Mosquito Fire is raging in California. But will FEMA do anything to help victims?
The federal government denied individual aid to Caldor Fire victims. Now there’s concern whether that aid will be available to victims of the Mosquito Fire and other wildfires
“It’s certainly something we think about often,” said Brian Ferguson, spokesman for the California Office of Emergency Management. “It is something that concerns us.”
Currently, the Mosquito Fire is burning in Placer and El Dorado counties. As of Monday morning, the fire has torn through about 46,587 acres and people have been evacuated from affected areas.
Thanks to a 2019 Federal Emergency Management Agency rule, victims of last year’s Caldor Fire have been unable to tap a program designed to aid affected individuals.. The fire burned 221,835 acres and destroyed more than 800 homes.
FEMA’s denial is based on its rule saying individual aid is based on criteria that include a state’s financial resources. Since California is regarded as a wealthy state with sufficient state financial resources, it’s difficult for it to qualify for help.
FEMA has an “Individual Assistance” program that provides help that can include replacement and repair of damaged housing. It can also provide aid for temporary housing, medical, dental, child care, funeral, personal property, and transportation costs. FEMA Friday did make available funds to help firefighting costs.
To qualify for the individual aid, though, a wildfire must meet certain criteria. Among them is causing damage that would strain a state’s “total taxable resources.” The Treasury Department has a lengthy definition, which includes the “ability of state personal income to reflect accurately the relative ability of state and local governments to raise revenues to provide public services.”
The Caldor Fire decision was surprising because FEMA often did help California wildfire victims. often prior to the 2019 rule, such as those affected by the 2018 Camp Fire.
Mosquito Fire help?
What all this means is that if wildfires strike a state such as California that is regarded as having the means to provide aid, it could be difficult to get federal help. FEMA did not respond to a request for comment.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said in a statement this week that they saw FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell as signaling possible changes in recent testimony.
In April, Criswell told a House transportation subcommittee , “We must instill equity as a foundation of emergency management. It is important we recognize disasters affect individuals and communities differently.”
California lawmakers and policymakers from both parties have tried for years to ease the requirements.
When FEMA was considering the rule eight years ago, the California Office of Emergency Services warned in comments to the agency that its proposal was “discriminatory towards large states.”
The criteria, the state office said, “greatly reflect the success of a few lucrative industries in California, and do not directly represent the financial capacity of the state. In California, the top three percent of taxpayers contribute the majority of financial assets considered in the per capita personal income rate.”
Members of Congress weighed in. Feinstein wrote the agency in 2016 “any revisions to the individual disaster assistance factors must not attempt to treat California as a ‘one size fits all state,’ but should give more consideration to its unique conditions and diverse communities.”
FEMA and lawmakers were under some pressure to tighten the regulations, after criticism that it had been too generous in providing aid to victims of Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and other disasters.
FEMA and wildfires
The federal government has provided funds to California to help fight wildfires and state agencies as well as non-government providers have helped people.
After the Camp Fire destroyed much of Paradise and left thousands temporarily homeless, FEMA dispatched then-Administrator Brock Long to Paradise to assure residents that the agency would take care of them.
Long said FEMA would help with “rent, hotels and motels” and added: “We’ll be here for several years working this disaster.”
A month later, dozens of FEMA trailers arrived in the area to provide temporary housing. Even as then-President Donald Trump was feuding with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration over wildfire-management strategies – and repeatedly threatening to cut off FEMA aid to the state – the help continued to pour in.
FEMA said its assistance to Camp Fire victims totaled $84 million, including home repairs, rent and other forms of help. It said it placed 289 trailers in one industrial park alone, and placed dozens of trailers in other locations near Paradise.
But recently FEMA has been reluctant to provide the individual aid in what it sees as wealthier areas.
In 2020, FEMA rejected requests to aid people in Fresno and Madera Counties affected by the Creek Fire.
FEMA said it did not regard the fires as severe enough to overtax the ability of the state and local government and others to deal with the situation. Then-President Donald Trump quickly overruled FEMA and county residents got government help.
Not so in El Dorado County with the Caldor Fire, where the Newsom administration has twice unsuccessfully sought FEMA individual aid and appealed once.
Criswell wouldn’t budge. In November, she wrote “the impact to the individuals and households from this event was not of such severity and magnitude” to trigger the aid.
State and local lawmakers turned to the White House for help.
Denying the aid “will have devastating consequences on survivors whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed.” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, wrote President Joe Biden.
In May, county residents and officials sent President Biden a five minute video pleading their case. Biden toured the Caldor Fire area last year.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
This story was originally published September 12, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
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