35 Burst results for "Fema"
AP News Radio
Broad swaths of US reel from tornadoes that killed 27
"There's grieving and hard work ahead in a handful of states left reeling after fierce tornadoes last week. There were dozens of tornadoes cutting a wide swath of damage throughout the Midwest and south, with 11 states affected. More than two dozen people were killed, and homes and businesses have been pulverized into splinters. This is amazing to see the devastation. I had no idea that it could look this bad. Maria Wright's home was smashed up in North Little Rock where she spoke to KA TV. The mayor of Little Rock, Frank Scott junior, says it will take months to recover. Flattening a neighborhood's flattening of a commercial building. At least four people died in the storms in Arkansas, where fema officials toured the damage this weekend, at least 9 were killed in just one county in Tennessee. I'm Jackie Quinn
AP News Radio
Daunting recovery underway in tornado-devastated Mississippi
"Help has begun pouring into one of the poorest regions in the country, the Mississippi Delta. After a deadly tornado killed and injured dozens of people and flattened entire communities. Just been devastating. The mayor of rolling fork, Mississippi, Eldridge walker, says families are grieving homeless and facing years of displacement, but the federal government is helping. That's what we're here to do. Fema administrator Chris well toured the damage this weekend, vowing help is there. Going door to door into these communities, helping people register for assistance. Like wonder Bolden, who's lost her home and possessions. Volunteers are helping too, like Jared kunzi of Alabama, who was stunned by what he saw. Tom's devastated. Trash. Trees. Houses, homes. I'm Jackie Quinn.
AP News Radio
Federal aid coming to tornado-wrecked swath of Mississippi
"Federal help is on the way for the people in the Deep South who suffer damage and deaths from Friday's devastating tornado. The town of rolling fork Mississippi is one of those nearly wipe flat by the twisters devastation. Wanda barfield says it was the hand of God. I said, when you come. It ain't gonna be nothing nice. She's grateful to be spared. That life is more important than anything else. You can get jobs, money, car, low shoes. But found her sister in law dad when she went to check. The fema administrator de and Chris well is coming to tour damage throughout the region, meeting with mayors and local residents. Making sure that the local jurisdictions, those first responders have all of the resources that they need and then second that we start to take care of these families. And praising first responders. Such an amazing job, some of which probably have lost some of their homes themselves. She spoke on ABC's this week with George Stephanopoulos. The national weather service is estimating the damage was caused by an E four tornado. On the ground for about an hour. I'm Jackie Quinn
The Dinesh D'Souza Podcast
The Red Cross Is Mapping Out Routes for Illegals to Cross the Border
"Debbie showed me this article on the Red Cross, and it's a little disturbing. It's the Red Cross has guides for U.S. bound migrants that have maps of the border, resources along the journey, lists of things to do when you encounter dangers along the highway. And it even goes to the extent of telling people like bring your contraceptives with you in necessary cases, Red Cross clinics and medical brigades will give them to you for free. So this appears to be like a how to be an illegal manual. Well, that's disturbing to the contraceptives. I mean, are they saying that they're going to get raped along the way so they may as well bring well, either that or, hey, listen, if you want to, I mean, who knows what they're saying, they appear to be just trying to make life easy and show people where to go. I mean, this is almost like a, you know, I mean, to the degree that crossing the border is an illegal act. This is to me no different than how to rob a bank. Yeah, no, it is. Right? Yeah. So, and these packets apparently come their stamped with the international committee of the Red Cross and the American Red Cross. So they show you what do they show you? Hotels and clinics and shelters. They have clearly defined lines that take you to various parts of El Paso, Texas, nogales, Arizona, I lived close to nogales. Met Gala in Texas. And so, and evidently all of this has also been funded by the U.S. government. By the Biden administration. Shocker. So the Red Cross apparently is part, gets grants from fema. The federal emergency. So what fema says, and again, this is all put into the garb of humanitarian. Well, you know, these guys are coming in and anyway, so we got to make sure they don't starve or you know when we drive to the valley and we see those big tubs of water. Yeah, that's agua. And so you're like thinking, um, why would they have that on the side there of the king ranch, which is like total desolation. There's nothing there. But they have these big tubs. Why? Because they're expecting for these illegals to walk through there and oh, you know, they need water, so there's agua.
America First with Sebastian Gorka Podcast
Why President Donald Trump Chose to Visit Ohio
"President Trump welcome back to the Salem news channel. Well, thank you very much, Sebastian. And your show is doing great. And it's an honor to do it with you. Really great honor. Thank you, condi sir. I couldn't believe it that our team said it's now the 5th time you've been on the show. We have the full previous ones that made the news one in which you called a merely a woke traitor. You talked about the stealing of the election. Let's see if we can make some news today. First things first, mister president, could you comment on why it took a former president to go to Ohio. We have the amazing footage from you in that McDonald's. Why did you get there to help the suffering suffering people of east Palestine before forget Pete boot edge edge before even President Biden went, mister president? Well, it seemed a very natural thing to do. I was watching the news and I saw this incredible explosion and it really is having very devastating effect on water and air and everything else as you know as you've been covering it very nicely. But I saw it happening. And I was told that the fema and that the Biden administration will have nothing to do with it. They actually said, we'll have nothing to do with it. It doesn't come within the parameters of fema. And I will tell you, Phoebe is great. You know, we had a fantastic relationship for tornadoes and hurricanes and everything else he worked on. And they were told not to do it. And as soon as I announced, I didn't do it for this reason, but it worked out to be pretty good because as soon as I announced that I was going, then the Biden people announced that they were going to go and that fema was going to be there and fever was going to help them out, et cetera, et cetera. That happened. But I went there and they're incredible people. The mayor was great. The whole place was really great. And they're working very hard to get rid of that problem. It's a big problem.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Savanah Hernandez Joins Us From East Palestine, OH
"Now with Savannah Hernandez, she has the most viral content right now regarding anything political east Palestinian you name it because she decided to go ask Buddha judge questions and the press secretary did not like that at all. Savannah, welcome to the program and Savannah is with our turning point USA frontlines project and you guys can check out Savannah's social media. I'll get all the handles here. Savannah, I never thought it would be so hard to get questions from a press secretary. Tell us about it. Yeah, Charlie. So of course we know that Pete Buttigieg decided to come to east Palestine almost three weeks post train derailment. We had former president Donald Trump here yesterday. We were here talking to him. And a lot of people were already criticizing Buttigieg because they asked the question, why did it take president Trump getting here for you to come? So, you know, there was already a lot of around this trip and I simply asked him as well. What he planned to do to help the residents of east Palestinian. If you had an apology for them because of the fact that they've been left in the dark, the fact that they have had no federal assistance, okay? I mean, actually, I don't want to be fake news here, Charlie. They do have fema teams here, but for the mayor, they just came this past weekend. So again, that federal assistant came very slowly. So I wanted to ask Pete Buttigieg about that. Of course, he walked away, and then his press secretary told me that I was being aggressive for trying to ask questions. Regarding, you know, transparency around this entire crisis that's happened here.
Mike Gallagher Podcast
President Trump: The People of East Palestine Were Abandoned
"I want to ask you about the current occupant of The White House. He spent the day president's day in Ukraine with president zelensky rather than go to east Palestine and spend it with the suffering residents of Ohio. Your thoughts on that. Well, I think it's very sad. And I'll be going, as you know, I'll be spending some time in Ohio where he should be and frankly that femur should have been there a long time ago and I announced that I was going and all of a sudden fema sending a lot of money now and they weren't going to send anything. So I'm honored by that, but I'll be there on Wednesday. And I look forward to that. It would be great. Those are great people. And they were abandoned, but now I think they won't be abandoned any longer. Very sad to watch that. That's president Trump, obviously, with John Solomon just the news dot com.
The Officer Tatum Show
Legally Armed Civilian Shot and Wounded Suspected Gunman
"All right, so guys, here's the deal. We got a racist in The White House and I'm gonna be getting to some COVID stats and things that some things that I've learned, some things that I've researched, I got so much more to get to, so we've got a lot of conservative cardio. I do want to give you this update. Had to forgotten man. El Paso moss shooting suspects stopped by citizen with a gun, police say thank God for law abiding citizens that happened to carry. The 16 year old suspected of killing one person and injuring three others. After opening fire in a Texas mall on Wednesday, was stopped by a citizen legally carrying a firearm that all pass a police department said. Emmanuel Duran 32 shot the team suspect believed to be responsible for the death of Angeles zaragoza 17 and the CAO vista ma police said on Friday. As soon as the shooting ended the 16 year old suspect began to run and was pointing the gun toward the direction of bystanders, including 32 year old Emmanuel Duran, a licensed to carry holder. As a suspect ran toward Duran and bystander saran drew his handgun and shot the suspect. This according to law enforcement after stopping the suspect Duran, and an off duty El Paso police officer rendered a to him and the other people who were injured. The suspect is in stable condition, official said the suspect who has not been named due to his age also allegedly wounded a 17 year old Hispanic male, a 20 year old Hispanic male and a 15 year old boy. This according to local outlet M according to the El Paso police sergeant Robert Gomez, he said, and I quote, it's always concerning, especially when a 16 year old has a stolen handgun and fires a weapon inside a very crowded mall. It's very concerning. It's very disturbing, actually.
The Officer Tatum Show
Are We Getting Our Money's Worth From Europe?
"I was talking about this racist that's in The White House, and it's administration that totally racist. They hate white people. They hate white working class. People or at least the people bite in staffers do. I suspect that it's Susan Rice running a lot of this stuff, but just before I get to that, let me just touch on some of the key points that have been with Biden's visit to Ukraine to Kyiv today. And he's also going to be going to Poland or did he go to Poland before? I forget. I forget which order they were in. Okay, so he's in Poland now. He's in Warsaw now. All right, so he went to Kyiv and he wanted to make a strong statement. The problem is he's not making a strong statement because the world leaders see him and they're laughing. They see open borders, so they can't take them seriously. They see China able to able to control a balloon a spy balloon to go across the entire United States. They see Biden pouring money into Ukraine with no plan to win our leaders are military leaders sadly between Millie and Lloyd Austin with no plan, no strategy to win and let's make no mistake about it. Yes, it's the Russian Ukraine war, but it's also America's proxy war because we're not even getting our fear. We're not even getting a fair amount of money. In my opinion, from Europe. At this point, we did the frontal damage, Europe needs to come in and fight this fight. We're not demanding that.
The Officer Tatum Show
The China Factor in Latin America
"Hats hit the daily signal. This is something that you should be worried about. This is something that you should be talking about or we should be talking about from our biggest adversaries. Why this guy plays for photo ops, China is playing for keeps. Again, had to daily signal. Taiwan relationship matters to America and holding back China. Nowadays our countries are much more than Friends. They are partners in strategic allies at your values and the same vision to create a peaceful democratic and sustainable world. These are the succinct words of president Mario Abdul Benitez of the republic of Paraguay, who is currently leading a delegation to Taiwan on a 5 day state visit. Washington should welcome the constructive and forward looking interaction between America's two critical partners, one in the indo Pacific, a Pacific, and the other in South America. That's because our Latin American neighbors have been a major diplomatic battleground for China and Taiwan, huh? Excuse me? Say what? China has chased after Taiwan's diplomatic allies to switch their recognition of Taiwan as a separate nation independent of China, Beijing has gained 8 conversions in recent years, including Nicaragua, which cut its ties with Taiwan in December 2021.
The Officer Tatum Show
The Worst President of All Time
"You guys may have heard the news. I'm sure you have that the former president Jimmy Carter is in hospice care. He will no longer go down as the worst president in American history, thanks to Joe Biden. Listen, by all accounts, Demi Carter was a smart guy. He seemed like a very nice guy. Obviously he has a reputation for being an humanitarian and doing a great job in great work for the people outside of the presidency. I couldn't stand the way that he would chime in on when it came to former president Donald Trump. I wish that some of these former presidents would just keep their mouths shut, frankly. I wish Jimmy Carter would have done that. Having said that, however, he by all accounts he was a very good and decent decent man. And so he will be missed, no doubt about it. But Joe Biden is has taken over as the worst president in American history and my opinion. So Jimmy Carter can rest, you know, he can go to heaven, knowing that he didn't go out as the worst president in American history.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Joe Biden Makes a Surprise Visit to Ukraine
"Your president is visiting his prized constituents in Ukraine. Now I have to say many of you are fired up and you should be, why is he not visiting Ohio? Why is he not focusing on issues here domestically? And that is the right sentiment. However, the fact that we spent a $100 billion in Ukraine were acting as if Ukraine is more like America than our own country. Is it the 51st state? That's a simple question, but hey, I actually don't think it's a waste of time if you're doing the right thing when you go to visit Ukraine and Biden is doing the opposite of the right thing. Yes, he should be visiting some of the catastrophes and disasters happening in our homeland first, but we've talked about what is neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is caring more about the needs wants and concerns of foreigners than that of your own citizens. Tyrants dictators and despots have a fetish for the needs wants and concerns of something that is foreign and they really are disinterested in your life. In the life of an American. So Biden is in the middle of the Ukrainian war zone. And yes, I totally agree. He should be an east Palestinian. He should be mobilizing fema. He should be concerned about our own country, but visiting Ukraine. I don't think is necessarily a waste of time. If you are using the bully pulpit, if you are using American strength, if you are using the power of the presidency to broker peace, if you are saying, hey, let's end this war. Now, I believe Joe Biden does have deep seated contempt for large parts of America. I think he really does, I think he hates Midwest Trump America. But all that aside, if you are going to visit Ukraine, if you're going to visit visit Eastern Europe, in the middle of this proxy war that is about to hit a whole, it's about to enter a whole new chapter in about a week and a half. It seems as if Putin is going to put his foot on the accelerator and what are we doing? What is our government doing? Well, Joe Biden is doing the exact opposite and it's going to put America at risk. It's going to put more of our money at risk. And the most immediate and sad fact is that tens of thousands of people are going to unnecessarily die in
Mike Gallagher Podcast
Biden Admin Rejects Ohio's Request for Disaster Assistance
"This week, Charlie Kirk on his radio and podcast and his platforms said that what's happening to the people of eastern Ohio after this train derailment is an example of the latest salvo in the war against white people and a lot of people, of course, took exception of that that's terrible that's awful that's provocative. How do you explain the federal government turning down Ohio's request for federal disaster aid? Let me get this straight. A major train derailment occurs with all kinds of toxic conditions being created, it happened in rural Ohio with an overwhelming percentage of white lower and middle class citizens who are terrified. Videos are emerging looking, showing what the condition of the water is, dogs and pets getting sick, chickens dying, birds, fish dying, the Republican governor there requests federal assistance, and the Biden administration's fema turned them down. Sorry. No can do.
ToddCast Podcast with Todd Starnes
Joe Biden Refers to Maryland's First Black Governor as 'Boy' in Speech
"Everybody. We're waiting for a few more people to get on, but we're going to get started. If that's okay with you all. And thanks for joining me. I'm here. The fema director is on the theme director Chris Walsh. She's on. And I'm here with my senior adviser and boy who knows Louisiana very, very well, man. And in New Orleans, and senator chrisman and Cedric the boy would be African American. It got so bad. On the campaign trail. And this, again, this is, this is not something that is just a slip of the tongue. This is something that Biden does all the time. I mean, all the time. As a matter of fact, back in 2007, you might remember this, senator senator then senator Biden was launching a bid for The White House. And he made a comment that he had to apologize for. I'm going to read to you what Biden said about Barack, Hussein, Obama. You ready for this one, folks? This is Joe Biden. I mean, you've got the first sort of mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook man. The only thing the only thing Biden did not do was call Barack Obama a boy. But he called him articulate and bright and clean.
ToddCast Podcast with Todd Starnes
Caller: Has Anyone Addressed the Toxic Cloud Over Ohio?
"Concern is, I don't know whether lap or cry over this whole what's going on in this country. But my concern right now is that cloud over Ohio that's drifting this way and is killing fish in the cattle and everything and I live in western New York almost to the Pennsylvania border and it's coming here. Like what has anyone addressed what it is? No, Cindy. What kind of cloud is it? Yes, so we've got some Intel on that and we'll play this audio in just a moment for you. But nothing official from the government. And again, we haven't heard from fema. We haven't heard from Pete Buttigieg. And by the way, this is his responsibility, and you've got people out there, you've got people out there firsthand accounts of pets of livestock of fish that are dying, Cindy, are they giving you because to your point, that chemical cloud is heading towards New York State, and all our weather comes from the. Are they giving you guys any kind of Intel? Nope, no heads up. Nobody said nothing about it. And no, it's not even on the news Todd. No, it's not everybody is focused on whatever the alien invasion is. Look over here. That's it. That's it. We have not gotten any official reports, but there are concerns that the cloud would be heading in your direction and also for the folks that get their drinking water from some of these rivers, you better pay attention because that water that contaminated water will eventually flow into places like the Mississippi River. Exactly, the water thing too, that somebody mentioned that is like, oh my God. But anyway,
The Doug Collins Podcast
Doug and Congressman Mike Waltz Discuss Serving Your Country
"Both are still in. I'm in the air force, you know, you're in the army as well. And this is something that I think is there. Recruitment, a lot of these issues are down. We were at a, I did some of my drill time when I was in New York when I was in D.C.. It actually at a unit there for reserve is in Washington. Some three star general former personnel folks who came in. Now, I'm not saying I've completely agree with what they're saying, but it was an interesting project when I came in and said, look, we're at a point now to where we really need to consider the draft again. We really need to consider this issue of bringing people in like you said. Now, there's an immediate repulsion of that. Oh, we can't do that. We're getting fine. Yeah. But my long-term here. And one of the first arguments, and it was an interesting argument. And I won't name the Republican who actually made the argument, but he said, well, you know, that means that cohesion and morale and everything will go down and they say they didn't in World War I it didn't World War II in Korean it didn't Vietnam. He said, it explained that so it was an interesting argument. I know we're not there, but is at least there's some conversations saying we got to do something different. Well, you know, a couple of things. One, you know, I don't think you have to wear a uniform to serve your country. You can there's a fema volunteer core for disaster relief. There's national parks, there's inner city tutoring. There's rural medicine. But you learn leadership, discipline, teamwork, followership, and you serve something besides yourself with people who don't look or act or came from the same place that you do. So I think there's that's why I call it national service, number one. Number two, I do think we'd have a hell of a time going back to a draft. The Israelis do it, but their population is 9 million is approaching 350. But Doug, you know, I mean, you've got Elizabeth Warren talking about just giving college away and Bernie talking about deaf relief. I think society should get something in exchange for that. I think that's healthy for the citizen. And for the citizenry,
America First with Sebastian Gorka Podcast
Jim Carafano Explains Why FEMA Is So Wrong in So Many Ways
"This is cotton 9 the head of Homeland Security. Fema is providing emergency food and shelter program funds to help cities around the country recover or defray the costs of non citizen arrivals. CBP and ice are working closely with cities to share information and coordinate the disposition of non citizens in immigration enforcement proceedings. Just the orwellian phraseology, non citizen immigrants. There's a legal term for that, and it's not non citizen immigrants. It's illegal aliens at the section of Homeland Security is using that phraseology, but Jim, fema being used to shelter and home house illegal immigrants. Is that why we created the federal emergency management agency? So we should unpack this because this is so wrong in so many ways. Fema, which was created by Jimmy Carter, bring together disparate bits of agencies for the express purpose of there is a disaster that impacts Americans, we all rush in as a nation to help in female helps coordinate that. A hurricane. Whatever forest fire. Tornadoes. 9 11? It was not designed to house illegal immigrants. This is an absolute, and so that's wrong. You're taking resources, what do we do when there's a disaster? They won't be there for Americans. That is absolutely wrong because we don't know when the next disaster is going to strike. So literally I can guarantee you, if there's a disaster on the scale of what we just saw in California with a flooding, there will be people there will be American citizens that won't help because fema is housing illegal immigrants that Joe Biden brought in the United States.
AP News Radio
Biden to tour California storm damage, see recovery efforts
"President Biden heads to California to tour damage from recent storms. Biden accompanied by fema administrator deanne criswell, governor Gavin Newsom and other officials is set to survey storm ravaged areas via helicopter on a trip between Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. He'll meet with residents and capitola, a town next to Santa Cruz that's been hit by mudslides, river flooding and high surf. Our heart is with all of the families. All the families in the communities that are hurting. In the early evening, he'll deliver remarks from a seaside state park in aptos, White House press secretary karine Jean Pierre said the president will reaffirm his commitment to supporting the people of California. Storms have caused severe floods and landslides. Jennifer King, Washington
WTOP
"fema" Discussed on WTOP
"The images coming from Florida are frightening, beachfronts and entire neighborhoods destroyed, home submerged, and there's going to be a major problem with rebuilding. The New York Times reports this week, most of the Florida homes in the path of the hurricane Ian, lacked flood insurance. This morning times correspondent Christopher flavelle, who reports on how people governments and industries cope with the effects of global warming, with his take for us. Fewer than one in 5 homes in the Florida counties that were hardest hit by this hurricane have flood insurance. That's according to estimates I got from an actuary firm called millimeter that works with the program. The problem with that number is people who don't have flood insurance who got damaged by the storm, it's really going to be challenging. It could then define funding to rebuild. It's not clear how the communities are going to recover with that many people lacking flood insurance. Is it a question of not having the money to pay for it? Is it a belief that maybe their homeowners insurance covers it? What it doesn't? It's almost certainly both those things. I'm sure some people are deciding not to buy flood insurance because they think it's too expensive and it's not cheap. That's a valid concern to be sure. I think other people maybe even more people just don't realize what level of risk they face. And so when they're looking at whether or not to spend money on flood insurance, they think, well, I've never flooded. Why do I need this? And as we're seeing with hurricane Ian, the fact that you haven't flooded doesn't mean you won't flood. So I think it's a mix of people being sensitive to the price, but also probably not really understanding the full risk they face. Well, many of these folks get some money from fema. So I think a common misperception is what fema does and does not provide is not in the business of rebuilding homes. You can get some help from fema after disaster like for temporary housing and for some perhaps minor repairs to your home. But they explicitly say over and over, it's not their job to rebuild homes destroyed by disasters. You may get lucky if you're in that situation that it may be the case that Congress provides extra money to go above and beyond and to actually help pay to repair homes that happen sometimes, but it takes a long time. It will take years if Congress comes up with that money. So I think waiting and hoping is not a great strategy. So I think what you'll see is people whose homes were destroyed and didn't have insurance will have to either dip into their savings, which can be painful. They'll have to take out a big loan, almost like a mortgage, which is painful, especially
Bloomberg Radio New York
"fema" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"A lot of we need to have a non political discussion about how to build properly along our coast. We got a change in climate, we've got a lot of people flocking to the coast. We need to build in incentives to communities that do the right thing that implement proper land use planning proper building codes, proper residential codes. And unfortunately, over the last two years, we've had more construction in this country in the last two years, and all of it was done to the minimum standard of every state. And that's a huge problem. And the good men and women at fema are never going to be able to get caught up if we don't continue to recognize that we've got to do more to build our communities correctly going forward in the future. As you suggest, that's a political issue because you're talking about growth and a lot of states. You're talking about real estate taxes, all sorts of things. That governors don't always like to deal with. You mentioned the good people of fema. How challenging is it for them to have this come just on the heels of Fiona and what it did in Puerto Rico? Well, you know, when I was in office in 2017 and to 2019, if you look at the events that we had there, the system was taxed then, at Harvey, Irma Maria Michael, California wildfires. And people don't recognize need to recognize that fema watches over half the globe. They watch over from tinian and Saipan in the Pacific all the way to the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Atlantic. And their job is continuously getting more difficult. And so it's a relatively small agency as well. I mean, you think fema is 21,000 employees roughly. So when it comes to disaster response and recovery, this is about partnerships. Fema's assistance is designed to help a state governor overcome any gaffes that that governor is seeing in the response and recovery efforts. And ultimately, their assistance should be pushed down through a governor ultimately to the local level to help those that are on the ground and the incident command effort. So I've always said, it's a partnership, disaster response is locally executed, state managed and federally supported, not the other way around. And actually, the system is playing out very well here. Politics are being put aside. The requests are coming out from the local government through the state to the federal government and disaster declarations are being put forward pretty quickly. So the people at fema, I know, are good hearted. They put their politics aside and they bust their rear ends to try to save lives and help communities recover. Just give us one last thought on that partnership you describe it because I mindful of that you ran the Alabama emergency or agency before you went to fema. So you've done the state and the federal. How does that coordination work out? Are there respective roles or is it basically all hands on deck when something happens? Yeah, and what you got to know is that a majority of disasters and emergencies go undeclared by the federal government. Most of the emergencies that communities undergo are state and local issues only. They don't rise to the federal disaster declaration level. But what happens is that when a local community's capacity to deal with an emergency has been exceeded, they next call upon Kennedy county mutual aid. And if that can not help them overcome the situation, they'll call upon the state for support. The state governor can issue an emergency, which frees up resources from personnel to money to equipment, whatever it may be to help the county overcome the emergency. And then if the state is overwhelmed and has capacity issues, that's where you call upon the president of the United States to declare the disaster. Fema doesn't declare the disaster. The disaster is ultimately up to the president. Fema makes a recommendation to the president for disaster declarations and the president in this case heated the governor's request and resources were flowing pretty quickly, but there's a long way to go. There's absolutely a long way to go and while the cameras will move away from hurricane Ian in a matter of a few weeks or months, there will be fema personnel, state and local personnel on the ground for many years to come, helping to establish a new normal in these communities have been devastated. Okay, so long, this has been very helpful, really appreciate you being with us. It's Brock long of haggerty consulting former director of fema. Coming up markets are world once again in the aftermath of the BOE intervention yesterday. We're going to go through those markets with Michelle
Slate's If Then
"fema" Discussed on Slate's If Then
"Is who's going to get the most money? So that excludes renters. But even within home ownership, there was I ran into just in the administration and we had to keep doing these workarounds. If you go on to a lot of communities, particularly historically, African American communities. This is true in a Deep South where I'm from. People didn't always go down to courthouse record D changes as members of the family died. They didn't go to attorneys and do formal estates. This is, I got the house from my grandma who got it from her grandma and we all know that. So you have a disaster. And they go apply for assistance. And fema goes, or you don't or at home. Well, yeah. Where's your proof? What do you mean? Where's your deed? You know, we went, we went and queried courthouse. There's no record. You owning this home. It's somebody in the past. We don't know if you're legitimately here. And in the effort of stomping out fraud, which became a big political issue after hurricane Katrina, if you can't preview to homeowner, you can't get assistance. We're talking amounts under $35,000. If there's fraud, we'll give the justice to prosecute, but they've been living there. They got phone bills. They've got power bills. Their card registered their driver's license there. Their voter registration is there. This is not an indictment of fema. This is just within the federal government. You don't get rewarded for taking risk and playing it safe is usually the best bet if you're civil service. The program is supposed to be equal to all. Yet, the way it's administered in many cases creates inequities and I think the fema team are really using this executive order from the president to get some of the root causes to eliminate them. But it's still going to be based upon primary assistance is to home ownership, less assistance to renters, and no assistance to businesses, which is what they consider somebody who leases or rents their home. And we know that a lot of rental properties are not big conglomerates they're not investment firms. They're people that may be retired, move to a retirement community, but kept their home for income. They don't have a lot of resources. And when that home gets flooded and they don't have insurance, they can't fix it. So they can't keep printing it. And they end up either having to sell it at a loss or put a lot of money into it and make repairs. And now they're going to have to raise rents to cover that. Because the income source. The idea of managed retreat, a whole community says, all right, we are not going to rebuild here. We're going somewhere else. It happened after superstorm sandy in some places. But what do you think? It actually started as far back as 1993 and the big Midwestern floods were at time director, James Lee, fema began working with communities and said, you know, instead of putting you back in the river plane to flood out again, why don't we take the whole town and move it up on that hill? Again, these were small numbers, but it demonstrated that fema did have that ability Florida we've had some communities from the 80s and 90s that flooded routinely. That we went in, bottom out, move them, and even though we've had significant flood sense, we didn't flood those homes. So it is something that can be done, but there's also, you know, the challenges you run into. One is the historical context. We have historical communities that, if we don't rebuild, we lose that error. And this is there's a lot of pressure to rebuild. Some industries are very dependent upon very vulnerable coastal areas that again workforce and housing are key and a lot of local governments have tremendous pressure to keep communities where they're at. But we're seeing even in the state of Louisiana. I was going to say you're describing the state of Louisiana. The governor Edwards has worked with some of the communities and they made a decision on one of the tribal areas to head basically because sea level rise and repetitive flooding. May the agreement to relocate the whole community. Another place is I think going to be an accelerator even more is going to be in Alaska. And the challenge in Alaska is a lot of these communities that need to relocate won't necessarily be from a federally declared disaster. But between permafrost and erosion of coastlines, we have seen communities in Alaska, having to relocate, and the question is going to be, how do we pay for that? And not all of these events are triggering federal disasters where you at least have some of the staff act funding to do this. And primarily the buyout programs are around flooding and not erosion. So that's another kind of a mismatch between what the flood insurance program has historically looked at as far as buy out and relocations. Versus some things which may be less a flood, but still involving water and how does that equate? And again, what's the best federal program? Because some of these things are not an acute disaster. It's over a period of time. It's to the families involved. The homeowners involved at a community is a disaster. But it's not something that generally the Stafford act was designed around. Thinking about this kind of zooming out a little bit, you're making me think, I've covered a lot of disasters. People always complain about fema, but one thing that seems notable now, it's not that the complaint isn't fema is doing a bad job in my town or fema isn't helping me, but it's maybe fema has so much to deal with that it can't meet this need or that the need is beyond the scope of what fema is supposed to do. Does fema need to change its mission or is there, I don't know, some other agency, some other plan that needs to happen? I think the first step is we got to admit the system isn't designed for the frequency and severity of climate induced weather related disasters. And there are a lot of people say, well, climate myth. And I'm like, record setting weather events that are occurring on a monthly basis can not be ignored. And if nothing else whether you believe in climate change or not, if we're having this many record setting, weather events that's causing massive damages. The one thing we should understand is what we built for in the past isn't working today. And we've got to do something different. Craig fugate, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for having me. Craig fugate is the former fema administrator under president Obama. All right, that is it for the show today. TBD is produced by Evan Campbell. Our show is edited by Tory Bosch. Joanne Levine is the executive producer for what next. Alicia Montgomery is vice president of audio for sleep. TBD is part of the larger what next family and we're also part of future tense, a partnership of slate, Arizona state university, and new America. We will be back on Sunday with another episode. I'm Lizzie O'Leary, thanks for listening.
Slate's If Then
"fema" Discussed on Slate's If Then
"Risks that we're seeing as a result of climate change. Well, I guess the question is, though, it feels like even if people were to get flood insurance, that that risk is increasing so much, right? There's a UN report showing that climate change has drive to 5 driven a 5 fold increase in weather related disasters in the past 50 years. And so I wonder if even those steps of you've got to have coverage, you have to recognize that water is a threat, can not even keep up. Well, from the standpoint of the national flood program, the answer is yes, because they're backed by Congress and Congress has provided the funding to that program when they've had payouts in excess of what they're able to generate. And that's a longing separate story, but the bottom line is damages due to rising water, which is the term they use to describe a flood. It is excluded in almost everybody's homeowner policy unless you have flood insurance. And pretty much there are very few places that you can credibly say, don't have a flood risk. Right now, pretty much the only game in town, or only option with a reasonable price to buy flood insurance, is the national flood insurance program. And because over a long period of time, starting back in the 60s, as insurance got out of the flood insurance business to federal government got in, we're only now starting to see the private sector get back and I would say very gingerly into flood insurance. But as long as Congress authorizes the national flood interest rate program, we do have a federal program to fill the gap for flood risk. Even though it's in the red and has been repeatedly. Well, last time I checked the federal deficit has been in the red and we still keep function. So as long as Congress will continue to appropriate funds to make up the shortfalls. Then of all the things that are out there, it's the one thing that's available right now. When we come back, why fema has
The Secret History of the Future
"fema" Discussed on The Secret History of the Future
"Risks that we're seeing as a result of climate change. Well, I guess the question is, though, it feels like even if people were to get flood insurance, that that risk is increasing so much, right? There's a UN report showing that climate change has drive to 5 driven a 5 fold increase in weather related disasters in the past 50 years. And so I wonder if even those steps of you've got to have coverage, you have to recognize that water is a threat, can not even keep up. Well, from the standpoint of the national flood program, the answer is yes, because they're backed by Congress and Congress has provided the funding to that program when they've had payouts in excess of what they're able to generate. And that's a longing separate story, but the bottom line is damages due to rising water, which is the term they use to describe a flood. It is excluded in almost everybody's homeowner policy unless you have flood insurance. And pretty much there are very few places that you can credibly say, don't have a flood risk. Right now, pretty much the only game in town, or only option with a reasonable price to buy flood insurance, is the national flood insurance program. And because over a long period of time, starting back in the 60s, as insurance got out of the flood insurance business to federal government got in, we're only now starting to see the private sector get back and I would say very gingerly into flood insurance. But as long as Congress authorizes the national flood interest rate program, we do have a federal program to fill the gap for flood risk. Even though it's in the red and has been repeatedly. Well, last time I checked the federal deficit has been in the red and we still keep function. So as long as Congress will continue to appropriate funds to make up the shortfalls. Then of all the things that are out there, it's the one thing that's available right now. When we come back, why fema has
Slate's If Then
"fema" Discussed on Slate's If Then
"One can fight fraud faster, improve mobile app experiences and make online shopping more efficient. Models can quickly detect suspicious activity and alert federal investigators faster. They can also identify how mobile app outages happen through anomaly detection and incident response. So engineers can remedy them quickly. And machine learning also helps Capital One speed up online shopping by making it easier and more secure to use virtual card numbers. The potential of machine learning is so big, see how Capital One is using machine learning to create the future of banking. Search machine learning at Capital One. Capital One, what's in your wallet? To better understand how fema has to adapt to a world where climate change is supercharging natural disasters, I called up the guy who used to run it. My name is Craig fugate. I currently work in the private sector doing a lot of advising, but I served as the fema administrator from 2009 until the end of the Obama administration in 2017. Craig is pretty widely recognized as the person who turned the agency around after its disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina. Some people might assume that when there's an emergency, like the floods in Montana, the federal government just shows up. But that's not actually how it works. I asked Craig to do a little fema one O one. Fema doesn't step in until a governor has requested from the president, a disaster declaration. And part of that request, the governor certifies in writing that the disaster exceeds the capability of the state to manage. In most cases, what that refers to is lack of insurance and fema being asked to support a state financially for the extraordinary cost. In disasters that I have covered, I think often you see people not fully understand what fema helps with, what they don't help with, what you got to show, how does that process work? Well, it goes back to the origination of the Stafford act, which is the legislation that fema operates disaster center. In the Stafford act, Congress did not intend for it to be the primary response to disasters. It was based upon non duplication of benefits. The simplest thing is, if you're getting money from somewhere else, you shouldn't be getting money from fema. So if you've got insurance, then you shouldn't have to go, and again, when we say fema, let's be clear about this. This is the federal taxpayer. This you and me. You should be going to us to pay for something if you already had insurance for it, right? That's the idea of non duplication of benefits. The fema is allowed to provide assistance where there is a lack of insurance or the insurance that you cover all the losses. And this is to a certain degree what happened in Montana. Most people said, well, I had insurance. Why was fema helping people if they had insurance? Well, it was a flood. And what we unfortunately find out after these events is most of the folks that have homes and they have homeowners insurance don't have flood insurance. And so when they have a damage due to floods, we see large numbers of homeowners without flood insurance and therefore fema would provide some assistance. And the assistance is based upon this idea that it shouldn't just be everybody's going to get the same amount. It should be based upon the need and the impacts. The money has very specific eligibility requirements, like showing a deed that says you do in fact own a property. Only then, can you get your money? And often, residents are surprised by how little fema pays out compared with the cost of a lot of disasters. It is not designed to make people whole. They'll see that the maximum amount from the program provides to individual assistance for families and individuals. Is around $35,000, average person gets far less than that. And it's by household, not for adult in the household. Right. So it's a very limited program. It's not designed to do a full recovery. And it is woefully inadequate for families trying to recover from a flood if they're dependent upon a fema grant trying to make all their repairs. Well, you're sort of getting to where I was going next, which is how we should make sense of what's happening in Montana because you have, you know, a local spokesman for fema essentially saying, look, you've got to manage your own recovery. If you're waiting for the federal government or somebody else to help you, you know, that help may or may not come. And I'm not sure when it will come. And you have residents who said, I had my house in an area that had never flooded before, that did not seem to be an historical floodplain. Why in the world would I have flood insurance? How are people supposed to make sense of that scenario? Well, it's not easy. And what happened in Montana is happening all over the country. And increasingly, we're seeing this as we're seeing the results of climate change, more extreme rainfall events, heavy rain events, historical rain events, record setting rain events, is causing flooding in areas that have never flooded before. And too often, and I really go back to within government. This is one of the things that we did was we were trying to identify the higher risk areas. In Congress put a requirement on there. If you live in a high risk area for flooding, you needed to purchase flood insurance. It was called mandatory purchase and those special flood risk areas were identified in fema maps that are called flood insurance rate maps. And somehow the bureaucracy of the terminology got translated into from what the public heard is, those are flood zones, and those are flood maps. If I don't live in that flood zone, I don't have a flood risk. And I don't have to buy flood insurance. And that's not what it meant. And I think this is our problem. We have not really communicated to people that those maps are insurance rate maps. They're not indicating where it will flood or not flood. It's just the risk is higher in those areas. And Congress requires if you have a federally backed mortgage, you must buy flood insurance for the duration of that mortgage. It was never the intent to say people outside of that, so I didn't need to buy flood insurance or that they weren't in a flood risk. It was to convey the higher risk and to protect the federally backed mortgages. And so we've got entire swathes of the country where people think or have been told or have heard, they don't live in a flood zone, and they don't need flood insurance. And what it's done is this resulted in large numbers of people that are not insured against one of the fastest growing
The Secret History of the Future
"fema" Discussed on The Secret History of the Future
"One can fight fraud faster, improve mobile app experiences and make online shopping more efficient. Models can quickly detect suspicious activity and alert federal investigators faster. They can also identify how mobile app outages happen through anomaly detection and incident response. So engineers can remedy them quickly. And machine learning also helps Capital One speed up online shopping by making it easier and more secure to use virtual card numbers. The potential of machine learning is so big, see how Capital One is using machine learning to create the future of banking. Search machine learning at Capital One. Capital One, what's in your wallet? To better understand how fema has to adapt to a world where climate change is supercharging natural disasters, I called up the guy who used to run it. My name is Craig fugate. I currently work in the private sector doing a lot of advising, but I served as the fema administrator from 2009 until the end of the Obama administration in 2017. Craig is pretty widely recognized as the person who turned the agency around after its disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina. Some people might assume that when there's an emergency, like the floods in Montana, the federal government just shows up. But that's not actually how it works. I asked Craig to do a little fema one O one. Fema doesn't step in until a governor has requested from the president, a disaster declaration. And part of that request, the governor certifies in writing that the disaster exceeds the capability of the state to manage. In most cases, what that refers to is lack of insurance and fema being asked to support a state financially for the extraordinary cost. In disasters that I have covered, I think often you see people not fully understand what fema helps with, what they don't help with, what you got to show, how does that process work? Well, it goes back to the origination of the Stafford act, which is the legislation that fema operates disaster center. In the Stafford act, Congress did not intend for it to be the primary response to disasters. It was based upon non duplication of benefits. The simplest thing is, if you're getting money from somewhere else, you shouldn't be getting money from fema. So if you've got insurance, then you shouldn't have to go, and again, when we say fema, let's be clear about this. This is the federal taxpayer. This you and me. You should be going to us to pay for something if you already had insurance for it, right? That's the idea of non duplication of benefits. The fema is allowed to provide assistance where there is a lack of insurance or the insurance that you cover all the losses. And this is to a certain degree what happened in Montana. Most people said, well, I had insurance. Why was fema helping people if they had insurance? Well, it was a flood. And what we unfortunately find out after these events is most of the folks that have homes and they have homeowners insurance don't have flood insurance. And so when they have a damage due to floods, we see large numbers of homeowners without flood insurance and therefore fema would provide some assistance. And the assistance is based upon this idea that it shouldn't just be everybody's going to get the same amount. It should be based upon the need and the impacts. The money has very specific eligibility requirements, like showing a deed that says you do in fact own a property. Only then, can you get your money? And often, residents are surprised by how little fema pays out compared with the cost of a lot of disasters. It is not designed to make people whole. They'll see that the maximum amount from the program provides to individual assistance for families and individuals. Is around $35,000, average person gets far less than that. And it's by household, not for adult in the household. Right. So it's a very limited program. It's not designed to do a full recovery. And it is woefully inadequate for families trying to recover from a flood if they're dependent upon a fema grant trying to make all their repairs. Well, you're sort of getting to where I was going next, which is how we should make sense of what's happening in Montana because you have, you know, a local spokesman for fema essentially saying, look, you've got to manage your own recovery. If you're waiting for the federal government or somebody else to help you, you know, that help may or may not come. And I'm not sure when it will come. And you have residents who said, I had my house in an area that had never flooded before, that did not seem to be an historical floodplain. Why in the world would I have flood insurance? How are people supposed to make sense of that scenario? Well, it's not easy. And what happened in Montana is happening all over the country. And increasingly, we're seeing this as we're seeing the results of climate change, more extreme rainfall events, heavy rain events, historical rain events, record setting rain events, is causing flooding in areas that have never flooded before. And too often, and I really go back to within government. This is one of the things that we did was we were trying to identify the higher risk areas. In Congress put a requirement on there. If you live in a high risk area for flooding, you needed to purchase flood insurance. It was called mandatory purchase and those special flood risk areas were identified in fema maps that are called flood insurance rate maps. And somehow the bureaucracy of the terminology got translated into from what the public heard is, those are flood zones, and those are flood maps. If I don't live in that flood zone, I don't have a flood risk. And I don't have to buy flood insurance. And that's not what it meant. And I think this is our problem. We have not really communicated to people that those maps are insurance rate maps. They're not indicating where it will flood or not flood. It's just the risk is higher in those areas. And Congress requires if you have a federally backed mortgage, you must buy flood insurance for the duration of that mortgage. It was never the intent to say people outside of that, so I didn't need to buy flood insurance or that they weren't in a flood risk. It was to convey the higher risk and to protect the federally backed mortgages. And so we've got entire swathes of the country where people think or have been told or have heard, they don't live in a flood zone, and they don't need flood insurance. And what it's done is this resulted in large numbers of people that are not insured against one of the fastest growing
Short Wave
"fema" Discussed on Short Wave
"As congress needs to come in. So there's this law that governs how disaster aid is distributed and it is all about preventing fraud that's why all those stringent requirements exist. We talked about earlier to you. Live in a place or that you own your house for example but will is and others that is slowing down. It is making it really hard for people to get the help they need and that the law needs to change if fema is going to be more equitable. I have to say though so far. No one in congress has seriously proposed that.
NPR's Story of the Day
"fema" Discussed on NPR's Story of the Day
"The. Has they want receipts for me paying the rent. But i don't pay the rent the check. I pay the rent in cash in army seat after the fire. Everything happens so fast. She got this place from a friend. She doesn't have a lease. she's found another place but the rent is four times what she was paying before the fire is is a lot of money and if they could help me to pay half the rent. They're asking for a lot of things. I don't have them. So what ledesma hoping for is that. Even though her new rent will be more expensive she'll have a lease to give fema and get rental assistance. Sean is there something about the way. Famous application system is setup or designed that is causing so much confusion and leading to so many denials in particular people who seem to have really legitimate claims. There is a pattern to these kinds of things that trip people up people who are in even slightly unconventional living situations people like roommates married couples who have different last names people in trailer parks. We got documents from an internal fema survey over a thousand people. Last year complained about communication with the agency or didn't know why they were denied or in a couple of case. We're told they didn't live in the home that they've actually lived in almost their whole lives but then from his point of view they can't trust everyone who says they're paying rent in can't prove it. We've of course been speaking to fema about all this last week. The administrator deanne chriswell told congress that she knows they have work to do to make it easier to access for us. The big takeaway is that the system is just not designed for real people for example. The fire here in southern oregon wiped out several mobile home parks. The people living there were elderly or they didn't speak english as their primary language. This is a complicated system to navigate and people are expected to get every little detail and their application right or face a denial and then a long road to try to undo that which most of them just can't pull off april. Sean thanks for your reporting guys. We appreciate it thanks..
Environment: NPR
"fema" Discussed on Environment: NPR
"Jefferson public radio in southern oregon looked closely at the wildfires last year in oregon to understand why it's so hard to get approved with me. Now are the reporters who worked on this story. Sean mcmahon is an npr data editor and april. Erlich is a reporter with jefferson public radio. Hello to you both. Hey good morning. Noel april let me begin with you. Remind us what happened in southern oregon last autumn. Yeah so last year over labor day weekend there were these huge wildfires. All over the west coast including one in southern oregon called the amita fire. It destroyed twenty six hundred homes and a few small towns including the one i live in. Firefighters actually created a fire line on the street that i live on so almost everything across the street from me is destroyed but my house is fine. So that's actually what got me started on this project. I kept hearing from people saying that. They were hitting roadblocks when they were trying to get disaster assistance from fema. I asked fema for more information. And i learned that. They denied seventy percent of applicants in oregon. So we started this project to really dig into why that denial rate was so high. Seventy percent in. This case in oregon sean. When you looked at that really large number of denials what did you find behind it yet. So that's seventy percent number is really interesting. Of course it seems high and if you look at the data compared to where we were about fifteen years ago around hurricane katrina it is it seems more and more people are getting denied now even as wildfires get worse but another thing to note is that that number does not include cases fema says were potentially fraudulent fraudulent applications made up almost half of those filed after the oregon fires with that men was fema had to figure out how to weed out people who are trying to take advantage of the system but what we found happened was the same measures they were using to weed people out. We're actually catching people who were real victims. Who really lost their homes and some of these people april you ended up speaking to. Yeah and what i was hearing from them was that they were getting denied from the system that has become so complicated or they got inaccurate information from fema representatives on the ground. People like jose messiahs who lost his home to the alameda fire. I met massias for his house was getting rebuilt in phoenix oregon about twenty miles north of the california border..
Short Wave
"fema" Discussed on Short Wave
"This message comes from npr sponsor. Click up a productivity platform that saving people one day every week how it's simple click up brings all of your work into one place. You get tasked stocks skulls chat and more in one tool so you can focus on getting work done without switching apps. it's how teams in companies like uber. Google and web flow. save time. Click up is for free forever. So try click today at click up dot com slash. Npr so becky. Before you tell me about your visit with donny. Helped me understand the background. Here what is us role after disasters like hurricanes. Well it's pretty straightforward. Fema is supposed to help people with their immediate needs and safe. Stable shelter. is the big one. So people who own homes can apply for money to repair damage or finding a place to live if the house was completely destroyed. And there's also money to help cover the cost of rent or a hotel room and then sometimes fema brings in temporary trailers that you might have heard about an emergency housing. And what do we know about who ends up getting that money right. So that's the question. I've been asking for years now. Actually so all the way back in two thousand seventeen. I noticed that poor people seem to be struggling to get adequate help from fema and it was anecdotal and mostly noticed in houston after hurricane harvey back then there were some studies coming out that suggested that fema assistance was disproportionately benefiting whiter wealthier people. And i imagine you ask fema about that. And what did they say. Yeah i did and basically. They said that their programs were designed to be fair. Everyone can apply for help under the same criteria so it's a level playing field then fast forward a couple of years and i heard from a source of mine that fema had been doing some internal analyses about this exact topic. So you know a reporter. I asked to see them and initially fema denied that. Npr appealed months went by but eventually they gave these records to me and the records showed low income. Disaster survivors are less likely to receive some types of housing assistance from fema. When they do receive money they often receive less. Is this because fema payments are based on how big or expensive your home was so if you're rich and have a bigger more expensive home you get more money. Yeah i think that's like a natural guests that a lot of people would make an. It's likely the story but it appears to be more complicated than that so researchers. I talked to said that home size does not account for the disparity in kind of gets it what you were saying. The data suggests a few additional reasons that might be a play so poor. People are more likely to be denied money because the damage to their home is deemed insufficient by fema. And usually that's because the applicant can't prove that the disaster caused the damage so the analysis actually suggests that the disparity could have something to do with the inspection process like maybe inspectors are looking at the homes of poorer people and saying this roof already needed maintenance so a lot of this damage can't be blamed on the hurricane for example. The other thing that might be at play is that people who can't prove that they personally own their home or their named on a lease they are also cut off from assistance so that might be accounting for some of this disparity. So what about donny's spite situation. Where does her experience fit in right so her experiences probably tied to a third reason so basically fema isn't super focused on outcomes like they assess how much damage you have to give you an amount of money that they think is fair. And that's basically the end you know the agency isn't checking to make sure that you were actually able to get stable housing with that money. Now that is less of a problem. If you have savings or family members who can lend you money but imagine if you're living on a fixed income or you have a disability or young kids getting insufficient help from fema can mean no safe place to live and that can be really dangerous and it sounds like that's what happened to donny on her husband right. Yeah exactly so. When hurricane laura hit last august danni and steve sheltered in place in their mobile home and there were hundred fifty mile an hour winds. What was it like here during the storm. I guess now. Oh big bands over there you one on one it landed. Gosh yeah yeah this is true. Put a two foot hole in the bedroom ceiling and it knocked out the electricity. It destroyed the air conditioner and they really relied on the electricity for the electric lift. That helped donnie. Get steve in and out of bed. Safely to charge electric wheelchair and charge the nebulizer he needed to help him breathe and it was dangerously hot in the house. The spikes did not have home insurance. They lived on a fixed income. They did not have the money to repair the damage on their own so they applied for help from fema and presumably. They hope that female would give them enough money to fix the hole in the roof and and get electricity and air conditioning. As soon as possible. Right what happened so donnie. Says fema gave her a sixteen hundred forty nine dollars. That was twelve hundred dollars to fix the roof. Plus about four hundred dollars for a generator but after a big disaster prices for peasant. Equipment can really skyrocket. Yeah right and actually. That's a good point. Donny said that the cheapest generator she could find was nine hundred dollars and a contractor told them that the roof repair would cost twice as much as fema gave them. They were living month to month on social security and steve's benefits from the va. Steve served in vietnam. They use the savings. They had to cover the cost of that generator but the roof repair was out of their reach financially so they lived with the hole in the bedroom ceiling all winter. And you can see the sky through this thing. This is louisiana. Iran's all the time the water came right in plus remember there was that terrible deep freeze this winter very stressful circumstances for anyone But i mean for donnie. She was carrying for steve through all this time. Yeah and doing your best. But you know she's seventy seven years old. She has arthritis. The damage in the house made everything harder. Especially since the whole in the roof was right. Next to steve's hospital bed in the bedroom so caring for him. Was that much more difficult when the weather was bad. And this spring. Steve's health really deteriorated. I went to a of time. Let's say but we will married thirty nine years the second of this month. Wow that's a long time. Steve died in march. And donny says their final months together they would have been calmer and easier if the house was in such disrepair and if they'd gotten enough to fix the damage and i imagine there are thousands of people like donny. Yeah actually it's more like hundreds of thousands of low income people who potentially don't get the help they need. And vima now acknowledges that the disparities in who receives disaster assistance that those are a problem which is a change for decades team has argued that its disaster programs are fair. I interviewed keith. -tory his female assistant administrator for recovery. We do understand our obligation to support disaster survivors in an equitable way That has responsibility that we have here. At fema and candidly we have work to do there And we're committed to following through on it. He says the agency is studying. These disparities they are asking local officials for feedback about how people have different. Demographics are aren't served by this current programs and the new head of fema deanne chriswell. She testified before a subcommittee in congress last week and said that equity is one of the top three priorities for the agency but the agency didn't respond to questions from npr about specific changes. It's considering or what the timeline is for any of this. I mean becky. You've covered him for a long time. What's your sense of whether things will change. You know it's hard to say. I think there's some basic things that we can look for you know. We'll fema change. Its application process or eligibility requirements. Will it start publishing demographic information about who receives assistance. These.
Short Wave
"fema" Discussed on Short Wave
"Becky. Before you tell me about your visit with donny. Helped me understand the background. Here what is us role after disasters like hurricanes. Well it's pretty straightforward. Fema is supposed to help people with their immediate needs and safe. Stable shelter. is the big one. So people who own homes can apply for money to repair damage or finding a place to live if the house was completely destroyed. And there's also money to help cover the cost of rent or a hotel room and then sometimes fema brings in temporary trailers that you might have heard about an emergency housing. And what do we know about who ends up getting that money right. So that's the question. I've been asking for years now. Actually so all the way back in two thousand seventeen. I noticed that poor people seem to be struggling to get adequate help from fema and it was anecdotal and mostly noticed in houston after hurricane harvey back then there were some studies coming out that suggested that fema assistance was disproportionately benefiting whiter wealthier people. And i imagine you ask fema about that. And what did they say. Yeah i did and basically. They said that their programs were designed to be fair. Everyone can apply for help under the same criteria so it's a level playing field then fast forward a couple of years and i heard from a source of mine that fema had been doing some internal analyses about this exact topic. So you know a reporter. I asked to see them and initially fema denied that. Npr appealed months went by but eventually they gave these records to me and the records showed low income. Disaster survivors are less likely to receive some types of housing assistance from fema. When they do receive money they often receive
Short Wave
"fema" Discussed on Short Wave
"You're listening to shortwave from npr. Shoot we bring the cookies in may producer ryan coleman and i drove out to quincy louisiana. This is southwest louisiana. It's really flat and marshy. The roads are in rough shape. This area got hit by two hurricanes last year. This must the person we're going to meet is named donny spite. She lives in a gray mobile home. A couple of miles off the main road. It's surrounded by tall pine trees so it's pretty quiet except for her chihuahuas. Elias elias is really small. Donny's husband steve chose him. Because elias was the littlest one in the litter. Steve worked as a pipe. Fitter in the petrochemical plants nearby and his nickname was termite. Think that he could probably to the impact and we showed his lion small by the time. They brought goliath home. Steve was retired and he used a wheelchair to get around and goliath was always on his lap puppy wheelchair up until two months ago or two months and one day. So fresh new wisconsin. I've been taking care of them. This is why we were visiting donnie spite to understand what her final months with her husband were like and how those months might have been easier if the federal government treated disaster survivors. More fairly because six months. Before steve died the spice house was badly damaged in a hurricane. The couple applied for money from fema the federal emergency management agency. But they didn't get the help they needed. She says it's not famous fault. That steve died. He'd been sick a long time. His diabetes symptoms were getting worse as his lung conditions but did make things a lot harder and donny's experienced trying to get help from fema echoes. Those of countless low income disaster survivors across the country. I'm rebecca hersher a climate reporter. And i'm read through strategy today on the show. We look at the unfinished. That's baked into the government's response to disasters when a disaster like hurricane or wildfire. Destroys your house. The clock starts ticking. Every day without stable shelter puts people endanger todd for sick people to take their medications medical devices. Stop walking heaton mole trenton. Everyone's health the federal government is supposed to help prevent that cascade of problems but an npr investigation finds that the people who need help the most are often less likely to get it and the government knows it has a problem. You're listening to shortwave. The.
Henderson County, Texas
"fema" Discussed on Henderson County, Texas
"That you can get to link but remember none of this. The possibility of how can even start until you do that. That's right and that's part of what the vows or here to do is to assist individuals getting that process going and incidentally henderson. County has responded. Well just from the initial push out of the fourteen county region. We've came in second. And what i would say as usage we've had the second highest number of actual reimbursements being made half a million dollars half a million dollars in. We're behind only behind smith county in that and that was very very promising in that twenty percent met eligibility that signed up so there is some out there. So there's money out there. And i guess what we're talking about the the first thing that comes to my mind if i remember you know during that time period people ravin real issues with broken pipes. Exact broken pipes damage and water damage and whatever it is And a lotta times. Insurance isn't gonna cover that kind of stuff that trot in many instances if that special writer isn't in place you have insurance just not insurance that covers that type of damage. Alright so this is what we're talking about. They're going to be in town in the in the county starting next week and this is this is an opportunity for you to look. It's worth if you had any kind of damage it's worth file or you know filling out the form close you know. You can't get anything if you don't file exactly and it does give a better representation. The actual damage that occurred here. Okay so now. Here's the one thing i'm going to say about all of this and these are the kinds of situations that scam artists usually love. They'll find out the fema is going to be in an area or something like that and You know they're going. The scammers are going to try to take advantage of that and they'll target people make phone calls or whatever and try to scam you out of money so i'm going to make this say this number one..
Political Analytical
"fema" Discussed on Political Analytical
"Other hosts we have gordon d park. We have rick. Warren james tubes. Are you gentlemen doing tonight. Good evening guys. Are you guys doing great doing well. We still trying to get over the three earthquake we had you guys have no fun in your life do you. You know we're able to at least have an earthquake releases slight trimble. I mean that would put a little bit of excitement out here. Unfortunately it's all working play. We got here we did. Y'all did yeah three of them. You'll have all kinds of interesting things. Earthquakes tornadoes or did women go kind of fun stuff going. Hey i'm here to tell you main gentleman we got a. We got a great show tonight. It was a gordon's turn to kind of pick some topics and he picks some interesting things here. We're going to be talking about the proud boys charges in the capital. People who are charged with being or being charged with insurrection in charge and in these charges are what. They're actually charging. These people within is that correct is that right People flooding across an open border. Who is helping them in hawaii. Fema is looking to build places and barricades for these families. Who's paying for these. And how are american lives being affected by these illegals crossing the border. Finally we are discussing komo and the stimulus checks and who's getting them in who isn't While that's all that's a lot of stuff that we're going to cover an hour so hope everybody is ready. Please if you get a chance to go ahead and turn your volume up. Kick back and get ready for an interesting show. And we're going to start this off with gordon part since you're the one that came up with all these great topics and we're going to be talking about that right now is Was looking through. A lot of the news feeds today and trying to see what all. I'd missed this past week. Which one much turns out but the civil things really really got under my skin and perturbed me one of the big things. Is you know the people that were arrested at the capitol during that whole riot They're being charged with insurrection. And that's not a state offense. That's not a a lower felony. That's one step underneath trees. These people can actually be executed for this crime. So my question is are they. Is this a viable charge. That needs to be levied against these people in if this is a viable charge levied against these people. Are we going to go back. As as americans and look at the news footage in identify people who were in portland in seattle. And you know all these places where we burned Partial cities to the ground minnesota in a arrests those people in charge with insurrectionist lowers this just limited to the boys. This just sending a message to the conservative saying we're going to pinpoint you and we are going to come after you. What are your thoughts. Yes us yes. That's what's going to happen Because already see in congress and everything else that's going on right now They can do what they want. And do as i say not as i do And that's the reason. Dr seuss's getting cancelled and everything else. Mr potato head. Give me a frigging break from. Of course they're gonna they're gonna isolate these guys in charge them with the fullest and not won't go after anything in seattle with anti bowl any of this stuff. They won't do anything to those folks right there because that would be against their plan and their agenda in. So yeah you're right. That's exactly what's going to happen. They're going to isolate and charge the shit out of these guys and no. I don't think an insurrection. The proper i think Maybe criminal trespass or You know something like that would be appropriate but insurrection. No i don't agree with that. Rick i think you're right. I mean look at the definition of insurrection to begin with and see that. Actually there's nothing there that that's going to verify. Under the definition of insurrection that these people were doing. They were occupying federal space. Yes but as a american person. I think we have that right to symbol and we're that jr is going to be Basically a one of those medical questions at your logistical teams. Going to have to ask. What do you think. Eddie i agree. I think you're going to make an example out of it and it's basically a warning to everybody to back off and to not ever try anything whatsoever to be noticed. I think this is something. That's gonna be a continuing occurrence if anybody tries anything and examples. It'd be made these people publicly and it's and it's loudly as possible however i also think that'd be a lamb and all these other idiots that are going to be running around burning and torching you're going to be left hooks and if you're not one of these stupid morons sit near destroying things. I think you're going to be handled quite differently. And i think it's going to be a big of. It's going to be a big mess and it's gonna it's gonna put out a very wrong message to the american people especially patriots that are out there who love and believe in this country. Let me take this a step further recommending touch back on something that you stated. These guys had the right to to assemble peacefully. They had the right to march up the stairs of the capitol building and they had to write to go up to the doors but the looting and the violence and everything that went along with it was not right. Can ever condone that kind of thing. But to your point rig mike again. I'm going to play the devil's advocate. Here who set those boundaries that they're that we're going to say hey you're allowed up to this point but no further. I don't believe that there's a current rule that says that you can as an american person can't walk up to the doors while congress is in session. You could win but you have every right to go up to the doors. You gotta remember folks. That's a building. We paid for with our tax dollars. Is public land. Exactly less what i'm saying. What gives them the right to block us out into not. Let us through the doors whether they're in session or not walking up to the doors one thing but we should also have the right to walk through the doors. Long as it's peaceful let talking about. There is basically the protocol and etiquette of the house and the congress and the politicians there in each one of them have have an etiquette and protocol in assemblage in each chamber in agreement. That has.
WDUN AM550
"fema" Discussed on WDUN AM550
"Americans give further aid the unemployed and clear the way for federal workers and contractors to get a $15 minimum wage. We directed the federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA. To start standing up the first federally supported community vaccination centers. Yesterday, the president issued 10 orders to also speed up vaccinations and implement travel mask mandates. Fox is Peter Doocy at the White House president Biden likes to talk a lot about how covert 19 and mask wearing are not political issues, but a key part of his response team who also led President Trump's response, Dr Anthony Fauci. Just made some very political observations about Biden versus Trump One of the new things and this administration's If you don't have the answer, don't guess. Just say you don't know the answer The idea. That you can get up here and talk about what? You know what evidence what the sciences and no, That's it. Let the science speak. It is somewhat of a liberating feeling. The president is proposing a five year extension to the start treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms pact with Russia, which said today it welcomes the negotiations with the treaty set to expire in less than two weeks in Congress on this vote, the ayes are 326. The nays are 78. That house vote helped set up the one later this morning in the Senate expected to confirm General Lloyd Austin, his defense secretary, He needed a waiver that both the House and Senate approved Because he hadn't been retired from the military. The required seven years. Isis claimed responsibility for the twin Iraq's suicide bombings yesterday, killing 32 people in a busy Baghdad market entering $100. Americans listening, Fox News going, Georges, you talking? Don't you be Oh, from the access wt. You win her T Chevrolet newsroom. I'm B. J. Williams, a 19 year old man busted after he scammed a Croker storing Gwinnett County. I'm almost a million dollars. That story's just ahead. We have an accident now on Athens Highway near Bob Bryant wrote in Hall County and one on I 85 South Bound here, Jimmy Carter Boulevard and we're dead. I'm Caleb Hutchins..
KOA 850 AM
"fema" Discussed on KOA 850 AM
"Former FEMA director supposed Michael Brown Brownie? No Brownie, You're doing a heck of a job situation with Michael Brown political expert on K away news radio. Let's go back for a moment, and I know that as we get closer and closer to Inauguration day next week. Tensions are running high people are getting to lock down businesses. The Denver police chief said today that while he wouldn't recommend necessarily that you are the board up your shop windows downtown. If you read between the lines, he was really saying, you probably have to board up your shop Windows downtown, and I read conflicting reports about whether or not the violence that is anticipated. On next Wednesday on Inauguration Day is really going to play out or not. I tend to think that we all get really hyped up about these things. And then we most of time and I hope certainly this time that we're absolutely disappointed. They never turn out to be quite as bad as everybody expects to Expect things to be And I certainly don't begrudge it all. Particularly inside the Beltway. That the Metropolitan Police Department of D. C. That the National Guard that the regular army that everybody are taking all precautions, including the shutting down of the National Mall. It's kind of a sad state of affairs that we're in this position. Don't go blaming Donald Trump, because I don't think you can blame Donald Trump. But having said all of that, I think one of the things that we kind of forget about because of all of the impeachment and everything else that's going on is just how successful the House Republicans were last year. Last November. God seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? It's really something that is arguable. When you look at the scoreboard Where everybody was telling us that the house was going to lose seats that because of Donald Trump that the house was that the Democrats were just going to take over a super majority in the House of Representatives. Into the Republicans. We're going to lose an incredible number of seats. They didn't just gain seats. They gained a lot of things. You know how they did it. Smart politics. I've always said that Regardless of Weather, so local election of state election of federal election School board whatever it is, you've got to be smart about how you do things. And that starts with the candidates. And this time we actually had some really good candidates, something that we don't normally do. I would attribute a lot of that to the report to the efforts of the Republican National Committee. The National Republican Campaign Congressional Campaign Committee. And two Organizer's In the states. We? We lost Cory Gardner in Colorado. But we gain Lauren Gilbert, and I think that's hilarious because of driving people like No. You have to get Jason Crowe and Nancy Pelosi and the rest of them crazy. As long as she's driving them crazy. Fine with me. But when you do really good recruiting And I've said this before that, you know you really ought to consider You don't have to run for Congress. You don't have to run for Senate. You might run for state representative. Run for school board. When for you want a water district doesn't make any difference to me. But the more that we abandon all of these smaller seats. Thinking that well, you know, school boards really don't make any difference. If you really think that school boards don't make any difference, and you're not paying attention. Maybe I will find out what your kids are really learning in public schools. So I think that the smart recruiting that took place Is really one of the reasons not all one of the reasons why the House Republicans in a year that everybody saw that. Oh, my gosh, they're gonna lose seats, they actually gained seats. They also spend their money wisely. And they did something that was unusual. For a Four year in which The Republican presidential incumbent, Donald Trump. Was truly move should have one. Particularly against Joe Biden seriously. But I think what the Republicans did in the house. He didn't do it the center, but they did in the house. They struck the right tone. They weren't afraid to talk about what they believed in. And if they actually meant it? You know when somebody runs for Congress? You can actually run for any office. If you if you have any emotionally intelligence at all, and you're paying attention to what they're saying. You can tell whether they really believe what they're saying. Or they're just being told what some consultant because being has been telling them to say. I'd much rather hear. What they really believe themselves and what they really want to try to do in Congress. As difficult as it is to do anything in Congress, at least, if I know they have the right attitude in their heart is in the right place, even though they may never be able to accomplish legislatively because 435 members, this is not, it's just not an easy place to accomplish anything. I'd rather hear what they have to say What they really believe about taxes. What do they really believe about the culture wars? What do they really believe about regulations? What do they really believe about letting small businesses flourished in this country? By hitting that tone. I'm telling you the truth about that. Those issues and those values. They did more than anybody ever expected them to do. The Senate. Well, let's talk about that when we get back, because that's kind of what we call a cluster. If the situation with Michael Brown one k away news radio, let's see whether or not the traffic,.