Many survivors of last week's devastating hurricane said they were unsure how to get help with basic needs, and that the FEMA process was fraught with delays.
At a crowded FEMA registration table, a staffer told Silva, 62, to call a hotline she had already tried, waiting on hold for nine hours.
Yet residents with limited transportation and internet access said it was difficult to figure out where to get immediate help with food and housing. Sen. Rick Scott voted against the spending bill; Sen. Marco Rubio was in Florida and missed the vote. Both have said they opposed Democrats tying disaster relief to unrelated spending, and on Friday they sent a joint letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee asking for funding to “provide much needed assistance to Florida.”
As Silva left the shelter, June Gonzalez stood nearby, preparing to head to work. Before the storm, Gonzalez, 44, evacuated to the shelter from her mobile home on Pine Island with her fiance and 12-year-old son, Luis Andrietta, who is autistic and has to stay out of the heat because of a health condition.
“FEMA was here; I think they’re coming tomorrow. What am I going to do? This is a big place,” Heiland said as she sat on her cot next to the cage of her pet parrot, Will. “I can’t tell you anything about insurance,” said the search-and-rescue team member, Jeffrey Taylor. “Try to take everything out. If you want to do any kind of work in there, wear a mask. It’s going to get worse.”
“That’s why I can’t sleep at night,” Ortiz said. “Imagine how many will be coming now. I really need help.” But his rented townhouse in the Island Village neighborhood and his office flooded. He had rental insurance and applied to FEMA but wasn’t optimistic it would help, having applied after his former rental was damaged by Hurricane Irma in 2017.
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