The Daily Populous Thursday October 3rd, 2024 evening edition
Authored by apnews.com and submitted by Arsenic_Touch

Stay up to date: Follow the latest developments on weather and hurricane news.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency can meet immediate needs but does not have enough funding to make it through the hurricane season, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters Wednesday.

The agency is being stretched as it works with states to assess damage from Hurricane Helene and delivers meals, water, generators and other critical supplies. The storm struck Florida last week, then plowed through several states in the Southeast, flooding towns and killing more than 160 people.

Mayorkas was not specific about how much additional money the agency may need, but his remarks on Air Force One underscored concerns voiced by President Joe Biden and some lawmakers earlier this week that Congress may need to pass a supplemental spending bill this fall to help states with recovery efforts.

“We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting,” Mayorkas said. “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.”

Hurricane season runs June 1 to Nov. 30, but most hurricanes typically occur in September and October.

Congress recently replenished a key source of FEMA’s response efforts, providing $20 billion for the agency’s disaster relief fund as part of a short-term government spending bill to fund the government through Dec. 20. The bill also gave FEMA flexibility to draw on the money more quickly as needed.

Both chambers of Congress are scheduled, however, to be in their home states and districts until after the election, as lawmakers focus on campaigning.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., gave no hint he was considering changing that schedule during a speech Tuesday. He said that Congress just provided FEMA with the funds it needs to respond and that lawmakers would make sure those resources are appropriately allocated.

A bipartisan group of Senators from affected states wrote their leadership this week saying it’s clear Congress must act to meet constituents’ needs. They said that may even require Congress to come back in October, ahead of the election.

Mayorkas made his comments as Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris fanned out across the Southeast to witness the damage from the hurricane and seek to demonstrate commitment and competence in helping devastated communities. Biden is heading to North and South Carolina, while Harris is going to Georgia.

More than 150,000 households have registered for assistance with FEMA, and that number is expected to rise rapidly in the coming days, said Frank Matranga, an agency representative.

The devastation was especially severe in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where at least 57 people died in and around Asheville, North Carolina, a tourism haven known for its art galleries, breweries and outdoor activities.

“Communities were wiped off the map,” North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, said at a news conference Tuesday.

timthyj on October 3rd, 2024 at 14:11 UTC »

Of course the GOP killed funding for it, because then they will turn around and blame the administration when something happens and FEMA can’t/doesn’t respond, and because there are a lot of uninformed/misinformed people, there will be some who believe them.

The same thing happened earlier this year with the border. Even though the GOP killed the border bill, a WaPo poll showed that just about as many people blamed Biden for the bill failing as blamed the GOP.

Closet-PowPow on October 3rd, 2024 at 13:36 UTC »

Republicans: Disaster assistance is socialism. I won’t fund it. Also Republicans: I’ll take your disaster assistance money because I need it now. Also Republicans: I won’t fund for more disaster assistance because it’s socialism.

yhwhx on October 3rd, 2024 at 13:23 UTC »

Some Republican Reps apparently don't think funding disaster assistance is important:

"Just one day before Hurricane Helene tore through Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz of the Sunshine State was among several Republicans to vote against a stopgap measure that would continue funding the government and provide billions of dollars in extra disaster assistance."