Leigh Ann Caldwell
@LACaldwellDC

FEMA has put out a website trying to debunk rumors and claims about Hurricane Helene recovery. I'm on the campaign trail -- far from Helene disaster area -- and have heard voters bring up every one of these claims.

Hurricane Helene: Rumor Response

North Carolina was hit so badly and over such a wide, mostly rural, swath of the state that the clean up is going to be long and difficult. I mentioned earlier that my niece's husband went to Asheville in the first days after the storm to help in the rescue/recovery efforts. Today he went on FB and told people not to believe everything they read FB as the truth. When asked what he meant by that, he said that in WNC no one was stopping volunteers or confiscating supplies. He also said the NG were dropping off food and water to more remote areas. He did say there was some looting in downtown Asheville but not in the rural areas because everyone has a gun.

Does not the GOP really care about those affected by Helene because the uber-wealthy donors to the GOP have not been affected?
#42 | Posted by LampLighter

It's all about saying the Biden/Harris adminstration are doing a bad job, so that Trump can rile up his base and use that to run on against Harris.

FEMA has money right now but will be running out of it because Congress didn't funded it before they went on vacation:

Lawmakers stunned as disaster funds left out of stopgap bill

A pair of destructive hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, an explosion of wildfires across the West and urgent pleas from Democrats and the White House this month were not enough to persuade Congress to secure new funding for disaster victims.

The House and Senate kicked off a six-week preelection recess Wednesday evening after passing a government funding extension that left out billions of dollars in requested supplemental disaster funding--even as Hurricane Helene, expected to grow into a Category 3 storm by Thursday evening, careened toward the Florida Panhandle.

The bipartisan continuing resolution passed the House on Wednesday on a 341-82 vote and hours later passed the Senate on a 78-18 vote. When President Joe Biden signs it, it will keep federal agencies open through Dec. 20, providing funding extensions for a range of federal programs, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

But some lawmakers from disaster-prone states--on both sides of the aisle--were aghast this week at the lack of additional dollars for FEMA's already depleted disaster relief fund and other federal disaster programs. Many of them were incensed that the typically bipartisan priority had fallen victim to partisan squabbles at such a dire time.

Indeed, as the House and Senate's top four leaders met last weekend to negotiate a deal to keep the government funded, they were forced to acquiesce to the demands of Congress' most conservative fiscal hawks, whose votes were thought to be pivotal for passage. They quietly stripped the CR of almost all supplemental funding, including for FEMA, according to multiple House appropriators.

The closed-door negotiations left many of Congress' biggest disaster aid advocates surprised and disappointed, and even top appropriators with jurisdiction over disaster funding said they were blindsided.

"I would have thought that if you were going to do something, disaster funding would've been one of the starting points. I have no idea how they got to that," Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), chair of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds FEMA, told POLITICO's E&E News.

"They didn't call me in and ask me for any advice," he said. "Can you believe that?"

The funding omission was made all the more striking by the fact that lawmakers were leaving Washington two days ahead of schedule, in part because of the hurricane.

Tony Roma,
Mayorkas, "FEMA is tremendously prepared for hurricane season."
Nothing ambiguous about that. It's a very bold statement. Just admit it - he was and is FOS.
#48 | Posted by BellRinger

Link?

Tony Roma,
Mayorkas, "FEMA is tremendously prepared for hurricane season."
Nothing ambiguous about that. It's a very bold statement. Just admit it - he was and is FOS.
#48 | Posted by BellRinger
Link?
#51 | Posted by Gal_Tuesday

Hmm, it looks like his "very bold statement" was followed by qualitications, which is where we are now:

"FEMA is tremendously prepared," Mayorkas assured reporters in a video from July. "This is what we do, this is what they do, and the key here ... is to also make sure the communities who are potentially impacted are prepar

"And it's not just hurricanes and wildfires " also extreme heat, which certainly some parts of the United States are experiencing," he added. Mayorkas stressed that FEMA has "exercised these muscles, regrettably, year after year" due to the "increasing frequency and gravity of weather events."

However, Mayorkas did argue that FEMA's disaster relief fund remained in a precarious position and needed fresh funding from Congress ahead of an expected heavy hurricane season. In July, he anticipated running out by "mid-August."

Mayorkas stressed the need to be ready for the "consequences" of increasingly severe weather events as climate change continues to exacerbate disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires.