Fema denies grants to three Kentucky counties hit by storms that caused widespread devastation
Fema officials claimed the areas did not suffer enough damage to merit federal support, in a letter issued to the governor on Tuesday. But the move is just the latest in a series of denials from the agency, as the Trump administration seeks to shift the burden of responding to and recovering from disasters on to states.
Last week, Fema also rejected Maryland's request for disaster assistance after near-record level flooding in May destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses and tore into roads and public infrastructure, leaving close to $16m in damages.
'Our communities need help recovering from a massive storm,' Maryland's governor, Wes Moore, said in a video about the denial of his disaster assistance request, adding that he 'saw the devastation up close'. He acknowledged that there are specific criteria to qualify for the designations that were met. 'It is an insult to Marylanders and the communities still suffering in the aftermath of this storm.'
Fema, which is responsible for an on-the-ground response during large-scale emergencies along with coordinating resource deployment, funding recovery and supporting efforts to mitigate risks, has been left critically under-resourced and unprepared for the escalating and compounding catastrophes wreaking havoc across the US with greater intensity and frequency.
Trump has called for dismantling the agency, now part of the US Department of Homeland Security, and has already begun to cut funding in key areas. 'We want to wean off of Fema, and we want to bring it back to the state level,' the president said, speaking from the Oval Office in June, noting his plans to promptly 'give out less money' to states in recovery.
Fema has also terminated a multibillion-dollar grant program funding infrastructure upgrades that build resiliency, a move challenged in court by a group of 20 states earlier this month. Many of these states also filed lawsuits against the administration in May over directives that would link funding for emergency preparedness to immigration enforcement cooperation.
'This administration is abandoning states and local communities that rely on federal funding to protect their residents and, in the event of disaster, save lives,' said the Massachusetts attorney general, Andrea Campbell, in a statement about the elimination of Fema's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which was approved and funded by Congress.
But even amid growing criticism and demands for increases in federal funding, the Trump administration has continued pushing for less reliance on federal support. As the climate crisis fuels an increasing number of more costly catastrophes and creates overlapping layers of risk, concerns are rising that states and counties won't be able to prepare or respond.
Greater reliance on local resources could also leave severe recovery gaps. Many emergency management departments are small and their structures are highly variable from agency to agency, according to a new study from the Department of Energy that surveyed local preparedness.
Sign up to This Week in Trumpland
A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration
after newsletter promotion
The study, which surveyed more than 1,600 directors of state and local emergency management agencies between August 2024 and March 2025, found the understaffed and overworked offices were debilitated by funding shortages and lacking in a clear mission.
With the future of the agency in question, for now, the governors in states that were denied designations are appealing and hoping for a different outcome.
Kentucky's governor, Andy Beshear, said he was 'disappointed in the decision', but added that the state appreciates the assistance provided to some counties more devastated by the historic flooding, landslides and a major tornado outbreak in April and May. The harm in the three counties left out of the designations, the agency said, was not severe enough to merit inclusion. 'We are actively comparing damage assessments,' Beshear said, 'and we plan to appeal.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ghislaine Maxwell's Texas ‘Club Fed' prison ups security after taking in the Epstein sex trafficker
Ghislanine Maxwell's Texas prison, dubbed 'Club Fed,' has reportedly upped security after taking in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficker. Maxwell, a disgraced British socialite who was a close associate of Epstein's for years, is serving a 20-year sentence for her part in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse minor girls with the wealthy financier. Epstein, who had pleaded guilty to state sex offenses in 2008, died in jail in 2019 while facing federal sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was recently moved from a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, to a minimum security prison in southeast Texas called Federal Prison Camp Bryan. FPC Bryan has increased security measures in response to Maxwell's transfer, NBC News reported Wednesday, citing a senior law enforcement official. Two prison employees told the outlet members of the federal Bureau of Prisons' Special Operations Response Team have been positioned outside FPC Bryan's front entrance since the weekend. The special ops crew is there to check people's IDs and wave them through, the employees reportedly said. It's unclear if Maxwell has received any direct threats since her move. The Independent has reached out to the Bureau of Prisons to confirm the reporting, and Maxwell's lawyer, David Oskar Markus, to ask about her security at the new prison. Epstein and Maxwell's names have once again made headlines after the Justice Department and FBI released a memo in early July stating there was no so-called client list of powerful people who may have partaken in Epstein's crimes; Epstein did, in fact, die by suicide, and 'no further disclosure [of information regarding Epstein] would be appropriate or warranted.' The memo sparked backlash, notably from Trump's own base, as it left many unanswered questions and concerns the government may be covering up materials that would be of interest to the public. Amid the Epstein files drama, Trump enlisted the Justice Department to ask the courts for grand jury testimonies in the cases against Epstein and Maxwell and to interview the disgraced socialite. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Maxwell in Florida last month for two days, during which, according to Markus, 'She was asked about maybe about 100 different people. She answered questions about everybody and she didn't hold anything back.' Maxwell's transfer to FPC Bryan came shortly after she met with the Justice Department. Experts said she got 'special preference' with the move. 'Someone gave special preference to Maxwell that, to my knowledge, no other inmate currently in the Federal Bureau of Prisons has received,' Robert Hood, a former warden of the Florence 'supermax' prison in Colorado, told the Washington Post in an article published Tuesday. When asked if he'd personally approved the transfer, Trump said Tuesday, 'I didn't know about it at all. I read about it just like you did.'
The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump plans 100% tariff on computer chips, unless companies build in U.S.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will impose a 100% tariff on computer chips, raising the specter of higher prices for electronics, autos, household appliances and other essential products dependent on the processors powering the digital age. 'We'll be putting a tariff of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors,' Trump said in the Oval Office while meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook. "But if you're building in the United States of America, there's no charge." The announcement came more than three months after Trump temporarily exempted most electronics from his administration's most onerous tariffs. The Republican president said companies that make computer chips in the U.S. would be spared the import tax. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a shortage of computer chips increased the price of autos and contributed to higher inflation. Investors seemed to interpret the potential tariff exemptions as a positive for Apple and other major tech companies that have been making huge financial commitments to manufacture more chips and other components in the U.S.. Big Tech already has made collective commitments to invest about $1.5 trillion in the U.S. since Trump moved back into the White House in January. That figure includes a $600 billion promise from Apple after the iPhone maker boosted its commitment by tacking another $100 billion on to a previous commitment made in February. Now the question is whether the deal brokered between Cook and Trump will be enough to insulate the millions of iPhones made in China and India from the tariffs that the administration has already imposed and reduce the pressure on the company to raise prices on the new models expected to be unveiled next month. Wall Street certainly seems to think so. After Apple's stock price gained 5% in Wednesday regular trading sessions, the shares rose by another 3% in extended trading after Trump announced some tech companies won't be hit with the latest tariffs while Cook stood alongside him. The shares of AI chipmaker Nvidia, which also has recently made big commitments to the U.S., rose slightly in extended trading to add to the $1 trillion gain in market value the Silicon Valley company has made since the start of Trump's second administration. The stock price of computer chip pioneer Intel, which has fallen on hard times, also climbed in extended trading. Inquiries sent to chip makers Nvidia and Intel were not immediately answered. The chip industry's main trade group, the Semiconductor Industry Association, declined to comment on Trump's latest tariffs. Demand for computer chips has been climbing worldwide, with sales increasing 19.6% in the year-ended in June, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization. Trump's tariff threats mark a significant break from existing plans to revive computer chip production in the U.S. that were drawn up during the administration of President Joe Biden. Since taking over from Biden, Trump has been deploying tariffs to incentivize more domestic production. Essentially, the president is betting that the threat of dramatically higher chip costs would force most companies to open factories domestically, despite the risk that tariffs could squeeze corporate profits and push up prices for mobile phones, TVs and refrigerators. By contrast, the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act that Biden signed into law in 2022 provided more than $50 billion to support new computer chip plants, fund research and train workers for the industry. The mix of funding support, tax credits and other financial incentives were meant to draw in private investment, a strategy that Trump has vocally opposed. — Liedtke reported from San Ramon, California.
The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
Victims feeling exhausted and anxious about wrangling over Epstein files
Women who say they were abused by Jeffrey Epstein are feeling skeptical and anxious about the Justice Department 's handling of records related to the convicted sex offender, with some backing more public disclosures as an overdue measure of transparency, and others expressing concerns about their privacy and the Trump administration's motivations. In letters addressed to federal judges in New York this week, several victims or their attorneys said they would support the public release of grand jury testimony that led to criminal indictments against Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell — if the government agreed to allow them to review the material and redact sensitive information. The Justice Department has asked the court to take the rare step of unsealing transcripts of that secret testimony, in part to placate people who believe that the government has hidden some things it knows about Epstein's wrongdoing. Other victims, meanwhile, accused President Donald Trump of sidelining victims as he seeks to shift the focus from Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he habitually sexually abused underage girls. Some expressed concern that the administration — in its eagerness to make the scandal go away — might give Maxwell clemency, immunity from future prosecution or better living conditions in prison as part of a deal to get her to testify before Congress. 'I am not some pawn in your political warfare,' one alleged victim wrote in a letter submitted to the court by her lawyer this week. 'What you have done and continue to do is eating at me day after day as you help to perpetuate this story indefinitely.' Added another victim, in a letter submitted anonymously on Wednesday: 'This is all very exhausting.' Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. A top Justice Department official, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, interviewed Maxwell for nine hours late last month, saying he wanted to hear anything she had to say about misdeeds committed by Epstein or others. After that interview, Maxwell was moved from a federal prison in Florida to a low-security prison camp in Texas. Alicia Arden, who said Epstein sexually assaulted her in the late 1990s, held a news conference on Wednesday in Los Angeles. She said she would support the release of additional material related to the case, including a transcript of Maxwell's interview with Blanche. But she also expressed outrage at the possibility that Maxwell could receive clemency or other special treatment through the process, adding that the Justice Department's approach had been 'very upsetting' so far. The Trump administration has faced weeks of furor from some segments of the president's political base, which have demanded public disclosure of files related to Epstein. Epstein has long been the subject of conspiracy theories because of his friendships with the rich and powerful, including Trump himself, Britain's Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton. Last month, the Justice Department announced it would not release additional files related to the Epstein sex trafficking investigation. Prosecutors later asked to unseal the grand jury transcripts, though they've told the court they contain little information that hasn't already been made public. Two judges who will decide whether to release the transcripts then asked victims to share their views on the matter. In a letter submitted to the court Tuesday, attorneys Brad Edwards and Paul Cassell, who represent numerous Epstein victims, wrote: 'For survivors who bravely testified, the perception that Ms. Maxwell is being legitimized in public discourse has already resulted in re-traumatization.' An attorney for Maxwell, David Oscar Markus, said this week that she opposed the release of the grand jury transcripts. 'Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not,' he wrote. 'Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain.' ___
