Acting head of FEMA told staff he was previously unaware the US has a hurricane season; DHS said he was joking

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency were reportedly caught off guard when the disaster relief agency’s new acting head, David Richardson, told personnel that he was previously unaware that the United States has a hurricane season, which started Sunday.

Richardson made the comments during a briefing Monday morning, multiple sources told CNN. While some interpreted the remark as a joke, others said it raised concerns about the recently appointed acting administrator, who has no prior experience managing natural disasters.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told CNN the comment was made in jest. FEMA is laser-focused on disaster response, and protecting the American people,” he added.

Richardson’s remarks came on the second day of the 2025 hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting a 60% chance of an above-normal season in the Atlantic. They predict 13 to 19 named storms. Of those, six to 10 are projected to become hurricanes, and three to five are expected to become major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher).

RELATED: NOAA releases 2025 Atlantic hurricane season outlook

2024 was one of the worst hurricane seasons in history. Over 250 people were killed when Hurricane Helene stormed ashore on the East Coast. In the Houston area, Category 1 Hurricane Beryl left dozens dead and caused widespread damage and power outages.

In Monday’s meeting, Richardson also announced that FEMA will not release an updated disaster plan for this hurricane season as previously promised, saying the agency does not want to get ahead of Trump’s newly formed FEMA Review Council, sources said.

In a memo issued last month and obtained by CNN, Richardson scrapped FEMA’s 2022-2026 strategic plan, saying it “contains goals and objectives that bear no connection to FEMA accomplishing its mission.”

Instead, Richardson said Monday that FEMA will largely default back to its operating procedure from 2024, though the agency enters this hurricane season in turmoil, with a dramatically smaller workforce.

Roughly 10% of FEMA’s total staff have left since January, including a large swath of its senior leadership. The agency is projected to lose close to 30% of its workforce by the end of the year, shrinking FEMA from about 26,000 workers to roughly 18,000, according to a FEMA official briefed on the numbers.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it will hire for “mission-critical field positions” amid expert warnings that the weather service is too short-staffed to warn people of the dangers of the upcoming extreme weather season. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cuts gutted NOAA and the National Weather Service earlier this year. The agency on Monday didn’t say how many jobs it would post. Hundreds of weather forecasters were fired and other federal NOAA employees were put on probationary status in February, followed by a later round of more than 1,000 cuts at the agency.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appointed Richardson – a former Marine combat veteran and martial-arts instructor – in early May. She fired President Donald Trump’s first acting FEMA chief just hours after he broke from other Trump officials and told lawmakers he did not support eliminating FEMA.

Richardson has promised to enforce Trump’s agenda. In an all-hands meeting on his first day at FEMA, Richardson told agency staff he would “run right over” anyone who tries to prevent him from carrying out the president’s mission, CNN previously reported.

Since then, the Department of Homeland Security has installed more than half a dozen of its officials into key roles at FEMA to effectively run the agency. Most of them, like Richardson, have little experience handling disasters.

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