President Donald Trump approved disaster relief for eight states on Friday, providing assistance that some communities affected by natural disasters had been waiting for for months.
The major disaster declaration approvals give Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas access to financial assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Several states requested assistance in response to the damage caused by a massive storm system in mid-March.
“This assistance will go a long way toward helping Mississippi rebuild and recover. “Our entire state is grateful for his approval,” said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, whose state saw 18 tornadoes between March 14 and 15, killing seven people and destroying or damaging hundreds of homes.
Residents of Mississippi’s hard-hit Walthall County expressed frustration earlier this month about how long they had been waiting for federal assistance. According to the county’s emergency manager, debris removal operations were halted in early May due to a lack of funds while awaiting federal assistance. It spent an estimated $700,000 to clean up the damage.
While Mississippi waited, a similar major disaster declaration request from Arkansas following the storms was denied, appealed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and finally approved on May 13.
FEMA did not immediately respond to questions about what caused Friday’s flurry of approvals.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem vowed earlier this week to expedite Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s request for disaster assistance after being pressed on the issue by Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley.
“That is one of the failures that FEMA has had in the past is that people who incur this kind of damage and lose everything sit there for months and sometimes years and never get the promised critical response that they think or that they believe they should be getting from the federal government,” Noem told the audience.
Trump cited wait times as one of the reasons he wants to make major changes to FEMA.
Cameron Hamilton, the agency’s acting administrator, was recently fired after publicly opposing Trump’s proposal to get “rid of FEMA.”
David Richardson, the new acting administrator, has committed to carrying out Trump’s vision for the agency. He also hinted at potential policy changes, saying there could be “more cost-sharing with states” and that FEMA would coordinate federal assistance “when deemed necessary.”