Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed on Thursday that FEMA “will need more funds” after responding to hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Mayorkas made the assertion whereas answering questions from reporters on the White House press briefing on Thursday. He stated FEMA has sufficient funds to handle the “immediate needs” of individuals affected by each hurricanes, however urged Congress to maneuver shortly.
“President Biden indicated that FEMA and the Department of Defense would have to get through their immediate needs in this recovery phase. I'm wondering, after your early assessments of damage from Hurricane Milton, coupled with the damage from Hurricane Helene, do you still believe that to be the case?” a reporter requested.
“Yes, I do,” Mayorkas responded. “We have the resources to respond to the immediate needs of individuals impacted by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, and the associated – it's very important to remember – the tornadoes associated with the hurricane.”
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Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas says FEMA will want extra funding from Congress after responding to a number of disasters.
“That being said, we will need additional funds, and we implore Congress when it returns to, in fact, fund FEMA as is needed,” he added.
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Mayorkas appeared on the briefing remotely from North Carolina, the place he's serving to coordinate response efforts.
Earlier this week, FEMA revealed that it had lower than 10% of front-line employees accessible for deployment amid preparations for Milton.
Damage from Hurricane Milton is seen in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, on Oct. 10, 2024. (Mike Glynn)
FEMA released a daily briefing on Wednesday revealing the company had solely 8%, or 1,115, FEMA employees members at the moment accessible as preparations continued. This quantity represents a major drop in availability from a 12 months prior, after an operations briefing from late September 2023 confirmed the company had 20% of the identical employees accessible for deployment.
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A FEMA spokesperson indicated to Fox News Digital that the provision numbers launched by the company are solely in reference to the cadre of staffers who're a part of FEMA's incident administration core capability. They are the primary line of FEMA staffers to deploy in any catastrophe.
Meanwhile, the FEMA spokesperson identified the company has a complete workforce of twenty-two,000 staffers it could name on, in addition to assets from different companies such because the Department of Homeland Security.
FEMA is contending with joint disasters in North Carolina in addition to Florida. Pictured: Swannanoa residents stroll by devastating flood injury from the Swannanoa River in western North Carolina on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Travis Long/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service by way of Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has deployed 10,000 National Guard members within the response to Milton. Roughly 3,000 of these have been despatched from different states to assist the restoration effort.
Fox News' Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.
