Placerville, Calif., bears all the markers of a community at risk of wildfire: rolling hillsides dense with brush that dries in summer and older wooden homes prone to igniting. “It’s a perfect storm for devastation,” says Tanya Harlow, wildfire resilience officer for El Dorado County.
Local officials have been preparing a FEMA-funded pilot program to help houses survive wildfires by providing financial support for fire-resistant materials and clearing flammable brush. County staff spent three years preparing to enroll more than 500 homes, but under the Trump administration the project has been stalled for more than a year because FEMA has not approved the project plan.
Placerville is one of hundreds of communities nationwide waiting on a growing FEMA backlog. States say disaster funding payments slowed sharply under the Trump administration, delaying projects intended to help communities withstand wildfires, hurricanes and floods. Internal FEMA documents obtained by NPR show the agency owes communities almost $10 billion, much of it reimbursement for repairs local governments already paid for after major disasters.
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Emergency managers from several states say the backlog is stressing local budgets and delaying or risking disaster projects that took years to plan. “We’re just at a standstill and we’re all very, very frustrated with the inability to do the work that desperately needs to be done,” says Pam Bates, project manager for the Shasta County Fire Safe Council, which is also awaiting FEMA approval for a community wildfire project.
FEMA did not answer NPR’s questions about why disaster funding slowed or comment on the amount owed to states. The logjam coincides with a June decision by then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to require all grants over $100,000 to be reviewed by her office for “waste, fraud, and abuse,” including FEMA grants. A Senate Democrats report found that policy significantly slowed disaster aid. Noem was fired by Trump in March; her replacement, Markwayne Mullin, revoked Noem’s review policy earlier this month, though the majority of funding has still not been released.
Many of the stalled grants fund rebuilding and retrofitting to better withstand future disasters through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The bulk of the money sits in the Public Assistance Program, which reimburses states for repairing major infrastructure—roads, bridges and water treatment plants—after disasters. Communities plan and pay for projects up front and are later reimbursed by FEMA, creating cash-flow problems when reimbursements are delayed. “In some states, you’re finding where they’re having to really take emergency measures to pay those bills, which means potentially cutting other programs that people care about,” says Andrew Rumbach of the Urban Institute.
In Placerville, the stakes are clear. Adele Montgomery, who built her house more than 40 years ago, has already trimmed branches and cleared brush to create defensible space. But an aging wooden deck around her home remains a major vulnerability. Under El Dorado County’s Weber Creek Project—a $25 million initiative approved by FEMA in 2023—homeowners may be eligible for up to $40,000 for retrofits, with the county managing contractors. An inspector recommended removing Montgomery’s deck and adding fire-resistant flashing, but the county submitted an environmental review to FEMA in February and still has not received approval more than a year later. Officials had hoped to begin work before the wildfire season.
“We’re educating our communities on the importance of this, but then there’s no resources for them,” Harlow says. The county designed the project as a model, following research showing neighborhoods are less likely to burn when most homes participate. “Real resilience really is at the community level,” Harlow says.
Other California communities face similar delays. Plumas County is waiting on $2.5 million for vegetation clearing around homes. The Shasta County Fire Safe Council’s project to improve about 500 homes is also held up; with its FEMA grant set to expire in August, council leaders are seeking an extension. “We have buy-in from the community and the problem is that we can’t get through the process, which is mandatory in order to access the FEMA funding, because FEMA is not participating,” Bates says.
The delays are longer than normal for an agency already known for slow administrative processes, emergency managers say. FEMA reports show funding disbursal slowed beginning in June last year. In late February the agency released over $5 billion in recovery funds; before that, the agency’s public assistance backlog exceeded $14 billion, according to internal FEMA data NPR confirmed with several states.
Lawmakers and officials have criticized the pace. At a Congressional hearing questioning Noem, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis said, “People are hurting in Western North Carolina from the most significant storm they’ve ever experienced. I have reason to believe that you’re violating the law either knowingly or unknowingly.”
FEMA has also lost thousands of employees since Trump took office and has been affected by recent government shutdowns. Trump has said FEMA should be eliminated or significantly scaled down, shifting more disaster response to states. He appointed a 12-person FEMA Review Council to suggest agency reforms; while its final report has not been released, leaked drafts indicate the panel may recommend further staffing cuts.
The Trump administration cancelled the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program, saying it was focused on “climate change” initiatives and inefficient. A judge recently ordered the program reinstated, but FEMA has not said when the cancelled funds might be restored.
Research shows investing before disasters saves money over the long run by preventing costly damage and repairs. As the climate warms, communities face more intense weather events—hurricanes, floods and storms that produce heavier rainfall. “If we stop investing from the federal level, that means that we may be rebuilding things where they’re vulnerable to the exact same disaster as before, that we’re making ourselves more vulnerable to future disasters, and that they’re going to cost more,” Rumbach says. “Mitigation has shown over and over again to be a good investment.”