Topline: The Federal Emergency Management Agency is not in the habit of window shopping. At seemingly every opportunity, the agency prefers to blow as much money as possible.
A North Carolina woman recently asked FEMA for $200 to repair a window damaged by Hurricane Helene. FEMA told her she had to pay for it herself, but offered her and her family a month-long hotel stay for $12,000 while she found someone else to fix the window, according to WSOC-TV.
Key facts: Susan Lewis, 74, had her claim denied by FEMA and was told to contact her private homeowners’ insurance.
In a confusing offer of repentance, FEMA told her they would rent out two rooms at the local SouthPark Marriott for 30 days so Lewis’ family of four would not have to live at home with a broken window.
The average price for one room is $200, according to WSOC-TV. A 30-night stay for two rooms would be a $12,000 expense, though Lewis did not accept the money.
“I kept rereading it thinking, what am I missing here?” Lewis told WSOC-TV. “This makes no sense.”
Lewis footed the full $200 window repair bill because she had not yet met her insurance policy’s deductible.
“I said twice when I called, would you please go off your script and I know you’re a reasonable person,” she said. “I said, just listen to me. And they just kept reading off the script.”
As of Dec. 4, hundreds of North Carolinians were living in tents while waiting for FEMA to find mobile trailers for them to stay in.
Background: Though $12,000 is a small amount, it’s another reminder of how FEMA’s inability to properly manage its budget has affected its response to Hurricane Helene.
The agency had $8.3 billion as of this summer committed to relief projects from before 2012 that were never completed. It is also still spending money on its Covid-19 response. The pandemic is expected to cost FEMA over $171 billion by August 2026.
In October, Politico reported that FEMA burned through nearly half of its fiscal year 2025 disaster funding in just eight days. The agency spent $9 billion of the $20 billion Congress appropriated.
Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.
Summary: Common-sense budget planning is necessary at all levels of government, but especially when storm victims’ livelihoods are at stake.
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