The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied a request from Washington state last week to help pay for damage caused during a storm last year.
In November 2024, about two weeks after the election, winds from a cyclone struck the Pacific Northwest, pelting Washington with gusts over 70 miles per hour. Trees fell on power lines and hundreds of homes and businesses, shattering the window of an Amtrak train and damaging highways.
Damage is seen in a neighborhood in Issaquah, Wash., Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, after a 'bomb cyclone' brought high winds to the Pacific Northwest.
Martha Bellisle / AP
In January, as then-Gov. Jay Inslee was preparing to leave office, the state applied for aid from the federal government to pay for an estimated $34 million in damages from the storm. Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat like Inslee took office shortly after that application. On Monday, Ferguson said the state had met all the criteria to qualify for emergency relief funds, but those funds were nevertheless denied.
A letter from a senior FEMA official doesn’t give a reason for the denial, and FEMA’s regional and national spokespeople didn’t immediately respond to KUOW’s request for comment.
“This is another troubling example of the federal government withholding funding,” Ferguson said in a press release Monday. “Washington communities have been waiting for months for the resources they need to fully recover from last winter’s devastating storms, and this decision will cause further delay.”
Ferguson said the state plans to appeal.
A car sits abandoned surrounded by fallen trees and debris on Thursday, November 21, 2024, along Northup Way in Bellevue. Heavy winds throughout the region were sent by a bomb cyclone roughly 300 miles away in the Pacific Ocean.
Washington State Military Department spokesperson Karina Shagren said this was the first time “in recent memory” the state met the criteria for public assistance and was denied.
“I have no clue why we were denied, and we’re all kind of scratching our heads trying to figure that out,” Shagren told KUOW.
In his first term, President Donald Trump reportedly withheld aid for wildfire damages from Washington while he was feuding with Inslee. On the campaign trail last year and as president this year, Trump has talked about withholding relief from California over disagreements with its Democratic leadership on voter ID laws and even water policy.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, quietly changed its standard terms and conditions a little over two weeks ago, requiring that states and cities comply with the president’s executive orders on cooperating with immigration officials and banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, according to reporting from The New York Times.
It’s not clear if the denial of aid for Washington’s recent cyclone damage was due to a specific state policy. Washington state has a law directing local police not to work with federal immigration officials, and the state superintendent of public instruction has defended DEI, refusing to sign a Department of Education letter last week certifying the state had halted DEI programs.
