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Why is Georgia not yet declared a major disaster? Is Gov Kemp failing? And Fox5 fails its viewers [1]

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Date: 2024-09-30  

Why hasn’t Georgia been declared a major disaster area yet? (There’s a lack of reporting on this, and it seems to be the fault of Governor Kemp’s office).

The only declaration for Helene that I see for GA on FEMA.gov is of an “emergency declaration” (declared September 26), which is a lower category than a “major disaster declaration.”



People in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina are covered by “major disaster” declarations (respectively dated Sep 28, Sep 28 and Sep 29).



People that live in covered areas may qualify for direct assistance from the federal government to cover the cost of hotels, water, baby formula, food. This money comes quickly.



To apply, see DisasterAssistance.gov or call 800-621-3362.

I heard from impacted friends in GA that the website wasn’t working for them. So I searched a few impacted places in NC, FL and SC, and it looks like it’s working for those places. But I think folks in Georgia are currently out of the loop bc Helene is not yet declared to be a “major disaster”.

This is on the Governor’s office to submit timely, and on the White House and FEMA to push through and approve if received.

Something else that’s fishy is that the major disaster declaration for GA for Tropical Storm Debby from back in early August was only approved last week. I have no idea why Georgia did not seek or get faster approval, but FYI that Florida got approval on August 10 and Pennsylvania (not exactly in the eye of the storm) got approval on September 11.

People in Georgia may not get the help they need and deserve in a timely way. For example, people who qualify for unemployment assistance due to TS Debby in Georgia can finally apply for it starting now. www.fox5atlanta.com/…

if you watch the video above from today, the reporter’s intonation places the blame—for the delay in the major disaster declaration in Georgia for TS Debby—on the federal government. They don’t tell their viewers that Florida got its sh*t together fast enough to obtain the disaster declaration in just a few days.



I’ll post updates based on any comments submitted today or on any additional news stories about this.

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