President Donald Trump has approved emergency assistance to D.C. to help the city address a sewage system leak that dumped at least 250 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has approved emergency assistance to Washington, D.C., to help the city address a sewage system leak that dumped at least 250 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Trump’s approval on Saturday, allowing FEMA to provide equipment and resources to help with the response to the Jan. 19 spill after a pipeline ruptured.
Trump’s approval of the disaster relief request comes after he criticized the handling of the spill, blaming local Democratic leaders and focusing especially on Maryland’s Democratic Gov. Wes Moore.
At a dinner later at the White House for governors, where no Democrats were spotted, Trump brought up the spill and said, “We have to clean up some mess that Maryland and Virginia have left us. We’re going to be cleaning it up. It’s unbelievable what they can do with incompetence.”
He said in his social media posts criticizing the response that local officials had not asked for emergency help and he intended to step in.
However, the federal government was already involved in the repair and assessing the impact of the leak through the Environmental Protection Agency.
The 72-inch (183 centimeter) pipeline, known as the Potomac Interceptor, burst on Jan. 19, sending 250 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Potomac River just north of Washington in the first five days.
The leak is largely under control, but it could take months to repair the pipe fully. The local water utility, DC Water, along with the EPA, has been working to repair the leak and monitor the impact on the river.
Officials have said the area’s drinking water is safe, but people who use the Potomac River for recreation are being cautioned not to have direct contact with the water.
ASTORIA, Ore. — Residents of this small coastal city in the Pacific Northwest know what to do when there’s a tsunami warning: Flee to higher ground.
For those in or near Columbia Memorial, the city’s only hospital, there will soon be a different plan: Shelter in place. The hospital is building a new facility next door with an on-site tsunami shelter — an elevated refuge atop columns deeply anchored in the ground, where nearly 2,000 people can safely wait out a flood.
Oregon needs more shelters like the one that Columbia Memorial is building, emergency managers say. Hospitals in the region are likely to incur serious damage, if not ruin, and could take more than three years to fully recover in the event of a major earthquake and tsunami, according to a state report.
Columbia Memorial’s current facility is a single-story building, made of wood a half-century ago, that would likely collapse and sink into the ground or be swallowed by a landslide after a major earthquake or a tsunami, said Erik Thorsen, the hospital’s chief executive.
“It is just not built to survive either one of those natural disaster events,” Thorsen said.
At least 10 other hospitals along the Oregon coast are in danger as well. So Columbia Memorial leaders proposed building a hospital capable of withstanding an earthquake and landslide, with a tsunami shelter, instead of relocating the facility to higher ground. Residents and state officials supported the plans, and the federal government awarded a $14 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help pay for the tsunami shelter.
Columbia Memorial Hospital is a single-story, wood-frame building that would likely sustain significant damage in an earthquake or tsunami. The hospital was awarded a $14 million FEMA grant to help pay for an elevated tsunami shelter, but the Trump administration canceled the grant program in April.
Hannah Norman/KFF Health News
The project broke ground in October 2024. Within six months, the Trump administration had canceled the grant program, known as Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, calling it “yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program … more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.”
Molly Wing, director of the expansion project, said losing the BRIC grant felt like “a punch to the gut.”
“We really didn’t see that coming,” she said.
This summer, Oregon and 19 other states sued to restore the FEMA grants. On Dec. 11, a judge ruled that the Trump administration had unlawfully ended the program without congressional approval.
The administration did not immediately indicate it would appeal the decision, but Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said by email: “DHS has not terminated BRIC. Any suggestion to the contrary is a lie. The Biden Administration abandoned true mitigation and used BRIC as a green new deal slush fund. It’s unfortunate that an activist judge either didn’t understand that or didn’t care.” FEMA is a subdivision of DHS.
Columbia Memorial was one of the few hospitals slated to receive grants from the BRIC program, which had announced more than $4.5 billion for nearly 2,000 building projects since 2022.
Hospital leaders have decided to keep building — with uncertain funding — because they say waiting is too dangerous. With the Trump administration reversing course on BRIC, fewer communities will receive help from FEMA to reduce their disaster risk, even places where catastrophes are likely.
More than three centuries have passed since a major earthquake caused the Pacific Northwest’s coastline to drop several feet and unleashed a tsunami that crashed onto the land in January 1700, according to scientists who study the evolution of the Oregon coast.
The greatest danger is an underwater fault line known as the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which lies 70 to 100 miles off the coast, from Northern California to British Columbia.
Astoria, Oregon, is a city of 10,000 residents on a peninsula near the end of the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail. It’s located on the southern shore of the Columbia River, near the Washington border. Picturesque forests and the river frame streets lined with gift shops, hotels, and seafood restaurants — almost entirely in an evacuation zone.
Hannah Norman/KFF Health News
The Cascadia zone can produce a megathrust earthquake, with a magnitude of 9 or higher — the type capable of triggering a catastrophic tsunami — every 500 years, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Scientists predict a 10% to 15% chance of such an earthquake along the fault zone in the next 50 years.
“We can’t wait any longer,” Thorsen said. “The risk is high.”
Building for the future
The BRIC program started in 2020, during the first Trump administration, to provide communities and institutions with funding and technical assistance to fortify their structures against natural disasters.
Joel Scata, a senior attorney with the environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council, said the program helped communities better prepare so they could reduce the cost of rebuilding after a flood, tornado, wildfire, or extreme weather event.
To qualify for a grant, a hospital had to show that the project’s benefits were greater than the future danger and cost. In some cases, that benefit might not be readily apparent.
“It prevents bad disasters from happening, and so you don’t necessarily see it in action,” Scata said.
Scata noted that the Trump administration has also stopped awarding grants through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which predates BRIC.
“There really is no money going out the door from the federal government to help communities reduce their disaster risk,” he said.
A recent KFF Health News investigation using proprietary data from Fathom, a global leader in flood modeling, found that at least 170 U.S. hospitals are at risk of significant and potentially dangerous flooding from more intense and frequent storms. That count did not include Columbia Memorial, as Fathom’s data did not account for tsunamis. It models flooding from rivers, sea level rise, and extreme rainfall.
In recent days, an atmospheric river — a narrow storm band carrying significant amounts of moisture — dumped more than 15 inches of rain on parts of Oregon and Washington, causing catastrophic flooding along rivers and the coast. In the Washington town of Sedro-Woolley, which sits along the Skagit River, the PeaceHealth United General Medical Center evacuated nonemergency patients.
High winds battered Astoria, leaving the city with some minor landslides, according to news reports. But flooding on the road to the nearby beach town of Seaside made the drive nearly impassable.
The Trump administration is leaning on states to take greater responsibility for recovering from natural disasters, Scata said, but most states are not financially prepared to do so.
“The disasters are just going to keep on piling up,” he said, “and the federal government’s going to have to keep stepping in.”
A hospital at risk
Columbia Memorial is blocks from the southern shore of the Columbia River, near the Washington border, where the area’s natural hazards include earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and floods. A critical access hospital with 25 beds, it opened in 1977 — before state building codes addressed tsunami protections.
Thorsen said the new facility and shelter would be a “model design” for other hospitals. Design plans show a five-level hospital built atop a foundation anchored to the bedrock and surrounded by concrete columns to shield it from tsunami debris.
Columbia Memorial Hospital’s expansion plans call for an outdoor staircase leading to a rooftop tsunami refuge capable of holding up to 1,900 people, and enough food, water, tents, and other supplies to sustain them for five days.
Columbia Memorial Hospital
The shelter will be on the roof of the second floor, above the projected maximum tsunami inundation. It will be accessible via an outdoor staircase and interior staircases and elevators, with enough room for up to 1,900 people, plus food, water, tents, and other supplies to sustain them for five days.
With most patient care provided on the second and third levels, generators on the fourth level, and utility lines underground, the hospital is expected to remain operational after a natural disaster.
Design plans for Columbia Memorial Hospital show a five-level building with a rooftop refuge designed to withstand an earthquake and keep people safe from a tsunami. Most patient services will be provided on the second and third levels, above the projected tsunami flood level.
Columbia Memorial Hospital
Thorsen said an earthquake and tsunami threaten not only vast flooding but also liquefaction, in which the ground loosens and causes structures above it to collapse. Deep foundations, thick slabs, and other structural supports are expected to protect the new hospital and tsunami structure against such failure.
Through the years, hospital administrators and civic leaders in Astoria have sought other locations for Columbia Memorial. But relocation wasn’t economical. Columbia Memorial committed to invest in a new hospital and tsunami shelter to protect not only patients and staff but also nearby residents.
“Your community should count on your hospital to be a safe haven in a natural disaster,” Thorsen said.
The estimated construction budget for Columbia Memorial’s expansion is $300 million, mostly financed through new debt from the hospital. The tsunami shelter is budgeted at about $20 million, for which FEMA’s BRIC program awarded nearly $14 million, with a $6 million matching grant from the state, which has maintained its support.
The shelter and the building’s structural protections — featuring reinforced steel, deeper foundations, and thicker slabs — are integral to the design and cannot be removed without compromising the rest of the structure, said Michelle Checkis, the project architect.
“We can’t pull the TVERS [tsunami vertical evacuation refuge structure] out without pulling the hospital back apart again,” she said. “It’s kind of like, if I was going to stack it up with Legos, I would have to take all those Legos apart and stack it up completely differently.”
Molly Wing is the director of Columbia Memorial Hospital’s expansion project, and Michelle Checkis is the architect of the new facility, which includes a rooftop tsunami shelter.
Hannah Norman/KFF Health News
Columbia Memorial has sought help from Oregon’s congressional delegation. In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former FEMA acting administrator David Richardson, the lawmakers demanded that the agencies restore the hospital’s grant.
The hospital’s leadership is seeking other grants and philanthropic donations to make up for the loss. As a last resort, Thorsen said, the board will consider removing “nonessential features” from the building, though he added that there is little fat to trim from the project.
The lawsuit brought by states in July alleged that FEMA lacks the authority to cancel the BRIC program or redirect its funding for other purposes.
In their response to the lawsuit, the Trump administration said repeatedly that the defendants “deny that the BRIC program has been terminated.”
The lawsuit cites examples of projects at risk in each state due to FEMA’s termination of the grants. Oregon’s first example is Columbia Memorial’s tsunami shelter. “Neither the County nor the State can afford to resume the project without federal funding,” the lawsuit states.
In response to questions about the impact of canceling the grant on Astoria and the surrounding community, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said BRIC had “deviated from its statutory intent.”
“BRIC was more focused on climate change initiatives like bicycle lanes, shaded bus stops, and planting trees, rather than disaster relief or mitigation,” McLaughlin said. DHS and FEMA provided no further comment about BRIC or the Astoria hospital.
Preparing for a tsunami disaster
Located near the end of the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail, Astoria sits on a peninsula that juts into the Columbia River near the Pacific Ocean.
Much of the city is not in the tsunami inundation area. But Astoria’s downtown commercial district — where gift shops, hotels, and seafood restaurants line the streets — is nearly all an evacuation zone.
Fish canning was once the primary industry in Astoria, Oregon, until the last cannery closed in the 1980s.
Hannah Norman/KFF Health News
Two hospitals — Ocean Beach Health in nearby Washington, and Providence Seaside Hospital in Oregon — are about 20 miles from Columbia Memorial. Both are 25-bed hospitals, and neither is designed to withstand a tsunami.
Ocean Beach Health regularly conducts drills for mass-casualty and natural disasters, said Brenda Sharkey, its chief nursing officer.
“We focus our planning and investments on areas where we can make a real difference for our community before, during, and after an event — such as maintaining continuity of care, ensuring rapid triage, and coordinating with regional emergency partners,” Sharkey said in an email.
Gary Walker, a spokesperson for Providence Seaside, said in a statement that the hospital has a “comprehensive emergency plan for earthquakes and tsunamis, including alternative sites and mobile resources.”
Walker added that Providence Seaside has hired “a team of consultants and experts to conduct a conceptual resilience study” that would evaluate the hospital’s vulnerabilities and recommend ways to address them.
Oregon’s emergency managers advise residents and visitors in coastal communities to immediately seek higher ground after a major earthquake — and not to rely on tsunami sirens, social media, or most technology.
“There may not even be cellphone towers operating after an event like this,” said Jonathan Allan, a coastal geomorphologist with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. “The earthquake shaking, its intensity, and particularly the length of time in which the shaking persists, is the warning message.”
The stronger the earthquake and the longer the shaking, he said, the more likely a tsunami will head to shore.
A tsunami triggered by a Cascadia zone earthquake could strike land in less than 30 minutes, according to state estimates.
Many of Oregon’s seaside communities are near high-enough ground to seek safety from a tsunami in a relatively short time, Allan said. But he estimated that, to save lives, Oregon would need about a dozen vertical tsunami evacuation shelters along the coast, including in seaside towns that attract tourists and where the nearest high ground is a mile or more away.
Willis Van Dusen’s family has lived in Astoria since the mid-19th century. A former mayor of Astoria, Van Dusen stressed that tsunamis are not a hypothetical danger. He recalled seeing one in Seaside in 1964. The wave was only about 18 inches high, he said, but it flooded a road and destroyed a bridge and some homes. The memory has stayed with him.
“It’s not like … ‘Oh, that’ll never happen,’” he said. “We have to be prepared for it.”
KFF Health News correspondent Brett Kelman contributed to this report.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
The Trump administration is slashing anti-terrorism funding for Massachusetts and other Democratic-led states that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration crackdowns, drawing a new legal challenge.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced its annual grant allocations through the Homeland Security Grant Program, which was approved by Congress in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The funding supports intelligence operations, large-event security, planning, equipment purchases and police training.
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BOSTON — The Trump administration can’t block federal disaster relief funding for Massachusetts and other states for refusing to cooperate with immigration crackdowns, a federal judge has ruled.
The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith in Rhode Island sided with Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and 22 other Democrats who sued to block a Homeland Security policy tying Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster funding to a state’s willingness to cooperate with immigration enforcement.
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Federal employees tasked with responding to natural disasters and providing assistance to Americans in dire straits haven’t all been using government resources as intended. As part of an investigation, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff have been found to be using government resources to engage in sexually explicit behavior.
U.S.Department of Homeland Security investigators identified employees working at a FEMA command center who they say were sending sexually explicit images via text, or sexting, to foreign nationals and uploading the images using government devices.
Agents working in DHS’ Insider Threat Operations Center (ITOC) identified two FEMA employees who allegedly “used their official government equipment to send graphic messages, access adult websites, and in one case, upload an image of male genitalia to an online sex platform,” DHS said.
“This behavior and misuse of government resources is absolutely disgusting,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said. Instead of working on behalf of the American people in taxpayer funded jobs with access to highly sensitive systems, the employees “spent their duty hours sexting strangers, including foreign nationals, on encrypted government devices. Such conduct is unacceptable, and these employees have been terminated,” Noem said.
On August 27, DHS ITOC agents discovered that one FEMA employee had accessed Facebook Messenger through the FEMA network to allegedly “engage in multiple sexually explicit conversations with an individual believed to reside in the Philippines.” ITOC agents reviewed messages including graphic sexual content, references to a Filipino dating group, and statements about the FEMA employee’s plan to visit the individual overseas, DHS said.
Between Aug. 30-31, another FEMA employee used his official government workstation to access an adult website to engage in multiple graphic conversations and upload an image of male genitalia to the platform, investigators said. The activity was observed to have occurred during work hours using a FEMA-assig ned device connected to an unclassified FEMA network.
The offenses occurred at FEMA’s Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center/High Point Special Facility located near Frogtown, Virginia, DHS said. The facility is used as a relocation site for senior civilian and military officials, houses FEMA’s National Emergency Coordinating Center, and provides communications to the White House Situation Room.
“The revolting actions of these employees, now the second group to be caught at FEMA engaged in such acts, represents a clear national security risk,” Noem said.
She’s referring to two other FEMA employees who worked at the operations center who were also fired. On July 12, ITOC agents identified a FEMA employee who “typed explicit and sexually charged phrases into a chatbot website” using government devices to have “comments read back to him in an accent,” DHS said.
On Aug. 1, ITOC agents identified a government-contracted employee “accessing Reddit.com 578 times over a 30-day period. It was revealed that he was engaged in extensive interactions with individuals online, viewing explicit sexual content while on his work devices.” He used his government computer several times to chat online with Reddit members presenting explicit content and accessed graphic photographs and videos, DHS said.
“These individuals had access to critical information and intelligence and were entrusted to safeguard Americans from emergencies – and instead they were consuming pornography. In at least one case the pornography consumed was racially charged and involved bestiality,” Noem said.
DHS says it is actively investigating alleged misuse of devices agency-wide to ensure employees aren’t abusing or misusing federal devices or sharing classified or sensitive information. This includes DHS prioritizing investigations into FEMA’s network activity and employee conduct, including actively reviewing internal policies, network monitoring protocols, and security clearances, it says.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are cleaning house at FEMA to make this dysfunctional agency work for the American people the way that it was intended,” Noem said. “For decades some of these bureaucrats engaged in every act imaginable instead of safeguarding the American people from natural disasters. That ends now.”
Biloxi, Mississippi — Twenty years ago Friday, Katrina made its second and most destructive U.S. landfall, coming ashore just southeast of New Orleans as a Category 3 hurricane.
While the damage and destruction left by Katrina in 2005 changed New Orleans forever, the storm surge and powerful winds also left a lasting blow to other parts of the Gulf Coast, including Alabama and Mississippi.
Two decades later, Biloxi, Mississippi, is still trying to rebuild. Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich says it has been a constant battle with the Federal Emergency Management Agency over funding.
To rebuild the city’s pier stronger than before, the city says it needs $4 million. Gilich says FEMA has proposed a different number: $555,000.
“$555,000, which in my mind is absolutely ridiculous, you can’t build anything with that,” Gilich told CBS News.
The biggest unfinished project, though, has been upgrades to the city’s sewage and stormwater system in order to better protect Biloxi from the next monster storm.
“We can’t bid these last two projects unless we have assurance of funding,” Gilich said.
Gilich said FEMA still owes Biloxi $34 million to finish work planned about 20 years ago. FEMA won’t pay it until Biloxi begins the work on the final phase, but Gilich says he doesn’t want to start something he knows he won’t be able to afford to finish. The mayor said as time has passed, the cost of supplies and labor has outpaced the original estimates.
Gilich saysthe city now needs $111 million to finish the project, but FEMA has denied his request for more money — twice.
“I’m not bashful, and they [FEMA] understand, you know, where our concern is,” said Gilich, who described the way he feels his city has been treated by FEMA as “just ridiculous.”
Biloxi submitted a second appeal to FEMA this summer.
Over the years, FEMA has tried to claw back some of the money provided for earlier phases of the sewage system upgrades, claiming that the city has not used the federal money it has received appropriately. Biloxi and FEMA reached a court settlement over those concerns a few years ago.
Gilich says FEMA’s allegations are “not right.”
“Bottom line, I’m here to say we’ve done everything we could possibly do,” Gilich added.
In documentation Biloxi provided to CBS News, FEMA’s denial this summer of Biloxi’s request was due to the fact that the city, “has not provided documentation substantiating the reasonableness of the costs claimed or demonstrating any errors or omission in the approved…cost estimate requiring adjustment of the costs agreed upon.”
Biloxi is not alone in its struggles with FEMA. CBS News found 254 other FEMA Katrina relief projects through the agency that were designed to help municipalities across Louisiana and Mississippi that still aren’t done.
Gilich said the experience is “almost like dealing with insurance agents. The delay, depose and deny.”
And earlier this week, a group of 181 current and former FEMA officials signed on to an open letter that said the White House’s changes to the agency could undo decades of reforms that were enacted post-Katrina. More than 20 employees who publicly signed their names to the letter have since been suspended.
In May, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem testified before Congress about her plans to improve the agency’s processes.
“We still have claims outstanding in FEMA from Hurricane Katrina,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, testified before the House in May. “Wildfire claims from out West that are 10 years old, where people said, ‘We have this claim, this loss. FEMA committed to pay it and still has not followed through on it.’ We saw political targeting that happened in North Carolina, where individuals within FEMA decided who could get help and who didn’t get help. So that needs to end. And this needs some integrity to it and making sure the federal government is there for support, but [that] the states are empowered to do the emergency response is very important to President Trump.”
Gilich has traveled to D.C. three times already this year to advocate for his city. He said he’s feeling cautiously optimistic that the funding will eventually come through and the rebuilding process will be complete within about three years.
“The end result is righteous,” Gilich said. “It’s going to be something that we can sustain a lot of the things, you know, as far as what Mother Nature throws at us.”
In a statement provided to CBS News Thursday in response to a question about those communities who say they are still waiting on post-Katrina funding, a FEMA spokesperson said, in part, that “it’s ridiculous, unacceptable, and absurd that FEMA is still working and processing claims from a disaster that happened 20 years ago. This is an example of unnecessary red tape and a broken government agency that does not work in the best interest of the American people. We’re moving away from the bloated, DC-centric model of the past and creating a lean, fast, and effective disaster response agency focusing on empowering states and local communities to lead the way in helping their citizens, with FEMA standing ready to support.”
The spokesperson noted that the FEMA Review Council, established by President Trump in January, “is conducting a thorough review to ensure FEMA delivers swift, effective disaster response for Americans.”
That council is expected to release a final report with “actionable recommendations,” the spokesperson said.
The FEMA spokesperson also added that, “To date, FEMA has provided impacted states with significant federal assistance, including over $6.6 billion in Individual Assistance – which includes money for rent, basic home repairs and other disaster-caused needs – and over $17.1 billion in Public Assistance reimbursements has been approved for recovery projects like rebuilding roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure.”
Kati Weis is a Murrow Award-winning reporter for CBS News based in New Orleans, covering the Southeast. She previously worked as an investigative reporter at CBS News Colorado in their Denver newsroom.
While the damage and destruction left by Katrina in 2005 changed New Orleans forever, the sea surge and powerful winds also left a lasting blow to other parts of the Gulf Coast, including the Mississippi city of Biloxi. Two decades later, they’re still trying to rebuild. Kati Weis reports.
A group of current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency officials warned Congress on Monday that the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to the disaster relief agency could reverse decades of reforms made after Hurricane Katrina.
The open letter was released as the U.S. this week marks 20 years since Katrina’s 2005 landfall — sparking one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, with more than 1,800 deaths and over $200 billion in damage in today’s dollars.
The letter argues the Trump administration — which has sought to dramatically shrink FEMA and floated scrapping the agency altogether — had made decisions that “hinder the swift execution of our mission.” It states that a change in course is necessary to “prevent not only another national catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of FEMA itself and the abandonment of the American people such an event would represent.”
Released by the advocacy group Stand Up for Science, the “Katrina Declaration” says it has 181 signatories. Only 35 people signed their names to the letter, with the rest opting for anonymity due to “the culture of fear and suppression cultivated by this administration.”
It’s addressed to several congressional committees and the FEMA Review Council, which was formed by President Trump earlier this year.
The declaration alleges that Mr. Trump’s picks to lead FEMA “lack proper qualifications,” and decries the Trump administration for cutting FEMA’s staff.
“Since January 2025, FEMA has been under the leadership of individuals lacking legal qualifications, Senate approval, and the demonstrated background required of a FEMA Administrator,” the open letter reads.
It also castigates FEMA for terminating grants meant to help state and local governments prepare their infrastructures to withstand natural disasters and extreme weather. Two-thirds of the counties that have received those grants voted for Mr. Trump over former Vice President Kamala Harris, a CBS News investigation found earlier this year. A federal judge blocked cuts to the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, program earlier this month.
In response to the letter, FEMA acting press secretary Daniel Llargues said the Department of Homeland Security is “committed to ensuring FEMA delivers for the American people.” He said the agency has been “bogged down by red tape, inefficiency, and outdated processes,” and defended the Trump administration’s handling of natural disasters so far this year.
“The Trump Administration has made accountability and reform a priority so that taxpayer dollars actually reach the people and communities they are meant to help,” Llargues said. “It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform. Change is always hard. It is especially for those invested in the status quo. But our obligation is to survivors, not to protecting broken systems.”
FEMA has faced months of upheaval since Mr. Trump’s return to office.
Days after his inauguration, the president floated either “getting rid of FEMA” or “fundamentally reforming and overhauling” the agency, casting it as overly bureaucratic and arguing that state and local governments should take on a larger role in managing natural disasters. In June, Mr. Trump said he’s looking to “wean” states off of FEMA.
The White House has proposed cutting FEMA’s budget for non-disaster grants by $646 million in the next fiscal year. The Trump administration is asking Congress to approve a $36.2 billion budget for FEMA, up from $33.1 billion in the fiscal year 2025 budget.
So far this year, FEMA has lost about one-third of its staff through a combination of firings and buyouts, and the administration has overhauled the contract renewal system for more than two-thirds of FEMA’s workforce, CBS News has previously reported.
The agency has had two acting leaders since Mr. Trump returned to office. Christopher Hamilton led the agency until May, when he was fired after saying he didn’t support eliminating FEMA. His successor, David Richardson, introduced himself to staff by warning them during an all-hands meeting, “don’t get in my way,” and suggesting he will “run right over” people he believes are subverting the president’s agenda, CBS News has reported.
The leadership change came weeks before the June 1 start of the Atlantic hurricane season. One review from May found the agency was “not ready” for hurricane season.
Hurricane Katrina was a terrifying experience for more than a million people affected across the Gulf Coast region. Nearly 1,400 people died, most of them in New Orleans — and 20 years later, some communities are still struggling to recover.
The National Hurricane Center says the costliest hurricane in U.S. history — more than $201 billion based on the 2024 Consumer Price Index adjusted cost — caused widespread flood damage across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
On Dauphin Island, Alabama, the barrier island town’s west end beach was severed during Katrina. A 1.5 mile-wide gap was left behind. More than 300 homes were destroyed on the island, and for many of those homes, the land on which they stood was permanently washed away.
Since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, Dauphin Island has been shrinking and moving even more from additional storms and sea level rise. The island is now facing a dire existential crisis.
Images of Dauphin Island from 2004, 2005 and 2008 shows the shrinking barrier island in Alabama.
Mayor Jeff Collier never imagined storms, big or small, would batter the island so hard. Some residents are still paying property taxes on lots that are now under Gulf waters — vacationers frequently swimming over top of them.
“This area here is where most of those underwater lots are,” Collier said as he took a CBS News crew on a tour of Dauphin Island. “There are probably 50 lots in this stretch of the island.”
Some residents’ homes are sitting in perilous positions, their pilings now situated well into the Gulf. The homes are still technically livable — vacationers even renting them out this summer — but Collier says it’s only a matter of time before another storm wipes out more.
Over the last 20 years, the town has rebuilt some of its white sand beaches. Last year, on the island’s east end, the town was able to use Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill settlement money on a beach erosion project to push Gulf waters back about 350 to 400 feet, according to the mayor.
But on a barrier island like Dauphin, constant maintenance is critical. Jillian Fairbanks visits the island frequently and has seen the erosion first-hand over time.
“Just about a year later, I can already tell that the sand has eroded, I’d say 30 meters or so at least,” Fairbanks said. “It was still a shock to see that happen already in one year.”
Her parents have lived there for 13 years. She says they’ve advocated for beach restoration projects for years to protect the town.
“It’s more calm, laid back, peaceful,” Fairbanks said. “I’ll come here as long as it’s here.”
Images show how Hurricane Katrina eroded the beach on Dauphin Island.
USGS
It will take millions of dollars from several grant sources to preserve what’s left, and Collier says that’s the biggest challenge.
Dauphin Island is planning to use more oil spill settlement money to help pay for another beach restoration project for the island’s west end, which will cost $60 million. The mayor is still pursuing additional funding sources to make the project possible.
He’s also utilizing help from an Environmental Protection Agency grant to upgrade the town’s stormwater runoff systems to help mitigate street flooding during storms, even low-grade ones. As of April, Collier says the town had already spent more than $420,000 on the $1.2 million project.
Because these projects need continuous upkeep and oversight, Collier sought help from a special FEMA program. He said a grant for a $250,000 project would help the town hire an engineering and design firm to create a specialized disaster mitigation plan.
The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant, or BRIC, includes investments in state planning and capacity building, such as $2 million in Alabama to support statewide building code implementation costs, according to Derrick Hiebert, who oversaw the program.
He served as assistant administrator for the Hazard Mitigation Directorate at FEMA for the last two years.
He added the BRIC program was also funding a massive flooding mitigation project in Washington state.
“The North Shore Levy — $80 million in federal funding to a community that has suffered significant economic disruption in recent years,” he said. “It was going to protect 3,100 homes and businesses, removing them from the FEMA-designated floodplain and reducing risk in that community.”
Hiebert said it also helped some other western communities with wildfire mitigation efforts and was first established with bipartisan support.
“It was established during the first Trump administration, after the passage of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, and it helped solve several long-standing challenges with local governments,” Hiebert said.
Against Hiebert’s wishes, the Trump administration’s FEMA canceled the program in April, calling it “wasteful and ineffective.” In another announcement, the agency said BRIC resulted in a “lack of concrete results.”
Hiebert said he supports any administration’s ability to “evolve and adapt” and he doesn’t see changes to FEMA as a bad thing, but he believes the cancellation of such projects is “devastating” to the places that need them.
“If the administration wants to change FEMA, or change the BRIC program to something different that looks a little different, that’s the prerogative. That’s good,” he said. “These communities that were expecting these funds, that were counting on these funds for these real large-scale infrastructure projects, what hurts me the most is to know that some of them, or many of them, may not get built, and that these risks … don’t have another place to turn to address these risks.”
A heron walks along the West End of Dauphin Island.
In response to the lawsuit, a FEMA spokesperson told CBS News that resiliency is a priority for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA. “But over the last four years the Biden Administration used the BRIC program as a piggy bank for its green new deal agenda,” the spokesperson said.
FEMA data shows the cut impacted nearly 700 projects at a cost of $3.6 billion.A CBS News investigation found that the recent BRIC funding cuts have disproportionately affected counties that supported Mr. Trump in the 2024 election. The elimination of the BRIC program also especially deprives vulnerable communities across the Southeast, the CBS News data analysis found.
Earlier this month, a federal judge temporarily blocked the BRIC funding reallocation, arguing the transfer could lead to “irreparable harm” to flood-prone areas. Meanwhile, Collier says he has not heard any word from the federal government about next steps.
“We’re kind of in a limbo situation right now waiting to see what comes out of that,” Collier said.
CBS News reached out to FEMA for a comment, but has not received a response.
Collier said if it comes down to it, he will pursue paying for the hazard mitigation plan out of pocket.
“Of course, it’s nicer when you have grant funds to work with, but at the same time, this is such a critically important thing that we need … If we can’t get the funding elsewhere, you know, we just have to just deal with it ourselves,” Collier said. “So, one way or the other, we’re going to get our plan in place.”
Time is something Dauphin Island cannot afford. Even without a major hurricane, the beach is expected to continue washing away.
Asked what keeps him up at night, Collier said, “just the fact that we know additional hurricanes will eventually hit this area … knowing that there’s a clock ticking, that we only have a certain length of time in order to make differences and changes on the island before the next one hits.”
Kati Weis is a Murrow Award-winning reporter for CBS News based in New Orleans, covering the Southeast. She previously worked as an investigative reporter at CBS News Colorado in their Denver newsroom.
One month after Hurricane Helene devastated North Carolina, residents of Asheville are still struggling to find clean drinking water. New York Times reporter Christina Morales joins CBS News to explain how it’s affecting families and businesses and what officials are doing to try to fix the issue.
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The federal government says it has been dealing with an unprecedented number of rumors surrounding the recent hurricanes, Helene and Milton. CBS News immigration and politics reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez speaks with the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection about one of those false claims. Then, CBS News national security contributor Sam Vinograd joins with further analysis.
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President Biden told Floridians his administration would offer support “for as long as it takes to rescue, recover and rebuild.”
Several organizations are preparing to assist households hit by Milton. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has numerous disaster recovery centers throughout the state. The White House said Wednesday that FEMA has 20 million meals and 40 million liters of water ready to deploy to address ongoing Helene and Milton response efforts.
Information on how to access shelters and apply for assistance can be found at disasterassistance.gov. Residents can also call 800-621-3362 or TTY 800-462-7585.
The American Red Cross is collecting donations to provide shelter and supplies for those affected by Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene.
The Florida Disaster Fund has said it will distribute donations to service organizations that help people with disaster response and recovery. Collected donations will be used for those affected by Milton and Helene, the fund said.
The Florida Disaster Legal Aid Helpline offers free legal information and advice to those facing challenges related to FEMA assistance or support with all disaster-related obstacles. Residents can call 833-514-2940 for assistance, or apply online.
Local organization Feeding Tampa Bay connects residents with hot meals and food banks. Their disaster readiness team is FEMA-trained, the organization said, and works directly with local emergency management operations to provide food, water and hygiene items during crisis situations.
For those seeking local housing, Metro Ministries manages housing for at-risk families in Tampa and plans to help secure food, housing and supplies needed to restore their lives after Hurricane Milton.
Pet owners and animal lovers can contact the Humane Society of the United States as they work to secure transport for dogs and cats and bring them to safety and provide assistance to devastated animal shelters.
Cara Tabachnick is a news editor at CBSNews.com. Cara began her career on the crime beat at Newsday. She has written for Marie Claire, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She reports on justice and human rights issues. Contact her at cara.tabachnick@cbsinteractive.com
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris heard from federal officials leading efforts to prepare for Hurricane Milton’s expected historic impact. The storm will make landfall in Florida late Wednesday or early Thursday. Here’s how the Biden administration is responding to the storm.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government’s top disaster relief official said Sunday that false claims and conspiracy theories about the federal response to Hurricane Helene — spread most prominently by Donald Trump — are “demoralizing” aid workers and creating fear in people who need recovery assistance.
“It’s frankly ridiculous, and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people,” said Deanne Criswell, who leads the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “It’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people, and that’s what we’re here to do. We have had the complete support of the state,” she said, referring to North Carolina.
AP AUDIO: Correspondent Julie Walker reports after the deluge, lies and misinformation are clouding the recovery effort from Hurricane Helene.
Republicans, led by the former president, have helped foster a frenzy of misinformation over the past week among the communities most devastated by Helene, promoting a number of false claims, including that Washington is intentionally withholding aid to people in Republican areas.
Trump accused FEMA of spending all its money to help immigrants who are in the United States illegally, while other critics assert that the government spends too much on Israel, Ukraine and other foreign countries.
“FEMA absolutely has enough money for Helene response right now,” Keith Turi, acting director of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery said. He noted that Congress recently replenished the agency with $20 billion, and about $8 billion of that is set aside for recovery from previous storms and mitigation projects.
There also are outlandish theories that include warnings from far-right extremist groups that officials plan to bulldoze storm-damaged communities and seize the land from residents. A falsehood pushed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., asserts that Washington used weather control technology to steer Helene toward Republican voters in order to tilt the presidential election toward Democrat Kamala Harris.
Criswell said on ABC’s “This Week” that such baseless claims around the response to Helene, which caused catastrophic damage from Florida into the Appalachian mountains and a death toll that rose Sunday to at least 230, have created a sense of fear and mistrust from residents against the thousands of FEMA employees and volunteers on the ground.
“We’ve had the local officials helping to push back on this dangerous — truly dangerous narrative that is creating this fear of trying to reach out and help us or to register for help,” she said.
President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday that his administration “will continue working hand-in-hand with local and state leaders –- regardless of political party and no matter how long it takes.”
Meantime, FEMA is preparing for Hurricane Milton, which rapidly intensified into a Category 1 storm on Sunday as it heads toward Florida.
“We’re working with the state there to understand what their requirements are going to be, so we can have those in place before it makes landfall,” she said.
VILAS, N.C. (AP) — Brad Farrington pulls over to grab a case of water bottles being passed out in Vilas, a small rural community tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He’s on his way to help a friend who lost much of what he owned when Hurricane Helene blew through last weekend.
His friend, like countless others across western North Carolina, is starting over, which explains why Farrington isn’t thinking too much about politics or the White House race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris right now.
“I don’t believe people’s hope is in either people that are being elected,” he said.
Farrington pauses, then gestures toward a dozen volunteers loading water and other necessities into cars and trucks.
“I believe we’re finding a lot more hope within folks like this,” he said.
In the election’s final weeks, people in North Carolina and Georgia, influential swing states, are dealing with more immediate concerns: widespread storm damage. If that weren’t enough, voters in Watauga County, a ticket-splitting Appalachian county that has become more Democratic in recent years, must contend with politicians laying blame while offering support as they campaign in a race that could be decided by any small shift.
Large uprooted trees litter the sides of roads, sometimes blocking driveways. Some homes in Vilas are inaccessible after bridges collapsed and roads crumbled. More populous areas like Boone, home of Appalachian State University, saw major flooding.
After Trump went to Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday, 20-year-old Fermin Herrera said the former president clinched his vote with his display of caring, not out of any frustration with how President Joe Biden and Harris, the vice president, are handling the federal disaster response. Herrera already leaned toward voting for Trump.
“I feel like everybody’s kind doing what they can,” he said. “All the locals are appreciating the help that’s coming.”
“I’m not thinking about voters right now,” Trump insisted after a meeting with Gov. Brian Kemp, R-Ga., on Friday. “I’m thinking about lives.”
Biden pushed back hard, saying he is “committed to being president for all of America” and has not ordered aid to be distributed based on party lines. The White House cited statements from the Republican governors of Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee expressing satisfaction with the federal government’s response.
FEMA’s head, Deanne Criswell, told ABC’s “This Week” that this “truly dangerous narrative” of falsehoods is “demoralizing” to first responders and creating “fear in our own employees.”
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Criticism of aid efforts so soon after a natural disaster is “inappropriate,” especially when factoring in the daunting logistical problems in western North Carolina, said Gavin Smith, a North Carolina State University professor who specializes in disaster recovery. He said the perilous terrain from compromised roads and bridges and the widespread lack of power and cellphone service make disaster response in the region particularly challenging.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has made several stops in western North Carolina, including Watauga County and surrounding areas, and Biden viewed the extensive damage via an aerial tour.
A focus on recovering and rebuilding
In Watauga County, Jessica Dixon was scraping muck and broken furniture off the ground with a shovel, then dumping it in the bucket of a humming excavator. The 29-year-old stood in a home she bought two years ago. It’s now gutted after a rush of water forced Dixon, her boyfriend and their two dogs to flee to safety.
Without flood insurance, Dixon is not sure what will happen over the next month. She said she filled out a FEMA application but hasn’t checked her email since. She had given the presidential election some thought before Helene, but now she’s preoccupied with cleaning her home.
“It wouldn’t change my views on anything,” said Dixon, who was planning to vote for Harris.
The presidential election isn’t top of mind for 47-year-old Bobby Cordell, either. He’s trying to get help to neighbors in western Watauga County, which has become inaccessible in some parts.
His home near Beech Mountain is one of those places, he said, after a bridge washed away. Cordell rescued his aunt from a mudslide, then traveled to Boone and has been staying in Appalachian State’s Holmes Convocation Center, which now serves as a Red Cross emergency shelter.
He’s trying to send disaster relief back where he lives by contacting officials, including from FEMA. That conversation, he said, “went very well.”
Accepting help isn’t easy for people in the mountains, he said, because they’re used to taking care of themselves.
Now, though, the people who are trapped “need everything they can get.”
Helping neighbors becomes more important in Helene’s aftermath
Over the past week of volunteering at Skateworld, where Farrington stopped for water, it’s become harder for Nancy Crawford to smile. She’s helped serve more than 1,000 people, she said, but the emotional toll has started to settle in for “a lot of us that normally are tough.”
That burden added to the weight she was already feeling about the election, which she said was “scary to begin with.” Crawford, a registered Republican, said she plans to vote for Harris. As a Latina of Mexican descent, she thinks Trump’s immigration policies would have harmful effects on her community.
The storm, she said, likely won’t change her vote but has made one thing evident.
“It doesn’t matter what party you are, we all need help,” she said.
Jan Wellborn had a similar thought as she made her way around the Watauga High School gym collecting supplies to bring to coworkers in need. A 69-year-old bus driver for the school district, she said the outpouring of support she’s seen from the community has been a “godsend.”
She takes solace from the county’s ability to pull together. The election matters, she said, but helping people make their way through a harrowing time matters more.
“The election, it should be important,” Wellborn said. “But right now we need to focus on getting everybody in the county taken care of.”
——
Associated Press writer Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.
Helene made landfall in Big Bend, Florida, on Sept. 26, causing flooding that devastated North Carolina, Tennessee and other Southern states and claimed more than 200 lives.
In a letter sent Saturday, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, chairman of the House Emergency Management and Technology Subcommittee, asked FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell for “information regarding FEMA’s advanced forecasting models, its pre-positioning of resources, and its coordination with federal, state, and local partners in response.”
A spokesperson for FEMA confirmed to NBC News that the agency received the letter and will work with Congress on Hurricane Helene efforts.
D’Esposito, R-N.Y., cited a local official from Buncombe County, North Carolina, who claimed that water was requested before the storm started but was delayed, further exacerbating the water shortage in Asheville.
At Monday’s White House briefing, homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall told reporters that FEMA focused its pre-positioning efforts in the Big Bend, Florida, area, and that this effort saved lives. Post-landfall, it “surged capacity to where it was needed the most.” She noted that western North Carolina has now been identified as the area that was hardest hit.
While former President Donald Trump has been sharply critical of FEMA and the administration’s overall response to Helene, even going so far as to boost misinformation about the agency, other North Carolina Republicans have praised the federal government’s actions.
On Friday, Sen. Thom Tillis defended the agency, telling reporters: “They’re doing a great job. They can always work harder, there’s always kinks in the slinky, we’re working them out behind the scenes, but I think we’re all here to send a message that we’re working together, and I’m pretty proud of the effort that’s been done.”
“Now, will I be silent in any areas where we can do better? No, but right now, I’m out here to say that we’re doing a good job,” he added.
Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican who represents most of western North Carolina, had criticized the federal government’s response at the beginning of the week, but by Friday he had written a letter to his constituents describing how his complaints had been immediately addressed.
A rescue operation was underway Friday to help people stranded on the roof of a Tennessee hospital after severe flooding from tropical storm Helene.
“I was hearing from county after county that FEMA and the state were not filling their food and water needs quick enough and there was barely any cell service,” he wrote. “After trying to work through FEMA and NC Emergency Management with little luck, I demanded the White House immediately get three pallets of water and two pallets of meals, ready to eat (MREs) delivered to each of our seven, hardest hit counties, and 20 pallets of MREs and 20 pallets of water for Buncombe County to hold them over until state resources were finally delivered. All 75 pallets were delivered same day.”
Edwards says he also demanded temporary cell towers for six counties and all six received at least a temporary cell tower within the same day.
The agency has already provided more than $110 million in federal assistance to help thousands of survivors begin their recovery, the spokesperson told NBC News. More than 6,400 federal personnel, including FEMA staff, are deployed in the affected areas. FEMA has distributed more than 13.2 million meals, 13.4 million liters of water, 157 generators, and more than 492,000 tarps to support recovery efforts in the region, according to the FEMA spokesperson.
Frank Thorp V contributed.
This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News here:
Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna co-sponsored bipartisan legislation to support recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene’s devastating impact on Florida and other states across the nation.
“My constituents in Pinellas County depend on Congress to take swift and decisive action in the wake of this unprecedented disaster caused by Hurricane Helene,” said Republican Congresswoman Luna. “I am ready and willing to return to Washington and ensure our communities receive the critical resources necessary for a rapid recovery. Americans are counting on us, and we must take immediate action to address their life-saving needs.”
The bill, introduced by Democratic Florida Congressman Jared Moskowitz, allocates an additional $15 billion in response to Hurricane Helene, including $10 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for disaster relief and emergency assistance and $5 billion in supplemental funding to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program.
The office of Representative Anna Paulina Luna is committed to supporting constituents during this challenging time by providing a variety of resources. She provided a list of updated federal and local resources to help with assistance that is needed, and told residents do not hesitate to reach out directly to the Congresswoman’s office.
Here is the list of resources provided by Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna:
Important Steps for Assistance:
Contact Your Insurance Provider: If you have experienced damage to your home, business, or vehicle, your first step is to file a claim with your insurance company. Be sure to take photographs of all damages and submit them along with your claim.
Filing a Claim with FEMA: After contacting your insurance company, you can also apply for disaster relief through FEMA. Below are links to the FEMA website and their mobile app, where you can access the application for disaster assistance:
FEMA Mobile App (Available for download on app stores)
Please be aware that after disasters, scammers may take advantage of vulnerable individuals by offering fraudulent assistance or services. It’s essential to protect yourself. Be cautious of anyone who arrives uninvited and offers to perform repairs. Always verify that the contractor provides a valid address, telephone number, and license information. For more details or to file a complaint, you can contact Pinellas County Consumer Services at 727-464-6200.
provides low-interest disaster loans to businesses of all sizes, private non-profit organizations, homeowners, and renters to repair or replace real estate, personal property, machinery & equipment, inventory, and business assets that have been damaged or destroyed in a declared disaster.
If you or a veteran you know needs immediate housing assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, call the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans (24/7) – 1-800-424-3838
If you’re unable to receive a benefit payment after a disaster, contact the VA National Call Center at 1-800-827-1000 to request a special one-time payment.
If you’re a displaced Veteran and receive VA employment services, you may qualify for two additional months of Employee Adjustment Allowance. Contact your local VA regional office to speak with a Veteran Readiness & Employment specialist to learn more.
The County Information Center remains open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. until further notice.
Call (727) 464-4333.
Residents who are deaf or hard of hearing can contact the County Information Center via online chat at bit.ly/PinellasChat
Disaster Distress Hotline:
The Disaster Distress Helpline provides 24/7 toll-free, multilingual disaster crisis counseling for anyone experiencing emotional distress related to disasters. Call or text1-800-985-5990
American Red Cross Tampa Bay Chapter:
(Can provide emergency medical assistance/medications, disaster recovery planning, meals and water.)
Food, water, and tarps are available at three points of distribution on Pinellas barrier islands:
St. Pete Beach: 4700 Gulf Bvd. Food, water and tarps
Treasure Island: 10451 Gulf Blvd. Food, water and tarps
Tierra Verde Fire Station: 540 Sands Point Drive. Water only
Crisis Cleanup
This is for people who need help cleaning up damage from Hurricane Helene and connects people with volunteers from local relief organizations, community groups, and faith communities who may be able to assist with jobs such as mucking (cleaning up), trees, tarp, and debris. All services are free, but service is not guaranteed. This hotline will remain open through Oct. 11, 2024.
8-10am Thursday, 1700 W Fig Street and 340 E Davis Blvd
4-6pm Friday, 340 E Davis Blvd.
Fare Free Bus Services:
To assist residents affected by Hurricane Helene, the City of St. Petersburg and PSTA are offering a two-week period of fare-free bus service within St. Pete city limits, starting Monday, September 30 through Sunday, October 13.
Applies to: Regular bus trips that begin and end within St. Pete city limits
Exclusions: Does not apply to Access, MOD, or other mobility services
SunRunner Update: SunRunner is turning around at Pasadena due to westbound access limitations
Fares Resume: Monday, Oct. 14, 2024
For more information on routes and schedules, visit psta.net.
Free Laundry Services:
Parking lot across from Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd. N) – 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Clearwater North Greenwood Library, 905 N. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave., Clearwater, FL 33755, Monday-Thursday 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Friday 12 p.m. – 5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., closed Sunday.
St. Petersburg:
St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 4444 5th Ave N, St. Petersburg – Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Lakewood United Methodist Church, 5995 Dr. M.L.K. Jr. St. S., St. Petersburg – Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (Pets welcome)
St. Pete Beach:
St. Pete Beach Community Center, 7701 Boca Ciega Dr., St. Pete Beach – 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Madeira Beach:
Madeira Beach City Hall, 14225 Gulf Blvd, Madeira Beach, Open daily 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. until further notice.
Seminole:
Seminole Recreation Center, 9100 113th St, Seminole, – 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Largo:
Largo Public Library, 120 Central Park Dr, Largo – Monday – Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday – Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Gulfport:
Gulfport Senior Center, located at 5501 27th Ave. S., Gulfport – open through Oct. 4, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Dunedin:
First United Methodist Church of Dunedin, 421 Main St., Dunedin – Monday, Sept. 30, through Thursday, Oct. 10, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
You can visit the Pinellas County Animal Services’ Found Center to check for your lost pet or drop off a found pet at 12450 Ulmerton Road, Largo. Found Center hours are Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. You can check other local animal shelters as well.
Members of a Beverly-based search-and-rescue team are continuing to search for victims and help with recovery efforts in North Carolina and Florida in the wake of Hurricane Helene. A total of 61 members of Massachusetts Task Force 1 have responded to the area, including 56 in North Carolina and five in Florida, according to Thomas Gatzunis, a planning team manager, public information officer and structures specialist for the team. Hurricane Helene was one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history and is estimated to have killed more than 150 people in six states. Massachusetts Task Force 1 is one of 28 Federal Emergency Management Agency search-and-rescue teams in the nation. It is based at a compound next to Beverly Airport and is comprised of about 250 volunteers from all six New England states, including firefighters, police officers, doctors, paramedics, canine handlers and engineers. Here are photos provided by the team of their ongoing efforts in North Carolina.
Members of a Beverly-based search-and-rescue team are continuing to search for victims and help with recovery efforts in North Carolina and Florida in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
A total of 61 members of Massachusetts Task Force 1 have responded to the area, including 56 in North Carolina and five in Florida, according to Thomas Gatzunis, a planning team manager, public information officer and structures specialist for the team.
Hurricane Helene was one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history and is estimated to have killed more than 150 people in six states.
Massachusetts Task Force 1 is one of 28 Federal Emergency Management Agency search-and-rescue teams in the nation. It is based at a compound next to Beverly Airport and is comprised of about 250 volunteers from all six New England states, including firefighters, police officers, doctors, paramedics, canine handlers and engineers.
Here are photos provided by the team of their ongoing efforts in North Carolina.
This Florida woman’s nearly $100K flood insurance claim was denied after Tropical Storm Debby due to a major loophole
When Tropical Storm Debby came through Pinellas County, Florida in early August, Danielle Jensen thought her home was protected with flood insurance from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). After all, she did spend $8,600 on a policy administered directly by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
But when insurance adjusters came through, they denied her claim outright, not due to any fault of her own. A “prior loss” report discovered that the previous owner filed a flood insurance claim, but did not complete the repairs with the claim payout. From the home’s condition to the serial numbers on the appliances, everything was the same from the previous insurance claim, leaving her family on the hook for close to $100,000 in damages.
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“It’s worthless, unless we flood again after we’ve made all these repairs,” Jensen told Tampa Bay’s News Channel 8. “At which point we could use it because it’s all new materials.”
A denial like this can happen to anyone living in one of the roughly 23,000 NFIP communities if homeowners aren’t aware of their property’s past.
How the National Flood Insurance Program works
The National Flood Insurance Program is offered to homeowners through more than 50 insurance companies and directly through FEMA with NFIP Direct. According to FEMA, anyone living in a “high-risk flood area” with a mortgage from a government-backed lender has to have flood insurance.
The policy can cover both the home and the homeowner’s belongings. Building coverage includes things like the foundation and electrical and plumbing systems, while contents coverage can help homeowners recover personal items like clothes, electronics and furniture. Based on government data, more than $79 billion has been paid for nearly 1.9 million filed claims throughout the life of the program.
Unfortunately, traditional homeowners and renter’s insurance will not cover flood damage, and if your home has received federal disaster assistance in the past, you are required to hold flood insurance for as long as you live at the property. That doesn’t guarantee that every situation will be covered — and in the case of Jensen, the actions of the past homeowner caused her flood claim to be denied.
Under the current NFIP Claims Manual, a claim can be denied if there was a previous flood damage claim and no repairs were made with the policy’s payout.
But as of October 1, 2024 sellers will be legally required to disclose any prior flood claims and payouts to homebuyers so they can avoid this trap.
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What can I do to protect my home from denied flood insurance claims?
The problem for NFIP-participating communities up until now is that federal law hasn’t required disclosure of a previous flood insurance claim, or the outcomes thereof. Any disclosure of claims information without the consent of the claimant or current homeowner has been seen as a violation of the Privacy Act — meaning the owner hasn’t had to provide information about prior claims during the home sales process.
Until Florida’s House Bill 1049 goes into effect, it’s a good idea to get a clear yes or no regarding past claims from the seller on the disclosure form before purchasing a home in a high-risk flood zone. Any knowledge gaps or unsure responses may be a red flag. You can also work with your real estate agent to get as much information as you can before closing, including requesting a full prior loss report from the seller.
Congressional representatives in the state Kathy Castor and Gus Bilirakis also told News Channel 8’s Better Call Behnken that they’re working on larger solutions to protect flood victims and urge those who have had their claims denied to reach out for support. They plan to increase provider competition to reduce flood insurance rates and mandate more transparency to prevent what happened to Jensen from happening again.
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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
NORTH ANDOVER — A year after two extreme rainstorms hit the Merrimack Valley, local businesses persevered through a trying year to rebuild themselves — and one, owned by a Gloucester man, continues to do so.
Aug. 8 marked the one-year anniversary of a storm that engulfed local businesses and homes with flash flooding. A total of 6 inches of rain fell in a matter of hours that day in the Merrimack Valley. Ten days later, two more inches fell on the region after another intense rainstorm caused additional flooding.
Town Manager Melissa Murphy-Rodrigues estimated North Andover sustained $20 million in damages from the two storms.
Last year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency turned down an assistance package. Instead, the town used gas disaster settlement funds to help some residents.
The state provided North Andover with $725,000 in flood relief funds to cover some costs associated with the storms, but it didn’t even come close to cover all the costs. The town used the money to offset deficit spending which the state had authorized it to spend on related costs to the Aug. 8 storm. But North Andover had $1.6 million in costs and needed to use $400,000 from its budget surplus to cover the remaining deficit, Murphy-Rodrigues said.
This month, the town received another $133,150 as part of the Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program to study and manage the Cochichewick Brook floodplain.
High Street is situated adjacent to the brook. Most of the businesses in the East and West Mill Complex on High Street that were hit by the rising water did not have flood insurance.
A rollercoaster year
A year later, one last reminder of the floods remained: Jaime’s Restaurant is still closed — for now.
“I wasn’t going to come in today,” Jaime’s co-owner Jaime Faria, of Gloucester, said on the flood’s one-year anniversary. “But when the furniture is ready to come in, you just show up and take the delivery. “
Jaime’s Restaurant, which has operated at 25 High St. for 14 years, is the last unit in the mills to reopen. Faria hopes to be back in business within a month as he and his staff begin to put the new furniture back into the renovated space. Faria owns the restaurant with Wally Santos.
“It’s been a long year,” Faria said.
He reflected on the rollercoaster year he and Santos have experienced, filled with positives such as strong community support but coupled with many challenges in-between.
On the morning of Aug. 8, 2023, Faria recalled getting the first phone call about water in the basement of the business. He didn’t think much of it other than it was going to require a little cleaning.
An hour later, another staff member informed him the water had crept up to the basement’s second step.
“By the time I got here, you couldn’t even get into the basement as it was already waist deep,” Faria said.
He said the focus shifted to trying to salvage what he could, but there was only so much he could do with the amount of water flooding his business.
“You break windows so the water could get around and then you sit there,” Faria said. “I was just watching mine and Wally’s lives literally run down the river.”
Faria said for about a month and a half after the flood, he was overwhelmed by what had happened to his restaurant.
“I’m not going to lie, there was a period of depression where I had no desire to get out of bed,” Faria said.
Community support, however, helped him focus on how to reopen. The staff came together over lunch during those hard months and came up with a game plan
A GoFundMe page also raised more than $164,000 for the restaurant to cover some expenses in the trying year.
Most of Jaime’s staff will return. Jaime’s is in the process of hiring more workers as well. Loyal customers would stop by and ask if they could help and now they stop by to share their excitement for the reopening, Faria said.
“I tell people at the end of the day, my mom and dad are alive and my kids are doing great. This too shall pass and I’m excited to get people back in here eating burgers,” he said.
Back on track
The businesses in the area have also come together over the last year.
“The storm has made us a family,” Brides Across America CEO and Founder Heidi Janson said.
In the storms, Janson lost 80% of the inventory for her nonprofit organization. She had estimated $7 million in losses.
Brides Across America’s hub is located at 40 High St., where a warehouse stores the wedding dresses and formal wear given as gifts to military families and first-responders across the country.
Janson said she wanted to call it quits after the flood.
“I don’t even know how I had the energy to just keep moving on,” Janson said. “It was devastating.”
Brides Across America received a $5,000 grant for supplies.
“I was happy with that as we got some things we needed,” Janson said. “But we really got nothing. It’s like we didn’t exist anymore.”
Every time it rains, Janson said she thinks about her storefronts which now includes the relocation of her Tulle bridal store and Brides Across America outlet to High Street.
The nonprofit moved into its new home in a vacant space in West Mill. Janson said after the floods, some of the businesses moved to temporary spaces and stayed in their new spots.
While the charity endured challenges and a depletion of inventory for a bit, she said the nonprofit is back on track with donations to be able to hold its annual dress gifting events.
As the new store gets finishing touches, Janson said the future is bright for the nonprofit and hopes to work with a local winery to gift a military wedding soon.
“You have a vision and you know it’s going to work, but it took a lot of sleepless nights,” Janson said. “We persevered and kept pushing.”
Help along the way
Across the street, Good Day Cafe owner Gregg Lindsay and his cafe staff also persevered through the year.
Good Day Cafe, 19 High St., reopened on a limited basis in December and full time with their complete menu in January, five months after the flood.
“It’s been great to be open,” Lindsay said.
“There is always a bit of digging out of holes though because we were closed for so long.”
Lindsay said his business, along with others on High Street, did not initially receive any state or federal funding to help with the cleanup and rebuilding.
“Apparently our area didn’t meet the threshold,” Lindsay said. “It was disappointing because it was just out of nowhere.”
His restaurant received a small grant from the town. North Andover established a grant program through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds specifically for businesses affected by the floods. Murphy-Rodrigues said the town awarded $82,307 to 20 businesses.
But largely self-funding and community support through GoFundMe allowed Good Day Cafe to get back on track, he said.
The North Andover community came together to help the businesses and Lindsay said he experienced it firsthand as the Andover/North Andover YMCA allowed his staff to use its kitchen to fulfill catering orders while they waited to reopen.
“It would have been a lot more difficult to reopen because at least I was able to cover some bills through those months,” Lindsay said, adding they were closed during their busiest months.
Lindsay remembered Aug. 8, 2023 like it was yesterday.
“It was an extraordinarily rainy day,” Lindsay said. “It was coming down in buckets, but the cafe was filled with people.”
Water rose from the basement and made its way through the cafe.
“The hallway here and the street looked like a river,” Lindsay said.
But the plan was always to get back up and running.
“How we did it, that we kind of just made it up as we went along,” he said.
As he sat in the restaurant a year later, Lindsay had a smile on his face seeing the place just as full as it was on the day of the flood, with regular customers enjoying their meals.
