The White House on Wednesday announced the federal government has approved nearly $2 billion in assistance to those who were impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton.
According to a White House statement, the more than $1.8 billion approved by the Biden-Harris administration will help individuals with funding for “temporary housing, essential needs like food, water, baby formula and other emergency supplies—as well as public assistance to states for costs related to debris removal, life-saving emergency protective measures and restoring public infrastructure, including roads, bridges, schools and courthouses.”
Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm on September 26, and two weeks later Hurricane Milton hit Florida. The destruction from the hurricanes spread across several states, and the death toll from the two storms reached nearly 300 lives in the Caribbean and the United States.
A White House fact sheet said the almost $2 billion in funding supplements investments previously announced by President Joe Biden during his recent visit to Florida. During the trip, he awarded more than $600 million from the Department of Energy to projects across several states affected by the storms to bolster electric grids.
President Joe Biden speaks about the aftermath of Hurricane Milton in St. Pete Beach, Florida, on October 13, 2024. The White House on Wednesday announced the federal government has approved nearly $2 billion for hurricane assistance.
Photo by BONNIE CASH/AFP via Getty Images
The fact sheet broke down the funding by saying the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved over $911 million for those impacted by Helene, including “$581 million in assistance for individuals and affected communities and over $330 million for public assistance costs like debris removal and other activities to save lives, protect public health and safety, prevent damage to public and private property, and restore public infrastructure.”
The White House added that FEMA has also already approved over $620 million in assistance to those affected by Hurricane Milton.
FEMA, meanwhile, continues fighting misinformation since Helene swept through Florida. Former President Donald Trump and others have also fueled false claims that FEMA has not been able to respond well enough because it diverted disaster relief funds to help migrants. That claim is not true. While FEMA administers the Shelter and Services Program, funding comes from a separate pot of money funded by Congress for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Over the weekend, FEMA workers operating in North Carolina’s Rutherford County were told to evacuate on Saturday over concerns that an “armed militia” was threatening workers in the area. Authorities have since arrested a man on Saturday accused of making other violent threats to FEMA workers.
In response to the threats, a FEMA spokesperson previously confirmed to Newsweek on Monday that the agency had made changes to its recovery efforts to ensure the safety of staff and survivors.
Disaster survivor assistance teams worked temporarily at fixed locations and secure areas, and they no longer went door to door out of an abundance of caution following the threats. By Tuesday, FEMA resumed door-to-door hurricane recovery efforts on the ground in North Carolina.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
