A flooded neighborhood in Athertonville in Larue County where weekend rains pushed the Rolling Fork River out of its banks, Feb. 17, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)
FRANKFORT — Criticism of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is nothing new in Kentucky which in less than three years has been hit by an EF-4 tornado and now a third major flood.
But the flooding that swept all 120 counties over the weekend is the first since President Donald Trump ordered a “full-scale review” of FEMA and suggested the agency should perhaps be disbanded and its responsibilities handed over to the states.
Republican lawmakers in Kentucky are echoing some of Trump’s complaints as their constituents look to the agency for help.
“It would work so much better if we can get that money, those resources, down to our boots on the ground,” Sen. Phillip Wheeler said Tuesday on the Senate floor. Wheeler represents southeastern Kentucky’s mountainous Pike County which suffered heavy damage from the most recent floods.
Senate President Robert Stivers left the podium and took to the floor Tuesday to make a speech criticizing FEMA.
Stivers said he has heard from “very reputable entities that have refused to deal with FEMA any more because of how adversely they were treated in the past.” He said that on a “professional level and a personal level,” he’s discovered how “disorganized these individuals were” when responding to disasters in Eastern Kentucky.
“I’m going to compliment the governor,” Stivers said. “Our state, our emergency services, our first responders know it better and do it better than people from outside of this state. FEMA needs to look at sending the money to where it is needed and letting people who know how to use it, use it.”
After his floor speech, Stivers told reporters that his issues with FEMA’s responses include setting up command centers miles away from displaced residents. He has also heard of victims of disasters having issues with filing reports and information with FEMA, either by getting conflicting information from different workers or by not having access to a computer.
Stivers said that he didn’t know if FEMA should be “dismantled or revamped,” but he did know that the Kentucky Emergency Management agency, first responders and other local individuals “do a good job of getting it out on the ground.” He credited a lot of that to knowing the area and its people.
Stivers also complained about FEMA’s response after devastating flash floods in July 2022. A month after the disaster, Stivers said the more people from the federal government who arrive in the damaged areas, the better, but that “the federal government has not moved fast enough.”
On Tuesday, Stivers said: “The individuals they bring in here from Denver or Massachusetts or Texas — they have no clue where they’re going, what they’re doing, or who the people are, or who to turn to for a legitimate, honest assessment of the problems.”
Kentuckian overseeing FEMA efforts in Kentucky now
The FEMA official now overseeing the agency’s efforts in Kentucky, Jeremy Slinker, is intimately familiar with the state and its people, having served as director of Kentucky Emergency Management from March 2022 until leaving to join FEMA in late 2023.
Slinker is a former Kentucky State Police trooper and commander who also directed the Kentucky State Parks Ranger Division.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear during a media briefing Sunday said Kentucky is fortunate to have Slinker in a federal position of authority.
“He was our emergency management director during some of our other most difficult times,” the governor said. “He is now the FEMA federal coordinating officer. We’re really lucky that the guy who came back to help us in Kentucky has helped us a whole lot in Kentucky. He knows our capabilities.”
In response to Trump’s criticism of FEMA, Beshear has said that dismantling the agency would be disastrous and that its responses have improved during his time as governor but that more improvement is needed. Beshear said transferring FEMA’s responsibilities to the states would be impractical because the overhead costs in 50 states “would eat up most of that money.”
Visiting flood-devastated western North Carolin after Hurricane Helene, Trump said FEMA is slow and bureaucratic and floated the idea of getting rid of the agency altogether. In a Jan. 24 executive order, Trump created a 20-member council that is to recommend ways to overhaul FEMA. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are the group’s co-chairs.
The current flooding would make the 13th federally declared disaster declaration in Beshear’s five years as governor, if, as expected, Trump issues the declaration. The president on Saturday declared an emergency in Kentucky. Beshear is stressing the importance of thoroughly documenting flood damage to justify the state’s request for federal disaster aid. He said county property valuation administrators play an important role in calculating damage to property and so can affected individuals.
Since 2017, Kentucky has been allocated almost $2.9 billion in federal aid for natural disaster response and recovery. Of that amount, $1.7 billion has been allocated through FEMA and almost $1.4 billion of that amount has been disbursed. The figures exclude COVID-19 disaster funding.
Beshear said on social media Tuesday that he sent a request for individual assistance from FEMA to Trump, Noem and FEMA’s acting director.
“This funding would provide for immediate needs and clean-up for those affected,” Beshear said.
