FEMA has denied a request for storm aid to individual Virginians, closing the possibility of federal grants and loans for homeowners still reeling from flooding in late June.
The refusal has been met with outrage locally, where criticism of the federal disaster agency is reminiscent of that leveled in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“The federal government just seems to have a higher lever of scrutiny when it comes to helping people at home,” Rep. Jim Moran said. “For what it would cost to help those families who lost everything in Huntington, we spend that in a couple of seconds in Iraq. If this were a defense contractor and they lost something, we’d be tripping over ourselves to reimburse them.”
The decision on Monday came about half a month after FEMA agreed to reimburse local governments for infrastructure repairs — a disparity Fairfax County Supervisor Gerald Hyland calls “almost perverse.”
And it came the same day that Fairfax County supervisors gathered staff and residents in the government center hall for a congratulatory ceremony and photoshoot for their recovery efforts in Huntington. The community, which sits near Alexandria, suffered the lion’s share of Fairfax County’s property damage after Cameron Run overran its banks and swamped about 150 homes with putrid water.
Since then, some homeowners have been able to return to their residences, but are still facing problems of ruined appliances and mold, as well as crippling repair costs. Some have said their property damage is as high as $100,000 and beyond.
A FEMA spokesman said Tuesday that “the severity and magnitude” of private damage was not sufficient to warrant individual assistance. The agency found that Fairfax County — upon which the decision to grant individual aid had largely hinged — had done “an outstanding job of taking care of those needs for their residents,” spokesman Daniel Martinez said.
The Rev. Carolyn Boyd, a D.C. pastor who lives in Huntington, organized a community effort calling for government aid. She said she’s not shocked FEMA refused to grant the aid for the community, which is far from affluent.
“We are still hurting and we are still struggling, and we still need … financial assistance in this community,” Boyd said.
