FEMA's Acting Director Leiloni Stainsby addresses FEMA's role in their response and recovery efforts in Florida during the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.

Florida

Hurricane Milton has made landfall as a Category Three system, causing tornadoes and widespread damage across parts of Florida.

Hurricane Milton

FEMA's Acting Director, Leiloni Stainsby, has outlined the agency's ongoing response and recovery efforts following the devastation caused by Hurricane Milton in Florida. FEMA has been actively prioritizing life safety and search and rescue operations in all affected communities. Their administrator was deployed prior to the hurricane's landfall and remains on-site, collaborating closely with local and state officials to address the dynamic situation.

FEMA has mobilized over a thousand staff members to Florida to support recovery and damage assessment while ensuring disaster survivors receive necessary aid. These efforts extend beyond Florida as FEMA continues to provide assistance from Hurricane Helene in states like North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Recovery operations in these areas involve methodical search and rescue, especially in difficult-to-reach rural communities, and the initiation of registration for disaster assistance to address individual needs.

FEMA is also in the process of establishing disaster recovery centers where community members can seek assistance for their diverse needs. The centers will serve as hubs to connect survivors with resources provided by FEMA, the Small Business Administration, and voluntary partners.



Milton response and recovery efforts from FEMA

Thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, and Ilani, after Hurricane Milton, what is FEMA's role right now in Florida? Is search and rescue still continuing? Good morning, thanks so much for having me. Our administrator was actually on the ground in Florida prior to Milton making landfall. She is there now working hand in hand with our senior officials on the ground and with the state to make sure that we understand the rapidly evolving situation. As you said, search and rescue is ongoing in each of these communities to make sure that we are prioritizing life safety to make sure that everybody in the community is first and foremost safe. And then we start to understand what the needs are on the ground. At the same time, we have response and recovery activities happening in every state impacted by Hurricane Helene. And so we continue to provide assistance in those states as well. And today into the weekend, where are FEMA teams mobilizing and how will they be helping residents impacted by Milton? So right now, the priority is absolutely life safety. We had over a thousand staff on the ground, including our administrator, prior to Milton making landfall. And those staff are absolutely there to continue to help the community recover from Helene and to assess the damages and conduct search and rescue to really make sure that we prioritize that life safety. While again, still making sure that we are supporting disaster survivors from Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee as well. And let's talk more about Hurricane Helene. What is the latest about FEMA's work on the ground in North Carolina? And then some of the other states you just mentioned, of course, Georgia and the upstate of South Carolina. Well, in North Carolina, we also still have search and rescue happening on the ground in some of those communities. Some of the communities are rural, and so they are incredibly difficult to get to on the best days with one lane roads going in and out of communities. And so the search and rescue teams continue to go through each of those communities methodically to make sure that everybody who needs assistance is getting the assistance and the life safety that they need. We're also starting initial recovery, working on things like making sure that survivors register for disaster assistance at disasterassistance.gov, using the FEMA app or calling 1-800-621-3362. That gets an initial assistance out to communities as we start to understand what the individual needs are. We're also starting to open disaster recovery centers, which will allow members of the community to actually come to us, tell us what their needs are, and we can put them in touch with the right resources, either through FEMA or our partners like the Small Business Administration or voluntary partners who are also there in the communities. Leilani stands by acting director of response and recovery with FEMA. Thanks again for joining us here on AccuWeather Early.

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