The nation’s disaster agency is being stretched to the limit by a spate of storms and wildfires so far in 2024, and the busiest time of year for the Federal Emergency Management Agency is just beginning.
FEMA issued 100 disaster and emergency declarations — for 58 severe storms and flooding events and 42 fires — through the first week of August, according to the agency’s database. That is nearly as many as all of last year (114) and well past the 90 declarations of disasters and fire emergencies the agency issued in 2022.
It is still short of the all-time high of 315 declarations issued by FEMA in 2020, but with the expected active hurricane season ahead and the threat of wildfires continuing in the West, that record isn’t out of reach.
