California has had four straight years of extremely large and extremely destructive wildfires. In 2017, it was the Tubbs, Thomas, and Canyon fires. In 2018, it was the Camp and Woolsey fires. In 2019, it was the Glass fire. In 2020, the Creek and Bobcat fires.
Those are just the ones that destroyed the most acreage or had major losses in property and life, with millions of people displaced.
According to the Los Angeles Times, California has received more than $1.3 billion in federal aid to rebuild after the 2017 and 2018 Camp fires, and other subsequent “natural disasters.†However, homeowners and renters who were displaced by these fires have yet to see any money.
No money to relocate. No money to rebuild. Not a penny. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
Years-long federal and state bureaucratic delays are to blame for this horrible situation.
“To get access to the funding, California housing officials have needed to develop spending plans approved by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. But it took nearly two years after the disasters for HUD to sign off on any of the state’s proposals to respond to the 2017 wildfires. Last week, more than two years after the 2018 wildfires, federal officials finally authorized the state’s plans for that year’s relief efforts.â€
So four straight years of disastrous fires, and the State has just obtained HUD approval for the fires that happened three years ago? This is unconscionable. Now the victims of the 2019 and 2020 fire season will have to go through the merry-go-round of applying for funding. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and a change of administration in Washington, they may be looking at even more years.
https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2020/12/02/california-received-1-3-billion-in-federal-disaster-relief-but-victims-of-the-fires-have-not-received-a-penny-n288333
