BREAKING: Whistleblowers Allege FEMA Withheld Pre-Disaster Aid, Misappropriated Funds Amid Hurricane Helene

On Friday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding answers about the botched Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) response to the devastation left by Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm that made landfall last week, across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Congressman Gaetz explains that whistleblowers have confirmed that FEMA misappropriated funds, withheld pre-disaster aid, and currently has hundreds of service members and FEMA employees deployed to the region without orders. The letter to Mayorkas comes after he said on Wednesday that FEMA doesn't have enough funds to make it through hurricane season because the agency has spent over a billion dollars aiding illegal immigrants. 

"My office has been in contact with whistleblowers in numerous emergency-management functions at the federal, state, and local levels, and they all point to the same critical mismanagement issues. FEMA has wasted taxpayer funds, misappropriated funds, and left other federal, state, and local responders without deployment orders on the ground," Rep. Gaetz wrote. "As reported and further confirmed by my office, hundreds, if not thousands of service members were deployed by the Department of Defense to North Carolina and have sat idle, waiting for FEMA. We have confirmed FEMA employees deployed, on the clock, awaiting orders in hotels. FEMA pre-disaster aid was withheld, exacerbating the emergency. It is also public that NGOs have purchased airline tickets for migrants through the use of FEMA funds."

"The aftermath of Hurricane Helene is a major disaster, and your waste and unpreparedness are leaving Americans in distress - unable to access food, water, or medicine - and expecting help, with none coming," the Florida representative added. The Florida Republican demanded answers from Mayorkas by October 11 on what percentage of FEMA funds has been spent on supporting American citizens, what policies are in place to prevent funds from being wasted on illegal immigrants, and what portion of the Disaster Relief Fund has been spent on non-disaster relief. ​​​​

As previously reported by the DC Enquirer, the federal response to the storm, which has left over 220 dead, has been criticized by local officials, including Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA). During an interview, Gov. Kemp explained that he had to pressure the White House to add dozens of rural counties to the White House's disaster declaration to ensure Georgians could get the resources they need in their time of crisis. "When the first emergency declarations came down, there was only 11 counties in that. A lot of people were outraged, including me, because there was such devastation in up to 90 counties," Kemp explained to WRDW. "So we called the White House. We spoke to the president's chief of staff, the FEMA administrator, and said, look, you're sending the signal that you're not paying attention to some of these rural communities."

After making the call to the White House, federal authorities added an additional 30 counties to the disaster declaration. However, Gov. Kemp explained that upwards of 90 counties need to be listed to allow residents to apply for emergency assistance. "I absolutely think we will have a lot more counties added. We're at 41 right now, and I could see it going anywhere from 70 to 90," he said. "It was a massive storm, and we're dealing with things statewide; even the metro Atlanta area had record flooding. We had mudslides. We had to evacuate people below lakes and ponds up in the northeast part of the state, so we've been dealing with it."

Read Rep. Gaetz's full letter below

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