The 2024 hurricane season has come to a close, and emergency management professionals are taking time to reflect on the lessons learned within the industry this year—and considering how these lessons can be used to improve emergency management education.
According to the , from 1991 through 2020, the Atlantic basin saw an average of 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes each season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted in 2024 due to La Niña and warmer ocean temperatures, and the season delivered. The 2024 hurricane season ultimately included 18 named storms, 11 hurricanes, and 5 major hurricanes.
These included two back-to-back major hurricanes that presented unique challenges for communities throughout several states as well as for the emergency management professionals who serve them. First, and was in 2005, killing more than 230 people. The storm caused devastation across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. AccuWeather has estimated that .
A few days after Hurricane Helene struck, due to the record or near-record warmth of waters of the Gulf of Mexico before weakening and .
“These storms are forming quicker. They’re forming over warmer waters,” said Ralph Hutton, college associate professor of Homeland, Intelligence, and Emergency Management at ¶¶ŇőĘÓƵ (UMGC). “The rainfall has increased. There's actually slower movement, so they are generating more power. And then, of course, everyone is concerned about the sea level rise bringing in the storm surge.”
Brian Powers, collegiate associate professor and the portfolio director for Homeland, Intelligence, and Emergency Management, agreed.
“The other part is the intensifications like we saw with Milton that’s becoming more common too.” Powers said. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen a hurricane form in the Caribbean so quickly and go West to East along that track.”
Federal Responses to Hurricanes and Other Natural Disasters in the United States
Hutton explained that while many federal agencies are involved in disaster relief, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) within the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the overarching agency that coordinates the federal response to natural disasters. State and local partners also play critical roles in emergency response.
“Many people think that FEMA just comes in and takes over, and that’s not the case. FEMA comes in to support the localities and the states, coordinate the recovery, and provide different forms of public assistance,” Hutton said. “Other federal agencies work together, like the National Hurricane Center, the Department of Defense, and the National Guard. They provide personnel, rescue operations for search and rescue, and logistical support. The Coast Guard is a very integral part as well, and they partner with FEMA.”
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is also involved in the federal response plan, he said.
In addition to coordinating the response, FEMA sent their task forces to these areas from throughout the United States, Hutton explained. He said these tasks forces have specialized skills and may include firefighters, urban search and rescue specialists, collapse specialists, engineers, and others typically housed in local fire departments.
UMGC adjunct professor Victor Galladora is a member of one of the task forces that responded to Hurricane Helene: Maryland Task Force 1, one of FEMA’s urban search and rescue teams.
“As Hurricane Helene approached, our 45-person team was pre-staged in southern Georgia. Within hours of the storm's passing, we set out to assist a community known as a 'tree city,' where winds exceeding 100 miles per hour had caused significant damage,” Galladora said. “Soon, we learned of even more widespread devastation in western North Carolina, and our team, along with many others, was dispatched to the area.”
Galladora recalled working side by side with state and local emergency responders as well as other FEMA teams.
“What stands out in these moments is the resilience of both the task force and the communities we serve. Even in the face of overwhelming adversity, people come together, and it’s an honor to be a part of that,” he said. “Our team's training and professionalism allowed us to operate efficiently and safely in such challenging conditions, hopefully making a meaningful impact on those affected by the storm.”
State Responses to Hurricanes Helene and Milton
In addition to the federal response, U.S. states and territories have their own ways of activating emergency response professionals to help both within their own jurisdictions and outside of them.
Each of the 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands are members of the . that “offers assistance during governor-declared states of emergency or disaster through a responsive, straightforward system that allows states to send personnel, equipment, and commodities to assist with response and recovery efforts in other states.”
"EMAC has all 50 states and territories working together to provide resources to other states.” Hutton said. “That is activated through each state’s emergency operations center. One state will call the other one and that state will call out to the resources in their state and get them on the road going.”
Additional Emergency Management Responders
Federal and state entities aren’t the only ones who respond to natural disasters. Local communities, nonprofit organizations, and private sector businesses all play roles as well.
“I think the real heroes of the North Carolina response were the local communities,” Powers said, citing the particularly difficult access issues Hurricane Helene presented. “People just chipped in, and that’s what it comes down to in the end.”
Hospital systems also play critical roles in emergency preparedness and response.
UMGC adjunct faculty member James Weed is a security manager at HCA Florida Pasadena Hospital.
He explained the exhaustive measures the hospital system took to prepare for and respond to the storms, including transporting patients from high-risk hospitals to other facilities, stocking the hospitals with enough food, water, lines, and medications for at least seven days, deploying more than four miles of four-foot-tall Tiger Dam around the hospital, providing gasoline and hotel accommodations to support staff members so they could continue to provide medical care, and more.
“Led by the Chief Operating Officer, working in close coordination with the West Florida Division President, the emergency management team held meetings twice a day to discuss updates, issues, and challenges,” Weed said. “The teamwork, communication, and positive attitude throughout proved vital in reopening the hospital campus just four days after Helene struck with six feet of storm surge and five days after Milton brought nearly 20 inches of rain and 120 mph winds to the city of St. Petersburg. Everyone was on the same page throughout this experience. Everybody on the team knew what they needed to do, and they did it.”
Longer term, local communities play a pivotal role in the restoration of emotional, social, economic, and natural environmental well-being, Powers said.
Nonprofit organizations, including faith-based organizations, also play large roles in hurricane response. In some cases, larger private sector companies have public-private partnerships with FEMA that are activated when a storm is approaching, Hutton explained.
“Walmart has an emergency operations center that would rival small communities,” he said.
Home Depot, Lowes, Verizon, AT&T, and other private organizations also have emergency operations and disaster recovery teams to help respond to crises, Hutton said. Their emergency operations and disaster recovery teams are ready to respond as soon as a hurricane starts to hit, he said.
“These are critical infrastructures that are working together to try to rebuild and recover,” he said.
Utility companies in particular have mutual aid agreements such that “whoever gets hit gets help,” Powers added.
Because of this framework, utility companies along the East Coast were ready to help right away, he said.
What Challenges Did Emergency Response Teams Face from These Hurricanes?
Despite great preparation and a multi-layer natural disaster response system, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton presented unique challenges for emergency management professionals. One of these challenges was how close in time the storms hit.
“FEMA was stretched pretty thin because we had two major events back-to-back,” Hutton said.
The simultaneous efforts to finish cleanup efforts from the first storm while preparing for the second storm resulted in an unprecedented emergency management team response, Weed explained.
“Several members of the team worked on campus nearly every day for weeks, from early morning to the night, under challenging conditions,” he said.
Another challenge was the unusual way in which the storms formed—and how quickly they strengthened.
“Usually, hurricanes start out toward Africa and work their way here,” Hutton said. “These started in the Gulf of Mexico and came East."
In addition, access to the affected areas was a major issue during and after both storms, Hutton explained.
“What made this unique particularly for western North Carolina was it was up in the mountains in remote areas. We didn’t have access. The roads were wiped out. A lot of the utility poles came down.” Powers said.
Finally, the spread of conspiracy theories presented challenges for emergency management professionals that FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said were affecting people’s ability to access recovery resources they need and qualify for.
According to Politico.com, Criswell told reporters,
Word-of-mouth misinformation has always existed, Hutton said, but technology has exacerbated and complicated the situation.
“The challenge becomes the speed of spread of information that is happening now,” he said. “Misinformation gets out so fast that it’s hard to reel it back. That was something FEMA really had a challenge with, controlling the misinformation.”
What Immediate Lessons Can We Learn from These Storms?
In the aftermath of these back-to-back hurricanes, emergency management professionals like Hutton and Powers are taking some time to reflect on what people in the industry can learn from these storms.
“Personally, I think the emergency response teams did well, but I do think there are some lessons learned,” Hutton said. “It’s hard to pinpoint huge lessons learned from this just yet, but in the early stages of lessons learned, we can highlight the need for preparedness, flexibility in planning, and the importance of communication backup and data redundancy.”
Powers noted that these two storms produced cascading effects when systems failed. Remote areas of North Carolina lost cell tower service, for instance, and couldn’t communicate to determine who needed help and who was responding, he said. In addition, roads that would typically have been used to access certain areas were no longer there, he said.
"So, there’s no communication, there’s no transportation,” Powers said. “That’s why in North Carolina you saw a lot of use of private airplanes and private helicopters and drones. They also brought in tracked vehicles rather than wheeled vehicles to improve access.”
The misinformation to disinformation pipeline also offered opportunities for lessons learned.
“It migrated quickly from misinformation to disinformation.” Powers said. “And, it was taken advantage of by some public officials as well as the media to sensationalize the whole thing. I think that’s one of the lessons that FEMA will take from this.”
The misinformation and disinformation got ahead of FEMA, Powers explained. They can learn from the Department of Defense, which has been particularly effective at anticipating what could happen and having the right relationships with the right people such as the media to make sure they are disseminating information as clearly and effectively as possible to prevent misinformation and disinformation from filling in any information gaps, he said.
Emerging technologies were also used during Hurricanes Helene and Milton and offer emergency management professionals insights on how they may be used in the future.
“Solar generators are really showing to have a lot of utility,” Powers said. “What happens is when you have gas generators, you need to bring the gas with it. The solar generators can be dispersed and they’re able to recharge.”
Satellite capable phones have also emerged as great tools, Powers said.
“You can’t charge your phone necessarily, but you can operate it even if you don’t have a cell tower, even if it’s just through text message,” he explained. “This proved to be effective.”
Drones have also proved to be very helpful in emergency response, Powers said. For instance, he said, drones can serve as mobile cell towers.
“They take a drone and hook it up to a generator, put it up to about 900 feet and it’ll stay up there and operate the whole time, so a whole area that may have lost cell tower service can have that,” Powers said. “It’s buying time until they get the power back and the connections back.”
In addition, he said, Georgia Power used drones to lay powerlines in remote areas.
Ultimately, Hutton said, no response will ever be perfect, but responders did a good job handling two major storms at once, especially considering each storm presented unique challenges.
“We’ll see down the road the effects on longer-term recovery planning,” he said.
How Can People Learn More About Emergency Management?
Those interested in learning more about emergency management can pursue a variety of degrees and programs. UMGC offers an undergraduate minor in emergency management, which can provide an initial foundation in emergency management or supplement on-the-job learning. The minor includes coursework in emergency response preparedness and planning, social dimensions of disaster, continuity of operations planning, and more.
An accelerated pathway between the undergraduate minor and UMGC’s master’s in management with a concentration in emergency management means up to 6 credits from the minor can be applied to the master's degree.
The UMGC master’s degree covers crisis and emergency management, hazard risk and vulnerability assessment, information technology in emergency management, resilience planning and preparedness, crisis communication, and more.
At the undergraduate level, Powers said, current events like the impacts of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton may be woven into weekly discussion prompts and may be part of a larger assignment at the graduate level.
While many emergency management students have experience in the field prior to enrolling in the master’s degree program, Powers said students with any background can be successful in the program.
At both the undergraduate and graduate levels, the people who pursue emergency management education—and ultimately careers—are generally people who have a lot of empathy and want to make a difference, Powers said.
Reference on this webpage to any third-party entity or product does not constitute or imply endorsement by UMGC nor does it constitute or imply endorsement of UMGC by the third party.
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