WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – On the one year anniversary of Hurricane Michael, FEMA says they’re not leaving until the job is done 12 months after Hurricane Michael ravaged parts of the southeast.
Chris Smith with FEMA says the agency understands that recovery doesn’t happen overnight.
“Communities took years to develop and disasters cane wipe some of that away. Rebuilding takes that same amount of time,” Chris Smith said.
FEMA staff say they have several services in place to help the ongoing recovery from crisis counseling, to disaster unemployment assistance to legal aid, all to help get residents back on their feet.
“Those resources aren’t always initially, immediately available and so disaster case management will help individuals find those additional resources,” Smith said.
Funding for those resources come from Congress in a process that even some lawmakers said takes too long.
“Obviously a lot of our work in terms of disaster relief and ensuring those monies are available took way too long and got embroiled in politics, but we’re glad that it happened,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)
Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott said billions of dollars got to families in their state as FEMA says they’ll continue to find uses for that aid and don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.
