TYLERTOWN, Miss. (AP) 鈥 More than two months after a tornado demolished his Mississippi home, Brian Lowery still sifts through the rubble, hoping to find a tie clip his mother gave him, made from the center stone of her wedding band.
鈥淚 still have hope,鈥 Lowery said.
He, his wife and 13-year-old son made it to safety before the tornado ripped apart their trailer home of 15 years during a severe weather outbreak in mid-March. But the recovery since has been slow and painful. Mississippi鈥檚 request for federal aid is still pending before the Federal Emergency Management Agency, meaning badly needed assistance has not yet made it to his hard-hit community of Tylertown.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what you got to do or what you got to have to be able to be declared for a federal disaster area because this is pretty bad,鈥 Lowery said. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 help you because, whatever, we鈥檙e waiting on a letter; we鈥檙e waiting on somebody to sign his name. You know, all that. I鈥檓 just over it.鈥
It is not unusual for weeks to pass before FEMA approves a declaration. President Donald Trump has pointed to these waits as a reason he is considering the agency, calling FEMA 鈥渧ery bureaucratic鈥 and 鈥渧ery slow.鈥
The wait offers a glimpse of what could be in store for communities around the country as and FEMA is mired in turmoil. States including Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma this week, setting the stage for more disaster requests to FEMA. And the Atlantic hurricane season is just around the corner.
FEMA is able to respond quite effectively in many ways, but 鈥済etting the resources to those communities after the fact has been slowed,鈥 said Susan Cutter, a Carolina Distinguished Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina and co-director of the Hazards Vulnerability & Resilience Institute.
In coming disasters, Cutter said, she anticipates seeing slower progress in getting needed resources to communities in a timely manner.
FEMA acting chief David Richardson has pushed back on claims that FEMA is ill-prepared for severe weather this summer. In an agencywide town hall last week, he said FEMA was 鈥渢o some degree, to a great degree, ready for disaster season 鈥25.鈥
March storms left 7 dead and wrecked hundreds of homes
In Mississippi, on March 14 and 15, leaving seven people dead and hundreds of homes destroyed or damaged. Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves asked the Trump administration for a major disaster declaration on April 1.
Such a declaration would allow access to an array of FEMA resources, including financial aid for individuals and for government agencies still removing debris and repairing infrastructure.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a declaration yet. People are still hurting,鈥 said Royce McKee, emergency management director for Walthall County, which includes Tylertown.
Walthall County was especially hard hit by the massive storm system that tore across multiple states. The storm spawned two significant tornadoes in the county, where four people died.
McKee said the county has sunk an estimated $700,000 into the cleanup, but it can鈥檛 afford more. It has halted recovery operations while awaiting federal assistance.
鈥淲e need federal help, and we need it desperately, and we need it now,鈥 said Bobby McGinnis, a Tylertown resident and firefighter. 鈥淚 know President Trump said that 鈥 America first, we鈥檙e going to help our American folks first. But we haven鈥檛 seen the federal folks down here.鈥
Requests for help come at a time of upheaval for FEMA
Mississippi鈥檚 request comes at a time of upheaval for FEMA. Its acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, after he publicly disagreed with Trump’s proposal to get “rid of FEMA.鈥
Richardson, FEMA鈥檚 new acting administrator, has for the agency. He also previewed potential policy changes, saying there could be 鈥渕ore cost-sharing with states鈥 and that FEMA would coordinate federal assistance .”
While Mississippi has been waiting, a similar major disaster declaration request out of Arkansas after the storms was initially denied. The decision was then appealed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and finally approved on May 13.
In Missouri, there are frustrations about the federal response to March storms
In Missouri, the federal response to earlier storms is being criticized as residents pick up the pieces after a recent . Packing winds of up to 150 mph (240 kph), it slammed into parts of St. Louis on Friday.
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, on Tuesday that the need was urgent, and she responded by vowing to expedite Gov. Mike Kehoe’s the ruble.
鈥淭hat is one of the failures that FEMA has had in the past is that people who incur this kind of damage and lose everything sit there for months and sometimes years and never get the promised critical response that they think or that they believe they should be getting from the federal government,鈥 Noem said.
After touring the damage Monday, Hawley began publicly demanding help and expressed frustration over the federal response in March, saying, 鈥淲e cannot wait months. I鈥檓 not happy about the fact we鈥檙e still waiting from all of that damage two months ago.鈥
Mississippi lawmakers press federal officials about assistance
Mississippi lawmakers continue to press for federal help. At a congressional hearing in early May, Republican Mississippi Rep. Michael Guest asked Noem to push forward the request.
鈥淚 would ask you if you could make sure that you could do everything to expedite that request,鈥 Guest said. 鈥滻t is impacting my local jurisdictions with debris cleanup. It is impacting people as they seek to recover.鈥
Republican Mississippi U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith also asked Noem about FEMA assistance and to the agency.
鈥淧resident Trump has been very clear that he believes that the way that FEMA exists today should not continue,鈥 Noem responded. 鈥淗e wants to make sure that those reforms are happening where states are empowered to do the response and trained and equipped, and then the federal government would come in and support them and financially be there when they need them on their worst day.鈥
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Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri, and Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
