{"id":48939,"date":"2025-10-23T23:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=48939"},"modified":"2025-10-24T03:02:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T08:02:27","slug":"fema-rejects-western-maryland-flood-aid-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=48939","title":{"rendered":"FEMA rejects western Maryland flood aid request"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D) said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) denied his state\u2019s appeal for federal disaster relief for flooding in May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moore, in a Thursday release<\/u><\/a>, called the move \u201cdeeply frustrating\u201d and said it \u201cleaves Marylanders on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFEMA has a responsibility to weigh the merits of each emergency request objectively,\u201d Moore added. \u201cInstead, President Trump\u2002<\/u><\/a>and his Administration have politicized disaster relief, and our communities are the ones who will pay the price.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The floods occurred over two days, impacting Garrett and Allegany counties in western Maryland. They resulted in $33.7 million in damages, with homes, schools, libraries and other community buildings impacted, according to a letter<\/u><\/a> Moore sent to Trump in August. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president did not issue a major disaster declaration, which would have made FEMA assistance available, following the floods. In July, the administration denied disaster assistance<\/u><\/a> to Maryland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moore appealed the decision<\/u><\/a> in August, noting that the damages were nearly triple Maryland\u2019s federal threshold for assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaryland has met long-standing criteria for FEMA support in the wake of historic floods across Mountain Maryland. And this appeal isn\u2019t simply justified, it\u2019s necessary,\u201d Moore said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Hill that the president \u201cprovides a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him\u201d and responds to disaster relief requests \u201cwith great care and consideration, ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement\u2014not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Trump administration remains committed to empowering and working with State and local governments to invest in their own resilience before disaster strikes, making response less urgent and recovery less prolonged,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hill has also reached out to FEMA for comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maryland\u2019s senators, Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen\u2002<\/u><\/a>and Angela Alsobrooks,<\/u><\/a> also criticized the denial in Thursday\u2019s release. Van Hollen said the administration \u201chas turned its back on these communities,\u201d while Alsobrooks claimed Trump \u201ccares more about supporting billionaires than supporting Americans facing disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore\u2002(D) said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) denied his state\u2019s appeal for federal disaster relief for flooding in May.  Moore, in a Thursday release, called the move \u201cdeeply frustrating\u201d and said it \u201cleaves Marylanders on their own.\u201d \u201cFEMA has a responsibility to weigh the merits of each emergency request objectively,\u201d Moore added. \u201cInstead, President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":48940,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1155,5780],"tags":[21812,35050,2724],"class_list":["post-48939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-livehood","tag-fema","tag-flood-aid","tag-maryland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48941,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48939\/revisions\/48941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}