Hurricane Laura Devastates the South While POTUS Reallocates $44 Billion of FEMA’S Disaster Relief Funding the Week Prior to COVID

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By Nikki Slusher

On Thursday, Hurricane Laura made landfall slamming the southern gulf coast. Warnings posted by The National Hurricane Center claimed that the storm could bring an “unsurvivable” surge of waves up to 20 feet high that could possibly result in “catastrophic” damage up to 30 miles inland. While the full extent of the damage is unknown current estimates have shown around $12 billion in damage on the Louisiana and Texas coasts. In Louisiana, the death toll is at 14 and expected to rise. The storm brought staggering amounts of power, but its overall effects look “relatively tame from an economic perspective” per an analysis conducted by Moody’s Analytics.

This hurricane season is predicted to be record-setting. So far it has not let us down, although, the magnitude of Hurricane Laura was not entirely unprecedented. Experts have been warning agency’s and officials that the wind patterns and warming seas observed were the perfect making of a historically devastating hurricane season. Specifically, storm sizes and intensity would also be significantly stronger. But the timing of these warnings came in April following the pandemic and every state in the nation all having declared major disaster concurrently. House Democrats wrote to FEMA administrator, Peter Gaynor, regarding concerns over the agency’s preparedness and capability in sustainably providing aid in national emergency situations. Mr. Gaynor never responded.

Now as we hit August, four months later, it seems that neither FEMA nor the rest of the country has been able to prepare and respond adequately to the issues greatly devastating the US. FEMA has also never seen an unexpected disastrous year like 2020. Millions of Americans have been infected by the virus with death tolls increasing daily, the entire state of California is engulfed in flames, a rare inland hurricane in Iowa was extremely calamitous, and the string of hurricanes now up to Laura slamming the southern coasts have stretched relief aid more than anyone has ever seen in our lifetime.

As Hurricane Laura — the strongest hurricane to be observed in the Gulf of Mexico since Hurricane Katrina — came haling toward the coast of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, with 150 mph winds many officials brought up a shared concern regarding the recent passing of the $300 supplemental income installment being paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) disaster-relief aid fund. Rather than Congress, more specifically the Senate, being able to come to agreement on the comprehensive legislation to address the ongoing pandemic and economic crisis to deliver critically needing funds to millions of Americans affected by the current hardships.

The President authorized over $44 billion from the FEMA disaster relief aid to be used pay $300 per week in supplement to regular unemployment benefits. With the $300 weekly supplement, it is similar to the $600 benefit that was established in the CARES Act at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. Extending the CARES Act, which ended in July, the new HEALS Act originally approved the extension of the $600 weekly benefit in the House of Representatives; yet Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to hold a vote on the bill. Since the Senate refused to sign off on the legislation, President Trump decided to surpass working quickly with lawmakers and appropriated the funds from a federal agency to another federal agency without Congress approving the decision. The disaster relief funds are meant to be kept for times of emergency, including natural disasters like the hurricane the south experienced this week.

Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) largely disagreed with the decision to reallocate the emergency expense funds. “There is a reason the Constitution gave Congress the sole power to authorize government expenditures,” Payne said. He added: “It was to prevent reckless Presidents from taking money from one program to fund another one.”

FEMA commented in a written response that the president’s Executive Order includes a provision that ensures the disaster fund account will not go below $25 billion. Acting Associate Administrator of FEMA David Bilbo also ensured the agency has all necessary supplies and resources to help affected communities, he told reporters. He added: “We don’t have any limiting factors at this point.” Multiple members of Congress have been communicated their concern for months. Many were regarding FEMA’s ability to deal with multiple disasters while it tries to fill leadership vacancies and budget strains. According to the president of the FEMA employee’s union, Steven Reaves said in a recent interview “there are hundreds of rank-and-file jobs that need to be filled as well as fewer people available to deploy because of the coronavirus.”

I am not completely bashing the president’s decision on transferring these funds towards weekly benefits as the coronavirus does technically fall under the natural disaster category. With the negative projections Social Security is facing, we cannot keep pulling from it alone. However, what I am mostly intrigued by is how will they replenish the funds taken from the account? Will it be through an increase on federal taxes, cutting benefits, a combo of both? How long will it take? These questions that should be answered presently have no answers. Meanwhile as Hurricane Laura tore through the south, the amount of $12 billion in damages is miniscule compared to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and 2017’s 16 weather events, including Hurricane’s Maria and Harvey. In 2017 alone, the total damage by natural disasters was a staggering $306 billion.

We have seen the tremendous effects of missing links in our disaster preparedness efforts. For instance, the president had disbanded the nation’s pandemic response unit in 2018 which had been developed by the Obama Administration after the Ebola outbreak. We have seen and are still witnessing the continuous devastation due to the world’s present state. There’s no answers, new facts each day, and a new disasters tumbling towards our country each week whether it’s natural, economical, or Congress just sitting on the side, awkwardly fiddling like kids who have no one to slow dance with at prom. We need Congress to step up, develop and implement a plan, and periodically review these plans to ensure they are working efficiently or make changes to improve the plan.

We will have to wait until the Senate reconvenes to get a glimpse at what to expect from the HEALS Act. Until then, FEMA will be tested to its limits as hurricane season does not end until November 30th. FEMA’s employee’s union president Steven Reaves also gave a chilling reminder, “I can tell you from FEMA history what comes next,” said Mr. Reaves. He concluded, “After the fires are over, what comes next? Mudslides and floods.”

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