The signatories said FEMA under President Donald Trump has strayed far from the disaster preparedness reforms designed to correct the agency's mistakes in responding to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Nearly 200 current and former staffers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) warned on Monday that recent changes the Trump Administration has made to the agency could lead to “not only another national catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of FEMA itself and the abandonment of the American people.”

Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, in part because of a breakdown of leadership and response at the city, state and federal level. Congress passed the Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act in 2006 to give FEMA more responsibility and to put in place safeguards to mitigate against another failed response.