Is wokeness hampering FEMA’s response to Helene?

By Brian Balfour

Raleigh, NC – recording of a 2023 FEMA webinar recently went viral on social media and made national news for all the wrong reasons.

Image from North Carolina Department of Transportation X/Twitter video

You’ve probably heard about it by now. In it, FEMA employees and consultants discussed the need to center “equity” in disaster-relief efforts, displacing the traditional emphasis on efficiency and broad-based aid.

“The shift we’re seeing right now is a shift in emergency services from utilitarian principles — where everything is designed for the greatest good for the greatest amount of people — to disaster equity. But we have to do more,” stressed one of the panelists.

That video discussion, however, was just the tip of the iceberg.

A November 2023 FEMA publication entitled “Achieving Equitable Recovery: A Post-Disaster Guide for Local Officials and Leaders” should cause grave concern among those in western North Carolina — and their loved ones — impacted by Hurricane Helene.

The 144-page document is a convoluted hodgepodge of woke ideology combined with bureaucratic red tape. The document begins by declaring that instead of working to be as prepared and efficient in response as possible, FEMA is “working hard to instill equity as a foundation of emergency management.”

How will they accomplish that goal?

Included among the eight “equity goals” of the document are:

Conducting an “equity assessment” before determining how resources should be allocated and a “recovery planning process that acknowledges historical and current inequities”

Monitoring the recovery process to confirm inclusivity and ensure equitable outcomes (i.e., is the recovery organizational structure diverse, equitable, inclusive?)

 Targeting “underserved areas” to “help focus resources where they are needed most” rather than based on intensity of the damage

If you think FEMA’s goals in the wake of a disaster would be rapid and efficient aid to those most urgently in need, you’d be wrong.

The document also includes a “Checklist for Monitoring Equitable Recovery Progress” that includes 102 questions recovery leaders should be asking to ensure they are centering “equity” in their recovery efforts. Such questions include:

Was an Equity Impact Assessment conducted?

Was a Local Disaster Recovery Manager (LDRM) with diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) training hired?

Were pre-existing inequities documented?

Was DEIA used in selecting the person/group making recovery decisions?

Was there discussion about the role of bias, hate, and stereotypes?

Is ongoing DEIA training and education provided?

Were you able to intervene in the recovery process and make necessary adjustments to ensure equity? (emphasis added)

It’s absurd and insulting that a group tasked with saving lives in the wake of a deadly natural disaster is prioritizing DEI hiring practices and training above ensuring the most qualified people are leading recovery efforts. And isn’t being forced to evaluate more than 100 questions to “monitor” whether the recovery process is meeting these “equity” goals slowing down that process?

Still worse is the last bullet point, which openly declares that FEMA will interfere with the recovery process “if they determine community leaders are failing to support equitable recovery outcomes.”

How maddening to think that local volunteers and charitable organizations with boots on the ground can have their relief efforts halted by a FEMA bureaucrat second-guessing how “equitable” their relief is. Would it even be possible to satisfy these standards in many of these mountain counties that are 90+% white?

Imagine the decision paralysis such requirements could cause, and you’ll begin to understand why government response to disasters can be so inefficient.

While stunning in its backwards priorities, however, it should come as no surprise that a government agency headed by political appointees centers a politicized agenda that is prioritized by the current regime.

Government politicizes everything it involves itself in, and it has involved itself in far too many aspects of society. Disaster relief is far too important to leave in the hands of political appointees and bureaucrats whose first loyalty is to the political agendas of the ruling class instead of the victims of disasters.

Brian Balfour is the John Locke Foundation’s senior vice president of research.