Hurricane Isaias: FEMA Emergency Declarations for Florida, Alabama and Georgia Cover Public Response Only, With No Help for Households Yet

Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, as a Category 2 storm on the evening of 9 October. The same day the President approved three emergency declarations: EM-3655 for 27 Florida counties, EM-3656 for three Alabama counties and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and EM-3657 for 76 Georgia counties.

Florida’s declaration covers emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, at a 75% federal cost share. None of the three declarations includes Individual Assistance, the FEMA programme that pays households for temporary housing and repairs. So far, families whose homes were damaged can’t apply for federal help.

The damage

More than 884,000 customers lost power at the peak on 10 October. About 389,000 were still without power on the morning of 11 October, 315,000 of them in Florida and 74,000 in Alabama. At least four people were killed, two in Alabama and two in Escambia County, Florida, according to CBS News. Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, declared a state emergency in 40 counties.

The next step

Emergency declarations come first, often before landfall, and pay for evacuation, shelters and debris clearance for public safety. Help for households and full rebuilding of public infrastructure needs a major disaster declaration, which states request after damage assessments. That’s where FEMA’s approach has changed.

In the last year FEMA has turned down a run of state requests, including four Northeast states after a winter blizzard and Illinois after August storms, as covered in our FEMA post. The agency’s Review Council has proposed higher damage thresholds and a bigger state share. Senators have cited reporting that requests from Republican-led states were approved more often. Florida, Alabama and Georgia all have Republican governors, so Isaias will test whether the tighter standard is applied evenly.

A thinner agency

FEMA goes into Isaias with about 21,000 staff, down from more than 25,000 last year, and a surge force of federal volunteers that fell from about 600 to about 240 for this hurricane season, according to GAO. Brett Howard is the federal coordinating officer for Florida.

What to watch

Requests for major disaster declarations with Individual Assistance, likely within days once damage is assessed, and how quickly FEMA approves them. The Disaster Relief Fund’s balance matters too: Congress refilled it in April after it fell to about $1.6 billion during the DHS shutdown, and the fund now runs on the stopgap to 11 December.