The military now has a seat in the governor’s emergency management department, and President Donald Trump is working to phase out FEMA. For parishes like St. Tammany, all of this could change everything about how disaster relief shows up and who pays for it.
The state’s Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) is now under new leadership, with a new model for how it delivers help. In March, Gov. Jeff Landry merged GOHSEP with the Louisiana National Guard and put Brigadier General Jason Mahfouz in charge.
Instead of stockpiling supplies like generators and pumps, Mahfouz says the state is now relying on outside contracts.
“So rather than maintaining large stocks of generators and pumps and light sets and all the other apparatuses that tend to be needed in an emergency,” Mahfouz said, “the Office of State Procurement put those out in an RFP to establish what we’re calling the logistics support area.”
But just as GOHSEP shifts its approach, its biggest source of money, FEMA, is facing uncertainty.
According to GOHSEP’s own records, about 87% of its funding comes from FEMA. And now, President Donald Trump is campaigning on phasing out FEMA entirely.
That move could completely change the disaster recovery process in places like St. Tammany Parish, which relies heavily on both state and federal help during hurricanes.
“There’s uncertainty,” said St. Tammany Parish PIO Michael Vinsanau. “There are decisions that could come down that could impact how things are done locally. We don’t know at this point what this could be.”
Clint Ory, who runs Homeland Security and Emergency Management for the parish, is watching closely.
“I’m in the wait-and-see mode,” Ory said.
Still, he believes that no matter what FEMA is called, or who’s running it, the federal government won’t be able to walk away from major disasters.
“Whether it’s called FEMA or something else, the reality is the federal government will have to have a role in major disasters,” Ory said. “And I don’t think that’s going to go away.”
READ MORE:St. Tammany braces for Hurricane Season amid state and federal changes
