to have primary authority over the sirens, replacing an unclear procedure.
A city spokesperson said the new emergency management commissioner has “made several improvements” to the emergency operations plan.
“We recognize that budget constraints are unfortunately a reality in many aspects of government,” Spencer said in an email. “I am extremely proud of the improvements this team was able to make with little additional funding.”
“This is not a quick fix.”
Tight budgets for local emergency management agencies are not a new problem. But in recent months, federal funding has become uncertain.
In April 2025, the Trump administration cut federal aid paid to local disaster relief projects, but a judge later blocked the administration’s efforts to end the grant program. In May 2025, federal officials postponed grants to cover the salaries of local and state emergency managers.
In December, the FEMA Review Board, created by President Trump to advise on how to reform FEMA, was scheduled to vote on a long-awaited report outlining the agency’s future. However, the meeting was abruptly canceled after the draft was leaked to CNN. The review council’s work was extended until late March.
Several emergency managers told ProPublica they welcomed FEMA’s changes. But many expressed concerns about ending federal grant programs that fund payroll, equipment upgrades and disaster mitigation efforts, or drastically reducing reimbursement to local agencies responding to large-scale disasters without alternative funding in place. They said such practices are harmful, especially in small rural areas where local budgets are limited.
One North Carolina emergency manager said that without the federal Emergency Management Performance Grant, which can pay 50% of an emergency manager’s salary, “we believe we will lose our ability to prepare and respond.” Another said the grant was “essential” to day-to-day operations.
FEMA did not respond to requests for comment.
Claire Connolly Knox, who directs the master’s program in emergency and crisis management at the University of Central Florida, is researching what “decentralized FEMA” means for state agencies. He said it could take several legislative cycles before states are ready to fill any gaps that may result from FEMA changes. Knox said many states don’t closely track spending across multiple departments and levels of emergency management, meaning they “don’t know the true cost” of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.
“Once you start breaking it down,” Knox said, “you start breaking it down.” “We started to see that this was not a quick fix.”
