The US administration intends to soon ask Congress to allocate additional funds for the work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under the Department of Homeland Security.
This was stated by the head of this department, Alejandro Mayorkas, speaking at a regular briefing for journalists at the White House, Day.Az reports with reference to TASS.
When asked whether FEMA has enough funds to deal with the consequences of Hurricanes Helen and Milton, Mayorkas answered in the affirmative. “We have the resources to provide emergency assistance to people affected by Hurricanes Helen and Milton. However, we will need additional funds and will ask Congress for the necessary FEMA funding when it returns to work.” – said the minister.
“We will need the funds very soon,” Mayorkas stressed, noting that Congress “will need to act as quickly as possible.” At the same time, he explained that FEMA does not intend to stop providing support to the population affected by the disaster.
Category 3 Hurricane Milton made landfall on the west coast of Florida Wednesday evening near Siesta Key. On Thursday morning, the hurricane weakened to category one. According to the monitoring resource PowerOutage, more than 3 million residents of the state remain without electricity. According to the latest data, at least nine people were killed as a result of the disaster.
On October 7, US President Joe Biden signed an order declaring an emergency in Florida due to the approaching hurricane and ordered federal assistance to be provided to local authorities.
At the end of September, Hurricane Helen hit the southern United States, killing more than 200 people and causing about $35 billion in damage to the region.