White House requests $29 billion disaster aid package
The White House has asked Congress for $29 billion in disaster aid to cover ongoing hurricane relief and recovery efforts and to pay federal flood insurance claims.
The request comes as the government is spending almost $200 million a day for emergency hurricane response and faces a surge in flood claims for federally insured homes and businesses slammed by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
The proposal would provide $16 billion to pay those flood claims.
Another $13 billion is being requested for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Federal firefighting accounts would receive $577 million as well after a disastrous season of Western wildfires.
Congress last month approved a $15.3 billion aid package that combined community development block grant rebuilding funds with emergency money for cleanup, repair and housing.
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Volunteers help a patient to his feet after treating him in Yabucoa’s, Puerto Rico, where SCORE, a non-profit based in Toledo, Ohio, set up a makeshift medical clinic, Oct. 2, 2017. More than a dozen medical professionals and fourth-year medical students came to the island to help after Hurricane Maria as a part of SCORE, a non-profit based in Toledo, Ohio. Â
Aurelio Beltran drives through his plantain fields, which were destroyed by Hurricane Maria, Oct. 2, 2017. Acres and acres of destroyed plantain crops litter the Yabucoa valley — Puerto Rico’s largest plantain-producing region. According to Angel Morales, the president of the farming cooperative in Yabucoa, the valley has three to four thousand acres of plantains. Though they have insurance, not only will plantain farmers make no profit because of Hurricane Maria’s damage, they will lose half of their investment, as it costs about $6 or $7 dollars investment for each plant, and they will receive $3.25 back from insurance when it comes through. Â
Sgt. Jose Castillo of the Puerto Rico National Guard, and Ashley Hernandez give Carmen Bermudez Rosa kisses at the Ruben Rodriguez Figueroa High School’s in Naranjito, Puerto Rico, which is now a makeshift shelter. All of their homes were destroyed by Hurricane Maria. Castillo has been volunteering his time, organizing the residents there to have different duties. “We were strangers when we got here. Now, we are family,” Castillo said. They have been together for a week and started out as strangers. “We are a family,” he said. at a high school in Naranjito, Puerto Rico, about 45 minutes outside of San Juan.Â
Gerald Ramirez, 5, left, and Deyanery Ramirez, 3, right, look down Calle San Miguel in the La Perla neighborhood on Sept. 21, 2017, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The majority of the island has lost power, in San Juan many are left without running water or cell phone service, and the governor said Maria is the “most devastating storm to hit the island this century.”Â
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