The United States has been rocked by an extraordinary number of tornadoes and devastating storms this year that have already left a staggering price tag.
Now heading into what forecasters say will be an extreme summer – from punishing heat waves to severe weather and hurricanes – the nation’s disaster relief agency is expected to run out of money before it’s even over.
The US has been thrashed with 11 extreme weather disasters with costs exceeding $1 billion so far this year, with a total price tag of $25.1 billion, according to an updated tally from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It’s tied for the second-most such disasters on record and doesn’t even include the extreme weather in the second half of May, said Adam Smith, an applied climatologist with NOAA.
That is worrying news for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose major disaster relief fund could slip into the red by the end of summer – a more than $1.3 billion shortfall in August, according to a May report.
Florida’s two Republican senators recently wrote a letter to FEMA asking the agency how much more money it would need to respond to hurricane season.
In a statement to CNN, a FEMA spokesperson didn’t address exactly how much funding it would need to get through hurricane season, but said the agency is continuing to work with Congress “to ensure sufficient funding is available.”
KIMT in Mason City, Iowa has a parallel report, below