Despite Trump targeting FEMA, poll shows Americans still support it Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAYSeptember 2, 2025 at 7:02 AM For decades after major hurricanes and other disasters, Americans have found fault with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the federal government's resp...
- - Despite Trump targeting FEMA, poll shows Americans still support it
Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAYSeptember 2, 2025 at 7:02 AM
For decades after major hurricanes and other disasters, Americans have found fault with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the federal government's response to such crises.
After Hurricane Katrina's devastating path through Louisiana and Mississippi 20 years ago, investigations into missteps in FEMA's response led to major changes. Complaints arose again during the response to Hurricane Helene in September 2024 and when President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, one of his earliest actions was calling for FEMA to be dismantled.
Yet seven months, several disasters and thousands of staff reductions later, public support for the agency remains high, according to a new USA TODAY/Ipsos poll.
Among a group of 924 adults who said they were at least partially familiar with FEMA, the poll found 86% agreed FEMA's services after a natural disaster are very necessary or somewhat necessary. That included 83% of Republicans in the group and 95% of Democrats.
1 / 47Hurricane Katrina hit 20 years ago this month: See the shocking photosWater stands in much of the area around downtown New Orleans seven days after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city on Sept. 5, 2005. Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, battering New Orleans, swamping towns and lowlands with seawater and stranding people on rooftops.
Results of the polling didn't surprise Craig Fugate, FEMA administrator from 2009-2017 and Florida's emergency management director for eight years before that, including during the tumultuous 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons.
"When disasters strike, people expect FEMA," Fugate said. "Even folks who don't like big government still want the federal government to help."
Within the group who said they were at least partially familiar with FEMA, the poll found:
71% agreed the agency provides a critical role in helping communities prepare for and recover from natural disasters, including 64% of Republicans and 85% of Democrats.
69% said eliminating the agency would leave states more vulnerable after major disasters, including 56% of Republicans, 87% of Democrats and 67% of independents.
57% agreed FEMA's budget should be increased due to more frequent severe weather events, including 82% of Democrats and 38% of Republicans.
Only 15% said they agreed with the statement that "FEMA's budget should be cut to reduce government spending," including 26% of the Republicans, 16% of the Independents and only 4% of the Democrats
Scott Chun, a Navy search and rescue swimmer calms victims of Hurricane Katrina after rescuing them from a rooftop in downtown New Orleans on Sept. 2, 2005, in a humanitarian assistance operation led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in conjunction with the Department of Defense.Local communities lack the response resources
A Louisiana native, Karl Crow is familiar with FEMA after the many hurricanes, a few floods and tornadoes his family has been through in a rural area in the south-central part of the state, even though they are "self-supporting and have not ever needed any assistance from FEMA."
A conservative, who is director of quality for a manufacturer and a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Army, Crow is among those who responded to the poll who don't support eliminating the agency.
"I would not dismantle (FEMA) because I think it's definitely needed funding," he said. "Local smaller communities just don't have the resources to respond in a timely manner like that."
He talks with people regularly who support FEMA generally, just not the instances of mismanagement that surface after some disasters, he said. "I'm very supportive overall of the concept because I think it can really help a lot of people."
A nationwide FEMA conversation
In August 2005, Katrina crossed the southern tip of Florida, then moved over the Gulf, making landfall first in southern Louisiana, then washing a towering storm surge over the coast when it made landfall near Waveland, Mississippi on Aug. 29. The surge wiped out communities in southwestern Mississippi and overwhelmed the New Orleans levee system, submerging large areas of the city. Nearly 1,400 were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed.
The harrowing disaster prompted widespread criticisms of the preparation, evacuation and response at every level.
In the USA TODAY/Ipsos poll of 1,023 adults, 978 said they were familiar with Katrina's aftermath. Among those, the poll found a sizable partisan split in perceptions of the response – 44% of Republicans said they approved, while an equal percentage of Democrats said they disapproved.
If a similar disaster occurred today, roughly a third thought the federal government's response would be worse than during Katrina. Only 22% said it would be better.
Within that same group:
84% support "a well-coordinated and well-funded" emergency response system.
81% said Katrina showed better disaster preparedness is needed in coastal areas.
70% said the federal government should play a "major role" in disaster response, with 65% of Republicans choosing "major role" and 87% of Democrats.
83% said state governments should play a major role and 79% said local governments should play a major role.
The USA TODAY/Ipsos poll, using the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points for the entire results, but a higher error margin of 5 to 6 percentage points for individual categories.
Decades of discussion
When it comes to casting blame against FEMA, Fugate said sometimes the agency is just the most high-profile target among the dozens of agencies that play a role after disasters.
"My experience is, in a disaster people are hurt and angry, and a lot of that anger gets aimed at FEMA," Fugate said. "They're visible, they look bureaucratic, and some of that's fair."
Billion dollar disasters: Federal database that tracked weather disasters no longer being
More than a dozen studies and reports in Katrina's wake recommended changes at FEMA, and reports show many of those were enacted.
Criticisms and reports also emerged after Hurricane Andrew, which clobbered Homestead and parts of South Florida in 1992. In a speech to a congressional committee in May 1993, Ohio Senator and astronaut John Glenn said FEMA should be "more proactive and responsive" and that states should contribute their "fair share."
After Helene's deadly path from Florida to North Carolina and Virginia in 2024, national security experts warned some of the criticisms or inaccurate information about FEMA, dating back as far as Katrina, are false or artificial, created by foreign governments and circulated by bots on social media to sow dissent and ill will in the U.S.
FEMA on scene near the Superdome in New Orleans where people fled to high ground after devastating flooding submerged much of the city by water as much as 12 foot deep. Ultimately nearly 1,400 people died and thousands were left homeless along the Gulf Coast.
One of the first actions of the Trump administration was the creation of a federal panel to review FEMA, and since Inauguration Day, the administration has reduced FEMA's staff of 6,000 full-time workers by as much as a third through terminations and voluntary retirement packages.
Trump administration continues to suggest FEMA could go away
To coincide with Katrina's anniversary, more than 180 current and former FEMA employees, including 35 who used their names, sent a "Katrina Declaration" to Congress on Aug. 26, warning the inexperience of the agency's leadership would impair its ability to respond to a multi-state Katrina-level catastrophe. The agency is taking steps that echo the conditions that prompted post-Katrina legislation by Congress in 2006, and has not appointed a qualified administrator, the letter stated.
The nonprofit that helped organize the letter, Stand Up For Science, said FEMA has placed some of the employees who signed the declaration on administrative leave.
FEMA did not directly respond to a USA TODAY request for comment about the poll. But the agency has provided messaging about its goals. At a meeting of the president's review council in May 2025, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she was looking to reimagine the agency.
The nation's disaster response should not be bogged down by the red tape and inefficiencies it has been known for, but committed to building something that assists the states and works for the public, the agency has said. FEMA also reiterated one of Fugate's mantras, that the system should be built on the principles of local execution, state management and federal support.
A falloff in confidence in government since Katrina
Only 30% of those polled by USA TODAY/Ipsos indicated they were "very confident" or "somewhat confident" in the federal government. That's down from 47% around six months after Katrina's double landfalls in Louisiana and Mississippi.
While they were nearly split on whether they were confident in the ability of their state or local government's ability to handle a major disaster, a slightly higher margin of people said they were confident.
Crow was deployed to the Middle East during Katrina, but heard the horror stories from New Orleans. No one was prepared for such a large-scale flooding event, he said. "It wasn't that FEMA didn't do a good job. It wasn't that the National Guard didn't do a good job. It was really difficult communication."
From his perspective the communication and coordination in Louisiana between federal, state and local officials, through the coordination of the National Guard, has "really, really improved significantly" since Katrina.
He would not support increasing FEMA's funding. Like many other large operations, he said, "It's all about management."
Dinah Voyles Pulver covers climate change and the environment for USA TODAY. She's written about hurricanes, tornadoes and violent weather for more than 30 years. Reach her at [email protected] or @dinahvp on Bluesky and X or at dinahvp.77 on Signal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Poll shows FEMA's standing 20 years after Hurricane Katrina
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