Having trouble getting FEMA help after January floods? Hurry up and wait | Opinion
My reaction to news that some flooding victims are having to wait for disaster relief: 1) Yeah, that stinks, and 2) Is anyone really shocked?
Fortunately, the heart of the area served by The Modesto Bee — Modesto and Stanislaus County — mostly escaped serious damage in fierce January storms. But our neighbors were hit hard, including San Joaquin County to the north and Merced County to the south. A preliminary assessment on Jan. 14 showed 1,971 homes damaged in California flooding and mudslides, some of whose occupants still can’t go back home.
When that happens, people apply for help from the well-intentioned but lumbering Federal Emergency Management Agency. When weeks go by with no word from FEMA, people understandably get upset.
Losing the roof over your head is not just an inconvenience. It’s life-changing.
No one blames those complaining to US Rep. Josh Harder, who represents San Joaquin County, including Ripon and Escalon, and a sliver of Stanislaus, or to Bee reporter Ken Carlson. Harder fired off a letter to FEMA, and Carlson put together a helpful report posted Thursday at modbee.com, including a Stanislaus family whose Diablo Grande home sustained $100,000 worth of damage in the coastal range west of Patterson.
Take a number
One wonders whether FEMA’s reaction to criticism is a big yawn.
Also Thursday, an ABC affiliate in New Mexico said federal relief has been slow coming to victims of a wildfire that destroyed 180 homes almost a year ago. “FEMA is, by any measure, a really important but very broken system,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham was quoted as saying.
A week ago, CNN did a big piece on people still waiting for FEMA assistance in south Florida more than four months after Hurricane Ian wrecked whole communities. FEMA had approved nearly 3,000 emergency trailers for families, but delivered only 225, the news agency said.
So no, our neighbors are not the first frustrated at federal red tape.
And with climate change driving more intense storms in winter and wildfires in summer, they will be far from the last.
