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These New Mexico fire victims are starting to give up on FEMA
These New Mexico fire victims are starting to give up on FEMA
JULY 13, 2024 5:00 AM ET
Kirk Siegler
Despite the passage of a federal law allocating money to wildfire victims, Yolanda Cruz is still waiting for her FEMA claim to be resolved more than two years after the largest wildfire in New Mexico's history.
Kirk Siegler/NPR
LAS VEGAS, N.M. — After prescribed fires intentionally set by the U.S. Forest Service accidentally turned into New Mexico’s largest wildfire ever in 2022, the last thing the town of Las Vegas needed was another disaster.
And yet the dreaded came anyway this June, when monsoon season arrived early and taps in the northern New Mexico community paradoxically nearly went dry. That’s because flash flooding off the 2-year-old burn scar sent toxic debris into the Gallinas River, compromising Las Vegas’ water treatment plant.
[...]
“When the disaster first hit and President Biden flew over the area and he had a press conference and he said, ‘Don’t worry, this was caused by the federal government and we are going to make this whole,’ everybody cheered,” Cruz says, recalling that people were happy because FEMA was coming to make it right.
After all, the federal government had started the wildfire when embers from two prescribed burns — a key, long-standing wildfire mitigation strategy — ignited into an accidental fire. Soon after, Congress passed a law requiring that aid be distributed to victims by FEMA within 180 days of people filing claims. Lawmakers set aside nearly $4 billion for survivors, communities and tribes.
[...]
JULY 13, 2024 5:00 AM ET
Kirk Siegler
Despite the passage of a federal law allocating money to wildfire victims, Yolanda Cruz is still waiting for her FEMA claim to be resolved more than two years after the largest wildfire in New Mexico's history.
Kirk Siegler/NPR
LAS VEGAS, N.M. — After prescribed fires intentionally set by the U.S. Forest Service accidentally turned into New Mexico’s largest wildfire ever in 2022, the last thing the town of Las Vegas needed was another disaster.
And yet the dreaded came anyway this June, when monsoon season arrived early and taps in the northern New Mexico community paradoxically nearly went dry. That’s because flash flooding off the 2-year-old burn scar sent toxic debris into the Gallinas River, compromising Las Vegas’ water treatment plant.
[...]
“When the disaster first hit and President Biden flew over the area and he had a press conference and he said, ‘Don’t worry, this was caused by the federal government and we are going to make this whole,’ everybody cheered,” Cruz says, recalling that people were happy because FEMA was coming to make it right.
After all, the federal government had started the wildfire when embers from two prescribed burns — a key, long-standing wildfire mitigation strategy — ignited into an accidental fire. Soon after, Congress passed a law requiring that aid be distributed to victims by FEMA within 180 days of people filing claims. Lawmakers set aside nearly $4 billion for survivors, communities and tribes.
[...]