| The federal government has almost no capacity to deal with another major disaster, which doesn’t bode well as climate change fuels more frequent and intense storms, wildfires and floods. The Federal Emergency Management Agency reported this week that it’s struggling with staffing levels a month after Hurricanes Helene and Milton ransacked states from Florida to Tennessee, write Thomas Frank and Adam Aton. People seeking help from FEMA after the hurricanes were put on hold for over an hour, and that’s if they managed to get through at all. Federal workers match callers with appropriate FEMA programs, such as those offering payments for hotels and small home repairs along with providing emergency cash. Federal call centers failed to answer nearly half of all incoming phone calls over the course of one recent week, according to the FEMA data. When Mike Toomey called a federal helpline last week seeking aid after Helene flooded his home in western North Carolina, a recording declared him 675th in line. Meanwhile, the Small Business Administration has run out of money to offer low-interest disaster loans for small businesses and households to begin rebuilding. Let’s get political
The nation’s response to the recent spate of hurricanes has become a major issue in the presidential race. GOP nominee Donald Trump has fueled the spread of misinformation regarding the Biden administration’s response, which federal officials say has undermined recovery efforts. After a speaker at a Trump rally on Sunday made racist and hateful comments, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign clapped back with ads criticizing Trump for his response to Hurricane Maria after it demolished Puerto Rico in 2017. Nothing new?
Regardless of which party controls the White House, FEMA has struggled to grapple with catastrophic disasters since at least 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Louisiana area, killing almost 1,400 people. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy left FEMA unprepared to “keep pace with survivors’ requests for information,” the agency’s own analysis found. FEMA’s workforce “was overwhelmed” when three hurricanes — Harvey, Irma and Maria — hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico in quick succession in 2017. Agency call centers, plagued by “low morale and inadequate training,” failed to answer 2.3 million phone calls during an eight-week period. “We’ve been redlining since Harvey and have never recovered,” said former FEMA Administrator Brock Long.
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