With a grim storm forecast ahead, the nation’s top disaster responders are in danger of running out of cash at the peak of hurricane season — again.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund is on pace to run dry by August. Without congressional action, that could leave Florida and other states staring at massive expenses and slower recovery efforts if a major storm hits. The chances for that are high ahead of what is predicted to be the busiest season on record.
At a press conference at the National Hurricane Center last week, FEMA Deputy Administrator Erik Hooks said the agency would switch to prioritizing “life-saving, life-sustaining work” if funding dwindles. That could leave important programs like individual financial aid or reimbursements for governments cleaning up storm debris on the chopping block. By September, the agency that leads disaster response across the country projects it could be nearly $7 billion short.
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“It’s something that we’re concerned about because we want to make sure we have all of our programs up and running at full strength,” he said. “We have not faced an issue where we have not been able to provide services, We don’t even want to bump up close to that possibility.”
Florida Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, both Republicans, wrote a letter to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell highlighting the issue last month, where they called the potential funding shortage “unacceptable.”
“We cannot stress enough how devastating this funding shortage would be to hurricane and disaster relief efforts in Florida and across the country,” they wrote.
In a May report, FEMA said it would exhaust its funds in August, with a shortfall of $1.3 billion dollars that is projected to grow to $6.8 billion by September.
The senators also noted a feeling of deja vu. Last year, the exact same situation played out.
In August 2023, FEMA’s cash stockpile for disaster response ran out, right as Hurricane Idalia swept through the Florida Big Bend as a Category 4 hurricane. It caused $3.6 billion in damages throughout Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
At the same time, the agency was also juggling its response to the devastating wildfires in Maui, Hawaii.
With no money left in its disaster fund, FEMA was forced to abruptly halt thousands of ongoing recovery projects in states trying to pick up the pieces from previous disasters in order to prioritize funding for Hawaiians and Floridians. This was the ninth time FEMA had to triage its disaster funding since 2001, Politico reported.
This could make 10, unless Congress votes to give FEMA additional money for the fund.
Congressman Jared Moskowitz, a Broward Democrat, told the Miami Herald that he and Florida’s senators plan to quickly file bills addressing the shortfall once Congress resumes meeting in September. He urged his fellow lawmakers to take politics out of the equation.
“These are nonpartisan disasters that hit. They don’t hit Democrats or Republicans, they hit Americans, they hit an entire community,” he said. “We cannot start trying to balance the budget off their disaster. If we want to balance the budget we need to do it holistically.”
This story was produced in partnership with the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a multi-newsroom initiative founded by the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media and the Tampa Bay Times.
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