The day before her home in Stillwater burned to ashes, Lisa Jones broke her leg moving plants into the greenhouse.
Forecasters predicted a high chance for wildfires the next day and her family was trying to prepare. When her husband, Roger Jones, saw smoke filling the air in the Nottingham neighborhood on March 14, 2025, he acted fast. Lisa said she only had time to grab her grandmother’s ring out of the jewelry box before Roger had her loaded in the car.
“I grabbed her, and then I got the dogs, and worked on the cats and told my son, ‘Just get it in the car. We’re leaving,’” Roger said.
The Joneses fled with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a few heirlooms. Looking back, Lisa said there was no question her family would rebuild, though federal funding to prevent future disasters is now facing unprecedented delays.
Across the state, the March 2025 wildfire outbreak killed four Oklahomans, damaged more than 600 homes and burned more than 170,000 acres, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
In the aftermath, U.S. President Donald Trump declared the event a major disaster — a trigger allowing state, local and tribal governments to apply for mitigation funding to pay for projects that fortify communities from future disasters.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved individual assistance for Oklahomans impacted by the fires, but a request for mitigation funding remains under review. The holdup is hindering longterm recovery and driving Oklahoma officials to consider solutions at the state-level.
More than a year later, Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management officials have not received any communication from FEMA regarding the lack of approval for mitigation funding from the wildfires, Public Affairs Director Keli Cain said.
“This specific delay has been something I don’t believe anyone in the profession has seen,” said Annie Vest, the agency’s director. “It’s been very interesting to try to navigate and understand what’s going on.”
Federal mitigation funding differs from other aid as it is only available after a disaster to improve infrastructure and implement preventative strategies up to 75% of eligible costs. Mitigation funding for wildfire disasters can include controlled burns, fuel reduction projects and strategic infrastructure projects. Federal mitigation grants save the country $6 for every $1 invested, according to the National Institute of Building Sciences.
Before the March 2025 wildfires, FEMA authorized mitigation funding for Oklahoma after every federally-declared disaster, including floods and tornadoes. The last major disaster eligible for mitigation funding was a tornado outbreak in 2024.
One family in Harrah had no warning before an EF3 tornado destroyed their home and vehicles. Jessica Cunningham said the tornado sirens near their rural home didn’t sound.
“We were asleep in the bed, and the news station wasn’t even necessarily watching the tornado that hit us,” Cunningham said. “There was no warning and we were dead asleep … We woke up to being sprayed with glass. It sounded like a bomb, and I just kind of panicked.”
The Cunningham home was one of 386 properties destroyed during the overnight storms, according to the Oklahoma County Assessor. FEMA allocated up to $571,987 for mitigation projects related to the storms.
The long-term mitigationplanforOklahoma County from 2024 identified the Cunninghams and others who are living in areas with ineffective warning systems as an at-risk population. It stated the county has plans to upgrade infrastructure and enhance early warning systems upon receiving mitigation funding.
TheOklahomaDepartment of Emergency Management is still reviewing any applications from Oklahoma County and other local governments relating to the mitigation funding for the November 2024 outbreak. Once applications are submitted and approved, FEMA can obligate the funding accordingly.
An upgraded warning system is long overdue for families like the Cunninghams. An advanced warning could have given the family more time to reach shelter and gather belongings before the tornado struck.
Cunningham recovered what she could sprinkled throughout the rubble.
“I have seven kids, so I remember picking up stuff from their baby box,” Cunningham said. “Their first shoes, and their little umbilical cord stump, and just being sad all that was kind of ruined and lost.”
The Cunninghams decided not to return to their rural home, but with approved mitigation funding, future disasters in the area may not have as extreme consequences. Survivors of other disasters in Oklahoma cannot say the same as previously-approved mitigation grants are also delayed.
U.S. Senator James Lankford announced in late January that Oklahoma will soon receive more than $12 million in mitigation funding for flooding in Tulsa County. FEMA approved those grants before the March 2025 wildfires, according to Oklahoma emergency department officials.
Fire Management Assistance Grants, which are grants that cover firefighting costs through equipment, supplies and personnel, were also delayed. Jason Dobson, chief of the Olive Volunteer Fire Department, received a grant to pay for three new gas detectors and a heart monitor. The department’s current equipment is outdated and it’s hard to find replaceable parts, Dobson said.
Dobson agreed to purchase the equipment in fall 2025 during the federal government shutdown, and expected to receive the funds once the government reopened Nov. 12.
“It usually takes about a week for FEMA to approve your reimbursement, and in the next couple days after that, your money is deposited in your account, and then you make your payment for the equipment you purchased,” Dobson said.
When more than a month went by, Dobson contacted FEMA, who told him all of the funds were under manual review. FEMA is supposed to cover 95% of the cost. Without the reimbursement, Dobson has $54,000 worth of new equipment sitting in boxes his department can’t use.
“I’m getting return labels to send back to the vendors, because I can’t make payments right now on it and so it is very frustrating,” Dobson said. “My biggest fear is we’re using this (old equipment) and it fails during the call, and it does result in somebody’s life being lost.”
Dobson fought wildfires in 2012 and 2025. FEMA made mitigation funding available in 2012, even though that outbreak was slightly smaller.
Wildfires destroyed Gov. Stitt’s own ranch near Luther in the 2025 outbreak. He vowed to build back stronger, and launched a working group to improve the state’s readiness for future disasters.
One of the group’s main findings was a need to expand mitigation efforts. But, since Oklahoma didn’t receive mitigation funding after the 2025 wildfires, the group noted the future of federal assistance is uncertain and emphasized the need for state-level solutions, according to the report.
The group made 15 recommendations for shifting responsibility to the state, including strengthening local and state coordination, establishing a formal state response plan and investing in first responders. To make up for federal funding shortfalls, the report recommends the state consider setting aside dedicated funding to offset new costs for local governments.
Legislators this year proposed HB 2989 to create a new mitigation program in the Oklahoma Conservation Commission and establish a dedicated revolving fund for wildfire mitigation efforts that would receive funding from appropriations, grants and private donations. But it failed to reach the House floor.
Stitt, who fired Oklahoma Forestry Services Director Mark Goeller in the wildfire’s aftermath, said in a press conference Feb. 24, that he felt agency coordination has already improved. He said he would argue that a new director of Oklahoma Forestry Services may not even be needed as the current team of 20 agencies are working together nicely.
FEMA delays leave communities waiting FEMA’s funding lapsed several times, including during a government shutdown regarding legislative funding for fiscal year 2026. The most recent is an ongoing, partial shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security while lawmakers fight over funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement after its temporary funding expired Feb. 13.
Funding lapses can delay and complicate grant management. But certain delays can be traced back to a FEMA review President Trump ordered in January 2025.
The agency review was originally slated to last one year, but Trump extended it to May 29. During that time frame, any grant or contract award over $100,000 required personal approval from the Department of Homeland Security secretary and the directive “supersedes all previous guidance on spending.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin replaced Kristi Noem as secretary last month. Mullin ended Noem’s policy requiring secretary approval for amounts more than $100,000 on April 1. He will continue to sign off on spending above $25 million, according to CBS News.
The policy caused delays averaging three weeks in two instances in Oklahoma, according to a report by U.S. Senators Gary Peters and Andy Kim.
After the March 2025 wildfires, it took FEMA six days to approve disaster unemployment assistance. Grant funding to provide crisis counseling was also delayed for a month, according to the report.
Vest, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management director, said projects seemed to get stuck following the directive.
“There’s no real understanding of where that stuck is,” Vest said. “Is it somewhere at the regional level? Is it FEMA? There’s just no real clarity, and we don’t have any insight of what that process really is.”
Since the start of the year, stagnant projects have begun to see funding approved, Vest said. FEMA released some mitigation and public assistance funding after a long delay, including the grants Lankford announced in January. Although things are moving at FEMA, Vest said it has been slower than usual and answers about projects have been harder to receive due to turnover.
Five days after Noem’s
dismissal, a FEMA spokesperson, in a statement to Oklahoma Watch, blamed the shutdown for delays and disrupted assistance.
“Since Secretary Noem took office, FEMA has obligated over $67 million to Oklahoma,” the statement read. “Now, the reckless Democrat shutdown of DHS, FEMA faces delayed reimbursements, disrupted recovery efforts, furloughs of key personnel, and a halt to critical preparedness activities such as first responder training and hurricane season planning.”
Mullin, in his Senate confirmation hearing March 18, said he supports FEMA’s mission and wants to be more effective, direct and quick.
“Taking years to get reimbursed is not acceptable,” Mullin said. “Taking honestly months to get reimbursed is not acceptable. See, small municipalities, they can’t afford it.”
Mullin also said in his confirmation hearing that FEMA should be working with states, but states should have its own emergency response. Oklahoma’s working group had the same conclusion.
“FEMA was never designed to be the first responder,” Mullin said. “That’s the states. FEMA was designed to be the assistance to the states when the disaster reaches certain levels … FEMA is simply helping write checks and assuring that they have the capability and the manpower if need be.”
A federal judge ordered FEMA in March to restore a grant program that funds mitigation projects before disaster strikes.
The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program was created in 2018 to improve pre-disaster planning and mitigation. FEMA canceled the program in April 2025, halting more than $3 million in projects. The restoration will open up $1 billion dollars for states, territories, tribes and local governments.
“The BRIC was the biggest mitigation program for predisaster that ever existed,” Vest said. “The biggest and the best program. That program was really intended to kind of flip the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program on its head.”
Another way communities can start mitigation projects is with the help of an Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management revolving fund created in 2024.
Communities can apply for funds to begin a project that will eventually be reimbursed by FEMA. The revolving fund can only be used if a FEMA grant is already approved to reimburse the community for the project.
“We take on that burden,” Vest said. “It does impact communities, because if a community is waiting on their disaster money and they get hit again and again, then the revenue that they were trying to get back from what they had lost from that event is going to hurt them much more significantly. We have a lot of really poor areas of the state, and some very rural communities that really need those funds.”