It seems like the jobs I qualify for are more for Mitigation and I'd be working with a lot of inundation mapping. I currently am in the private sector working on a lot of hydraulic modeling but am wondering if FEMA is a good place to transition to. Is FEMA still at risk due to the current administration?

Not FEMA but people in this community may know… Does anyone have experience with the certification program offered by AAEM such as the Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master Level Emergency Manager certifications? I don't work for a government (ESF non-profit work) so I'm not eligible for Master level or for the CLEM certifications. Have these certifications advanced your career?

Just wondering what everyone else’s deployment experience has been over the last couple years, especially the DCC folks.

I used to deploy 50 weeks a year but in the past 1.5 years I was only deployed for 3 months which was simultaneously during the shutdown…

Just wondering how people are feeling about the current deployment climate and what’s been happening in different cadres.

Thanks!

Why does FEMA let the elevation certificate expire? Is it that big of a deal to reissue the old one with a new date ?

Thank you in advance.

About a year or so ago, I reached out to a company that has a FEMA contract because I was looking to become an independent contractor to perform inspections. They responded and told me they only hire inspectors as employees. Understood. Unfortunately, at this point in my life, I am not willing to do that. I completely understand that becoming their employee means I cannot be selective about where I travel, and it is basically wherever they need me.

I currently perform NSPIRE inspections for HUD as a subcontractor. The beauty of that is I can accept or decline basically anything outside my travel area. I am also a NYS licensed home inspector, and I perform a few other types of inspections as well. I have a young family, so at this point traveling extensively is not really in the cards. When we become empty nesters, that is the plan.

If I am wrong or misinformed about anything regarding the FEMA work, please forgive me. I would appreciate any knowledge someone is willing to give, whether via a comment or inbox.

Additionally, if anyone is willing to share which companies they do work for, I would appreciate it. Are there any other types of inspections that everyone is doing?

Again, thank you.

Whelp our esteemed and clueless administrator has provided us yet again a new set of strategic priorities. None of which support disaster preparedness or response. The country is going to be real SOL when a big event hits and FEMA has no capacity to do anything. If you haven’t seen it, these are the new “priorities”:

1. Reduce Federal Government Dependency
   My thoughts: This is another way for the admin to deny disaster requests. We all want states to be more self sufficient. But that requires resources and TAXES that they (red states) will not approve.

2. Deliver America First Resilience
   My thoughts: what the fuck does this actually mean? “Hardening infrastructure”? FEMA isn’t a military complex and we don’t “harden” anything. We plan, prepare for and mitigate. This sounds like a way for FEMA funding to be diverted to national security instead of disaster response.

3. Return Power to the American people
   My thoughts: another asinine “priority” that just echos the first priority because Cam the Ham doesn’t know diddly squat about emergency preparedness or response, and quite frankly doesn’t care.

4. Strengthen National Security
   My thoughts: yet again, another priority that has no relation to the mission, and is likely fully pushed down by DHS. Yet another priority that allows our funding to be diverted to projects that have nothing to do with helping people before, during, and after disasters.

Wow…so FEMA could have Disaster Survivor Assistance (aka Community Relations) back? What a way to circle back to the good ol’ days!!!!

Greetings to all fellow Reservists currently in "Non-Deployment Status." From what I can see, the situation within the Agency is a disaster. Many friends and colleagues have asked me: "Why haven't they called? Why isn't FEMA activating Reservists?" This is unacceptable; it is completely uncalled for within the Agency. We are Emergency Managers, and we have the right to be called up! There are three ongoing events, plus situations in Hawaii and Alaska, as well as other disasters that were declared months ago. Ohio and Indiana were declared disaster areas three days ago—there are people there. What is going on?

People with disabilities are more likely than other survivors to face hardship due to a major disaster. The Federal Emergency Management Agency supports state and local partners who help disaster survivors, including people with disabilities.

However, FEMA no longer trains its partners on including people with disabilities in disaster response. Nor does the agency routinely coordinate with partners before disasters to support this population. And FEMA's application for financial assistance may make it hard for some people with disabilities to apply.

Recommendations

GAO is making three recommendations that FEMA address the needs of people with disabilities in disasters by re-instituting disability training for state and local partners, standardizing the role of regional disability staff to coordinate with state and local partners before disasters, and soliciting feedback on the accessibility of the financial assistance application process. FEMA concurred with our recommendations.

1. The FEMA Administrator should re-institute training to state and local partners on addressing the needs of people with disabilities in disasters.

2. The FEMA Administrator should document and standardize that the disability specialist role in all regions includes coordinating with relevant state and local partners before disasters happen to ensure that the needs of people with disabilities are taken into account during disasters.

3. The FEMA Administrator should solicit and incorporate feedback on its IA application process from people with different types of disabilities to address issues we identified in this report, such as use of plain language and the discontinuation of door-to-door assistance teams, and make it easier for people with disabilities to apply for assistance.

GAO Link: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-108057

Full report: https://files.gao.gov/reports/GAO-26-108057/index.html?_gl=1*131l0cd*_ga*NDc2NzIwMTE4LjE3OTE1MjUwMDQ.*_ga_V393SNS3SR*czE3OTE1MjUwMDQkbzEkZzEkdDE3OTE1MjUxNDEkajYwJGwwJGgw

I’m a Creative Specialist in EA and I was just curious.

Curious.. I see jobs posting curious if anyone can give me some feedback about what it’s like there? I was a Riffed Fed who got back made in back in.. but new jobs a crazy commute.. I never considered FEMA before but this would cut my commute by about an hour each way… what’s the Good, Bad and ugly about working there?

Hey all. Basically the title; I'm seeking anyone who is a former DHS or FEMA employee, or who has worked closely with FEMA.

I’m looking for insight into how operations are actually carried out (not just "how they should be" because those are two very very different things), especially around "deployment readiness," personnel qualifications, staffing, training, approvals, resource coordination, and incident response.

I want to understand the real workflows used in practice before making assumptions based only on public documentation. I’m especially interested in where existing processes or systems create unnecessary friction, what works well today, and what staff actually need during day-to-day operations and deployments. I also heard that this is a pretty big bipartisan issue (future of FEMA and its organizational structure) which means that there may be a big distinction between "how software at FEMA gets things done" and "how FEMA actually gets things done in reality."

DO NOT DISCLOSE PRIVATE INFORMATION!

If you have relevant experience and would be willing to talk for 20-30 minutes, please respond here.

EDIT:

First and foremost, someone claimed this is potential phishing. This is not the case in the slightest: I asked to not disclose PII, I was clear that I would like to chat directly with someone involved, and I was very clear that I'm curious how their deployment readiness tooling works in particular. The tools in question are usually siloed and accessibly only by individuals who are involved to which there is a very high and robust level of security protections in place to deter bad actors. Also, my name is literally in my Reddit handle.

Anyways, on with a bit more detail. I'll be thorough because I was not specific enough. I'm interested specifically in the Deployment Tracking System that is sometimes referred to as the "Legacy DTS." I am currently building a modernized version, a potential incumbent for a future opportunity, but in order to be anywhere close to operational and in order to deliver something worth using, I have to get into the nitty gritty details about how real workflows look in several departments. RFIs / Sources Sought are great opportunities for experts in the field to understand real requirements and speak with people who have used the legacy tooling.

Here is a list of workflows I'm curious about because I was genuinely broad, but the goal is to eventually understand what is lacking and what is inefficient:

* Responder requests position -> PTB assigned -> tasks completed and evaluations recorded -> training reqs checked -> qualification progresses (1.1.1 in the RFI)
* Mentorship, e.g. assigning trainee to mentor -> mentor coaches -> mentor evaluates trainee (1.1.2)
* Development plans (e.g. responder creates goals -> mentor evaluates trainee) (1.1.3)
* Deployment performance evaluation, course registration, instructor management, curriculum management, training feedback (this is an interesting aside: where does feedback occur -- are there communication threads similar to what you might see on Asana or Monday?)
* The actual LMS structure
* Training transcript / certs and decertification as well

The most obvious DTS questions I could come up with:

* Which systems are authoritative for personnel, identity, qualifications, training, incident data, travel, property/equipment, and organizational structure? For each domain, should DART own the record, replicate it, or only reference it? This determines the data structure of the build.
* Is DART modernizing their LMS too? Or integrating it with an existing partner?
* What exactly determines whether a responder is eligible for deployment? Which conditions are mandatory, preferences, overrides, etc?
* What does the existing DTS usually integrate with as opposed to what it hosts on-prem?

More importantly, though: what problems do you guys have with the legacy DTS? Is there a bug or a feature that is simply so manual, inefficient, unworkable, or annoying that you'd be more than happy to have automated?

They've already told us no one is getting above a 3 so why are they making us waste our time with writing our own performance assessments? They say is "optional" but not really. What will happen if I don't want to do it?

Nobody is taking about the future of direct housing and the cadre. Rumor is IA will absorb the part of running the MHUs for the state when needed. Any word from anyone about this?

Any updates on renewals? I feel people are not paying attention to this anymore. I have not heard from anyone that they have been renewed or have extended. Any word from anyone?

Is it even a thing? Who would someone even talk to if say they wanted to take 6 weeks without pay? HR or direct supervisor? Any additional risk to being released permanently?
Asking for a friend…

I am doing my doctoral capstone on Disaster Response. I am trying to find associations of retired emergency management officials I can reach out to. Can anyone lead me in the right direction? Thanks in advance

So, DHS has decided that our performance evaluations need to be "calibrated" by a panel, and they've helpfully created a "voluntary" self-assessment survey that asks, among other things, "Describe how your work and/or accomplishments helped advance the Administration's priorities."

Is anyone's component leadership not requiring them to answer this BS?