In the wake of the devastation impacting southwestern Virginia following Hurricane Helene, Gov. Glenn Youngkin is requesting additional federal assistance to support recovery efforts.
Youngkin submitted a request for $4.4 billion in federal support on Friday to President Joe Biden, President-elect Donald Trump and congressional appropriators. The governor said the aid would support recovery efforts, which damaged farms, homes, businesses, “critical” infrastructure and tourism assets.
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It wasn’t as if the Tar Heel state didn’t see Hurricane Helene coming. On Sept. 25, one day before Helene stormed ashore, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency as the storm’s path showed it churning northward toward Appalachia after making landfall in Florida.
Yet that advance declaration was not followed by any state evacuation orders, and the population largely sheltered in place as Helene hit the steep, wooded hills of western North Carolina, squatting over the area, unleashing more than an inch of water an hour for more than a day. The unprecedented, relentless downpour, falling on ground already saturated by rain the week before, tore old pines and hardwoods out by the roots, creating arboreal torpedoes that rocketed down the steep inclines; water that turned photogenic stony creeks into whitewater torrents, lifting ancient streambed boulders and tossing them like chips on to roads and into homes and buildings. The storm left 230 people dead, nearly half of them in North Carolina, with dozens still missing as of early November.
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The state of Florida is suing current and former federal employees personally for allegedly ignoring storm victim households solely because of their political affiliation.
Attorney General Ashley Moody sued current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency officials for “conspiracy to discriminate” against Florida hurricane victims because they expressed support for President-elect Donald Trump.
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Marn’i Washington, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) supervisor fired for not helping supporters of President-elect Donald Trump, said Tuesday that this occurrence was not an “isolated” incident.
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Virginia agricultural and forestry small businesses impacted by Hurricane Helene now have another place to turn for help.
Individuals and state and local governments in federally designated disaster zones can already apply to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for assistance, as the president approved a Major Disaster Declaration for the commonwealth within a week of the storm.
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At 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, Chris Trusz was standing on one of the bridges spanning the Broad River in Chimney Rock. He wanted to get a photo. It had been raining steadily for 36 hours and the river was running 10 inches above normal. Trusz, who’d moved to the western North Carolina mountain town 18 months earlier, wasn’t worried; residents had been warned there might be a bit of flooding. He got his picture and walked up the hill to his home.
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The North Carolina government on Wednesday released an estimate that Hurricane Helene caused at least $53 billion in damage, particularly in the western part of the state.
The state budget office calculated the preliminary amount which also includes potential investments to avoid similar expensive damages during hurricanes in the future.
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Republicans on a top congressional committee have launched an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over its “priorities” after reports emerged claiming that the agency spent most of its money aiding illegal aliens, to the point that it had little money left to deal with the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
According to Fox News, a letter was issued by members of the majority on the the House Homeland Security Committee, declaring that the committee “is investigating [DHS’] prioritization of its ability to adequately respond to natural disasters.”
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As the disastrous impact of Hurricane Helene reverberates through the nation and the southeast braces for the impact of Hurricane Milton, many Americans are calling out the tepid federal response from the Biden-Harris Administration even as billions of taxpayer dollars are ushered to foreign countries or into programs for illegal immigrants.
Hurricane Helene, which devastated sixteen states in the southeast from Florida to North and South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, has taken the lives of over 220 Americans, and left millions without food, shelter, or power.
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Recovery in Florida continued Friday morning following Wednesday’s overnight strike of Hurricane Milton that left 12 dead and millions without power.
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On the eve of Hurricane Milton’s landfall on a disaster-weary Florida, FEMA, the nation’s disaster relief agency reported a stark shortage of frontline workers available to be deployed: just 8% of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s vaunted Incident Management personnel were still available for deployment.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in May 2023 launched a $12 million grant program designed to increase “equity” in disaster responses by making greater investments in communities with high concentrations of racial and sexual minorities, documents show.
FEMA’s 2023 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program sought to disburse multi-million dollar grants designed to bolster disaster preparedness “equity” for what it called “underserved communities,” a label later defined in grant documents as “populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, who have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social and civic life.” Examples of these groups cited in the FEMA documents include African Americans, Hispanics, Middle Easterners, LGBT people and people living in rural areas, among others.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is supposed to be the government’s premier emergency relief organization in times of disaster, like the situation now faced by victims of Hurricane Helene’s aftermath in North Carolina and Tennessee.
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If you have been awake these last several days, you will know all about how the aspiring First Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, publicly slapped a former girlfriend so hard she spun around. I believe, but am not sure of the chronology, that that was after Emhoff inseminated the nanny he and his former wife had engaged to, well, possibly to help him in his task of “redefining masculinity.”
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The 800-mile path of destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene to the southeastern United States has been massive. The scope and scale of the devastation are only now beginning to be understood. There are at least 200 dead, millions of lives disrupted, and many billions of dollars of damage. The tardy, callous, and insouciant response of the Biden-Harris administration recalled the famous New York Daily News headline from 1975: “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” “Drop Dead” was certainly the animating spirit for the lack of action by the Biden-Harris administration in the face of the tremendous suffering of Americans in those states.
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The Biden-Harris administration is lying to the American public when they claim that FEMA is out of money. Speaker Mike Johnson just posted on X that, “Last Wednesday, I led Congress to provide $20 billion extra dollars (available immediately) to FEMA so they would have operational funds right now to respond to Helene.”
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) allocated over $1 billion for a migrant assistance program over the past two fiscal years, but now it is running out of cash for disaster relief as Hurricane Helene rages on and more storms loom.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Wednesday that FEMA does not have enough funds to make it through hurricane season, The Associated Press reported. Though resources are running short for Americans displaced by Helene, the agency spent big on a program providing “humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants” after their release from Department of Homeland Security custody.
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Supplies are being airlifted to local communities devastated by Hurricane Helene with the death toll surpassing 100. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said the death toll would rise as rescue crews and other emergency responders arrive in areas isolated from the storm.
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At least 26 people across four states have died as a result of the storm formerly known as Hurricane Helene that has produced widespread flooding and tornadoes.
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A lethal Category 4 Hurricane Helene roared Thursday night to Florida’s northwest coast with 140 mph winds, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and raising fears of a “potentially unsurvivable” storm surge.
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