PORTAGE, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Local officials are still waiting to find out if there will be any assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency following last month’s tornado, but Kalamazoo County may be at the end of a very long line waiting for help.
Portage Mayor Patricia Randall reported to the city council last night that they continue to press their case for whatever reimbursement they can get.
The area has suffered additional outages and tree damage from storms this week and last, and they may be on their own to handle those cleanups.
Portage Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Pearson says he was out with the chainsaw yesterday and will be again today clearing downed branches in his yard.
Councilmember Jihan Ain Young says residents traumatized by the tornado may be having trouble coping when new storms roll through.
National Public Radio reports that FEMA is stretched just about as thin as an agency can be with fires in the west and tornadoes in the Midwest and flooding everywhere wiping out whole communities at a rapid pace this year.
The agency has already responded to eleven disasters that have each exceeded a billion dollars in costs and predicts it could run out of funding this fall, just as the hurricane season is revving up.
On the very same day the tornado ripped across Portage, tornadoes and straight-line winds ravaged ten counties in northern Florida and caused multiple deaths in Tennessee. Federal assistance for the worst hit county in Florida has just been approved by the Biden administration.
FEMA has set a certain threshold for damage that communities have to reach to qualify for the agency’s remaining funds, and County Administrator Kevin Catlin has expressed doubts that they will clear it.
Typical. When did SW Michigan ever get FEMA Assistance? Does the governor do anything besides put her boots on desk, get makeovers, fly to Florida on private jet, fly to California? Put COVID patients in with healthy seniors? Dress up as Barbie? Play Mean Girls?