President Joe Biden announced while surveying storm-damaged Florida on Sunday that over $600 million will flow to states affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which ravaged Georgia and North Carolina as well.
During remarks in St. Pete Beach, a barrier island city off of St. Petersburg, Biden said nearly $100 million of the money would go toward improvements to Florida’s power system. He noted it was his second time visiting the state in two weeks.
“Thankfully the storm’s impact was not as cataclysmic as we predicted,” Biden said. “But for some individuals, it was cataclysmic. All those folks who not only lost their homes, but more importantly, those folks who lost their lives, lost family members.”
Biden spoke alongside St. Pete Beach Mayor Adrian Petrila and Pinellas County Chair Kathleen Peters, noting they both had suffered damage to their homes from the storms. “But they stepped up not only [to] look out for themselves, but to help other families, help their neighbors. You know, that’s the resilience of the people of west Florida.”
Florida officials have confirmed 17 deaths in Milton’s aftermath following landfall near Tampa last week. Over a million residents are still without power because of the storm, which came on the heels of Hurricane Helene’s impact on Sept. 26.
Ahead of the storm, the Biden administration sought to combat misinformation about the emergency funds flowing to the state. One conspiracy theory that circulated online and was spread by politicians like former President Donald Trump and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, was that Federal Emergency Management Agency money was being spent to support illegal immigrants in the U.S., leaving the agency without the necessary resources to support hurricane victims.
On a FEMA fact-check page, the agency disputed the misinformation, writing, “This is false. No money is being diverted from disaster response needs. FEMA’s disaster response efforts and individual assistance is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts. Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts.”
FEMA uses Disaster Relief Fund money solely for that purpose. The agency also was tasked in 2022 with distributing Customs and Border Protection money to areas dealing with an influx of migrants.
Biden’s Sunday visit also comes as Trump continues to make false claims about the federal response, including that the government isn’t providing aid to some areas.
Lawmakers in Florida are seeking more disaster aid for affected communities and have pressed for House leadership to come into session to approve more money.
On NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told moderator Kristen Welker that he didn’t believe it was necessary for the House to return from recess early in the wake of the hurricanes.
“We’re already scheduled to come back right after the election,” he said. “We’re 23 days out from the election. That will coincide almost perfectly, I think, with the time for most of these [disaster relief applications to even begin and many of them to be processed.”
The speaker also pointed to money that Congress appropriated for disaster relief in a continuing resolution passed last month, before they left for recess, telling Welker that the federal government needs “to get about the business of distributing the funds that Congress has already set aside.”
“That is a really important thing. People are hurting. I’ve been on the ground in the most affected disaster areas, Florida, North Carolina. They really need the help,” Johnson added.