The federal government is facing potentially catastrophic shortcomings in its ability to pay for disaster response due to increasingly costly damage from hurricanes, flooding and wildfires — and the unwillingness of Congress to provide the money.
The nation’s disaster chief revealed Thursday that the federal fund used for funneling tens of billions of dollars in aid to storm-hit states could be depleted by early January — an unusually early time of year.
The warning by Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, came as Hurricane Helene pummeled the Gulf Coast with massive storm surge, devastating winds and flash floods. The funding revelation coincided with the start of a six-week break for Congress, which days earlier approved a stopgap spending measure that omitted additional disaster aid.
Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Criswell said, “We’re seeing a strain on our staff with more of them deployed for longer periods of time.”
