As the United States continues to battle another devastating hurricane season, Newsweek has compared the level of funding for those displaced by Helene and Milton to the amount sent to help those impacted by conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Helene and Milton
After making landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on September 26, Hurricane Helene carved a deadly arc toward Kentucky, leaving a wake of destruction across the southeastern United States.
The storm resulted in over 200 deaths and destroyed significant sections of the states’ infrastructure, and impacted tens of thousands of properties.
In Florida’s Hillsborough County alone, preliminary assessments put the level of residential damage from Helene at $1.8 billion, with over 1,700 properties suffering “major damage.”
Only days later, Florida felt the full force of Hurricane Milton, which flattened trees and power lines across the state and led to flooding and tornadoes as far as 100 miles inland.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), designed to coordinate natural disaster response efforts across the U.S., has already provided a significant sum to assist the storm-hit states. One of its immediate duties is providing shelter for those who have had to flee the hurricanes’ worst effects or whose homes have been destroyed by Helene and Milton.
On Wednesday, FEMA said that federal assistance for Hurricane Helene victims had surpassed $344 million, split across Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.
The funds, split across six states and 375,000 households, have been used to immediately provide food, power and shelter for the survivors.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
As of October 9, FEMA is still operating dozens of shelters across the affected areas, with North Carolina alone housing over 700 occupants.
FEMA also said that those with damage to their homes or personal property may apply for federal assistance from the agency to help repair storm-related damage and stay at hotels while they work on their long-term housing plan.
The agency has not yet released figures on its spending for the immediate recovery efforts following Hurricane Milton, but it is likely to rise significantly over the coming weeks.
Ukraine
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, millions fled from the country as it began to suffer daily bombardments.
UNHCR data shows around 6.7 million Ukrainian refugees are currently located in other countries, and a further 3.7 million are internally displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration’s displacement tracking matrix.
While almost exclusively located within Europe, primarily in countries bordering Ukraine, the U.S. still provides a significant sum to help those fleeing the conflict.
On October 2, USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced that the U.S. would be providing $237 million in humanitarian funding to “support the most vulnerable conflict-affected populations in Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees in the region.”
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
The announcement brings the total humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since February 2022 to around $3.8 billion.
While this aid has been directed at the domestic needs of the Ukrainian population, the government has also provided funding to support the resettlement of Ukrainian refugees in the U.S.
In April, President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion aid package that included $481 million in supplemental funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement. According to the bill, the agency is intended to use these funds to provide resettlement assistance to Ukrainians who arrived in the United States after September 30, 2023, and through the rest of the fiscal year, as well as refugees from other regions.
Gaza
Following Hamas‘ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and subsequent Israeli military actions in Gaza, around 9 in 10 of Gaza’s population are estimated to have been internally displaced, according to UNICEF.
In the year that has followed, the U.S. has spent a significant sum assisting refugees from Palestine, as well as those internally displaced in Israel.
On September 30, USAID announced a new package of humanitarian assistance worth nearly $336 million to “support Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo
This followed Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s June announcement of $404 million in humanitarian assistance during a humanitarian conference in Jordan, bringing the total to just over $1 billion since October 2023.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is increasingly dire, with severe food insecurity affecting the entire population. Human rights organizations have continued to urge the U.S. government to restore its funding to The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), suspended by Biden in January following allegations of its complicity in the October Hamas attack.
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