Lawmakers grill feds over delays in Hurricane Ian response

Officials from three federal agencies served as witnesses during a House Oversight subcommittee hearing Thursday aimed at examining the shortcomings of the federal response to Hurricane Ian.

Government Operations and the Federal Workforce Subcommittee members held the hearing in Florida, which was devastated by Hurricane Ian last September. Witnesses included officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) and the Small Business Administration (SBA).

After the hurricane had torn through the Sunshine State in September 2022, President Biden approved an emergency declaration for the natural disaster, allowing government agencies to race down the east coast to aid victims.

Despite their speedy arrival, emergency response programs were reportedly backlogged, causing delays in much-needed resources for those affected by the hurricane.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R) represents southwest Florida, which was hit particularly hard by the storm, and he wanted answers as to why FEMA needed 45 days to provide travel trailers to residents who lost their homes.

“The first [concern] was the initial deployment, which in my view took forever and a day, considering the fact that we had people who were instantly displaced,” Donalds said, referring to the trailers.

FEMA’s federal coordinating officer for Hurricane Ian, Thomas McCool, explained that because of the regulatory and policy restrictions, he does not believe that the agency “could have worked any faster.”

FEMA was also delayed in finding locations for the trailers due to the agency’s rules around flood zones, which made it particularly difficult to station trailers in Donalds’s district, which is generally at risk of flooding. 

Ultimately, the agency was able to make exceptions for Donalds’s district, according to McCool. He said although trailers are not typically allowed to be in flood hazard areas, they were able to do so for Donalds’s district “after intense coordination with the local building official floodplain manager in each community.”  

Lee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Brian Hamman told the subcommittee that those who were reportedly sleeping in their cars, in tents, and under bridges as a result of Hurricane Ian “would be much safer in a trailer in their driveway.”

Another issue was HUD’s and SBA’s grants and loans, which the agencies were quick to approve, but slow to implement.

HUD Community Planning and Development Principal Deputy Marion McFadden testified that funds from the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program (CDBG-DR) take an average of 18 months after a disaster to be spent on recovery aid.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) attributed the spending delays to the confusion that recipients have about how they can use the grant money. HUD officials cannot create funding rules given that CDBG-DR is not a federally authorized program.

“Because there is no authorization, you can’t write the rules,” Biggs said. “And so every disaster has a different set of rules.”

SBA loan applicants had trouble even receiving the money. A local Florida resident and witness at the hearing said he does “not know anyone who actually has a loan from SBA.”

Donalds claimed that SBA’s “paperwork fiascos” caused the extensive waiting periods, as the agency apparently rejects documents if there are minute mistakes like spelling errors.

“Because when people are in a disaster recovery mode, they don’t have time to check every dot,” Donalds said. “They’re trying to assess their lives.”

SBA’s Disaster Recovery and Resilience Associate Administrator Francisco Sánchez informed the subcommittee they are working to streamline the process and limit the amount of paperwork that is required.

While committee members emphasized the agencies’ part in the delayed and inefficient response, they also acknowledged Congress’s responsibilities and shortcomings in the recovery effort.

“Congress’s ad hoc approach to providing support for these programs contributes to delays in the deployment of resources to impacted communities,” Biggs said.