Natural Disaster Archives - Dr. Rich Swier

While Americans are still struggling to recover from a devastating hurricane season, Democrats are signaling that they approve of federal agencies giving relief money — not to their fellow Americans — but to migrants.

According to a Rasmussen Reports survey published Monday, the majority of likely voters (59%) want the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to focus its resources on American citizens, but 29% approve of FEMA spending money on migrants. A majority (59%) of Democrat voters approve of FEMA diverting resources from Americans to migrants, while only 8% of Republican voters and less than 20% of Independent voters do the same.

While a majority (61%) of voters have a favorable view of FEMA and its Hurricane Helene disaster response, Democrats are the most likely (at 82%) to rate government agencies favorably, as opposed to only 45% of Republicans and 42% of Independent voters. Rasmussen Reports noted, “Among all voters who have a very favorable opinion of FEMA, 68% think spending FEMA money to help immigrants is a good idea.”

The survey follows reports of widespread mismanagement, misallocation of funds, and inaction on FEMA’s part in response to Hurricane Helene, which destroyed a 500-mile swath of homes, towns, and cities in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and parts of Tennessee and Virginia.

Following Hurricane Helene’s landfall, FEMA and other government officials reportedly blocked private American citizens from providing help to impacted areas, especially in the western region of North Carolina. Private citizens conducting search and rescue missions, carrying supplies, or attempting to provide transportation were halted by FEMA and, in some cases, threatened with arrest. Reports have also suggested that FEMA employees are working regular nine-to-five hours, staying in hotels that are then denied to victims of the hurricane, and confiscating supplies and donations, diverting them to immigrant communities instead of to American citizens.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been criticized for announcing that FEMA is almost out of funding and does not have the money to last through the remainder of the hurricane season. However, the agency has spent $1.4 billion since 2022 on illegal immigrants. On Monday night’s episode of “Washington Watch,” former Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, who helped oversee FEMA during the Trump administration, said, “As the Secretary of Homeland Security, part of your job … is to show those impacted that for the most part, the federal government hears you and we’re there to help you as best we can using the authorities that we have.”

He continued, “One of the first things [Mayorkas] says on the way down to North Carolina is ‘We’re out of money, FEMA doesn’t have enough money,’ which I would say is the exact wrong message to send to the people that are hurting in North Carolina.” Wolf added, “They want to know that the government is on their side and is doing everything possible to make sure that they get the assistance they need in such devastating, devastating times.”

Wolf also explained that Mayorkas’s claims of FEMA being out of money may not be “accurate,” noting that the agency has “access to over $20 billion to draw from. And so, the amount of money that they have obligated versus what they have actually spent — they’ve obligated a good amount. What they’ve actually spent is very low.”

He continued, “Now is not the time to talk about ‘We need to replenish what we call the Disaster Relief Fund.’ Now is the time to help individuals on the ground.” He explained that after resources have actually been depleted in hurricane relief efforts, FEMA can ask Congress to supplement the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF). “And Congress is there to do that. They’ve done that historically. There’s little debate. The only debate is how much? They’re always making sure that we take care of those impacted most,” he said. Wolf added, “Frankly, I think there’s more than enough funding to get them through that period of time, and then they can certainly come back after that.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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A devastating wildfire that ripped through the town of Lahaina on the island of Maui in Hawaii last week has left 96 people dead so far, with the number of fatalities likely to climb significantly higher in the coming weeks. A local pastor is urging believers to pray for the specific needs of the local community.

As details slowly emerge following the destruction of all of the cell towers in the Lahaina area, the extent of the damage was difficult for observers to comprehend, with virtually every building in the town of 13,000 burned to the ground and an estimated loss of $5.6 billion. The cause of the wildfires are still under investigation, which were fueled by dry summer conditions and strong winds from a nearby hurricane, causing the fire to spread at speeds of up to one mile per minute. As the town became inundated by the wildfire, local officials failed to activate warning sirens and instead used social media posts. The disaster is already the deadliest wildfire in over a century.

“The descriptions that we are being given is nothing short of Hiroshima,” Pastor Waxer Tipton, of One Love Ministries in Hawaii, explained on the August 11 edition of “Washington Watch.” “… [T]he guesstimate right now for those that are on the ground is [there could eventually be up to] 800 [fatalities or] more. … So it is devastation beyond compare.”

Tipton went on to describe just how harrowing it was for survivors, many of whom were forced to flee from the approaching wildfire on foot into the ocean to escape the flames due to traffic gridlock.

“[I]t’s definitely the time right now [for] the church to mobilize,” he emphasized. “As soon as we heard about it, we started to make our church a sanctuary so that families and all the tourists, we have 4,000 tourists there, [so] there’s not even enough food and supplies for all of the locals there. … And so families are able to come there and have some place to stay in the meantime. And so what’s happening here is the churches are rallying together with food and water and supplies and especially fuel … But the main situation, the main need … is going to be resources and getting those resources to the churches, to the pastors, because even if you’re in the shelter and you ran for your life, you don’t even have a blanket, much less an air mattress of some kind. Many of them don’t even have their IDs because it happened so fast.”

Ministries such as Samaritan’s Purse are also responding to the disaster. Edward Graham, chief operating officer at Samaritan’s Purse, recently described on “Washington Watch” how his organization would be deploying volunteers to help those who lost their homes to sift through the remains. “This is where we go through and we look for materials or for artifacts. Maybe it’s a trinket, maybe it’s a ring, something that’s important to that homeowner. It helps them bring closure during a time like this. … [S]o we expect to go there and work through the local church and help with sifting once this this fire is over.”

“We should be praying,” Graham continued. “I’m a firm believer in the power of prayer.”

Pastor Tipton concurred, pointing out the need for prayer for the specific needs of those affected by the ongoing Hawaiian wildfires, which continue to burn.

“Pray for calm,” he underscored. “People are in a state of panic and fear which is creating some hostile situations at the moment. Secondly, pray for rain. This is a dry side of the island, and we don’t really see any in the forecast, and it is much needed. Third, pray for power and cell towers to be expediently returned so that help can begin. And fourth, pray for all the agencies seeking to gather together can coordinate and work together alongside the churches to bring much-needed aid.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

Tag Archive for: Natural Disaster

Pastor Urges Prayer for Devastated Hawaiian Town

Dan Hart