Tag Archives: FEMA

Via press release from FEMA and the FCC: The purpose of the Oct. 4 test is to ensure that the systems continue to be effective means of warning the public about emergencies, particularly those on the national level. In case the Oct. 4 test is postponed due to widespread severe weather or other significant events, the back-up testing date is …

From Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders: This evening, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell to discuss the state and federal response to the catastrophic tornadoes that hit Arkansas today.  The Governor described the widespread damage this storm caused to areas across the state, including Little Rock, Jacksonville, Sherwood, and Wynne. The Governor requested direct federal assistance …

Florida Politics reports: FEMA has approved more federal assistance to help the Central Florida counties of Brevard, Orange and Osceola recover from Hurricane Ian. The move allows the counties to receive federal reimbursements for more facets of the recovery. Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the decision Monday evening. In total, FEMA has approved direct individual assistance for residents in Charlotte, Collier, …

Fox News reports: President Joe Biden has postponed his scheduled trip to Florida due to Tropical Storm Ian looming over the Caribbean Sea. He was scheduled to visit Orlando to headline a rally for the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on September 27th, but the major storm is expected to strengthen to a Category 3 or 4 before making landfall on …

Reuters reports: It is too early to say when a water treatment plant in Mississippi’s state capital of Jackson that failed last week leaving tens of thousands of people without clean tap water can be fixed, the head of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said on Sunday. Complications from recent floodwaters knocked Jackson’s O.B. Curtis Water Plant offline …

Pittsburgh’s NBC News affiliate reports: Pennsylvania is asking the federal government to send health care workers to bolster hospitals and nursing homes that are increasingly under strain from persistent staffing shortages and the latest COVID-19 surge. The Wolf administration asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday to send strike teams to hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and ambulance companies in …

The Christian Post reports: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has agreed to pay more than $1 million as part of a settlement over allegations of falsified Hurricane Katrina aid claims. The settlement came in response to allegations that the archdiocese had violated the False Claims Act by knowingly submitting false claims to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) …

The Montgomery Advertiser reports: A federal team of health care workers is deploying to a south Alabama hospital amid an ongoing “crush” of COVID-19 patients threatening to overwhelm the state’s health system. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will send a 13-person team to South Baldwin Regional Medical Center in Foley, Alabama. The director of the team is …

The Washington Post reports: Texas health officials have requested five mortuary trailers from the federal government in anticipation of a possible spike in deaths brought about by surging coronavirus numbers in the state. The Texas Department of State Health Services made a request through the Texas Division of Emergency Management to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for five mortuary trailers, …

The Associated Press reports: The Biden administration is turning to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help managing and caring for record numbers of unaccompanied immigrant children who are streaming into the United States by illegally crossing the border with Mexico. FEMA will support a governmentwide effort over the next three months to safely receive, shelter and transfer minor children …

The Associated Press reports: FEMA opened its first COVID-19 mass vaccination sites Tuesday, setting up in Los Angeles and Oakland as part of an effort by the Biden administration to get shots into arms more quickly and reach minority communities hit hard by the outbreak. Snow and ice across much of the U.S., meanwhile, forced the cancellation of many vaccination …

NBC News reports: The Federal Emergency Management Agency is deploying or supporting vaccination efforts in at least 11 states after President Joe Biden ordered the government to get on a war footing in his mission to vaccinate 300 million Americans by summer’s end. The states are Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, …

Arizona Central reports: The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied multiple requests for a mega-COVID-19 testing site in Phoenix, according to Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. Gallego said her office asked FEMA to implement a large-scale, drive-thru testing site — as they’ve done in other cities, including Houston — multiple times since the earliest days of the novel coronavirus pandemic. She said …

The Daily Beast reports: The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency urged health officials in “all states and territories” to provide “daily” updates on ventilator availability for the novel coronavirus directly to the data mining giant Palantir, according to emails shared with The Daily Beast and confirmed by FEMA. Palantir, co-founded by key Trump ally Peter Thiel, signed government …

Politico reports: The Strategic National Stockpile has sent out 19.1 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug that some doctors have prescribed to Covid-19 patients, a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed. The tablets, sent out in two shipments, are heading to cities around the country. About 10.1 million are going to the Departments of Defense and Veterans …

Mediaite reports: Here’s how you know the coronavirus pandemic is really serious: Waffle House is closed. On Tuesday, the company announced on their Facebook page that they were closing an unprecedented 365 locations nationwide — over three times more than were closed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The other 1,627 locations remain open, for now. The 24-hour restaurant chain …

NBC News reports: The Federal Emergency Management Agency is planning for the possibility that President Donald Trump could make an emergency declaration to bring in extra funds and personnel to assist the administration’s coronavirus response, according to internal documents obtained by NBC News. FEMA officials are preparing for an “infectious disease emergency declaration” by the president that would allow the …

NBC News reports: The Trump administration is pulling $271 million in funding from the Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, to pay for immigration detention space and temporary hearing locations for asylum-seekers who have been forced to wait in Mexico, according to department officials and a letter sent to the agency by a …

Law & Crime reports: A former West Virginia county official who made headlines in 2016 for her racist online post about then-First Lady Michelle Obama was sentenced to prison Thursday for the embezzlement of disaster relief funds. Pamela Ramsey Taylor, 57, the former director at the Clay County Development Corporation, a West Virginia-based elderly non-profit group, was sentenced to 10 …

The Hill reports: President Trump is considering deploying a 1,000-person force usually used for relief efforts after hurricanes and other natural disasters to help staff overcrowded detention centers for migrants, according to people briefed on the matter. Trump is contemplating bolstering capacity by using the Surge Capacity Force — an entity created by Congress in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina …