ACLJ Sends Demands to FEMA: Why Didn’t Biden’s FEMA Provide Assistance to Oklahomans Recovering From an EF4 Tornado in April 2024

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is in hot water, and sadly, it’s for good reason as more and more is coming to light about its mismanagement under the Biden Administration. Stories of FEMA’s incompetence and politicization are stacking up. First, it came to light that, under the Biden Administration, FEMA had instructed relief workers in Florida to avoid homes with “Trump” signs in the devastating aftermath of the hurricanes. Then came FEMA’s mismanagement in North Carolina after the traumatic flooding. And how quickly did the Biden Administration spring into action in Los Angeles after the fires? As recently as just days ago, FEMA was outed for paying $59 million to house illegal migrants in New York hotels while taxpaying citizens suffer and remain homeless post disasters?

After hearing about the ACLJ’s FOIA request to FEMA following the “no aid for Trump supporters” fiasco, two Oklahomans reached out to the ACLJ seeking our help. Rachel Magee’s home, located in Love County, Oklahoma, was directly hit by an EF4 tornado in April 2024. She was brought to us by former Majority Floor Leader, the Hon. Jon Echols (OK), who was outraged to see Oklahomans suffering for so long, knowing the funds exist but seemingly are being slow-walked to the point of absurdity or directed away from Americans facing actual natural disasters altogether. 

While we’re still in negotiations regarding FEMA’s response to our last FOIA request, the ACLJ just sent a new FOIA request to FEMA and DHS, this time, demanding records exposing why it is taking FEMA so long to deliver aid, whether in the form of temporary housing or financial assistance, to the areas of Marietta and Love County, Oklahoma.

As we laid out in our request:

The tornado that “hit the Marietta, OK area was rated EF-4” and “killed 1 person.” It was “the first violent tornado to occur in the NWS Norman forecast area since the May 9, 2016 ‘Katie’ EF-4 tornado.”

According to news reports, “[t]he Love County Sheriff’s Office said clean up efforts are expected to be lengthy. The most significant damage was to the city’s Homeland grocery store, Dollar General, hospital, nursing home and Dollar Tree Distribution Center.” This grocery store was the city’s major and only grocery store and its destruction left residents without ready access to food.

Such massive storm damage merits a swift and focused emergency response. FEMA has apparently “approved” $20 million in various types of assistance. Yet, Oklahomans are reporting that FEMA has abandoned the residents of Love County and that now – nine months later – little if any aid or assistance has been delivered or effectuated, regardless of any amount of money or number of applications approved.

Oklahoma is a “red” state, and Love County is a “red” county. Did FEMA deprioritize financial assistance for these Americans because of that?

Given FEMA’s recent record of politicizing the administration of federal disaster aid by categorically denying assistance to Americans based on the content and viewpoint of their protected First Amendment expression and association, and given the majority political affiliation of Oklahoma as a state, and Love County in particular, our clients are concerned FEMA is engaging in similar bias conduct here. If records produced in response to this FOIA indicate otherwise, Oklahomans need to know that as well. They simply need and deserve answers.

Besides the concern over political bias, our client Ms. Magee expressed additional concern that her region is just too sparsely populated to matter to national leaders and policymakers. Our response: Not if the ACLJ has anything to do with it.

As our client Rep. Echols put it: 

Whether FEMA’s delay in assisting Oklahomans is maliciously partisan, or whether it is because of general incompetence, it must end. Neither is a good answer. And if it is some of both, that’s not good, either. FEMA needs sunlight. I’m thrilled to stand with my friends at the ACLJ again in an effort to bring that sunlight to the Great State of Oklahoma. Here, our work will help expose bureaucratic nonsense institutionally, in Washington, DC, but also, it will help Oklahomans. We need a voice in the beltway and the ACLJ is helping us have one.

Stand with us. Help us continue to hold government bureaucracy accountable.