FEMA Failed to Answer Nearly Half of the Calls for Assistance, Aid It Received During Hurricanes Helen and Milton: Report; FEMA Didn’t Answer Almost Half the Calls It Received for Disaster Aid

FEMA failed to answer nearly half of the calls for assistance, aid it received during Hurricanes Helen and Milton: report:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to answer nearly half of the calls for aid and assistance it recently received during Hurricanes Helene and Milton, a report released this week shows.

During a recent week, FEMA’s call centers were so overwhelmed, almost half of all callers never connected with a federal working, according to data released this week.

And it took federal agents on average more than an hour to actually pick up those calls that were answered.

The damning report comes as the Harris-Biden administration has been slammed by conservatives for its response to disaster relief after Hurricanes Helene and Milton slammed into Florida, North Carolina and other southern states.

One man seeking help after his North Carolina home was flooded called FEMA and got a recording that said he was 675th in line.

On Wednesday, FEMA reported sending $1.2 billion in relief to hurricane survivors in the six most damaged states.

More than 100 people died in North Carolina during Hurricane Helene.

Another 229 people were killed across seven states thanks to Helene.

A month after the hurricanes pounded the lower portion of the United States, FEMA officials admitted the agency is understaffed. --->READ MORE HERE

Chris Carlson/AP     

FEMA didn’t answer almost half the calls it received for disaster aid:

Hurricanes Helene and Milton have left the Federal Emergency Management Agency struggling to handle phone calls from survivors and maintain staffing.

Mike Toomey called a federal helpline last week to get disaster aid after Hurricane Helene flooded his home in western North Carolina.

He got a recording instead.

“They said I was 675th in line,” Toomey, a painter in a spattered shirt, recalled as he waited outside a federal recovery center in Hendersonville.

Hundreds of thousands of people who are trying to recover from disasters nationwide have been unable to get through to federal call centers or have stayed on hold for excessive periods of time in the weeks since Helene barreled into southern Appalachia last month.

Overwhelmed by Helene and Hurricane Milton, the centers failed to answer nearly half of the incoming phone calls over the course of one week recently. For the calls that were answered, it took more than an hour for federal workers to pick up, on average.

The disaster agency’s ability to provide financial relief has become a burning issue in the presidential election. Former President Donald Trump campaigned recently in two heavily damaged swing states — Georgia and North Carolina — and made misleading statements about the Biden administration’s response. But as the federal calls data shows, the hurricane response has encountered genuine problems amid a steady toll of disasters.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which published the call data Tuesday, also disclosed that it’s struggling with staffing levels a month after the hurricanes heavily damaged states from Florida to Tennessee.

FEMA data shows that the agency has almost no capacity to deal with another major disaster — two weeks after the Small Business Administration ran out of money to provide low-interest disaster loans for small businesses and households.

The agency said Wednesday that it has given survivors in the six damaged states more than $1.2 billion in emergency aid. It came as Deputy Administrator Erik Hooks was meeting with state and local officials in North Carolina.

After a speaker at a Trump rally on Sunday made racist and hateful comments, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign aired ads criticizing Trump for his response to Hurricane Maria after it demolished Puerto Rico in 2017.

FEMA has struggled to deal with catastrophic disasters such as Helene and Milton since at least 2005, when Hurricane Katrina killed almost 1,400 people in the Louisiana area.

When Hurricane Sandy devastated New York and New Jersey in 2012, FEMA call centers “did not have the staff or technology needed to keep pace with survivors’ requests for information,” the agency’s own analysis found. --->READ MORE HERE

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