"A North Carolina college, ravaged by Hurricane Helene, can’t rebuild unless federal money starts flowing. A nonprofit in Florida that helped Hayley Riotto and her children after Hurricane Ian may have to start cutting staff. A Hawaii group that helps survivors of the Lahaina fire says it can only go another month or two before eliminating workers."

"A post from Elon Musk last month trumpeted a supposedly startling discovery by his team of government cost-cutters: The Federal Emergency Management Agency had provided $59 million to house undocumented immigrants in New York City. The money, he declared, was “meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals!”

But if Mr. Musk’s goal was to funnel more FEMA money to disaster aid, the fallout from his declaration had the opposite effect.

A pair of Trump administration orders, issued soon after the Feb. 10 social media post, aimed to block any agency money from helping undocumented immigrants and “sanctuary” jurisdictions protecting them left FEMA staff without sufficient guidance about how to proceed, effectively freezing payments on billions of dollars in disaster grants, according to two people briefed on the process and an internal document viewed by The New York Times."

Christopher Flavelle, Eduardo Medina, and Luis Ferré-Sadurní report for the New York Times March 27, 2025. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Nearly Half of the Country’s Attorneys General Make Legal Effort to Restore FEMA Funds" (Inside Climate News) [3]

"Trump Officials Working To Strip FEMA’s Role In Disaster Recovery By Oct. 1" (Washington Post) [4]