Homeland Safety Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed on Thursday that FEMA “will need more funds” after responding to hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Mayorkas made the assertion whereas answering questions from reporters on the White Home press briefing on Thursday. He mentioned FEMA has sufficient funds to deal with the “immediate needs” of individuals affected by each hurricanes, however urged Congress to maneuver shortly.
“President Biden indicated that FEMA and the Department of Defense would have to get through their immediate needs in this recovery phase. I’m wondering, after your early assessments of damage from Hurricane Milton, coupled with the damage from Hurricane Helene, do you still believe that to be the case?” a reporter requested.
“Yes, I do,” Mayorkas responded. “We have the resources to respond to the immediate needs of individuals impacted by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, and the associated – it’s very important to remember – the tornadoes associated with the hurricane.”
Secretary of Homeland Safety Alejandro Mayorkas says FEMA will want further funding from Congress after responding to a number of disasters.
“That being said, we will need additional funds, and we implore Congress when it returns to, in fact, fund FEMA as is needed,” he added.
Mayorkas appeared on the briefing remotely from North Carolina, the place he’s serving to coordinate response efforts.
Earlier this week, FEMA revealed that it had lower than 10% of front-line employees obtainable for deployment amid preparations for Milton.
Injury from Hurricane Milton is seen in Palm Seashore Gardens, Florida, on Oct. 10, 2024. (Mike Glynn)
FEMA launched a each day briefing on Wednesday revealing the company had solely 8%, or 1,115, FEMA employees members presently obtainable as preparations continued. This quantity represents a big drop in availability from a 12 months prior, after an operations briefing from late September 2023 confirmed the company had 20% of the identical employees obtainable for deployment.
A FEMA spokesperson indicated to Fox Information Digital that the provision numbers launched by the company are solely in reference to the cadre of staffers who’re a part of FEMA’s incident administration core capability. They’re the primary line of FEMA staffers to deploy in any catastrophe.
In the meantime, the FEMA spokesperson identified the company has a complete workforce of twenty-two,000 staffers it could possibly name on, in addition to assets from different companies such because the Division of Homeland Safety.
FEMA is contending with joint disasters in North Carolina in addition to Florida. Pictured: Swannanoa residents stroll by way of devastating flood harm from the Swannanoa River in western North Carolina on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Travis Lengthy/The Information & Observer/Tribune Information Service through Getty Photos)
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In the meantime, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has deployed 10,000 Nationwide Guard members within the response to Milton. Roughly 3,000 of these have been despatched from different states to help the restoration effort.
Fox Information’ Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.
