Mayorkas warns FEMA doesn't have enough funding to last through hurricane season

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Mayorkas warns FEMA doesn't have enough funding to last through hurricane season

2024-10-03 06:39 Last Updated At：07:01

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.

Southerners stay in touch the old-fashioned way after Helene cuts roads, power, phones

2024-10-03 06:58 Last Updated At：07:00

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Isolated and without electricity or phone service since Hurricane Helene inflicted devastation across the Southeast nearly a week ago, residents in the mountains of western North Carolina are relying on old-fashioned ways of communicating and coping.

At the town square in Black Mountain, local leaders stood atop a picnic table shouting updates about when power might be restored. Alongside a fencerow, a makeshift message board listed the names of people still missing. Mules delivered medical supplies to mountaintop homes. Residents who haven’t been able to shower in days collected water from creeks to flush their toilets.

President Joe Biden, visiting the area on Wednesday, praised the Democratic governor of North Carolina and the Republican governor of South Carolina for their responses to the storm, saying that in the wake of disasters, “we put politics aside.”

While government cargo planes brought food and water into the hardest-hit areas and rescue crews waded through creeks searching for survivors, those who made it through the storm, whose death toll has topped 180, leaned on one another — not technology.

“I didn’t know where I was going, didn’t know what was going to happen next. But I got out and I’m alive,” said Robin Wynn, who lost power at her Asheville home early Friday and was able to grab a bag of canned goods and water before getting to a shelter despite water up to her knees.

She's now now back home, said her neighbors have been watching out for one another, and said plenty of people have come around to make sure everyone has a hot meal and water.

Biden flew over the devastation in North and South Carolina, getting a firsthand look at the mess left by a storm that now has killed 182 people, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina, according to statistics from the National Hurricane Center.

Speaking in Raleigh, North Carolina, Biden said, “Our job is to help as many people as we can as quickly as we can and as thoroughly as we can.”

That includes a commitment from the federal government to foot the bill for debris removal and emergency protective measures for six months. The money will address the impacts of landslides and flooding and will cover costs of first responders, search and rescue teams, shelters, and mass feeding.

“We’re not leaving until you’re back on your feet completely,” Biden said.

Harris traveled to neighboring Georgia, where she said the president had approved a request from Georgia’s governor for the federal government to pick up the tab for debris removal and emergency protective measures for three months.

The president plans on traveling to disaster areas in Florida and Georgia on Thursday.

In remote mountain areas, helicopters hoisted the stranded to safety while search crews moved toppled trees so they could look door to door for survivors. In some places, homes teetered on hillsides and washed-out riverbanks.

More than 1.1 million customers still had no power in the Carolinas and Georgia, where Helene struck far inland after barreling over Florida’s Gulf Coast six days ago as a Category 4 hurricane. Deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, in addition to the Carolinas.

Anna Ramsey said fallen trees left her family stranded for several days, so they’ve bailed water from a creek in their backyard to flush toilets and cooked on a propane grill.

“We have no water; we have no power; but I think it’s also been humbling,” she said while her two children carried water in plastic bags from a distribution site in Asheville. “It’s been humbling ... what we need to do for ourselves.”

The widespread damage and outages affecting communications infrastructure left many people without stable access to the internet and cell service.

Eric Williamson, who works at First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, normally makes home visits to members who can’t physically get to church. This week, he’s their lifeline, delivering food that meets dietary restrictions and tossing out food that had spoiled.

He has a handwritten list of everyone he needs to visit. “They don’t have telephone service, even if they have a landline, a lot of that isn’t working,” Williamson said.

Volunteers in Asheville gathered before going out to help find people who have been unreachable because of phone and internet outages. They took along boxes of drinking water and instructions to return in person with their results.

Even notifying relatives of people who died in the storm has been difficult.

“That has been our challenge, quite honestly, is no cell service, no way to reach out to next of kin,” said Avril Pinder, an official in Buncombe County where at least 61 people have died. “We have a confirmed body count, but we don’t have identifications on everyone or next-of-kin notifications.”

Employees at a plastics factory in rural Tennessee who kept working last week until water flooded their parking lot and power went out at the plant were among those killed. The floodwaters swept 11 workers away, and only five were rescued. Two are confirmed dead.

Tennessee state authorities said they are investigating the company that owns the factory after some employees said they weren’t allowed to leave in time to avoid the storm’s impact.

Hospitals and health care organizations in the Southeast mostly stayed open despite dealing with blackouts, wind damage, supply issues and flooding. Many hospitals halted elective procedures, while only a few closed completely.

It may be weeks before water is fully restored in Asheville, which supplies almost all of Buncombe County’s 275,000 residents. Thousands of feet of pipe from one reservoir were washed out and will have to be rebuilt, and a second intake is not working, said water system spokesperson Clay Chandler.

In Florida, coastal communities were still trying to clear huge piles of debris stacked on roadsides and tons of sand pushed inland from massive storm surge.

Verduzco reported from Swannanoa, North Carolina, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Brittany Peterson in Hendersonville, North Carolina; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; Michael Kunzelman in College Park, Maryland; and Cedar Attanasio and Jim Mustian in New York.