FEMA Is Nearly Out of Cash, Just as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Strike

[DonViejo]

Source: NBC News




SEP 7 2017, 7:28 AM ET

by SUZY KHIMM

WASHINGTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is rapidly running out of disaster relief funding as Hurricane Irma slams Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and heads toward Florida.

The federal response to Hurricane Harvey’s devastation in Texas has quickly depleted FEMA’s disaster relief fund, which dropped by $2.14 billion last Thursday to $1.01 billion as of Tuesday. The figures from FEMA were first reported by Bloomberg and later confirmed by NBC News.

"FEMA is scheduled to run out of money by Friday, Sept. 8, just two days before Hurricane Irma is expected to hit Florida," Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio said in a joint statement. "Unfortunately, the current disaster relief package Congress is considering for Hurricane Harvey doesn’t account for the additional costs FEMA will likely incur as a result of Hurricane Irma."

The House overwhelmingly passed a $7.85-billion aid bill for Harvey victims on Wednesday, and the Senate is expected to take up the legislation quickly. But Florida legislators said that still won’t be enough to cover the potential devastation of Irma, the most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever recorded.



Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hurricane-irma/between-hurricanes-harvey-irma-fema-nearly-out-cash-n799386

[lunasun]

1. Better pass that tax cut pronto

[bullwinkle428]

2. "I'M DOING AN INCREDIBLE JOB TRIMMING THE FED. GOV'T. BUDGET - BELIEVE ME!"

[dalton99a]

3. Meanwhile

[logosoco]

4. How would this even be possible if, as the head Cheeto says,

we are the highest taxed country ever?

[BumRushDaShow]

5. They forget that FEMA was involved in this

(Oroville Dam)


after the drought-busting rains earlier this year on the west coast. The overflowing dams, flooding, and mudslides took out many homes. And that eventually meant more small brush that would grow (and then dry out) making it ripe for the wildfires like the one they have finally started containing in the L.A. metro area (it is still burning however) -

[dawn frenzy adams]

6. "The Federal Emergency Management Agency is rapidly running out of disaster relief funding."

This is the Grover Norquist model of government. Here Trump and the Republicans want to reward the rich with more tax breaks, while gutting services that protect the citizenry. The coup against American governance didn't start with Putin. The Republican Party has been subverting democracy since 2000. That's when they rigged the election that gave George W. Bush the presidency. They have never stopped stealing elections. The electronic voting systems are unverifiable, secret, and I daresay for the sole purpose is to steal elections. No respectable democracy uses them. The Election Integrity Project which includes a Harvard Study has found that America's election systems are the worst among the western democracies.

The Republican Party is not an organization that represents democracy. It is a criminal cabal that steals elections and ignores the constitution. it should be sued into oblivion. Better yet, it's probably time for the pitchforks and torches.