President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening approved major disaster declarations for Alaska, Nebraska, North Dakota and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, while rejecting requests from Vermont, Illinois and Maryland, leaving other states awaiting answers.
These decisions were made primarily based on partisan allegiances. Donald Trump boasted on social media Wednesday of his resounding victory in Alaska in the last three presidential elections and said it was an “honor” to support the “incredible Patriots” of Missouri, a state he also won three times.
Disaster declarations authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to financially support grantees to repair public infrastructure damaged by disasters and, in some cases, provide survivors with funds for repairs and temporary housing.
While Donald Trump has approved more disaster declarations than he has refused this year, he has also repeatedly raised the idea of ”phasing out” FEMA, saying he wants states to take more responsibility for disaster response and recovery.
States already take the lead in disasters, but rely on federal aid when needs exceed their management capabilities. Donald Trump also took longer to approve requests for disaster declarations than under any of his previous administrations, including the first, according to an Associated Press analysis.
Approvals were mostly granted along party lines.
Among the states that have obtained disaster declarations, Alaska filed an expedited application after suffering two successive storms this month that destroyed coastal villages, displaced 2,000 residents and killed at least one person. Donald Trump approved 100% coverage of disaster-related expenses for 90 days.
North Dakota and Nebraska will also get public assistance for August weather, and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota got public and individual assistance for a June storm that downed thousands of trees on its tribal lands.
Donald Trump rejected four requests, including Maryland, which requested a review after the state’s disaster declaration was rejected following May flooding that severely affected the state’s two westernmost counties.
Democratic Governor Wes Moore denounced the decision in a statement Thursday, calling the final refusal “deeply frustrating.”
“President Trump and his administration have politicized disaster relief, and our communities will pay the price,” Moore said. The state itself supported those affected, releasing more than US$450,000 from its Disaster Relief Fund for the first time.
Maryland qualified for public assistance, according to a preliminary damage assessment, but Mr. Trump, who has the final decision on the declarations, rejected the state’s request in July. Maryland appealed in August, providing additional data showing that counties suffered $33.7 million in damages, according to the state, more than three times the threshold for federal aid.
Mr. Trump also refused to declare Vermont a major disaster for the July 10 flooding, after the state waited more than nine weeks to make a decision. The damage far exceeds what some of the affected small towns can sustain on their own, said Eric Forand, Vermont’s emergency management director.
“Repairing these roads far exceeds the annual budget, or even the biennial budget (of some cities),” he said.
Other denials include an Illinois request for individual aid for three counties hit in July by severe storms and flooding, and an Alaska request to rebuild a public safety building burned in July.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the reasons for the refusals.
Help granted after weeks of waiting
Several states and one tribe are still waiting for a response to their requests.
Not knowing when public assistance is coming can delay crucial projects, especially for small jurisdictions with tight budgets, and sometimes leaves survivors without any help finding temporary housing or repairing homes that are now too dangerous.
Before its application was approved Wednesday, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe was struggling to cover the costs of clearing thousands of trees felled on its reservation by a storm in June. As a tribe, they have the right to ask for assistance, regardless of what state they are in.
The tribe has spent about 1.5 million of its own funds so far, said Duane Oothoudt, emergency operations manager for the Leech Lake Police Department.
The tribe is “juggling a lot, using reserve funds to operate and continuing to pay our contractors,” Mr. Oothoudt said just hours before being informed of the disaster declaration, nine weeks after submitting the application.
With the approval of federal funding for public and individual assistance, Mr. Oothoudt said Thursday that his one-person emergency management department would focus primarily on helping survivors.
“There is still a lot to do,” he said. People were injured by the storm. »
Brian Witte contributed to this report from Annapolis, Md. Associated Press
