How FEMA tries to combat rumors and conspiracy theories about Milton and Helene

NPR ^ | 10/9/24 | Huo Jingman

[DallasBiff]

With a second massive hurricane set to hit the United States in less than two weeks, the Federal Emergency Management Agency also has to contend with a deluge of rumors and conspiracy theories about its response and policies.

Baseless stories have swirled on social media since Hurricane Helene made landfall in late September, many framing FEMA’s actions as an instrument of a tyrannical federal government. On X, formerly Twitter, the same rumors and narratives are following the agency as it prepares for Milton.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Document, document, document. Anecdotes are not enough to counter a malevolent government - one needs to gather and hold on to video, audio, and written evidence. And never trust any of it to the MSM.

[Fledermaus]

More lies.

Check their words- “baseless”, “runors” etc.

[Jaded]

FEMA Grants 2024.

[dforest]

Same as they tell people who have no power, food, cell phone service, cars, roads to just apply online for a little $750.00 loan that many are being denied.

[Brian Griffin]

FEMA contractors hired by my Florida county of Sarasota did a good job of debris removal after Ian.

“Please note that under current FEMA regulations, the City of IRB is not permitted to pick-up storm debris from commercial multi-family properties, developments on private properties, or any development that has an HOA. If your property falls within any of the above categories, you will be required to obtain a private contractor for storm debris removal.”

https://www.indian-rocks-beach.com/hurricane-helene-debris-clean-up/

“To qualify for FEMA reimbursement, Pinellas County cannot accept storm debris from within cities.”

https://pinellas.gov/news/what-to-know-about-hurricane-helene-debris-pickup/

[Brian Griffin]

FEMA provides funds paid directly to eligible individuals and households and may include the following types of assistance:

Lodging Expense Reimbursement: Money to reimburse for hotels, motels, or other short-term lodging if you are temporarily displaced by the disaster.
Rental Assistance: Money to rent alternate housing accommodations if you are displaced from your home because of the disaster.
Home Repair/Replacement Assistance: If you are a homeowner and lived in the home at the time of the disaster, money to repair your disaster damaged primary residence, utilities, and residential infrastructure, or to help replace your primary residence when the residence is destroyed. If you were affected by a disaster declared on or after March 22, 2024, the money can also help with fixing areas of your home damaged by the disaster even if there was a pre-existing condition in that part of the home.
Accessibility Needs: Money to help applicants with a disability with specific repairs that make their home accessible (such as exterior ramp, grab bars, and paved path to the home entrance). Repairs can be made when these items are damaged. Improvements can be made when those features were not present prior to the disaster and are needed due to a pre-existing disability or a disability caused by the disaster.
Privately-owned Roads, Bridges, Docks: Money for applicants whose only access to their home has been damaged by the disaster.

FEMA may provide Direct Housing Assistance when eligible applicants are unable to use Rental Assistance due to a lack of available housing resources. Direct Housing Assistance is not subject to a financial maximum award limit. Types of Direct Housing Assistance may include:

Multi-Family Lease and Repair: Allows FEMA to enter into lease agreements with owners of multi-family rental properties located within or near declared areas to make repairs or improvements that provide temporary housing to eligible applicants.
Transportable Temporary Housing Units: A readily fabricated dwelling (i.e., a Recreation Vehicle or a Manufactured Housing Unit) purchased or leased by FEMA and provided to eligible applicants for use as temporary housing for a limited period of time.
Direct Lease: Existing ready-for-occupancy residential property leased for eligible applicants and, if necessary, modified or improved to provide a reasonable accommodation for an eligible applicant with a disability, for use as temporary housing.
Permanent Housing Construction: Home repair and/or construction services provided in insular areas outside the continental United States and in other locations where no alternative housing resources are available, and where types of housing assistance FEMA normally provides, such as Rental Assistance or other forms of direct assistance, are unavailable, infeasible, or not cost-effective.

Disasters Declared on or After March 22, 2024
Applicants may receive money for other disaster-caused necessary expenses and serious needs. These funds count toward the maximum amount of financial assistance an applicant may receive for Other Needs Assistance (ONA), which is an annually adjusted amount based on the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index. Personal Property Assistance for specific accessibility items defined within the ADA is not counted toward this limit.

Serious Needs Assistance: Money to help you pay for immediate needs such as water, food, first aid, prescriptions, infant formula, breastfeeding equipment, diapers, personal hygiene items, and fuels for transportation. *Serious Needs Assistance is available in all disasters, but you must meet eligibility requirements.
Displacement Assistance: For disasters declared on or after March 22, 2024, money to help with immediate housing needs if you cannot return to your home because of the disaster. The money can be used to stay in a hotel, with family and friends, or other options while you look for a rental unit.
Personal Property Assistance: Money to help you repair or replace appliances, room furnishings, and a computer damaged by the disaster. This can also include money for books, uniforms, tools, additional computers and other items required for school or work, including self-employment.
Transportation Assistance: Money to help repair or replace a vehicle damaged by a disaster when you don’t have another vehicle you can use. Unlike most other forms of the Individuals and Households Program assistance, an applicant does not need to live in the Presidentially declared disaster area to be considered for this assistance.
Medical and Dental Assistance: Money to help you pay for expenses because the disaster caused an injury or illness. This money can also be used to help replace medical/dental equipment, breastfeeding equipment, damaged or lost prescribed medicine, or loss/injury of a service animal.
Funeral Assistance: Money to help you pay for funeral or reburial expenses caused by the disaster.
Child Care Assistance: Money for new or increased disaster-caused child care expenses.
Moving and Storage Assistance: Money to help you move and store personal property from your home to prevent additional damage, typically used while you are making repairs to your home or moving to a new place due to the disaster.
Assistance for Miscellaneous Items: Money for certain eligible items (such as a generator, dehumidifier, chainsaw, etc.) you purchased or rented after the disaster to assist with recovery.
Group Flood Insurance Policy: If your home is in a Special Flood Hazard Area and you have flood damage caused by the disaster, FEMA may purchase a Group Flood Insurance Policy on your behalf that gives you three years of coverage.
Clean and Sanitize Assistance: Money to help you pay for very minor damage caused by the disaster to prevent additional loss and potential health or safety concerns. This money is only available in certain disasters if you had property damage but were not eligible for Home Repair or Replacement Assistance because FEMA determined you could still live safely in your home.

alert - warning
If you were affected by a disaster declared before March 22, 2024 and are referred to the SBA, you must complete an SBA disaster loan application to be eligible for Personal Property Assistance, Transportation Assistance and/or Group Flood Insurance Policy (GFIP). FEMA is not allowed to provide money for these losses to people who may qualify for an U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loan. After March 22, 2024, these forms of assistance are available by applying directly to FEMA. Learn more about SBA disaster loans.

https://www.fema.gov/fact-sheet/individuals-and-households-program

[Dan Zachary]

“Maybe they should just quit beating around the bush, and call for repeal of the First Amendment.”

They are working on it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7c-e9dP_1M

[Brian Griffin]

you can complete an application for FEMA Individuals and Households Program assistance at DisasterAssistance.gov.

You can also apply in person, online, or by phone.

https://www.fema.gov/assistance/individual/program/eligibility

[Gene Eric]

The epitome of insipidity

[BOBWADE]

They’re combating the truth. I wonder if “Bagdad Bob” is available to help them report their version of facts.

[PeterPrinciple]

The one thing they haven’t tried is doing their job well.

[Brian Griffin]

WIKI

A Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) is an area identified by the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as an area with a special flood or mudflow, and/or flood related erosion hazard, as shown on a flood hazard boundary map or flood insurance rate map. Areas within the SFHA are designated on the flood insurance rate map as Zone A, AO, A1-A30, AE, A99, AH, AR, AR/A, AR/AE, AR/AH, AR/AO, AR/A1-A30, V1-V30 or V.

Land areas that are at high risk for flooding are called special flood hazard areas (SFHAs), or floodplains. These areas are indicated on flood insurance rate maps (FIRMs).

In high-risk areas, there is at least a 1 in 4 chance of flooding during a 30-year mortgage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Flood_Hazard_Area

FEMA Flood Map Service Center

https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home

[Robert A Cook PE]

Thank you - Yes, note that, when Bush II was President, ANYTHING negative could be presented and exaggerated by the massed media's democrat party propagandists in the ABCNNBCBS media publicly.

But NPR (then!) REPEATED and exaggerated these same democrat party claims!

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Maybe they should just quit beating around the bush, and call for repeal of the First Amendment.

Taking responsibility for changing the Constitution is not the way they roll. Instead, they just get SCOTUS to claim the Constitution means what the Democrats want it to. Hence their desperation to regain control of SCOTUS.

Actually, it’s a disgrace to even press against anyone’s rights to the point that it even becomes necessary to appeal to the Bill of Rights. For example, the phraseology “the right of the people” implies that repeal of a relevant constitutional provision would not obliterate the right because the right in question is only articulated, not created, by the constitutional provision.

I refer you to the fact that the Bill of Rights was not in the original draft Constitution, not because Federalists opposed any of the rights articulated therein, but out of concern that articulation of a given right would be taken as a ceiling over, not a floor under, the implementation of that right. And that is precisely what happens any time anyone is forced to appeal to the Bill of Rights.

But as to the First Amendment in particular, the Warren Court’s 1964 New York Times Company v. Sullivan decision misinterpreted 1A in a way which damaged society by subverting state laws against libel. “The freedom of speech, of or the press” means something other than simple “freedom of speech, of or the press” (without the preceding “the”) means. As written with the crucial preceding “the,” the phrase refers to the right as it already existed in the states. Not untrammeled freedom but freedom as limited by laws against libel, slander, and pornography.

New York Times Company v. Sullivan was a unanimous decision, and even included enthusiastic concurrences - but I appeal to the Morrison v. Olsen decision, which would have been unanimous if not for then-freshman Justice Anton Scalia’s dissent. Scalia famously said that most most abuses come as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, “but this wolf comes as a wolf.” And sure enough, after a decade or so, the majority opinion was a dead letter - and if a lawyer ever referred to the case in a pleading, he would have to cite, not the 8-1 majority opinion but the sole dissent.

So don’t think that a unanimous opinion, even with enthusiastic concurrences, can’t be wrong. Not if Scalia disagreed with it - and Scalia did disagree with it, but never had the chance to officially put that opinion in legal history.

Correct reading of the Constitution would have deferred to state libel law in the Sullivan case.

[BOBWADE]

I found a cool meme about it but unfortunately don’t know how to use HTML to post a picture here. I really do wish we had an easier platform to use.

[Brian Griffin]

“In most cases, FEMA grants do not have to be paid back. If you have insurance that covers your temporary housing costs, but ask FEMA to advance you some money to help you pay for those costs while your insurance is delayed, you will need to pay that money back to FEMA after your receive your insurance settlement.”

https://www.fema.gov/disaster/recover/faq

[Lurker]

“ Maybe they should just quit beating around the bush, and call for repeal of the First Amendment.”

They’ve already done it.

L

[Steely Tom]

Notice that it was Democrat elected representatives who were spreading wild rumors during Katrina.

Also recall that the then Governor of Louisiana was working with Ray Nagin and the MSM to dirty up George Bush.

[Brian Griffin]

all on one line:
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[Brian Griffin]

One can Control-U to see the source code of this page.