Perilous
Times
FEMA runs out of disaster funds
By Chris Isidore @CNNMoney August 29, 2011: 4:08 PM ET
Marines hand out bags of ice on Sunday to residents of Goose Creek
Island , N.C., who were stranded by Hurricane Irene.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The Federal Disaster Relief Fund, the pot
of money used to help communities and individuals hit by
disasters, is nearly depleted. That's bad news for victims of both
Hurricane Irene and other disasters like the tornadoes that hit
earlier this year.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate
said Monday that the agency's fund has fallen to less than $800
million. With less that $1 billion on hand, the agency is only
authorized to pay for emergency repairs. That means that long-term
projects, like rebuilding roads, schools and other damaged
structures in the tornado-ravaged southeastern states and Joplin,
Mo., will have to wait.
While individuals eligible for assistance from those earlier
storms will continue to get their checks, FEMA will put other
spending on hold in order to have enough cash on hand for new
emergencies like Hurricane Irene.
Fugate said he hopes to resume funding those long-term projects at
some point, but that Congress will have to appropriate additional
funds for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 in order to do so.
He added that he's not even sure that the disaster fund has enough
money to cover all the costs that will be associated with
Hurricane Irene, which caused flooding and other damage in a
heavily-populated area stretching from North Carolina to Vermont
over the weekend.
"Don't know," he responded when asked if there was enough money to
cover the latest storm damage. "What we've been working on will
take care of quite a few folks. But as I testified back earlier
this year...if we had any significant disasters between now and
the end of the fiscal year, it would likely require additional
funds."
0:00 / 2:41 Irene smacks local N.J. businesses
So far, FEMA has agreed to help state and local governments pay
for preparations for Irene as well as for some immediate recovery
efforts. But it has not yet authorized payments to individual
victims of the storm.
Fugate couldn't estimate how much FEMA has already spent on Irene,
or what those costs will grow to.
The House has already passed an appropriations bill for the
upcoming fiscal year for the Department of Homeland Security that
includes an additional $1 billion for the disaster relief fund
this fiscal year.
But that funding has yet to be passed by the Senate, and could end
up being caught in the congressional gridlock over spending cuts
and the deficit.
Several House Republicans issued a statement Saturday in advance
of the storm criticizing the Democratic-controlled Senate and the
Obama administration for their failure to act on the additional
cash for FEMA, saying they had left the agency "running on fumes."
"Even though the President himself said that 'We are going to do
everything we can to help these communities rebuild,' the rhetoric
has not matched reality and the Disaster Relief Fund is running
out of money," said Robert Aderholt, chairman of the Homeland
Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
First Published: August 29, 2011: 3:56 PM ET