Hurricane Harvey could be the most powerful hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than 10 years and it’s shaping up to be Donald Trump’s first major natural disaster test as commander-in-chief.
Harvey is set to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday on the coast of Texas with maximum sustained winds of 177 km/h and will dump up to 97 centimetres of rain, according to the U.S. National Weather Service.
“Life-threatening and devastating flooding expected near the coast due to heavy rainfall and storm surge,” the National Hurricane Center said.
WATCH: Facts about the ‘life-threatening’ storm set to hit the U.S.
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NOAA ‘hurricane hunter’ aircraft flies through the eye of Hurricane Harvey -
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ISS captures breathtaking orbital view of Hurricane Harvey -
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Parts of the U.S. bracing as Hurricane Harvey looks to break records -
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President Trump faces new crises in debt ceiling, Hurricane Harvey -
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Hurricane Harvey gaining strength as it heads towards Texas
And as Harvey bears down on Texas, questions are swirling about how the Trump White House will respond to a potential natural disaster amid vacancies in several high-profile administration posts — including the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Other positions that have yet to be filled include the leader of the National Hurricane Center, which has been without a permanent director since its chief resigned in May.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which handles the response to natural disasters and employs some 9,000 people, still has two acting deputy directors from the former Obama administration. Trump has nominated two replacements; they have yet to be confirmed.
The Department of Homeland Security is also currently lacking a permanent secretary after Trump tapped Gen. John Kelly, former head of the DHS, to become White House chief of staff. Elaine Duke has taken over as acting secretary.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday the president has been briefed on the storm’s progress and that Duke is capable of leading the DHS.
“There’s certainly someone at the helm,” Huckabee Sanders told reporters pointing to Duke. “And again, I think that we are in great shape having General Kelly sitting next to the President throughout this process, and probably no better chief of staff for the president during the hurricane season.”
WATCH: Will absence of General Kelly impact DHS response to Hurricane Harvey?
However, Gordon McBean, professor emeritus at Western University in London, Ont., and expert on disaster risk reduction related to climate change, said the lack of permanent appointments in Trump’s administration is “concerning” and could hamper the response to a natural disaster.
“The lack of permanent appointments creates uncertainty. You don’t want uncertainty when you’re dealing with hurricanes,” McBean told Global News. “And in the long term when you’re trying to making strategic planning processes that can also be impacted.”
McBean said the temporary administrators can sometimes lack the authority to make decisions that lead to delays on the ground – sometimes in life-or-death situations.
“With climate change, we expect to have not necessarily more hurricanes but more Category 3, 4, and 5 storms,” he said. “You need to appoint people with competence, experience, knowledge who can consult with others when appropriate and do their job without feeling like they are going to get fired.”
READ MORE: Harvey likely to have little impact on Canada – but the next storm might
When looking at appointments that require Senate approval, Trump still has yet to nominate people to fill 368 out of 591 total positions according to the Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.
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But one of Trump’s key appointments is new FEMA administrator Brock Long, a well-regarded professional, who previously worked as director of Alabama’s Emergency Management Agency from 2008 to 2011 and as a regional hurricane program manager for FEMA.
He will tasked with guiding the U.S. through a hurricane season that forecasters have warned will be particularly active and see a 70 per cent likelihood of 11 to 17 named storms.
“We’ve gone 11 years without a major hurricane land-falling in the U.S. — that’s a one-in-2,000 chance,” Long told Bloomberg in an interview Monday. “We’re gonna get hit by a major hurricane. I worry that a lot of people have forgotten what that’s like.”
READ MORE: Hurricane Harvey strengthens to Category 2 storm as it moves towards Texas
How a president responds to a storm or natural disaster can be a defining moment for any administration. George W. Bush’s presidency never recovered following Hurricane Katrina, a storm that killed nearly 2,000 people. And his father George H.W. Bush’s 1992 re-election bid was damaged by the response to the devastating Hurricane Andrew.
Ron Klain, who served in the Clinton and Obama administrations, said earlier this month hurricane season could be hazardous for the Trump administration.
“Would the Trump administration respond effectively?” Klain said in an op-ed for The Washington Post. “The president just stripped the Department of Homeland Security of its leader, was blasted by the outgoing head of hurricane forecasting for how his budget cuts could set back this work and lacks any experience (as a senator or governor) with navigating a difficult disaster response.
“As a political matter, a botched hurricane response in the Gulf Coast or Florida would see Trump criticized — not by blue-state leaders he can mock or ignore — but by key members of his own coalition.”
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