By Commissioner Lesley Briones, Harris County Precinct 4

Last Fourth of July, families across the Texas Hill Country woke in the dark  to the sound of rushing water as the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in under an hour. By morning, entire neighborhoods were underwater, homes that families had built over lifetimes were destroyed, and more than 130 Texans were dead .

As a mom and as a Commissioner in Harris County, one of the nation's most disaster-prone areas, I think about those families often—their terror as the water rose, the grief of the days that followed, and the isolation they must have felt when no one from their federal government was there to help.

When desperate survivors called for assistance, no one picked up. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) let funding lapse for the federal aid hotline, and roughly 40,000 calls went unanswered over five days. To make it worse, the Trump Administration also ended FEMA's door-to-door canvassing program, leaving families to navigate online forms with spotty cell phone service. Three months later, less than a fifth of flood survivors had been deemed eligible for aid.

As a proud Texan and American, I am outraged for the families in the Hill Country and terrified of what will happen (or not) with FEMA when the next storm hits. We know exactly how this story ends because the people of New Orleans lived it 20 years ago, after the federal government cut key disaster programs and replaced experienced FEMA leaders with political appointees. When Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the consequences were catastrophic—tens of thousands were stranded, hospitals went without resources, and chaos reigned. 

The lessons of Katrina came at an enormous cost, and Congress took them seriously by passing the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, which specifically prohibited DHS from undermining FEMA's mission. It was a promise that this nation would never again be caught unprepared.

The Trump Administration has now broken that promise. They have already slashed FEMA's workforce by roughly 20% . Contracts for experienced disaster response teams are not being renewed. And despite bipartisan outrage from leaders in states like Missouri and North Carolina—where botched responses to tornadoes and floods left communities without help—DHS has only doubled down, ordering the agency to reduce its workforce by roughly half, with more than 10,000  additional positions slated for elimination in the coming months.

This crisis of leadership affects Harris County more than most. We have had four federally declared disasters in the last five years, and we recently scored a perfect 100 on FEMA's hurricane risk index—the highest in the nation. After Hurricane Beryl, nearly 15% of our residents filed for FEMA assistance. When the next storm hits, a hollowed-out FEMA will be a disaster within a disaster for our community.

That is why Harris County is fighting back. In partnership with Commissioners Court, our county attorney filed for a temporary restraining order to halt the gutting of FEMA's workforce. The filing is part of broader litigation we and other jurisdictions brought to challenge the Administration's planned reductions in force. While earlier court orders and congressional action temporarily blocked the worst of those cuts, the Administration has responded by requiring the agency to slash staffing even further. With hurricane season less than 100 days away, we are asking the court to act now before it is too late.  

In Harris County, we are doubling down and doing everything in our power to prepare. We have invested billions in flood control infrastructure and are executing on hundreds of capital and maintenance projects across the county. My Precinct 4 team is on the ground after every storm, setting up shelters, clearing roads, rescuing those who are trapped, and distributing supplies. We are strengthening our partnerships with nonprofits, places of worship, and the private sector to ensure our community's safety net is as strong as possible when disaster strikes. We need the same level of commitment from the Trump Administration. 

In the words of the Bush Administration's own post-Katrina review: 'Americans  have the right to expect that the federal government will effectively respond to a catastrophic incident.' History has shown us—from the rooftops of New Orleans to the banks of the Guadalupe River—exactly what happens when the federal government shirks that fundamental responsibility. We are in the courtroom and on the ground doing everything in our power to protect our community. But no city or county can do this alone. The next storm is coming. We need FEMA to answer the call.