All eight Kentucky U.S. senators and representatives have signed onto a letter urging President Donald Trump to approve Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s request for more disaster relief after torrential rainfall swept through the state last month.
“As communities begin to rebuild and families begin to recoup their homes, federal assistance is critical to ensuring Kentuckians can safely resume their lives,” according to the letter sent Thursday.
Trump approved a major disaster declaration for the state and granted individual assistance for those affected by the disaster in 13 counties, but Beshear’s request for public assistance in 85 countries and individual assistance in an additional 24 counties has so far gone unanswered.
The second-term governor, who has weathered five federally designated emergencies in the last two years, also asked for hazard mitigation for the entire state. That assistance would help the state protect against or reduce the longterm risk of natural disasters.
As he thanked the state’s congressional delegation for their support, Beshear said helping Kentucky families “should never be political.”
“We will keep working together to secure the assistance our people need and deserve,” Beshear posted on social media.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has faced plenty of political turmoil since Trump took office as he works to reshape the federal government. Trump and Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who oversees the disaster relief agency, have repeatedly expressed their desire to cut FEMA in favor of state-level disaster responses.
Before the U.S. House Appropriations committee, Noem defended Trump’s budget proposal to cut $646 million in FEMA funding.
“The president has indicated he wants to eliminate FEMA as it exists today, and to have states have more control over their emergency management response,” Noem said. “He wants to empower local governments and support them and how they respond to their people.”
After FEMA’s acting administrator Cameron Hamilton testified he believed it would not be in Americans’ best interest to eliminate the agency he oversaw, he was fired. Hamilton and Noem visited Kentucky earlier this year after February flooding that killed 23 Kentuckians. Hamilton was replaced with David Richardson, the former assistant homeland security secretary in charge of countering weapons of mass destruction, who has no experience with FEMA. One day after taking FEMA’s helm, Richardson said he wants to “carry out the president’s intent” for the agency and will “run right over” staff who choose to resist his changes, according to Reuters.
Under Hamilton’s leadership, Beshear praised the agency’s efforts in Kentucky, saying they had done an admirable job in responding to the February and April flooding events.
“We're going to need those people to stay in the Commonwealth, and they are doing some of the best work that I've seen,” Beshear said as he announced he would be applying for additional federal aid.
Climate change played a role in the April deluge, according to a new study reported in the Kentucky Lantern. World Weather Attribution, a multinational academic group, found that the excessive rainfall was about 9% more severe due to an incrementally warming climate using climate modeling. While such rain events are still relatively rare, climate change is making Kentucky warmer and wetter, increasing the frequency of similar events.
The torrential rains drenched communities across Kentucky, especially in western Kentucky, and seven other states. Several rivers and waterways crested at near-record highs and forced evacuations. More than 500 local, state and federal roads were underwater or closed after mudslides. The storms and ensuing flooding contributed to the deaths of at least seven Kentuckians.
As of May 7, FEMA said it had approved more than $6.6 million in disaster aid to more than 900 Kentucky households in response to the April flooding. As of Friday, people in the following counties can apply for assistance if they were affected by the April floods and have until June 25 to apply: Anderson, Butler, Carroll, Christian, Clark, Franklin, Hardin, Hopkins, Jessamine, McCracken, Mercer, Owen and Woodford.
FEMA approved more than $39.6 million in assistance for more than 6,500 households in response to February flooding as of May 2. Applications for federal assistance from both disasters are still open until May 25 and June 25 respectively.
While Beshear pushes the president to approve his request for hazard mitigation funding across the state, the Trump administration has also cut some grants tied to reducing the risk of disasters. Cuts to a FEMA program designed to help communities build weather-proof infrastructure, the Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities program, will affect more than $9 million in grant funding across Kentucky.
Officials in Louisville said the funding was critical to alleviating future funding, but FEMA officials in a press release called the program “wasteful” and “politicized.”
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
