More than two dozen people were killed by tornadoes across Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia over the weekend—but come Monday, the White House and the executive agency responsible for the emergency response to natural disasters had not publicly addressed it.
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer told MSNBC Monday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was “not on the ground” and that the area did “not have confirmed assistance” from FEMA, forcing local organizations such as the St. Louis Community Foundation to turn to crowdfunding to rebuild their community.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump made an appearance at the Rose Garden Monday afternoon, offering brief remarks during a bill signing focused on curbing revenge porn. Trump’s comments made mention of his wife Melania Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, a potential peace deal in Ukraine, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, but notably did not address the storm system that killed 28 people across three states (two of which voted for him in November.)
And FEMA announced Monday that there was less than a week left to apply for federal aid for homeowners in Kentucky who had their properties damaged during storms in February. The deadline is May 25. Survivors of storms in April have until June 25, the agency advised in a press release.
It made no mention of potential aid application deadlines for survivors of the weekend tornadoes, though the state is reportedly in the process of seeking FEMA assistance, according to the Kentucky Lantern.
But getting the aid they need from the federal government is not a guarantee under the Trump Administration. Last month, FEMA rejected North Carolina’s application for an emergency aid extension as the state grapples to recover from Hurricane Helene, a Category Four storm that killed 250 people in September. It was the deadliest hurricane in state history.
In a letter to North Carolina Governor Josh Stein in April, acting FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton said that the agency had determined that an extension with a full cost share was “not warranted.”
Like Kentucky and Missouri, North Carolina had also voted for Trump in November, but months into his presidency, residents of devastated communities are still begging the president to send relief.
Since Helene, Trump and his allies have spread unfounded conspiracies that the lead response agency had run out of money, and that the Biden administration had diverted funds from FEMA to assist undocumented immigrants enter the country. (FEMA administrators have fervently and repeatedly denied this.) Conservatives, at the time, claimed that working with the White House to expedite disaster relief “seemed political” and even conspiratorially suggested that the hurricanes were a government manipulation.
Days after his inauguration, Trump pitched that it would be better to do away with FEMA altogether in favor of handing the money directly to the states, though that plan never seemed to gain traction.
Since then, Trump has actively worked to dismantle the agency. The administration has blocked states across the nation, including California and Michigan, from accessing pre-approved relief. A coalition of Democratic-led states have sued the federal government, claiming that “hundreds of millions of dollars in FEMA grants” are still inaccessible.
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