The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR), U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (DHS CRCL), and the FEMA Office of Equal Rights (OER) has announced the successful completion of a language access compliance review of COVID-19 public health messaging in 19 states. This review included trainings and technical assistance for the states to ensure vital public health resources are available to people with limited English proficiency (LEP). These trainings help build skilled emergency management workforces that are better able to meet the needs of the communities they serve.
Press Releases
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell addressed the nation’s emergency managers at the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA)’s 2024 Mid-Year Forum in Washington, D.C. In her speech, she celebrated NEMA’s 50th anniversary and the long-standing partnership between the emergency management organizations. As the role of emergency managers continues to shift to meet changing needs of the nation, Administrator Criswell called for resilience-focused collaboration to find ways to “equitably deliver our resources to communities before they need them.”
Through the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program, FEMA has awarded $872,894 to the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin (MITW) for an underground power line conversion project. The project will convert a series of overhead copper weld power lines to underground aluminum power lines. Since their installation in the 1950s, these lines have sustained repeated outages from natural hazards. By converting the overhead lines to underground lines, this project will ensure power to the reservation remains operable during severe weather, ice storms and extreme cold.
Three Disaster Recovery Centers in Saranac, Detroit and Gibraltar are set to open at 8 a.m., Monday, March 18, 2024, at the following locations
FEMA awarded funds to the Jobos Bay Natural Reserve and the Cambalache Species Refuge to promote the study of Puerto Rico’s ecosystem.
FEMA announced that federal disaster assistance has been made available to the Wrangell Cooperative Association to supplement recovery efforts in the areas affected by a severe storm, landslides and mudslides on Nov. 20, 2023.
Additional Disaster Recovery Centers are scheduled to open at 8 a.m., Monday, March 18, in Ionia, Wayne (Detroit) and Wayne (South East). Locations will be announced soon.
FEMA, in partnership with the state of Michigan, is hiring state residents in Grand Rapids, Lansing
and Detroit to assist with recovery from the Aug. 24-26, 2023, severe storms, tornadoes and flooding.
The state-federal Mobile Disaster Recovery Center in Boone County will close permanently on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at 5 p.m.
Residents of all declared counties can continue to visit other DRCs in West Virginia.
Most of the Disaster Recovery Centers open now in Maine will close permanently the week of March 20-23.