In May of 2025, FEMA released a 3.1 version of the Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 101 - Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans.
The CEMIR ran this version through Google Gemini to compare against the 3.0 version (heck, that's what AI is for, right?) - we were fearful that certain "das der verboten" words were scrubbed. Turns out they were: Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity were censored and removed; as was all mentions of Climate Change.
So, Section 1.1.4 is completely gone, and as an example in one section the word "Inclusion" (on page 5 in both versions) was changed to "Whole Community". This section was probably kept because it was ADA related. On the positive side, we do see that Accessibility appears to be intact and the Community Lifelines were updated, along with better (more) graphics.
The City has learned that a critical training previously provided by FEMA, IS-368.a: Including People With Disabilities in Disaster Operations, is no longer available; with no appropriate replacement.
Usually when FEMA updates their courses there is a replacement published at the same time the updated course was removed (e.g., 368.a to 368.b). I’m afraid that this may not be the circumstance in this case. We have communicated with Sonoma Department of Emergency Management and Director DuVall shares the concern and is elevating the matter up through CalOES to Region IX.
In anticipation of any FEMA IS glitches we have a cache of these course materials. Please let me know if you'd like those and associated resources emailed to you.
CalOES CSTI still offers Integrating Access & Functional Needs Into Emergency Management (G197)Integrating Access & Functional Needs Into Emergency Management. The next offering is May 14 -15 hosted at Solano County Emergency Services.
Fellow EM professionals: please echo this message among all of your partners: government, CBO, and others. I encourage that we all do our best to keep up the spirit of this element of EOC Staff development and disaster response perspective.
Thank you for any attention to this matter, and please share the word.
While not specifically adversely impacting people with disabilities, the U.S. federal Community Disaster Resilience Zones (CDRZs) are a reflection of selected communities with potential access and functional needs.
As reported by Harvard's Environmental & Energy Law Program: As of March, 2025, FEMA has removed all information regarding the Community Disaster Resilience Zones (CDRZs) from its website. However, the Community Disaster Resilience Zones (CDRZ) Act explicitly requires the President to “maintain a natural hazard assessment program that develops and maintains products that are available to the public; and define natural hazard risk across the United States.” The agency has not clarified how it will comply with Congress’s mandate to implement the CDRZ program going forward.
“Direction is to make a list of anyone who worked on or works on climate, environmental justice, equity, DEIA,” the email reads, referring to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. The email obtained by E&E News was cropped to not include the name of the sender.
Another internal email, sent on Wednesday, told rank-and-file employees to “scrub” terms from agency records that Trump highlighted in his executive orders on climate change and diversity. Any document with taboo phrases will be put into an archive folder that will be deleted in three years.
“They’re trying to systematically erase everything that happened before,” said one FEMA employee who is posted at a disaster site and has been pulled away from helping survivors get their damaged homes inspected so repairs can begin. “It is taking away from time doing on-the-ground disaster-recovery work.”
IYKYK - it's time to double-check the EEI sources EMs use now for community preparedness towards more whole-of-community Response and Recovery missions. That is what ethical and professional Emergency Managers do - they serve everyone who has a disaster-related need.
As of January 24, 2025, social media reports are indicating that all ASL videos have been removed from the White House website, but it is unclear as to whether this is a result in the common practice to change over material from one administration to another, or the result of an interpretation of any Executive Orders to remove aspects of diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI from federal websites associated with the Executive Branch. Snopes is investigating: https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/01/25/trump-removed-asl-white-house-videos/
When the content from Ready.Gov was removed, a large number of ASL videos – including the introduction video with Mr. Sherman Gillums, Jr., FEMA’s Director of the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination which has an ASL interpreter incorporated – are still missing. The archive version noted in the post above at https://web.archive.org/web/20240508180143/https://www.ready.gov/disability still contains those videos.
Trump’s mass federal cuts disrupt LA wildfire recovery: ‘It’s coming tumbling down’ - from the Guardian, May 26, 2025 - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/26/trump-doge-la-wildfire-recovery
In May of 2025, FEMA released a 3.1 version of the Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 101 - Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans.
The CEMIR ran this version through Google Gemini to compare against the 3.0 version (heck, that's what AI is for, right?) - we were fearful that certain "das der verboten" words were scrubbed. Turns out they were: Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity were censored and removed; as was all mentions of Climate Change.
So, Section 1.1.4 is completely gone, and as an example in one section the word "Inclusion" (on page 5 in both versions) was changed to "Whole Community". This section was probably kept because it was ADA related. On the positive side, we do see that Accessibility appears to be intact and the Community Lifelines were updated, along with better (more) graphics.
From Thomas Jordan, via LinkedIn:
Friends of Emergency Management,
The City has learned that a critical training previously provided by FEMA, IS-368.a: Including People With Disabilities in Disaster Operations, is no longer available; with no appropriate replacement.
Usually when FEMA updates their courses there is a replacement published at the same time the updated course was removed (e.g., 368.a to 368.b). I’m afraid that this may not be the circumstance in this case. We have communicated with Sonoma Department of Emergency Management and Director DuVall shares the concern and is elevating the matter up through CalOES to Region IX.
In anticipation of any FEMA IS glitches we have a cache of these course materials. Please let me know if you'd like those and associated resources emailed to you.
CalOES CSTI still offers Integrating Access & Functional Needs Into Emergency Management (G197)Integrating Access & Functional Needs Into Emergency Management. The next offering is May 14 -15 hosted at Solano County Emergency Services.
Fellow EM professionals: please echo this message among all of your partners: government, CBO, and others. I encourage that we all do our best to keep up the spirit of this element of EOC Staff development and disaster response perspective.
Thank you for any attention to this matter, and please share the word.
-Tom
I have taken the material that Tom found, as well as other items including a scan of what I believe is the IS-368.a material (from 2/20/2014), and put them all into a free download package at https://blog.bartondunant.com/downloads/is-368-a-including-people-with-disabilities-in-disaster-operations/
While not specifically adversely impacting people with disabilities, the U.S. federal Community Disaster Resilience Zones (CDRZs) are a reflection of selected communities with potential access and functional needs.
As reported by Harvard's Environmental & Energy Law Program: As of March, 2025, FEMA has removed all information regarding the Community Disaster Resilience Zones (CDRZs) from its website. However, the Community Disaster Resilience Zones (CDRZ) Act explicitly requires the President to “maintain a natural hazard assessment program that develops and maintains products that are available to the public; and define natural hazard risk across the United States.” The agency has not clarified how it will comply with Congress’s mandate to implement the CDRZ program going forward.
EMs can find back-up copies of the CDRZ material here: https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/tracker/fema-announced-first-designation-of-community-disaster-resilience-zones-cdrzs/
OPINION: medium.com/policy-panorama/278a4f20944b #morals #ethics #Disaster
E&E News by Politico reports on 2/19/25 that
“Direction is to make a list of anyone who worked on or works on climate, environmental justice, equity, DEIA,” the email reads, referring to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. The email obtained by E&E News was cropped to not include the name of the sender.
Another internal email, sent on Wednesday, told rank-and-file employees to “scrub” terms from agency records that Trump highlighted in his executive orders on climate change and diversity. Any document with taboo phrases will be put into an archive folder that will be deleted in three years.
“They’re trying to systematically erase everything that happened before,” said one FEMA employee who is posted at a disaster site and has been pulled away from helping survivors get their damaged homes inspected so repairs can begin. “It is taking away from time doing on-the-ground disaster-recovery work.”
https://www.eenews.net/articles/fema-email-firings-will-affect-majority-of-our-staff/
"Climate adaptation for emergency managers course paused by the administration" - from MyNorthwest: https://mynorthwest.com/uncategorized/climate-adaptation/4048777
OSINT has indications that datasets from the CDC (which may be available on the Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/20250128-cdc-datasets), HHS/ASPR and others were removed, and may be back now, due to a court decision: https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/11/nx-s1-5293387/judge-orders-cdc-fda-hhs-websites-restored
IYKYK - it's time to double-check the EEI sources EMs use now for community preparedness towards more whole-of-community Response and Recovery missions. That is what ethical and professional Emergency Managers do - they serve everyone who has a disaster-related need.
Politico reports that amongst others, Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA, is considered one of President Trump's close advisors in his transition (as of 11/12/2024) - https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/12/trump-transition-musk-wiles-rfkjr-00188863
On January 8, 2025, Mr. Kirk complained about the American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters at the California Wildfires. https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-calls-eliminating-sign-language-interpreters-during-emergency-briefings
As of January 24, 2025, social media reports are indicating that all ASL videos have been removed from the White House website, but it is unclear as to whether this is a result in the common practice to change over material from one administration to another, or the result of an interpretation of any Executive Orders to remove aspects of diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI from federal websites associated with the Executive Branch. Snopes is investigating: https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/01/25/trump-removed-asl-white-house-videos/
When the content from Ready.Gov was removed, a large number of ASL videos – including the introduction video with Mr. Sherman Gillums, Jr., FEMA’s Director of the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination which has an ASL interpreter incorporated – are still missing. The archive version noted in the post above at https://web.archive.org/web/20240508180143/https://www.ready.gov/disability still contains those videos.