🛡️ Imagine... FEMA Fully Funded, Pacific Fully Protected 🛡️
💡 Imagined Endstate:
A future where Pacific Island communities, including Hawai‘i, are guaranteed robust, coordinated federal disaster response through a fully funded FEMA — safeguarding lives, lands, and the future of our most isolated communities.
📚 Source:
Maron, D. F. (2025, April 2). As Noem Proposes Cutting FEMA, Disaster Response Will Fall to Local, State. Scientific American. Link.
💥 What’s the Big Deal:
Governor Kristi Noem’s call to dismantle FEMA and return disaster response to states and counties would not only roll back decades of coordinated emergency management — it would endanger the very lives FEMA is designed to protect 🚨. In the words of disaster expert Lori Peek, “Every disaster is local until it overwhelms local capacity” — and in Hawai‘i, that point comes fast due to our geographic isolation 🌊, limited supply chain access 🚢, and vulnerable infrastructure.
The FEMA system was born from a recognition that local governments can’t do it alone during large-scale disasters like wildfires, hurricanes, or infrastructure collapse 🔥🌪️💥. Cutting FEMA’s budget would unravel the national patchwork of coordination, training, and rapid response it enables 🛠️. This isn’t about bloated bureaucracy — it’s about saving lives quickly, efficiently, and equitably ⚖️.
Pacific Island communities — including U.S. territories and Hawai‘i — already face the “tyranny of distance”. Without FEMA, response efforts would become delayed, underfunded, and fragmented 📉. Disaster relief would become a lottery of geography and wealth, where the poor, rural, or remote are left behind ⏳.
We must reject this shortsighted move. FEMA represents national unity in crisis — the very embodiment of “no one gets left behind” 🫱🏽🫲🏾.
📢Protect FEMA, and you protect our Pacific future.
#ProtectFEMA, #DisasterJustice, #PacificPreparedness, #TyrannyOfDistance, #HawaiiResilience, #EmergencyEquity, #IMSPARK
