The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is short on resources after spending hundreds of millions on migrant services and “equity” programs, failed to answer roughly half of the phone calls made by survivors of Hurricanes Milton and Helene.
Between Oct. 14 and Oct. 20, days after Milton hit Florida on Oct. 9, FEMA received 900,000 calls from survivors, but failed to answer 47% of them, Politico reported. The large number of missed calls was partially attributable to staff and resource shortages at the agency. FEMA, however, spent nearly $1 billion on providing services to illegal migrants and allocated $12 million for a grant program designed to increase equity in disaster responses by making greater investments in communities with high concentrations of racial or sexual minorities.
The 53% of survivors who did have their calls answered waited an average of one hour and five minutes to speak with someone from FEMA, according to Politico. During this period FEMA had just around 500 workers available for new assignments, alongside 55 coordinating officers, to handle the massive volume of calls.
FEMA had 1,752 workers on hand during the busiest day after Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, agency records show.
FEMA’s staffing issues in the aftermath of Milton followed a warning from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Oct. 2 that the agency did not have enough funding to make it through hurricane season, which typically runs until Nov. 30.
DEI is ruining our country. Thanks, barack!