President Trump must take Florida’s potential disasters much more seriously | Opinion

This month marks the beginning of hurricane season in the Atlantic. In a normal year, families, businesses and state and local governments are making preparations with a familiar sense of caution and routine.

But this is not a normal year.

This year, we have headed into hurricane season while combating a catastrophic public health and economic crisis. Unemployment is at historic levels. State safety-net systems and services already are overwhelmed. Daily protests have brought thousands into the streets to demand racial justice. With cases of COVID-19 still rising in Florida and other parts of the country, President Trump has abdicated any effective federal leadership at this moment of national anguish and suffering. His failure to prepare our nation for this pandemic or take decisive action to curb its impact has opened the door to follow-on crises. Our communities are now dangerously vulnerable to new outside shocks and natural disasters, like hurricanes.

To make matters worse, experts project that this hurricane season may be more intense than normal. We could see 19 named storms — nearly 60 percent higher than average. Climate change means storms are more powerful and more destructive.

Instead of taking steps to ensure states such as Florida have what they need, Trump is fixated on deflecting responsibility and blame for the current crisis. His COVID-19 response was too little, too late. We simply can’t afford a repeat this hurricane season.

States need the resources to prepare now, starting by expanding the number of emergency shelters — which typically cram in hundreds of temporary residents — and ensuring every single one has plans to help families maintain social distancing. Hospitals and first responders need help to restock scarce supplies. Nursing homes need tailored evacuation plans that account for the heightened COVID-19 risk their residents face. Utility and construction repair crews and essential workers must all have the protection they need on the job.

But once again, Trump and Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell are failing us. Because they are refusing to provide additional funding to state and local governments, Florida has a budget shortfall of more than $8 billion, and Floridians could see steep cuts to everything from their healthcare system to police and firefighter forces. Florida has received more than 2.5 million unemployment claims in total since mid-March. And Trump’s severe mismanagement of the government has left the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — already struggling to coordinate the COVID-19 response — understaffed and ill-prepared. Both of FEMA’s deputy administrator positions and a large number of senior FEMA positions lack permanent leadership. As of June 10, only six qualified personnel at FEMA were available to lead field operations, and just 37 percent of personnel were available to be deployed. The Trump administration was advocating as recently as February for slashing the annual contribution to FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund by nearly 70 percent. Last year, the president diverted $155 million from the fund to beef up his cruel immigration detention and deportation policies.

In many areas, communities are still struggling to rebuild from past hurricanes. The Florida Keys are still recovering from Hurricane Irma, the Panhandle from Hurricane Michael. Puerto Ricans are still waiting on much of their federal aid to arrive for Hurricane Maria almost three years later. And, with every state already under a disaster declaration, FEMA’s disaster workforce is stretched thin. Surging disaster-relief capacity to handle any future response and recovery efforts will be a severe challenge unless we take action now.

We need competent leadership in the White House that can steer our country through difficult times to a more resilient future. And we need to get started right away. Here are four things Trump should do immediately:

First, Trump should urgently request additional flexible funding from Congress for our states to fill critical budget holes. Over two months ago, I called for a renewable fund for state and local governments to help prevent shortfalls like the one in Florida and protect that relief from exactly the kind of political brinkmanship we see from Trump and Republican leaders in Washington today. Enough with the games. Let’s get it done.

Second, Trump should fully synchronize the hurricane and public-health response, ensuring it is well staffed and prioritizing the protection of vulnerable individuals at heightened risk for COVID-19 who sit in the path of any storm, including older Americans and people with disabilities. Disasters often hit poor and marginalized communities the hardest, and we must not allow foreseeable threats to further deepen the existing inequities in our society.

Third, Trump should immediately establish a second-wave strategy to prepare for a potential spike of COVID-19 cases during hurricane season, including utilizing the Department of Defense and National Guard capabilities in support of the public health response and fully using the Defense Production Act and the Defense Logistics Agency to replenish and fairly distribute supplies.

And fourth, Trump should restore an emphasis on science to the White House to tackle challenges from climate change to COVID-19.

The scale of the crisis before us was not inevitable. Inaction in the face of danger has been Trump’s choice. Voting this November is ours.

Joe Biden is the presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee for president.