FEMA’s Spending Shows Where Our Government’s Heart Is

By: Chris Johnson

As I write, a category 5 hurricane, Milton, is hurtling towards the gulf coast of Florida, expected to make landfall with a storm surge of up to 12 ft. This comes as communities from Florida to North Carolina  are still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene’s tear through the Southern United States early last week. As recovery efforts in those areas are just beginning to take shape, Milton will run right back over many of the same affected communities, hampering much needed aid and causing even more destruction.

Meanwhile, many accounts from the ground are decrying what seem to be federal attempts to PREVENT aid from being shared. Elon Musk’s Starlink company quickly sought to provide the means of communication in the affected areas, and Musk shared this message he’d received from one of his engineers who was on the ground providing aid: “The big issue is FEMA is actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally and locking them away to state they are their own. It’s very real and scary how much they have taken control to stop people helping…”

One local who rode out the hurricane in Mitchell County, North Carolina has something of an explanation: Christy Thrift runs North Carolina Outdoor Adventures in better times, organizing climbing and downriver adventures. For the past week she’s been leading rescue and recovery efforts, helping her neighbors who’ve lost loved ones and homes in the devastation.

In a powerful YouTube interview, Christy recounts seeing her neighbors’ cinder block homes washed away by the surging Toe River; she explains how you can smell the decay of bodies in the air, but you can’t see them because they’re in the trees, or covered by mud, or crushed in debris. She explains that the problem is the supplies are coming in faster than they can be dispersed or used and there is simply no place to store it all, as it’s vulnerable to looters.

Yet not every local is so understanding, another aid worker – a helicopter tour company owner who’s using his birds to deliver supplies in Chimney Rock, NC – reports that while they’ve been visited by Ivanka Trump, Glenn Beck, and some of Elon Musk’s people, “There is a complete and utter lack of federal government response… I’ve seen no one from the federal government to help out at all. Nobody.” Yet, he says the help from normal, everyday American citizens and businesses has been overwhelming.

The fact is, in the days after Helene roared through the United States inland states, the director of the Department of Homeland Security, of which FEMA is a subagency, announced that FEMA “does not have the funds to make it through the [hurricane] season.” Part of their commitment to those affected by the hurricane was $750 to spend on food and supplies, yet to receive even these meagre funds people had to apply online – people who were lucky to escape with their family’s intact, much less their electronics, and in places where electricity, internet, and cellular service are weeks away, at least, from being restored. Even then, many say their applications have been turned down.

Federalist reporter Tristan Justice revealed what might account for FEMA’s apparent lack of interest and stated lack of resources for their constituents: “The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) allocated nearly $364 million in the fiscal year 2023 and $650 million for the 2024 fiscal year to the ‘Shelter and Services Program’ ‘to provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants following their release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),’ according to the government’s website.”

Justice continues; “FEMA’s top priorities under the incumbent administration, meanwhile, do not include disaster relief among the top two goals of the emergency services agency. According to FEMA’s own website, the stated goals include, first, instilling ‘equity as a foundation of emergency management,’ and second, ‘lead[ing] whole of community in climate resilience.’ The goal to ‘promote and sustain a ready FEMA and prepared nation’ ranks third.

A video from a FEMA press conference features FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell explaining what “equity as a foundation of emergency management” might mean: “In administrating our [Flood Mitigation Assistance] programs, we will keep equity considerations top of mind and will include them in competitive scoring process for programs such as FMA…”

While we may not know what that “competitive scoring process” looks like, perhaps comparing FEMA’s treatment of rural Americans to the nearly a billion dollars allocated to migrants who illegally crossed the border can give us a hint.

Events like this make it easy for Americans to recognize the priorities of our government. Every video I’ve seen interviewing those who are helping in relief efforts praise the generosity and love of their fellow Americans and express their fury that their own government cares so little for them.

As Hurricane Milton spins up in the gulf, promising still more devastation, consider donating to local relief efforts, pray for your fellow Americans in those areas, and vote for candidates who actually care about the American people in the upcoming election.

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