FEMA is 9% staffed prior to Hurricane Milton

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has less than 10% of its staff available for dispatch amid preparations for the second major hurricane to hit the Southeast this month, according to the agency’s daily operations briefing.

FEMA released a daily briefing Wednesday revealing that the agency has only 8%, or 1,115, FEMA workers available right now as preparations continue for Hurricane Milton, which is expected to hit Florida in the coming days. This number represents a significant drop in availability from a year ago, after a performance briefing from late September 2023 revealed that the agency had 20% of the same staff available for deployment.

A FEMA spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the availability numbers released by the agency refer only to a group of employees who are part of FEMA’s primary incident management position. They are the first line of FEMA personnel to be dispatched to any disaster.

Meanwhile, a FEMA spokesperson revealed that the agency has 22,000 workers it cannot contact, as well as resources from other agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security.

The fear of FEMA’s top staff comes amid other concerns about FEMA’s response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, including allegations that the agency wasted its money on building shelters for evacuees and blocking private aid distributors from entering areas of North Carolina affected by Helene.

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In May 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report showing that, at the start of Fiscal Year 2022, FEMA was 35% understaffed with an estimated 6,200 personnel gap. FEMA officials say the shortfall is “due to responsibilities due to COVID-19 and managing an increase in disasters during the year, which increased burnout and staff exhaustion,” according to the GAO.

As Hurricane Helene wreaks havoc and death across the South, FEMA has been under tremendous pressure to deliver aid to those in need. In a recent update of FEMA’s employee numbers, the agency revealed that there are more than 5,600 federal employees, including more than 1,500 from FEMA. In addition, the organization has seen it ship more than 11.5 million meals, more than 12.6 million gallons of water, 150 generators and more than 400,000 tarps to the region, while helping thousands of Helene survivors with more than $45 million in “flexible funds” , before. “sponsorship.

Despite the current staffing shortage, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorks said in an interview with MSNBC that the American people “must be sure that FEMA has the resources” needed to recover from Helene and prepare for Milton.

“We have search and rescue teams. The Army Corps of Engineers is there. We’re ready,” Mayorkas told Florida, referring to the federal government’s preparations for Milton. “FEMA likes to say, ‘FEMA-flexible.’ We can respond to multiple events at once.”

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However, despite the optimistic response to concerns about FEMA’s resources, Mayorkas said last week during an official press conference that “FEMA doesn’t have the money to do that [hurricane] season.”

Questions about FEMA funding have been compounded by suggestions that the agency has been giving disaster relief money to immigrants. FEMA sent aid to the evacuees, but the money was part of the Shelter and Services Program, which remains separate from disaster relief money. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., acknowledged that the funds were part of a separate program unrelated to disaster relief, but noted that he did not think the agency should be involved in the migrant crisis.

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“The funding mechanisms are different, that’s not a false statement,” Johnson told Fox News’ Shannon Bream. “But the problem is with the American people, look, and they’re frustrated, that FEMA should be involved.”

Concerns that private aid distributors are being blocked from entering affected parts of North Carolina have also spread. “Some of the reports I’ve gotten from some of my contacts who are trying to help me… they’re being told they need special requirements from FEMA to get into these certain areas,” said Joe Rieck, deputy. president of My Patriot Supply, an emergency preparedness company.

Before Helene could make a mistake, Congress passed a stopgap spending bill that included money for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, but cut billions in additional disaster funding that had been requested. On Friday, President Biden wrote a letter to Congress urging them to provide additional funds because “while the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund has the necessary resources to meet emergency needs, the fund faces a deficit at the end of the year,” it said.

“Without additional funding, FEMA will be required to prioritize long-term rehabilitation activities to meet urgent needs,” Biden added. “Congress should give FEMA more resources to avoid forcing that kind of unnecessary trade-off and give the communities we serve the certainty of knowing that assistance will continue, both short-term and long-term.”

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When pressed to reconvene the House for a special session to authorize additional funding, Johnson suggested that FEMA has the funds it needs right now and, in order to approve additional funding, Congress needs requests from individual states to outline how much money to provide.

“The way this system works is the states, the local authorities, they get together, process the damage, send it to the authorities and everything is done that way,” Johnson answered when pressed if he had any plans to meet again. Congress on this matter. “It’s going to take time to weather this storm — it’s one of the biggest in our history — so a lot of work is being done quickly. I think the timing of that will be right when Congress is expected to be back in session shortly after the election.”