FEMA’s Harvey funding down to $541M

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has just $541 million left for disaster management related to Hurricane Harvey, according to a FEMA spokesperson on Tuesday.

The agency also has an additional $472 million devoted to wildfire relief related to the blazes in Southern California and to prepare for Hurricane Irma. Irma was upgraded to a Category 5 storm and is headed toward Puerto Rico. It may also sweep up toward Florida and Georgia.

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The combined $1.013 billion in the Disaster Relief Fund is unlikely to be enough for the extreme challenges created by Harvey and the other disasters.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has warned that the bill for cleaning up and repairing storm damage from Harvey alone could cost as much as $180 billion.

The House is planning on taking up an initial disaster relief bill of $7.85 billion, $7.4 billion of which would go toward FEMA’s disaster fund.

FEMA is delaying reconstruction projects related to previous disasters while its funds are low.

Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 storm on Aug. 25 and left at least 50 people dead.