Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Leslie are spinning close to the U.S. while communities are still struggling to recover from Hurricane Helene, and misinformation about the Federal Emergency Management Agency is running rampant.
“I think all of it is damaging to our ability to be able to reach people,” said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell Wednesday. “It’s intentional to create distrust, and that level of distrust is, as [President Joe Biden] said earlier today, ‘un-American.’ And what we need to do is make sure people can get the assistance that they need and they deserve.”
One example of this misinformation is a rumor that FEMA will take land from residents if they accept an initial $750 assistance payment provided for immediate needs when people register for assistance and fail to pay it back.
Criswell said this is “simply untrue.”
She explained that misinformation about FEMA significantly increased following the wildfire in Maui, Hawaii, last year. It increased even more after Hurricane Helene.
“You know, I don’t want to speculate as to why we’re seeing this increase. It’s just damaging, and it’s – just makes it harder for us to do our job, and it’s a distraction for the people that are out there doing really hard work to help the people get the assistance that they need and deserve,” Criswell said.
FEMA has created a Hurricane Rumor Response page to mitigate misinformation.
Where does FEMA money really go?
When disasters hit, FEMA sends personnel to help and offers services such as mobile feeding units, power restoration and sheltering. It also provides monetary assistance through the Individuals and Households Program (IHP) that is designed to help uninsured losses and is not income based.
The Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database, a collection of research on disaster assistance, includes information from Freedom of Information Act requests on 170 incidents from 2015 through May 2024. It found that around 18% of FEMA spending on large disasters since 2015 went to the IHP program.
“FEMA spent far more – $52 billion – through its Public Assistance Program on large disasters during the same period,” explained Sarah Labowitz of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Public assistance reimburses localities and nonprofits for debris cleanup, mass sheltering, and emergency response.”
According to the disaster database, average assistance amounts from FEMA are “too small to encourage resilience,” from those recovering from disasters. Based on the 170 disasters it covered, the median average assistance amount per approved application from FEMA’s IHP is $4,995 and just 39% of applicants are determined to be eligible for IHP.
“While these programs can be a lifeline, the benefits are nowhere near enough to encourage households to rebuild differently or elsewhere, even accounting for payouts from insurance (assuming households can find an issuer) or charitable contributions,” said the database. “And there is evidence that FEMA assistance actually widens the racial wealth gap by as much as $80,000 between Black and White households in disaster-affected counties.”
Labowitz also said that FEMA doesn’t reliably report the reasons that people withdraw or are denied assistance. However, she said that common reasons for denial are lack of documentation and insufficient damage.
“Assessments of damage are notoriously subjective, especially in undervaluing the damage to homes of low-income households,” she said. “FEMA’s denial rates have been the subject of significant public pressure by disaster survivors and Congress.”
In a report on the data, Axios said that Florida, Louisiana and Texas residents have received most of FEMA’s direct assistance since 2015.
“The average IHP award over the covered time frame was about $5,700, and around 40% of applicants were deemed eligible,” Axios said.
Included in the report is a map of the total IHP amounts given to recipients in each U.S. state from January 2015 through April of this year. Labowitz said this season is expected to change the map, with North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee hit hard by Hurricane Helene.
FEMA said that, as of Wednesday, federal disaster assistance for Hurricane Helene survivors had surpassed $344 million and has reached 375,000 households.
The agency is actively working alongside state, local and tribal partners to assess damage and support those affected by Helene,” said FEMA.
“To date, FEMA has shipped over 17 million meals, nearly 14 million liters of water and 210 generators.”
Here’s a breakdown of where funding for households has gone during the Helene recovery period:
FLORIDA
FEMA approved approximately $142 million for nearly 49,000 households impacted by Hurricane Helene.
GEORGIA
FEMA has approved over $59 million for nearly 76,000 households.
NORTH CAROLINA
FEMA has approved approximately $60 million in housing and other types of assistance for nearly 52,000 households.
SOUTH CAROLINA
FEMA has approved over $77 million for nearly 97,000 households.
TENNESSEE
FEMA has approved more than $5.1 million for disaster assistance for over 900 households.
VIRGINIA
FEMA has approved over $1.3 million for over 700 households.
What’s next?
With fresh storms close to the U.S., Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned last week that FEMA is running out of money to cover the rest of this hurricane season, said Axios. Labowitz also noted that more frequent storms are putting strain on the recovery system.