‘COVID Is The Equivalent Of Katrina Hitting 50 States’: Hurricane Season Looms In Distance For FEMA

Politico: FEMA Braces For A Multi-Front War As Hurricane Season Looms
Federal emergency managers are bracing themselves for the herculean task of handling multiple natural disasters while the coronavirus pandemic taxes their resources. According to current and former Department of Homeland Security officials, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is considering setting up a second National Response Coordination Center to handle disasters unrelated to the global outbreak. A second center would basically gear up for Atlantic hurricane season, which officially starts on June 1, a former DHS official said. (Swan and Lippman, 4/1)

WBUR: A President Is Not Able To Order A National Quarantine, Experts Say 
President Trump last weekend raised — and then dropped — the idea of placing residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut under a quarantine to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus outside of the nation’s hardest-hit region. That hasn’t stopped rumors from spreading that the country is under a lockdown, something the Federal Emergency Management Agency has debunked on its website. (Naylor, 4/2)

The Hill: Trump Resists Pressure To Declare Nationwide Stay-At-Home Order 
President Trump is holding back on declaring a nationwide stay-at-home order, even as some governors resist imposing restrictions that Trump’s top public health officials say are needed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The president has been reluctant to wade into matters he argues are better left to governors. But the pressure is growing for Trump to be decisive as Republican-led states like Texas, Iowa and Missouri are among the final holdouts to issue stay-at-home directives. (Samuels, 4/1)

In other news —

WBUR: Coast Guard Tells Cruise Ships With COVID-19 Cases To Stay Away From U.S. Ports
The U.S. Coast Guard is telling foreign-flagged cruise ships to be prepared to care for people with COVID-19 for an “indefinite period of time” at sea or to seek help from countries other than the U.S., citing a health care system that is being overwhelmed. The instructions are in a new safety bulletin that took effect this week along the southern Atlantic coast, including Florida – which is reporting more than 6,700 coronavirus cases, as of Tuesday evening. (Chappell, 4/1)