FEMA says they are running out of funding before peak of hurricane season

Delaware Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester tells 47ABC she would support adding additional funding for the agency as part of this year’s budget process in Washington, citing the importance of the relief offered by the agency across the nation.

“We in Delaware have seen it from the flooding to the smoke from fires that have come right here to Delaware, and so we know that FEMA needs the resources that they need,” Representative Blunt-Rochester said adding “what we are working on and what we are hopeful in seeing is real bipartisan support to make sure that when we pass this budget if it needs to be a continuing resolution, let’s do that, but let’s also make sure that we attach funding for to deal with all of these disasters that we’re seeing.”

The funding struggles come in the wake of the Maui Fires, where according to the Associated Press, FEMA  has approved more than $5.6 million in assistance to nearly 2,000 households in Maui so far as the federal government tries to help survivors of the devastating wildfires.

The White House and FEMA approved a one-time payment of $700 per household for needs like clothing, food, or transportation.

The agency will also pay to put survivors up in hotels and motels and says it has paid out $1.6 million in rental assistance as of Friday.

The amounts are expected to grow significantly. Estimates are that thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed in the fire, which consumed much of the historic community of Lahaina. In the wake of the Northern California wildfire in 2018, which decimated the city of Paradise, FEMA paid out $238 million in assistance.

FEMA said Wednesday that it will open a disaster recovery center in Maui in order to better and more quickly facilitate the distribution of aid.