[continued from previous message]   
      
   Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, said the FEMA is now facing   
   problems paying not just long-term disaster rebuilding expenses but   
   also short-term emergency costs.   
      
   “When you’re questioning that, and that becomes a question of whether   
   the federal government will play the role that it has over the last 50   
   years, that’s a huge concern,” Martín said.   
      
   FEMA’s multibillion-dollar Disaster Relief Fund faced problems in early   
   August when it ran low, and the agency imposed restrictions that led it   
   to temporarily cut off $9 billion for rebuilding projects.   
      
   Although FEMA lifted the restrictions Oct. 1 when Congress allocated   
   $20 billion for the current fiscal year, the agency could burn through   
   that money quickly and be forced to reimpose the restrictions if   
   lawmakers do not provide extra money in the coming months.   
      
   Mayorkas warned last week that FEMA “does not have the funds to make it   
   through the [hurricane] season,” which ends Nov. 30.   
      
   White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre echoed a similar theme   
   Monday, saying: “The FEMA disaster relief fund faces a shortfall at the   
   end of the year.”   
      
   “The recovery from this is going to be very costly,” said Zimmerman,   
   the former FEMA official. “These response efforts are very costly with   
   all this search-and-rescue.”   
      
   FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, could run out of   
   money because of weaknesses when Congress created the program in 1968   
   and did not require insurance premiums to reflect a property’s   
   potential for flood damage. The inadequate premiums forced FEMA to   
   borrow $20.5 billion from the U.S. Treasury after Hurricanes Harvey,   
   Irma and Maria in 2017.   
      
   FEMA has paid billions of dollars in interest on the debt, which it   
   says it cannot repay. That has left FEMA able to borrow only an   
   additional $10 billion to pay insurance claims.   
      
   “I don’t think the NFIP needs to dig into its borrowing authority for   
   Helene,” said Sridhar Manyem, senior director of industry research at   
   AM Best credit ratings agency. “But Milton is another story. That could   
   be a game-changer.”   
      
   Hurricane Milton “could exhaust the NFIP and require the government to   
   have to provide more funding for payments to be made to NFIP   
   policyholders,” AM Best Associate Director David Blades said.   
      
   FEMA said it has the ability to pay $14.8 billion in NFIP claims   
   “without seeking additional assistance from Congress.”   
      
   The only disaster to exceed that level is Hurricane Katrina, which   
   resulted in claims payments exceeding $16 billion while killing more   
   than 1,300 people in New Orleans and elsewhere. Like Katrina, Milton   
   has surged to Category 5 fury over the warm waters of the Gulf of   
   Mexico, and it is expected to remain dangerous even if its winds   
   slacken somewhat before striking land.   
      
   Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications research at the climate   
   risk modeling firm First Street, offered a more optimistic take: Helene   
   and Milton “are not likely to exhaust NFIP’s borrowing authority,” he   
   said, in part because few residents have national flood insurance   
   policies in the hard-hit areas of Georgia and North Carolina.   
      
   https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/07/hurricanes-eroding-   
   washingtons-disaster-programs-00182784   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)