Marn’i Washington, a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supervisor, has been sacked after she advised her disaster relief team to avoid homes with signs supporting President-elect Donald Trump when Hurricane Milton ravaged the area last month. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell announced the sacking a day after Daily Wire published a copy of Ms Washington’s message to her employees regarding the rescue effort. Criswell said Washington had violated the FEMA values which intended to help people regardless of their political affiliations.
“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation. This employee has been terminated and we have referred the matter to the Office of Special Counsel,” said Criswell on Saturday (Nov 9).
“More than 22,000 FEMA employees every day adhere to FEMA’s core values and are dedicated to helping people before, during and after disasters, often sacrificing time with their own families to help disaster survivors,” she added.
More than 22,000 FEMA employees every day adhere to FEMA’s core values and are dedicated to helping people before, during and after disasters, often sacrificing time with their own families to help disaster survivors. https://t.co/hPc0zyTBCM
— Deanne Criswell (@FEMA_Deanne) November 9, 2024
Ms Washington’s sister April Brown said she was shocked to hear about the allegations levelled against her sibling.
“I’m completely shocked. I can tell you that she set out to help and serve all people. With her being in that position with FEMA I can’t see her doing anything like that,” Ms Brown told NY Post.
Also read | Relief Workers Told To Avoid Homes With Trump Signs During Hurricane Milton: Report
What did Washington order?
Ms Washinton passed the perplexing order to her workers both verbally and in a Microsoft Teams chat. “Avoid homes advertising Trump,” she wrote in the “best practices” memo. As many as 20 homes displaying signs for the Republican leader – a common sight during the election season, were ignored between the end of October and into November, as part of the directive by Washington.
After the incident came to light, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took to X (formerly Twitter) and called Washington’s order a “blatant weaponization of government by partisan activists”.
“At my direction, the Division of Emergency Management is launching an investigation into the federal government’s targeted discrimination of Floridians who support Donald Trump,” wrote Mr DeSantis.
“New leadership is on the way in DC, and I’m optimistic that these partisan bureaucrats will be fired,” he added.
Notably, as many as 16 people lost their lives when Hurricane Milton dumped around 229 mm of rainfall in just three hours in Florida, causing flash flooding last month. The tropical storm spiralled across the Gulf of Mexico as a Category-5 hurricane before making landfall on Florida’s coastline as a Category-3 hurricane, just two weeks after Hurricane Helene had caused devastation.
