Disasterology: June 2026

This newsletter is a compilation of recent disaster ~things~ that I think are cool, important, or otherwise of interest to people who are intrigued with disaster (broadly defined). There’s a little something for everyone!

Good Evening!

I write to you from New Orleans where Tropical Storm Arthur has arrived. Stay safe out there!

I realize I sent you all a newsletter a few days ago but I had to get us caught up. I promise you won’t hear from me again for several weeks.

Cameron Hamilton has officially been nominated to be the next FEMA Administrator. As I discussed previously, when this was still just rumored, I think this is nuts! My assessment was confirmed while listening to the new American Emergency series.

American Emergency: The Movement to Kill FEMA is a four-part series put together by On The Media. It covers the history of FEMA and the agency’s current status. If you are a reader of this newsletter, the first three episodes cover things you probably already know. Episode One covers the founding of FEMA through the Oklahoma City response, as the final blows between civil defense and emergency management played out. Then there is the necessary Katrina episode which reviews how incompetent leadership, distraction from mission, and lack of resources conspired to break the agency. Episode three covers FEMA’s post-Katrina rebuilding and the agency’s response to Hurricane Helene.

It is episode four that you have to listen to. If I find out you haven’t listened, I am going to be very mad.

This is the only sit down interview Hamilton had done about his time at FEMA (January-May 2025). The timing is critical. It was recorded in December 2025 which is a good seven months after he was fired, but before he was nominated to be administrator.

I’m going to spoil the episode, so if you want to listen go do that now.

The first thing we learn from this interview is that Hamilton has not found peace with his firing. To give you a sense, the episode opens with Hamilton insinuating he wants to wrap his hands around Corey Lewendowski’s neck over his accusation that Hamilton leaked the contents of a meeting to a reporter. I am not exaggerating. Here’s the exchange between Hamilton and the reporter, Micah Loewinger.

Cameron Hamilton: I wanted to choke somebody. And that’s exactly what came through my mind. [laughter]

Micah: Oh my God.

Cameron Hamilton: Just living in my flesh, doing some very un-Christian things to a certain person, but nonetheless…

Micah: A, a certain person being Mr. Lewandowski.

Cameron Hamilton: No, no, we’re, yeah, I think you can read between the lines on that statement.

[The phrase “just living in my flesh” is wild.]

From there Hamilton covers a lot of ground including: his fighting with Noem, leaks to the media, the lie detector test and how as a Navy Seal he has been training to beat them (but don’t worry, he didn’t use that training this time), his pre-FEMA podcast interviews where he discussed “dismantling the administrative state”, his decision to give Elon Musk and DOGE complete access to FEMA, removing addressing “climate change” as a primary goal of the agency, his memo on (illegally) abolishing FEMA, and the circumstances around his firing.

He even confirmed the rumor we thought was a joke about how they were considering renaming FEMA, the National Office of Emergency Management… i.e., NOEM… was true. It was in Hamilton’s damn abolishing FEMA memo!

The most damning revelation was his admission that his tweets during Hurricane Helene about the Biden administration using funding from the Disaster Relief Fund for immigrant sheltering and housing was a lie for political expediency.

Micah: It was a separate appropriation, yes. It was not coming at the expense of disaster relief for American citizens.

Cameron Hamilton: My reposting of people like Anna and others was more of concern over the optics of why it seems like hundreds of millions of dollars are reimbursing states for housing migrants, and yet we have all these complaints of people that need help and they feel like they’re left out.

Micah: This narrative was frankly a politically expedient lie. It was used to undermine faith in government during a crisis by telling people that the reason FEMA was running out of money to help disaster survivors was because it had spent that money on housing migrants. That wasn’t true.

Cameron Hamilton: That is correct. That is a factually inaccurate statement.

Micah: You had also shared posts on X from Elon Musk, who claimed that FEMA was blocking his aid. That also wasn’t true.

Cameron Hamilton: I’ve said things and I’ve reposted things that I know now to not be true. So I took responsibility for it within the agency, and I had to let them understand that, you know, I recognize that that was the case and I wish I could go back and change it. I can’t.

It is not only far right politicians lying about the immigration funding. It has become the standard line of the republican party. I’ve explained this many times. This is the first time I have ever heard anyone publicly admit this is a lie and acknowledge it is being used for political purposes. I wonder what other republican’s think about this admission.

The plot twist, of course, is that in the time between recording this explosive interview in December and it being released in May, the President nominated Hamilton for FEMA administrator. This poses a problem for Hamilton. Blasting the administration that values loyalty above all else is one hell of a choice. I have to imagine Hamilton did not consider he might, in the future, be nominated to officially lead FEMA. In fact, it would seem he had not considered that he ever might work in right wing politics again.

The episode ends with Hamilton calling the reporters and asking them to not release the interview until after his Senate Confirmation Hearing! Incredible behavior.

Now, for me personally, this interview is a big help. Hamilton confirmed all the things we knew were true about his time at FEMA, but definitely would have been flagged by legal when I write a book about this administration. So, I am grateful for that.

However, Hamilton’s decision to do this interview demonstrates his profound lack of judgement. It was so optional!! As a far right politician, you can simply not go on *checks notes* National Public Radio!?!? Is wanting to strangle Corey Lewendowski relatable? Sure! Would you ever say that to a journalist? Is wanting to delay the release of an interview where you directly insult the administration that you now want to work for again relatable? I guess! Would you ever say that to a journalist? Would you openly admit members of your political party are knowingly lying to the public to gain political points? Sure! At the bar over some drinks. Would you ever say that to a journalist?

After Hamilton was nominated, a disaster journalist asked me if Hamilton was some kind of political genius – getting fired and then re-hired to an even higher position is some kind of three-dimensional chess. My answer at the time was “no”, and it’s especially “no” now. Hamilton is a moderately articulate, clean shaven, and personable Navy Seal surrounded by deeply incompetent people operating in a chaotic environment. He’s not a genius, he’s malleable. It’s why he’s gotten you all to just call him “Cam”.

Hamilton isn't FEMA's hero. It's the staff, and especially the ones who signed the Katrina declarations. It's the ones that are riding this out to try and keep basic functions in place. It's the people who keep leaking to the press. Not this dude who showed up 5 minutes ago.

Recent reporting suggests he will be confirmed. I hope he isn’t. I know this is a hot take but I think having an unexperienced and unqualified FEMA administrator is bad.

He’s also a racist piece of shit if anyone cares about that.

There’s never been a bad time to be aggressively pro-trans but this year it feels especially important. The Trump administration’s attacks and hostility, along with the actions of conservative politicians across the country, mean the rest of us need to be extra vocal in our support of trans folks — that includes within emergency management.

Samantha Harrington wrote a great piece for Yale Climate Connections on Trans advocate Jasmine McKenzie, the founder and executive director of the McKenzie Project which is working on disaster related issues for Black trans, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary people in Florida. Y’all already know what I think of the person running Florida emergency management, so I am especially glad to learn about this group.

I have been working on a related research project for a couple years now (which hopefully will be published soon!) and it has really challenged me to think what it means to create an emergency management system that does even more than just meet the most basic needs of trans people (or other groups we usually consider to be a “vulnerable population”). What does a woman-designed emergency management system look like? What does a trans-designed emergency management system look like? What would a single-mother designed emergency management system look like?

If you have not thought about the intersection of the LGBT+ community and emergency management this report from Out For Sustainability is a good starting point. You should also check out the really great disaster group Imagine Water Works in Louisiana who put out a Queer/Trans Guide to Storms. Kevin Blanchard’s efforts to expand LGBT+ disaster research and international policy is also a must follow.

Speaking of gay things… I saw Stop! That! Train!

She’s a hit!

Unlike the masterpiece Hurricane Bianca, which disappointedly was not about a hurricane, this drag queen led film is actually about a disaster! Specifically, a runaway train headed into a “stormaganza”. Denzel Washington could never!

It was a fun movie and a great addition to the relatively small disaster-comedy genre. (Other notable ones include Dr. Strangelove, Airplane, and Don’t Look Up!). I think there is an appetite for disaster comedies these day – they can really help take the edge off all the very unfunny real disasters.

I won’t give too much away because I hope you will see it. I will tell you there were not one but two mentions of FEMA in the movie. This was a fun surprise. It is very rare for emergency management to get a shoutout in a disaster movie, let alone twice! They were not big mentions, but still! Let me be excited!

It’d be cool if you forwarded this newsletter to your friends, post it on social media, or undertake any other form of newsletter sharing you deem appropriate. I’ve heard some of you print out the memes to hang in your emergency management offices! Incredible.

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