The Federal Emergency Management Agency has deployed about 85 percent of its personnel to Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and other areas affected by recent hurricanes and other natural disasters sites in 22 total regions, the agency said Friday.
About 2,600 FEMA staff are still deployed in Texas and surrounding areas affected by Hurricane Harvey, and 1,625 remain in Florida and other states affected by Hurricane Irma, according to FEMA spokesperson Michael Cappannari. An estimated 1,200 personnel are based in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, responding to Hurricane Maria.
The emergency response agency has additional officials working from Washington, D.C., and agency headquarters across the U.S. For example, a total of 19,000 federal employees and military members are assisting in Puerto Rico’s recovery, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday. That figure is comparable to the total number of people who helped Texas and Florida in the initial weeks after the storms.
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“FEMA will be with Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and each state or territory impacted by a disaster every day, supporting throughout their response and recovery process. Successful recoveries do not last forever; they should be as swift as possible to help restore normal routine,” Cappannari said. “FEMA will continue to coordinate the full force of the federal government to support the response efforts as progress towards recovery is made.”
When asked about the different responses to each region’s disaster, FEMA officials said they do not rank them by size and would not share those details.
“We don’t compare one disaster to another. It’s a disaster,” said Deanna Frazier, FEMA’s assistant external affairs officer of the Hurricane Harvey recovery. “FEMA is going to be here as long as we’re needed … If their recovery takes a little longer, FEMA will be here longer. We just want people in Texas to know that FEMA is not going to cut our forces here dramatically just to go to another disaster.”
“[We] never want to compare disasters (whether that is flooding in the Midwest or a hurricane on the East Coast), to the individual (s) that were affected, that is the worst for them,” Cappannari added in an email.
Homeland Security last month deployed its Surge Capacity Force, which is comprised of federal workers from other departments in relevant agencies, to help with the various natural disasters.
In addition, acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke asked for the first time in history that all federal agencies contribute staff and expertise to the Surge Capacity Force. Harvey made landfall over Texas Aug. 25, and Irma settled over Florida Sept. 9.
“We’ve had two historic storms in the course of just a few weeks and so the time is right to expand,” a senior DHS official told the Washington Examiner after Harvey and Irma, but before Maria’s landing Sept. 20.
