As disasters mount, FEMA is making it easier for tribes to receive assistance

People gather at a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center at AC Reynolds High School in Asheville, North Carolina, on Tuesday, October 15, 2024. (Makiya Seminera/AP)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency makes it easier for Native American communities — many of which have struggled to receive aid after a disaster — to apply for federal aid.

The agency announced Tuesday that it is changing its tribal disaster declaration guidelines by extending key deadlines, lowering minimum damage amounts and allowing the government to cover a larger portion of post-disaster damages.

The changes come afterwards Years of meetings with and feedback from members of more than 135 federally recognized tribes, many of whom were unable to apply for FEMA assistance to help recover from floods, wildfires and other disasters. Due to their sparse infrastructure, some did not reach the damage threshold of at least $250,000. Others couldn’t afford the agency’s standard cost-sharing system, in which localities pay 25 percent of damages and the federal government covers the rest.

Starting Tuesday, FEMA lowered the minimum damage amount for its public assistance program to $100,000, giving the White House the option for the first time to cover 98 percent of a tribe’s recovery costs once the federal government’s commitment reaches $200,000. Tribes are also now eligible for a similar cost-sharing agreement to fund disaster preparedness and mitigation projects. The information is clearer and important application deadlines have been extended by around 30 days, among other things.

Since 2013, when tribes were first allowed to apply for disaster assistance, there have been 53 reports of major disasters on tribal lands. FEMA said the number does not reflect reality for thousands of people living in 574 tribes, many of whom live in countries experiencing the impacts of climate-related disasters.

Some tribes said FEMA’s disaster application and information were difficult to access and did not take into account the way tribal communities live and work. Despite losing their homes or suffering significant damage, some tribal members did not apply for individual assistance from FEMA to help them recover, said Kelbie Kennedy, FEMA’s first attorney for national tribal affairs.

She and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell have visited tribes across the country and held feedback sessions in recent years. The open meetings, Kennedy said, “really forced the FEMA leadership for the first time to look the tribal leaders in the eye and listen to them when they said x and y and stopped me from getting resources to get that road or.” to fix that person’s house.”

Born and raised in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Kennedy saw her own community endure devastating weather events and struggle to get what they needed to get back on their feet.

A big problem, she said, is that “homeownership in Indian country is complex because it’s on tribal land,” making it harder for people to apply for assistance and for tribes without a tax base to take some of it. Many tribes also lack resources to operate and staff emergency offices, she said.

“Tribes don’t disappear. “Disasters don’t go away,” Kennedy said. “But the reality is that tribes will ultimately save lives if they have resources and access to disaster reporting. They will save lives faster and make a difference, especially in rural America.”

In New Mexico’s dry, high desert between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, about 120 homes on the Santo Domingo Pueblo reservation are still tattered and covered in mold after a 500-year flood in 2014 inundated the entire largely adobe village, officials said he Herman Sanchez, the tribe’s program administrator. The tribe was also hit by a flood last year, he said.

When FEMA sent an inspector to examine the wreckage, Sanchez said the man had “no idea what an adobe was.” The rules at the time also required the expert to set foot in the holy sites and take photos there.

“In our culture, you can’t take photos in some places,” Sanchez said, and that prevented them from getting money for repairs. In the end, FEMA gave the tribe $1.3 million to repair 200 homes that, if divided, would not cover contractor expenses and construction costs, he said.

“The money just sat there and the seasons came and went and the houses fell into disrepair,” Sanchez said. “Then a lot of them were total losses, but people were still living in them. We didn’t get much help from previous governments.”

The Santo Domingo members advised FEMA on the necessary reforms and called for the process to be made more culturally sensitive. The community, Sanchez said, is “one of, if not the most traditional tribe in the United States.” Its 5,500 members live crammed into 700 houses, an average of about eight people to a house, and only had access to the internet in 2020.

About 80 percent of residents are self-employed ranchers, farmers and jewelry makers, he said. Many live well below the poverty line and do not earn enough to file taxes. The tribe’s meager gas station revenue funds their government — “barely,” Sanchez added.

Like many tribal nations, Santo Domingo never had an emergency or disaster plan. In Native American culture, he explained, “When you plan for a disaster, you demand that the disaster occur, so Native Americans generally don’t want to plan for anything like that.” FEMA’s meaningful applications and project worksheets are complex and, for them, without one Paid consultants were difficult to fill, he said, and they did not cover their needs and problems. The old 75/25 cost-sharing arrangement wasn’t accessible to them because they had to put up a lot of money up front and follow the guidelines to get reimbursed.

“It was difficult to apply for FEMA,” he said. “We don’t have deep pockets. We lived on the prayer that we could get a refund, which wasn’t the case last time. They’ve made big improvements that will help us tremendously.”

Ten years after the flood, tribal members are still working to repair homes. Unable to get money from FEMA, they tried to get grants here and there from other sources, even starting their own construction company so they could afford to repair the deteriorating houses themselves.

Right now, their biggest threat is another flood. Large wildfires in the past two years have devastated the country, meaning “nothing can stop the water from hitting our village,” Sanchez said. And since it is a sovereign nation, there are no official or floodplain maps. With the new reforms, the tribe will apply for compensation grants. Sanchez said FEMA is helping them create their own disaster plan tailored specifically to them.

“My opinion since FEMA has changed tremendously since 2014,” he said. “They now respect our sovereignty.”