States slammed by a deadly, multiday winter storm that left hundreds of thousands of people without power in bitter cold are looking to a slimmed-down Federal Emergency Management Agency for support.
The immediate aftermath of the wide-sweeping storm—and the recovery process on the horizon—will provide another test for the second Trump administration’s reshaped disaster response agency.
Trump has approved emergency declarations for 12 states. That opens pathways for state governments to access federal assistance for immediate, life-saving needs, at FEMA’s discretion.
The declarations allow hard-hit states such as Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi to tap into federal resources as state and local governments work to restore power, clear roads, and otherwise lessen the disaster’s overall impact.
FEMA announced in the immediate aftermath of the storm that it would deliver medical equipment, 485,000 meals, 770,000 liters of water, 2,200 cots, 90 generators and 71 semi trucks with drivers to staging sites in Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. FEMA’s distribution centers hold additional resources, including generators, millions of meals and liters of water, and more than 650,000 blankets.
The federal government will cover 75% of the costs for these emergency protective measures, up to $5 million.
FEMA in Action
That assistance has proved useful in Louisiana, said Mike Steele, communications director at the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. In that state, damage largely impacted rural areas where fewer personnel are available to juggle the many moving parts of emergency response.
One of FEMA’s Incident Management Assistance Teams has been on the ground in Louisiana since the worst of the weather hit, helping identify and coordinate any needed federal support. FEMA has also provided generators, ready-to-eat meals and water for local and state responders to distribute.
Louisiana plans to seek more federal help with debris removal and full reimbursement from the federal government for emergency services costs in the first 30 days of disaster response. Louisiana officials met Wednesday with regional FEMA administrators to begin discussions about long-term needs.
Mississippi has likewise distributed generators, water, more than 100,000 meals, cots, blankets and tarps from FEMA, Gov. Tate Reeves said in a Wednesday news conference. The state has received more than 350 requests for supplies from 40 counties, Reeves said.
“When a tornado hits or when a hurricane hits, when it is over and leaves the state, then you can immediately go to work trying to figure out how to cut your way through to help people,” he said. “Ice storms are different, because although the precipitation stopped in Mississippi mostly midday on Sunday … it was the fact that the temperatures never got above freezing, particularly in the north part of the state.”
States have deployed their national guards to deliver supplies to areas in need. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers helped Mississippi install generators where needed, and Corps employees will help local governments in Louisiana begin to take stock of the damage.
In Tennessee, more than 300,000 households and businesses experienced power outages at the storm’s peak, and as of Thursday, more than 90,000 customers in Nashville remained without power. Hundreds of linemen and vegetation crews have been working around the clock to restore power since.
FEMA is sending two, 20-person teams to Tennessee to assist in removing debris that is blocking roads and hindering power restoration efforts, said Kristin Coulter, communications director for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency . The federal agency also delivered generators, emergency supplies, water, meals, blankets and cots to Fort Campbell—located north of Nashville on the Tennessee-Kentucky border—to be used at the state’s request.
Arkansas found less immediate need for federal help. “The state has not identified any immediate federal resource needs at this time,” a spokesperson said. “We remain in continuous communication with FEMA partners as local assessments continue.”
Disaster Meets an Agency in Flux
It’s typical for presidential administrations to grant emergency declarations in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, if it’s clear a state may not be able to handle the response on its own.
Beyond providing supplies and financial support, “FEMA also becomes sort of the brain, if you will,” coordinating complex logistics between local, state and other federal agencies involved in disaster response, said Sara Hamideh, an associate professor specializing in disaster recovery at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.
But emergency declarations have a narrow timeframe. Programs offering more substantial, longer-term federal aid require a separate, major disaster declaration, which Trump has yet to approve for any of the affected states. Trump has similarly not yet approved assistance for individuals, which can include support services and financial aid for people who are uninsured or underinsured.
But Hamideh cautioned against the misconception that “if you get a presidential declaration, FEMA will make you whole, which was never meant to be the case.”
Trump’s administration has been more hesitant to issue major disaster declarations amid talk of shrinking, reforming or even eliminating the agency.
The president and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have pledged to cut waste and shift more disaster-recovery responsibilities to states. They have also slimmed the agency’s ranks over the past year. FEMA lost 2,446 employees between Jan. 1 and June 1, in 2025—a decrease of 9.5% of the agency’s workforce—the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported. Multiyear contracts for thousands of FEMA workers will expire this year, adding to uncertainty about the agency’s future resources.
FEMA also announced the cancellation of its two largest hazard-mitigation programs in 2025.
Last spring, Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee waited weeks for the Trump administration to approve more robust federal aid after tornadoes and severe flooding caused tens of millions of dollars of damage.
That delay—and in some cases, initial denial—of public assistance to rural communities and individuals facing expenses bigger than their budgets spurred concern. Ultimately, Trump approved tens of millions of dollars in both individual and public assistance to the affected states.
FEMA did not respond to questions about how staff reductions and policy shifts have affected how the agency is responding to January’s winter storm.
Hamideh said some reform is needed: Over the past few decades, some FEMA programs have disincentivized states from taking their own measures to reduce risk or secure insurance to help cover damages when a disaster happens. But she added cuts to staff are concerning, particularly those to data- and risk-strategy roles and to call center and casework staff.
“The reform that we need is not cutting funds, is not reducing support for local and state governments,” she said. “It’s increasing support enabling them to take pre-disaster, long-term mitigation resiliency actions to reduce the losses that then become the burden on taxpayers when FEMA has to respond.”
What’s Next?
Major disaster declarations typically occur after states compile damage assessments and submit applications for aid to FEMA.
The agency uses per capita cost as a benchmark to gauge whether local and state governments can handle recovery without federal help. Those thresholds currently stand at $4.72 per capita for counties, and $1.89 per capita for states.
But this information serves only as a guideline. Presidents have sole authority to approve or deny a disaster declaration, regardless of whether a state or county meets those thresholds, and not all programs are offered for every disaster. The reasoning behind declaration decisions is not public record.
In the meantime, states hit by last weekend’s storm are focused on immediate disaster response, clearing debris and restoring power.
“We’re starting to ask the parishes or the locals that have come out of the fight mode to go into recovery mode and make sure they’re tracking everything, asking their people to report damage and businesses to report downtime,” Steele said.
Tennessee is also working with county governments to record damage and determine whether the impact meets the federal criteria to request assistance through a major disaster declaration.
In Mississippi the initial damage report logged 208 homes, five businesses and seven farms as damaged or destroyed. Twelve public roads have been destroyed and 20 sustained major damage, said Reeves.
He expects numbers to rise as assessments continue.
“This continues to be an all-of-government approach,” the governor said. “We obviously have a lot of experience with natural disasters, but ice storms are just a little bit different.”
This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.