By Bracey Harris and Joshua Eaton -
NBC News
FULTONDALE, Ala.
— When a tornado with winds of up to 150 miles per hour tore through this small Alabama town last year, 14-year-old Elliott Arizaga-Hernandez ran upstairs to grab his flashlight — a birthday present — in case he got caught. lights out.
He ran back to the basement, where his parents and his four siblings were, snuggling with them as the upstairs windows shattered.
Elliott's older brother, Christopher, later recalled hearing a roar like a train engine.
“Come down!” Cristóbal yelled.
A brick wall in the basement collapsed.
His mother, Saraid Hernandez, grabbed Elliott moments before the roof collapsed.
“Mommy!” Elliott yelled as a beam fell, catching Saraid's arm with Elliott underneath.
The Arizaga family lived in a two-bedroom bungalow in Fultondale, Alabama, for four years before a 2021 tornado destroyed it.Nicole Craine/NBC News
At that moment, she realized that she was seriously injured, she later told Christopher.
But she was more worried about Elliott, her second youngest child.
"Pray," he told her in Spanish, "don't worry, just pray."
The tornado that tore a 10-mile path through Jefferson County, Alabama, on January 25, 2021, destroyed 86 homes and severely damaged 45 more, devastating Fultondale, a suburb north of Birmingham with a population of nearly 10,000. .
The winds were strong enough to overturn storage containers and a mobile home.
Uninsured residents in Fultondale, Alabama, had few options to rebuild after a tornado destroyed dozens of homes in January 2021. File Gary Cosby Jr. / USA Today Network
"Our city was torn down," Mayor Larry Holcomb said afterward.
"That is,
completely destroyed
."
As the scale of the losses became clear, Holcomb and local emergency management officials pleaded for help from the federal government by appealing to the White House.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimated that the cost of helping uninsured people find temporary shelter and begin rebuilding their homes would exceed $1.8 million.
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But the federal government rejected Jefferson County's request for help, saying the tornado did not cause enough damage to require FEMA's help.
Now, more than a year later, the flattened houses are surrounded by rubble.
After FEMA's denial, Holcomb pinned his hopes on the state, but was frustrated to learn that there is no publicly funded help available in Alabama for those who can't afford to rebuild.
“
They don't offer anything
,” he said.
Patti Herring checks the remains of her home in Fultondale, Alabama, on January 26, 2021. File Jay Reeves / AP
FEMA's Individual Assistance Program spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year to help uninsured residents get back on their feet after severe storms.
If the White House approves a state's aid request, usually based on a FEMA recommendation, eligible families can receive
up to $75,800 for expenses
including home repairs, temporary hotel stays, hospital bills and funeral costs. .
For recipients, these funds can enable them to rebuild a home of many years, instead of becoming homeless.
But
this critical help is out of reach
for many of the nation's disaster survivors, including some of the most financially vulnerable, according to an NBC News analysis.
From fall 2018 through fall 2021, the federal government denied nearly 40% of state applications for FEMA's Individual Assistance Program, with a total of 33 denials, according to an examination of agency records. .
Rejections occurred in wildfire, flash flood, tornado, and landslide disasters.
FEMA estimated that it would have cost $107.5 million to fulfill these denied applications, or less than half of what the agency approved to support New Jerseyans after Hurricane Ida.
These were often
highly concentrated damage disasters
– dozens of homes destroyed in a handful of counties, rather than widespread statewide destruction.
FEMA's program generally prioritizes aid for major disasters and those in densely populated areas;
The agency often considers these other disasters too small to require federal assistance, saying state and local governments should be able to help instead.
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However, the NBC News analysis found that many of FEMA's denials occurred in communities where economic hardships left disaster survivors with few alternatives to get back on their feet: Nearly all communities
denied federal aid had rates poverty rates higher than the national average
, while in two-thirds of these communities, less than half of the affected neighbors had insurance.
Alabama, one of the poorest states, was the most rejected in this three-year period, after requesting help for a 2018 hurricane, winter storms in 2019 and the tornado in 2021 that destroyed the Arizaga family home.
Alabama is also one of at least 39 states that lack a publicly funded state aid program designed to help disaster survivors rebuild their homes, according to a 2020 survey by the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA). , for its acronym in English).
Without federal or state assistance, struggling residents in these states
are often forced to rely on loans or charity
, which is an imperfect safety net and aid, according to elected officials, emergency managers, community advocates and disaster recovery experts.
While FEMA may not be able to help every community that asks for help, and while states have some responsibility to mitigate the impact of disasters, the federal government still has to step up to help vulnerable people who need it. they need, said Carlos Martín, a researcher at Brookings, an institution that studies the financial consequences of disasters.
“The federal government
has a role to step in and help [when] the state hasn't
,” he said.
Martin believes that FEMA should have a separate approval process for aid to low-income communities to ensure they are given priority.
Without access to help from FEMA, Monique Reese turned to a local church and obtained a loan to begin repairs on her tornado-damaged home in Newnan, Georgia.
Arvin Temkar/NBC News
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, has been fighting to change this process for a decade, ever since FEMA denied aid to Illinois after a tornado in Harrisburg in 2012 destroyed or damaged more than 200 homes and killed eight.
After that, he said, he learned not to promise his constituents that he would bring home disaster relief from the White House.
"I stopped saying those things because I didn't want to create false hope," he said in a recent interview.
"It's very rare that there is assistance coming from Washington," she noted.
FEMA considers a variety of factors when deciding which disasters deserve assistance under its Individual Assistance Program, primarily focusing on the state's economy and the proportion of damaged or destroyed homes that were uninsured.
(FEMA also has a separate Public Assistance Program, which works to help local governments rebuild infrastructure after disasters; this has a more transparent threshold for which communities receive help, based on the amount of estimated damage per capita).
Durbin has pushed for legislation that would require FEMA's Individual Assistance Program to place
a clearer emphasis on local economic circumstances
, including considering community median income.
But his bill has not advanced.
In response to NBC News' analysis, FEMA released a statement saying it has been working to make its Individual Assistance Program more equitable and to "meet people where they are to identify and remove barriers to our programs."
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“We are also not leaving a stone unturned when it comes to helping socially vulnerable communities and survivors,” the statement continued, “and efforts that require legal or regulatory changes are also on the table.
The bottom line is that we are looking at this from all angles and will do everything we can to support vulnerable communities and survivors through our individual assistance program.”
FEMA declined to provide details on any proposed policy changes.
Nearly eight months after a tornado hit Newnan, an Atlanta suburb, damaged homes were still awaiting repairs as of November 2021.Arvin Temkar/NBC News
Multiple investigations show
racial
and economic
disparities
in FEMA's disaster relief programs.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing all agencies to assess whether and to what extent their programs "perpetuate systemic barriers to opportunity and benefits for people of color." and other underserved groups.
The White House, which has final approval of disaster declarations and aid based on recommendations to be made by FEMA, declined to comment beyond the agency's statement.
Biden nominated a new FEMA administrator, who was confirmed last April, but the criteria for the Individual Assistance Program have not changed.
The problem
is becoming more urgent as climate change fuels stronger storms
, taking an unequal toll due to inequalities in where and how homes are built.
That makes it even more important to address how the government helps those who lose everything, experts and advocates say.
[Powerful tornado blows up a house with a young man inside]
"If we continue to have these kinds of disparities in terms of emergency declarations and the flow of funds, we're going to
find more and more communities of color and poor communities even more marginalized, unprotected
," said Robert Bullard, director of an environmental justice resource center. at Texas Southern University.
“And we will put them at greater risk,” he added.
The House on Oak Street
For four years, before the tornado hit Fultondale, the Arizaga family had lived in the little white house on Oak Street.
The two-bedroom
bungalow
was very tight for a family of seven, but it was high on a hill, allowing Saraid to see the younger children from the kitchen window as they walked home from the bus stop. .
After Oscar Arizaga Sr. was in a serious car accident in 2019, the family remodeled the bathroom to include a shower.
They were renting the house, but had signed a contract that they hoped would allow them to buy it one day.
The tornado destroyed the house in seconds, splintering the joists that supported the floor above the basement, family members later recalled.
After the wind died down, Christopher, 20, called 911. He then helped Brandon, 16, and his younger brother, Eddie, 7, scale the collapsed brick wall in the basement.
But Elliott was trapped inside, along with his parents and his older brother, Oscar Jr.
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Christopher tried to get them to safety, but there was debris everywhere.
He heard his mother sing from below: "God, great is your love..." "God, great is your love."
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Oscar Jr., 23, who was pinned under sheets of plywood in the dark basement, called Elliott to see if he was okay.
"Okay," Saraid told him, "stop calling him."
Oscar Jr. heard his father moan under a beam.
Oscar Sr., 45, had spent much of the previous year out of work recovering from the car accident.
He had just returned to his job building coils for large industrial motors several weeks earlier.
His son worried: What if he has been injured again?
Emergency services arrived and began to free Oscar Jr. Before they helped him out, his mother told him she didn't know if he would survive.
She told him to be strong for his younger brothers.
Then he said,
"Your brother didn't make it
. "
Oscar Jr. did not believe him.
"He's not thinking clearly," he believed.
After rescuers helped him out, he saw
the street look like “the apocalypse,”
he said, with neighbors screaming for help and sirens blaring.
Emergency services released his parents and took them to waiting ambulances.
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But when emergency crews got to Elliott, they found that he had been crushed by a falling floor beam and air conditioning unit after the first floor of the house collapsed.
They wrapped his body in a sheet and took him outside to wait for the coroner.
Oscar Jr. knelt on the road and wept.
"In the Arizaga family there are five brothers, not four," he shouted.
"There are supposed to be five."
Saraid Hernandez, center, said the family has had trouble adjusting to life without Elliott.
From left: Eddie, Brandon, Christopher and Oscar Arizaga-Hernandez.Nicole Craine/NBC News
help denied
In the days after Elliott's death, the Arizaga family faced grief and a new reality.
Like dozens of other families in Fultondale, they completely lost their home.
More than a third of Jefferson County residents whose homes were damaged were uninsured, according to federal estimates, which put the poverty rate at 16%.
As they waited to see if the federal government would send assistance,
many residents turned to nearby churches, or to neighbors and relatives
, for help.
City officials collected donations to pay for hotel rooms, but with debris cleanup already cutting into city reserve funds, there was little more local authorities could do.
The Arizaga family had no renters insurance and still had outstanding medical bills from Oscar Sr.'s car accident. Their vehicles were destroyed by the storm, mangled by falling tree limbs.
Debris is still scattered on the site of the Arizaga family's former home.
Nicole Craine/NBC News
Saraid was quickly released from the hospital, but Oscar Sr. needed surgery for his broken arm and was hospitalized for days.
When news of Elliott's death spread, a member of the congregation offered the family a room in their two-bedroom house so they wouldn't be homeless.
An anonymous donor paid for Elliott's funeral.
They literally lost everything they had, including their son."
Larry Holcomb Mayor of Fultondale
On February 9, 2021, the family buried Elliott after a sermon that gave Christopher some comfort, particularly the part where the pastor said that they would see Elliott again, in heaven.
Holcomb, the mayor, came to pay his respects and left the family a card, telling them to call if they needed anything.
"They literally lost everything they had, including their son," he said recently.
"I can't imagine the stress or pain they went through."
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Fultondale Mayor Larry Holcomb said some residents who were unable to rebuild after the January 25, 2021 tornado have left town.
Nicole Craine/NBC News
Two days after the funeral, Alabama Republican Governor Kay Ivey requested a major disaster declaration from the Biden Administration so that Fultondale residents could apply for FEMA's Individual Assistance Program.
In her application, she wrote that the state was still recovering from a hurricane and tropical storm the previous fall and could not provide the help Fultondale needed.
"The state of Alabama does not have a statewide program available to support individual and family recovery," Ivey wrote.
“Individual and family recovery will exceed local jurisdictions and the support capacity of the State.”
His application was one of at least 36 FEMA received last year for individual assistance after natural disasters.
Melissa Forbes, acting assistant administrator for FEMA's Office of Recovery, said in a recent interview that the agency considers a number of factors when deciding whether to approve individual assistance, including state taxable resources, the amount of damage and the availability of residents insurance.
But there is no definitive formula, which means it
can be difficult for local leaders to predict whether the aid will be approved by the federal government
.
And FEMA doesn't consider whether a state has funded its own disaster relief program to support residents, but only considers whether the state has the financial capacity to help.
Forbes acknowledged that some claims for natural disasters "are on the tightrope" in terms of whether or not they need help.
“We do our best to assess each situation based on the information that states provide us,” she said.
On March 17,
the federal government denied Alabama's request for aid
.
Forbes said the damage did not exceed the state's ability to respond.
But the state did not offer help either.
Ivey's office referred questions to the Alabama Emergency Management Agency.
Agency spokesman Greg Robinson said that in conversations with state lawmakers, agency officials have emphasized the importance of a program that would offer direct public assistance to people struggling to recover from disasters, but no money has been appropriated. .
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All that was left for Fultondale residents was charity or loans.
United Way approved $139,927 in aid, less than 10% of what FEMA had estimated was needed.
“
I don't understand why Fultondale wasn't declared a disaster area
,” Oscar Jr. said recently.
“It was pretty messed up,” he noted.
Elliott's mother shows a drawing she made weeks before the tornado.
Nicole Craine/NBC News
The small town pitched in to help the Arizaga family, delivering meals and setting
up GoFundMe
accounts that have raised tens of thousands of dollars.
But Oscar Sr. was still unable to work and faced new and mounting medical bills.
After weeks of sharing a room at their friend's house, the Arizaga family approached Holcomb for help finding a place to live.
He offered them to stay in one of his rental properties for free.
"A major source of frustration"
When FEMA turned down Alabama's request for help for the Fultondale tornado, Jim Coker, director of the Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency, said there was no clear answer as to why.
“That is a decision that was made above us,” he said.
Emergency managers across the country and some members of Congress have expressed frustration with this process.
In Buchanan County, Virginia, Bart Chambers, director of emergency management, learned in January that the small Appalachian town of Hurley had lost its appeal to FEMA and would not receive individual assistance after flooding destroyed 31 houses.
"There are criteria that we were supposed to meet, but I don't know how we could not have met the criteria," he said.
"I get irritated because there is no specific criteria on how that evaluation is done," she added.
In the Chalk Level neighborhood, a historically black area in suburban Atlanta, residents still rely on volunteer groups to help them rebuild their homes nearly a year after a tornado damaged more than 130 homes, a quarter of those who did not have insurance, since FEMA refused to provide assistance or help to the community.
Many homes in the Chalk Level neighborhood in Newnan, Ga., were generationally inherited and uninsured, leaving their owners with limited means to rebuild after a March 25, 2021 tornado.Arvin Temkar/NBC News
"They never told us: They fell short because of this," said Michael Terrell, director of emergency management for Coweta County, Georgia.
“That was never passed on to us.
We just received a very generic letter
”, He counted.
FEMA said in a statement that the agency works with local nonprofit groups to support disaster recovery, even in cases where individual assistance is declined.
The agency also expanded outreach to underserved communities and worked to ensure more disaster survivors are eligible for help once individual assistance is approved, according to the release.
In 2018, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the “subjective” nature of FEMA decisions made it difficult for states to know when to seek help.
Last October, during a US House Homeland Security Committee hearing on fairness in disaster response, the GAO official who oversaw that report said the lack of clarity about which communities receive help is still a problem.
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“What could happen in rural Mississippi could be completely different than what happens in another part of the country, and I think this has been a major source of frustration for local officials over the years,” he said during the audience Chris Currie, director of national security and justice affairs at the GAO.
"They could even see a neighboring county in another state be declared for the same disaster and theirs wasn't," he continued, "and they don't know why, they were given no reason."
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El representante John Katko, republicano por Nueva York, dijo que las fórmulas de la agencia “tienden a favorecer los desastres de gran envergadura”, mientras pasan por alto las necesidades de las comunidades de bajos ingresos después de eventos de menor escala, como las inundaciones de 2017 que causaron millones de dólares en daño a un pequeño pueblo en la región de Finger Lakes de su estado.
“Estoy harto y cansado de ver personas construyendo mansiones multimillonarias en la playa y luego recibir asistencia de FEMA, mientras que a las personas en áreas rurales no les llega nada”, dijo durante la audiencia. “Tenemos que cambiar eso”, remarcó.
La segunda tormenta
El 25 de marzo de 2021, una semana después de que FEMA denegara la solicitud de ayuda de Alabama para Fultondale, otra tormenta azotó el estado. Una serie de tornados mató a seis personas y destruyó más de 200 viviendas. El tornado más largo permaneció en el suelo durante 80 millas, con vientos de hasta 150 mph. Fultondale se salvó en gran medida, pero otras partes del condado de Jefferson se vieron afectadas, incluida Birmingham, donde resultaron dañadas 42 casas.
Ivey nuevamente solicitó ayuda de FEMA, esta vez para ocho condados, incluido el condado de Jefferson. Con daños que se extienden por todo el estado, Biden pronto emitió una declaración de desastre, abriendo el camino para que los residentes soliciten asistencia individual de FEMA.
Dos tornados azotaron el condado de Jefferson, Alabama, en 2021. El condado recibió asistencia de FEMA solo después del menos dañino en marzo, porque era parte de una tormenta estatal más grande.
Aunque muchas menos casas resultaron dañadas en el condado de Jefferson durante la tormenta de marzo que en la de enero, aquellos que habían sido golpeados por la segunda tormenta ahora tenían un camino hacia la ayuda federal.
Si no hay un programa estatal que ayude a las personas a recuperarse, ¿por qué no hay tampoco uno federal?"
Carlos Martín INVESTIGADOR DE BROOKINGS
Martín, el investigador de la Institución Brookings, descubrió que a los sobrevivientes de catástrofes más grandes les puede ir mejor porque reciben más ayuda del gobierno. Él cree que los Gobiernos federal y los estatales deberían trabajar juntos para cerrar las brechas actuales en el apoyo a las personas necesitadas.
“Si no hay un programa de asistencia estatal que ayude a las personas a recuperarse, ¿por qué no hay un programa de asistencia federal para cubrir incluso estos casos más pequeños?”, preguntó.
Los daños del tornado del 25 de enero de 2021 se concentraron en el condado de Jefferson, Alabama. Durante otra tormenta dos meses después, solo algunas de las casas destruidas en el estado estaban en el condado de Jefferson.
Bullard, profesor de la Texas Southern University, dijo que la ayuda sin fines de lucro es una alternativa inadecuada.
“Pone la carga de encontrar asistencia sobre los hombros de la caridad”, dijo. “Esa es la disparidad. No hay forma de que una red u organización benéfica pueda proporcionar el tipo de recursos que el gobierno y los contribuyentes pueden proporcionar”, explicó.
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Justin McKenzie, jefe del Departamento de Bomberos de Fultondale, dijo que algunos residentes cuyas casas fueron destruidas por la tormenta de enero no podían costear la reconstrucción sin la ayuda de FEMA y tuvieron que abandonar Fultondale para empezar de nuevo. Se le ocurrió que si ese primer tornado hubiera permanecido en el suelo más tiempo, cruzando los límites del condado y dañando a más personas, los residentes de Fultondale habrían tenido más posibilidades de obtener ayuda.
“No queremos que nadie más salga lastimado”, dijo, “pero si hubiera hecho eso, habría abierto los fondos”.
"Empezar a vivir de nuevo"
Para la familia Arizaga, permanecer en Fultondale se volvió más difícil a medida que pasaba el tiempo. Había recuerdos de Elliott en todas partes, en la escuela, el centro comercial y el parque donde los niños solían jugar en un arroyo.
La familia Arizaga muestra fotos de Elliott en su nuevo hogar.Nicole Craine / NBC News
Saraid extrañaba sus conversaciones con Elliott, algunas alegres, pero otras serias. Unas semanas antes de la tormenta, después de que varios adolescentes murieran en un accidente automovilístico, recordó que él le dijo: “Si te pasara algo, me volvería loco. No podría vivir sin ti”. Y ella le respondió: "Ni siquiera digas eso, porque yo también me volvería loca si algo te pasara a ti”.
La familia ha tenido problemas para adaptarse. “Nunca imaginamos que sería nuestra última noche juntos, que nuestras vidas cambiarían tan drásticamente”, dijo Saraid. “Es casi como si estuviéramos comenzando a vivir de nuevo en este momento como si fuera nuestro primer día con vida… Estamos aprendiendo a vivir sin él”.
Nunca imaginamos que sería nuestra última noche juntos, que nuestras vidas cambiarían tan drásticamente"
Saraid Hernandez Madre de Elliot
Para la primavera, la familia había tomado la decisión de irse de Fultondale.
Usaron algunos de los más de $100,000 recaudados en donaciones de GoFundMe para el pago inicial de una casa en Adamsville, a unos 20 minutos de distancia. En su sala de estar, construyeron un santuario para Elliott en una vitrina, exhibiendo su cuaderno de bocetos y la trompeta que esperaba tocar en la iglesia.
Oscar Jr., Saraid y Eddie han mantenido la trompeta que Elliott esperaba tocar en la iglesia.Nicole Craine / NBC News
En el aniversario del tornado, Saraid regresó a Oak Street.
Los autos con los parabrisas destrozados todavía estaban estacionados allí. Uno de sus vecinos vivía en una casa rodante, esperando la madera donada que necesitaba para reconstruir. Otras casas habían desaparecido por completo, reducidas a lotes con césped y losas de concreto cubiertas de escombros. Saraid colocó flores amarillas en el que solía ser su hogar.
Bracey Harris informó desde Fultondale, Alabama; Joshua Eaton informó desde Washington, D.C.
Metodología
Para comprender con qué frecuencia FEMA y la Casa Blanca se negaron a aprobar la asistencia directa a los sobrevivientes de desastres naturales, NBC News analizó las evaluaciones preliminares de daños publicadas por FEMA entre el otoño de 2018 y el otoño de 2021. Se compararon con una base de datos de desastres de FEMA que resultaron elegidos para el Programa de Asistencia Individual. Contamos como “rechazadas” solo las solicitudes de los gobernadores que resultaron en la no concesión de asistencia individual a ningún condado. En algunos casos, los gobernadores solicitaron ayuda para más condados de los que la recibieron, pero esos no se incluyeron en nuestro análisis.
Bracey Harris es reportera nacional de NBC News, con sede en Jackson, Mississippi.
Joshua Eaton
is an NBC News researcher based in Washington, D.C.
