Hurricane Irma, with 185 MPH winds, began its path of destruction in the Caribbean on Sept. 6. Homes in St. Martin are damaged, vehicles were flooded, boats and debris litter the harbor.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is running out of disaster relief funds as Hurricane Irma slams Caribbean Island nations and heads toward the U.S. mainland, NBC News reported.
The federal response to Hurricane Harvey’s devastation in Texas has quickly depleted FEMA’s disaster relief fund, which dropped by $2.14 billion last Thursday to $1.01 billion as of Tuesday. The figures from FEMA were first reported by Bloomberg and later confirmed by NBC News.
"FEMA is scheduled to run out of money by Friday, Sept. 8, just two days before Hurricane Irma is expected to hit Florida," Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio said in a joint statement. "Unfortunately, the current disaster relief package Congress is considering for Hurricane Harvey doesn’t account for the additional costs FEMA will likely incur as a result of Hurricane Irma."
William Booher, FEMA’s director of public affairs, told NBC News in an email that it was "too early to speculate on the full impacts and costs of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma." He stressed that FEMA was already deploying resources to prepare for and respond to Irma.
