J.D. Vance was raising hell after FEMA left storm victims in this awful situation
J.D. Vance came to Washington, D.C. to stand up for the forgotten man.
He couldn’t believe his eyes at one outrage.
And J.D. Vance was raising hell after FEMA left storm victims in this awful situation.
J.D. Vance blasts FEMA for hurting recovery efforts in Virginia town
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) dropped the ball after Hurricane Helene cut a path of destruction through the southeast last September.
Storm victims have fallen out of the national headlines, but towns and residents are still suffering in the aftermath of Helene.
Vice President J.D. Vance traveled to Damascus, Virginia – a small town on the Tennessee border – that was ravaged by the hurricane.
He ripped FEMA for failing to help the residents of Damascus and other towns damaged by Helene.
“Unfortunately, while actually the people have done an incredible job of rebuilding this community, they have not had a federal government that’s truly been on their side,” Vance said.
Vance singled out the mismanagement of FEMA under the Biden administration for not providing disaster relief to storm victims.
“Unfortunately, it’s just a perfect example of the bureaucratic inadequacy of the last administration and why we need to do better in this country,” Vance stated.
“The thing that I heard most when I was in western North Carolina before the inauguration, but it was after the election, is that there are people who wanted to put trailers or other temporary housing in particular areas of North Carolina,” Vance continued. “But they couldn’t because FEMA had designated these areas to be ineligible for the type of assistance that would allow temporary housing in the first place.”
$4 billion was appropriated by Congress but only $47 million has been distributed because of red tape.
Virginia homeowners were offered about $42,000 to help rebuild when damages they faced were well over $100,000.
Many residents of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee didn’t have flood insurance.
Donald Trump makes changes to FEMA
FEMA was widely criticized for its slow response to Helene in places like western North Carolina where private citizens and charities stepped up to provide help in the aftermath.
The agency named “equity” as one of its top goals under the Biden administration.
Trump issued an executive order to have FEMA undergo a full-scale review and make recommendations for changes to the embattled agency.
Vance told reporters that things were going to change under the Trump administration.
“We’re putting people over bureaucrats,” Vance said. “Bureaucracy has for too long stood in the way of people’s business. That’s gonna stop and we’re gonna fight to make sure it stops every single day.”
Trump has suggested “reforming” FEMA where the states take the lead on disaster relief before the federal government comes in.
The Washington, D.C. Swamp could find all the money in the world to funnel to Ukraine and other pet projects.
But when it came time to help Americans, they got the short end of the stick.
FEMA is a broken agency that’s in need of a major overhaul.
