Vermont’s ongoing struggle to access federal assistance after last summer’s floods has prompted U.S. Sen. Peter Welch to call for a wholesale restructuring of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Welch said FEMA’s bureaucracy has impeded access to needed recovery resources for the residents, businesses and municipalities that experienced flood damage last July. And he told Vermont Public last week that he plans to work with his colleagues in Congress to fundamentally overhaul the country’s disaster-response apparatus.
“The long-term recovery has to be led by the local people. That’s my conclusion,” Welch said. “A Washington-based governmental entity with the best of intentions just can’t do it.”
“The long-term recovery has to be led by the local people. That’s my conclusion.”
U.S. Sen. Peter Welch
Vermont Public published a story earlier this month that found that FEMA has incurred nearly $80 million in administrative costs on a recovery mission that distributed $43 million in individual assistance to flood survivors.
Welch said he was taken aback by those findings.
“I was shocked by it. And really upset by it,” he said last week. “If you spend $2 on administration and only $1 on relief, it’s upside down. I mean, that doesn’t make any sense.”
Welch said he envisions an entirely new system in which state and local entities would be authorized to distribute the billions of dollars in public and individual assistance that’s currently administered by FEMA.
“The resources are transferred to the local community. You have some federal oversight to make sure you’re protecting taxpayer money, but we get real that the reality of implementation requires quick decisions, clarity, quick turnaround and local leadership,” he said.
Interviews conducted by Vermont Public with flood survivors, state and local officials and current and former FEMA employees has revealed a pattern of administrative bloat at a federal agency that, to many Vermonters, often seemed less interested in providing assistance than in finding ways to reject requests for aid.
Volunteers carry flood relief supplies into the Hedding United Methodist Church in downtown Barre after the July 2023 floods. Sen. Peter Welch said he envisions a new federal system that would allow state and local entities to distribute resources more directly to the communities that need them.
Preexisting condition
Patty Smith’s home on the Second Branch of the White River in East Bethel is a former sawmill that was built to coexist with the water beside it. But the heavy current that encircled her house during the summer flood of 2023 was more than the structure could withstand.
“And that current lifted these wooden piers off of their foundation and the motion of the current twisted the house,” Smith recalled recently.
FEMA inspectors were on-site shortly after the water receded, and Smith began the process of applying for individual assistance. FEMA would later insist that it was the preexisting condition of her home — and not the massive flood that inundated it — that was responsible for the damage.
“And it was very, very easy for FEMA to just reject the claim based on, ‘Oh well, you didn’t maintain your house properly, and that’s the problem,’” Smith said.
“I think that when we do go in and try to fix problems, rather than blaming poor people for having a substandard housing, why not help us?”
Patty Smith, East Bethel
Smith admits the place might have looked a little run-down on the surface — she’s a low-income Vermonter living with a disability and doesn’t have the money to keep the place tip-top.
But she said the bones were good and the foundation was solid before the flood devastated the property. And she’s still struggling to understand why a federal agency that was created to help disaster survivors would reject her obvious need for aid.
“I think that when we do go in and try to fix problems, rather than blaming poor people for having a substandard housing, why not help us?” Smith said.
Doug and Cheri Safford meet with representatives from FEMA outside their hoe and retail store in Glover after the July 2023 floods.
FEMA changes meet skepticism
The number of residents, businesses and municipal officials who’ve expressed disappointment with FEMA over the past year has hit a critical mass for federal lawmakers including Welch, who spoke with Vermont Public last week as he toured flood damage in Hardwick.
Welch said individuals often struggle to get basic answers about whether or when they’ll be eligible for federal assistance. And he said the process exacerbates the trauma flood survivors have experienced.
“My experience with people that are really facing an uphill climb is that they’re willing to do it. They’re not asking for it to be easy. They’re just asking that at the end of each day they may be a half a step further in the right direction,” Welch said. “But if at the end of the day they’re two steps backwards because they can’t get answers to the fifth call in a row, that wears you down.”
Sam Harvey is a FEMA employee who specializes in the individual assistance process. He told Vermont Public recently that the vastness of FEMA’s responsibilities doesn’t always lend itself to a smooth customer service.
“These policies, these laws, these regulations that govern FEMA, they have to govern 300 million Americans,” Harvey said. “And it means that sometimes, they don’t always apply to one American.”
Harvey said FEMA instituted substantive revisions to its individual assistance determination process in March. And he said those changes should improve the experience for flood survivors after this latest disaster.
FEMA, for instance, will no longer require people to apply for a loan from the Small Business Association before they’re allowed to apply for aid for physical possessions, such as cars or appliances, that were damaged or destroyed by the flood. FEMA had also increased the amount of assistance for which homeowners are eligible when flood insurance payouts fall short of covering total flood damage.
“Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll ever get rid of all of the stress of it,” Harvey said. “But I do feel that these changes are a very positive step in making it easier for survivors.”
“Some of the things in the process in FEMA … on paper doesn’t look bad. But when you try to go through it as a human, that’s when it really starts to fail.”
Chief Flood Recovery Officer Douglas Farnham
Douglas Farnham, chief flood recovery officer for the state of Vermont, isn’t convinced that the latest FEMA reforms will meaningfully improve survivors’ experiences with the agency.
“I think it’s very challenging for a federal organization to change,” Farnham said.
For a third time in a year, the Winooski River jumped its banks and flooded the Volunteers Green in Richmond, seen here from Bridge Street on Thursday, July 11, 2024.
Too little, too late
More than 1,900 residents and 200 businesses have reported damage from the most recent major flood to hit Vermont. Vermont has since issued a formal request for a major disaster declaration that includes public and individual assistance for at least seven counties.
“Some of the things in the process in FEMA … on paper doesn’t look bad,” Farnham said. “But when you try to go through it as a human, that’s when it really starts to fail. So we have to see how people are able to use the process to make up our mind about [the recent FEMA changes].”
Those changes are too late to make any difference for flood survivors such as Patty Smith, who’s trying to cobble together enough cash to get her house livable before winter.
“I’m hoping to get at least enough money to insulate it,” she said.
Smith’s home wasn’t affected by the most recent flood. And while temporary housing assistance from FEMA has allowed her to live in an apartment since last August, her eligibility for that program expires in December.
Smith’s financial situation means finding a new place isn’t an option. And FEMA’s decision to deny her request for aid has serious implications for her future in East Bethel.
“I think that it’s basically living in a dangerous home. That’s my future,” she said. “I mean, it was dicey before, I’ll admit that. But now … it’s dangerous. But I have no other choice, you know? I mean, I just don’t have any choice.”
Welch said overhauling FEMA will be a long-term project. He said he plans to jump-start the process by shining a brighter spotlight on internal costs at the agency.
“And I think what we’re going to have to do is get a significant study that documents just how much money goes to administration, and how little goes to aid,” he said.
Story Written by Peter Hirschfeld, Vermont Public