October 7, 2024
FEMA has already spent more than $200 million in federal aid to help the victims of Hurricane Helene in several different states. I’m going to explain where that money is going plus – I’m going to explain how much the federal government has been spending on natural disasters every year. You may be shocked.
So as of today’s preliminary report– FEMA says it has spent $210 million in federal aid to support survivors of Helene. That is spread across several states – Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. FEMA says there are nearly 7,000 personnel from across the federal work force deployed to the affected areas. FEMA says it has shipped 15.6 million meals, almost 14 million liters of water, 157 generators and more than 505,000 tarps.
And that begs the question — how much this is going to cost. Right now – early estimates put Helene recovery cost anywhere between $30 billion and $100 billion. It’s just too early to say. But we can safely say it’s going to be many billions of dollars. And here’s the thing – Helene isn’t the only multi multi billion dollar disaster the US government is dealing currently with. In 2023 alone – the United States experienced 28 separate weather and climate disasters that cost at least a billion dollars each according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Here’s a map of those disasters – you can see the Maui wildfires right here, hurricane Idalia here and all these other disasters in-between. Each one of these dots represents at least a billion dollars. Plus there are multiple other disasters that costs hundreds of millions of dollars that are not even represented on this map. All those 2023 disasters totaled $93 billion. Do you have any idea how much money that is? And in case it’s not abundantly clear – those are your tax dollars going to help the people effected and the local and state recovery and clean up efforts for those disasters.
Now – I told you in this video last week that Congress just replenished FEMA’s $20 billion disaster recovery fund. And lots of people asked, why did that fund need to be replenished. The answer is – because of this – and all the other disasters that we’ve seen in 2024 and in the last few years. Recovery takes years, rebuilding takes years. That means years of funding.
And speaking of Congress — let’s talk about how that money gets there. When it comes to the federal government’s spending for disaster recovery the United States constitution says congress controls the purse strings. Not the president. Not the vice president. Not the governor of the state. It is congress’s responsibility to figure out how much money every federal agency and department receives and how that money is allowed to be spent. Including FEMA disaster money. Including that $750 emergency money for victims. So as I told you in this video – yes – congress did approve hundreds of millions of dollars in 2023 and 2024 for FEMA to give to state and local agencies to deal with migrants in their areas as I’m sure you heard the press secretary say in that viral video. But that was Congress’s choice. Democrats *and* Republicans voted for that funding. And as I said in this video – just because congress allocated that particular money for migrants doesn’t mean they took it out of the budget for disaster recovery. That’s not how the federal budget works. There are different pots of money. Each department and agency has their own pot of money and then even within those agencies there are different pots of money for different programs and activities. Those pots of money – generally — don’t cross. And lastly if you don’t like the way congress is *choosing* to allocate money –writing some nonsense in my comment section won’t change anything. I don’t work for congress. But I will give you a little piece of advice – it’s an election year. If you don’t like the way congress spends or allocates money call your lawmaker. Stop wasting time complaining on the internet.
Read more from FEMA about Helene response here.
Read more about 2023 Disaster spending here.
Read more about 2022 Disaster spending here.
Read more about 2021 Disaster spending here.
