Rare circulation pattern of twin systems off the Southeast coast might help avoid a direct hit. Which is a good thing, since FEMA is in a state of Trumpian discombobulation.
The growing disaster-recovery economy is about to be tested in the US.
After a quiet start to hurricane season in the Atlantic, twin systems have erupted – and they likely won’t be the last. California, meanwhile, is entering its riskiest period for wildfires.
This is playing out as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is responsible for funding and managing disaster response and recovery, hemorrhages staff and faces the possibility of further downsizing.
That uncertainty – layered on top of a surge in billion-dollar weather disasters nationwide – has created something of a vacuum that entrepreneurs are eager to fill. Private firefighting crewshelped safeguard high-value homes in Los Angeles as whole neighborhoods burned in January. And a startup called Bright Harbor is offering what it’s billed as a “white glove service” to navigate homeowners through the dizzying process of rebuilding.
“This is an insanely complicated thing,” says Bright Harbor founder and Chief Executive Officer Joel Wish, who began working on the concept after a close friend lost his home in the 2021 Marshall fire in the suburbs of Boulder, Colorado. “For every single person, it’s their entire life.”
It’s also a logistical morass: Beyond the immediate emotional fallout, homeowners and renters in the US are typically bombarded by deadlines and high-stakes applications of all kinds – from property insurance claims to federal grants for short-term housing and low-interest rebuilding loans.
After the LA fires, Bright Harbor assigned case workers to guide clients on the tedious quest to rebuild, which Wish describes as a game of “hurry up and wait.” Even with the company’s help, hearing back from insurers and government aid programs still takes time, he says. Some clients eventually gave up on rebuilding their decimated homes and chose to start over somewhere else.
The Austin, Texas-based startup – which says it’s helped more than 10,000 survivors since it launched in 2024 – initially marketed itself directly to consumers at a cost of about $300 per month. But increasingly, it’s promoting itself to companies. The pitch: Bright Harbor can minimize business disruptions by helping workers find emergency housing and get ongoing support if a disaster strikes. Going that route may prove more lucrative over the long haul.
Michael Lowery in Eye on the Tropics:
Forecasts for soon-to-be Imelda continue to trend in a positive direction for the southeastern U.S. and coastal Carolinas, with the consensus of forecast models now slowing the system’s progress, allowing it to get caught by nearby Hurricane Humberto’s wide circulation and swept sharply east and away from the U.S.
As we’ve mentioned in previous newsletters, even with future Imelda offshore, heavy rainfall will continue to be a threat, especially along the coastal plain of the Carolinas from Charleston to Morehead City, from tomorrow through early Wednesday, but extreme higher-end amounts appear less likely.
Nevertheless, residents in the southeast should continue to monitor the forecasts closely, as Imelda’s close approach this week as a hurricane is expected to bring impacts including dangerous surf, life-threatening rip currents, and the possibility of heavy rainfall along the immediate coasts, especially on Monday and Tuesday.
Many of FEMA’s core functions related to preparing for natural disasters and leading recovery efforts after they strike have ground to a halt as the Trump administration redefines the agency, according to more than a dozen FEMA employees and local officials, as well as a review of internal government documents.
Crucial contracts and grants haven’t been approved, caught up in layers of new bureaucracy. A wave of senior staff departed the agency when Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency offered buyouts, taking decades of experience with them. Around 400 FEMA employees have been detailed to work at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as that agency rapidly expands. And the administration has started dismantling the agency’s disaster-response infrastructure, which was strengthened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The scaled-back federal response has left places like St. Louis in a bind. The city doesn’t have the finances, institutional knowledge or equipment to rapidly respond to catastrophic disasters like the tornado that struck in May, which the city estimates caused $1.6 billion in damage.
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer—a Democrat, who had been in office for just a month when the tornado hit—pointed in an interview to the rapid federal response to a tornado that struck Joplin, Mo., in 2011. “That didn’t happen here,” she said. “We’re running the response ourselves.”
Meanwhile, the poor Europeans on the Iberian Peninsula have been suffering from the remnants of Gabrielle (peaked at Cat 4), another major miss for the US in the Atlantic this season.