Year after bomb cyclone, FEMA denial stings WA as Trump touts red-state aid

One year ago this week, a powerful bomb cyclone ripped through Washington state, with winds of up to 74 mph downing trees and power lines, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and killing two people.

The storm caused an estimated $34 million in damage across six counties. It was the kind of costly natural disaster that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has historically stepped in to help.

But President Donald Trump’s administration has stiffed Washington’s request for a major disaster declaration – without any detailed explanation – despite a damage assessment showing the state qualified for federal assistance.

By contrast, Trump has recently steered, and bragged about, FEMA dollars to Republican-led states, publicly linking disaster money to those states’ electoral support for him.

Trump posted on Truth Social last month that he was approving $2.5 million in aid for Missouri after severe hailstorms, flooding and tornadoes. I won ‘The Show Me State’ three times in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and it is my Honor to deliver for these incredible Patriots!” he wrote.

He made similar political comments in awarding millions in disaster money to Alaska and North Dakota, states where he noted he “won BIG” and had “Great People” – while denying requests from Democratic-led states including Maryland and Illinois.

The arguable double standard comes against a backdrop of Trump’s broader campaign to reward political allies and punish enemies, including efforts to claw back congressionally approved funding from Democratic-led cities and states.

FEMA, meanwhile, has been rocked by turmoil and staff departures, with its acting leader resigning this week. Trump has floated eliminating the entire agency, leaving states to handle hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.

“This isn’t Trump’s money”

Michael Coen, a former FEMA chief of staff, said Trump is the first president to openly tie federal disaster aid to political loyalty.

“Emergency management has historically been something that is not partisan,” said Coen, who served in the Biden and Obama administrations, in an interview. “Unfortunately, I have started to see now that I think the president is being more partisan in his decisions.”

Not all of FEMA’s disaster aid decisions this year have fallen neatly along Democratic and Republican lines, as some aid has been granted and rejected in red and blue states.

But Trump’s recent public comments and previous reports that he’s withheld or threatened to withhold disaster assistance to states while beefing with Democratic governors have led to renewed accusations of political bias.

In Washington, Trump’s denial of bomb cyclone assistance has drawn outrage from elected leaders and strained the budgets of towns, counties and utilities left on the hook for one of the state’s worst windstorms of recent years.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who led the state’s entire congressional delegation in a bipartisan push to get the disaster relief, blasted Trump over the apparent double standard.

“The President is a crook – and everyone should understand these are taxpayer dollars he’s abusing, this isn’t Trump’s money. Trump is punishing Blue states and rewarding Red states – and he could not be more transparent about his corruption,” Murray said in a statement to The Seattle Times.

Gov. Bob Ferguson said Trump’s decisions should alarm all Americans regardless of their political persuasion. “No president should play politics with disaster relief – but that’s exactly what President Trump appears to be doing,” he said in a statement.

The White House this week defended the denial of aid under the Stafford Act, which gives the president broad authority to decide whether a disaster is severe enough to warrant federal help.

“The President responds to each request for Federal assistance under the Stafford Act with great care and consideration, ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement – not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters,” said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, in a statement

But neither the White House nor FEMA officials have offered details on why Washington’s request was rejected.

The state submitted its application for a major federal disaster declaration in January under then-Gov. Jay Inslee.

The 36-page request detailed damage across the state and showed the roughly $34 million cost of cleanup and repairs exceeded FEMA’s threshold to qualify for help in six counties: King, Snohomish, Grays Harbor, Pacific, Wahkiakum and Walla Walla.

That figure didn’t even cover the entire cost of the storm in Washington – just the counties where the tab for things like debris removal or utility and road repairs were the most expensive.

The state asked for “public assistance” dollars, which would have allowed local governments to get reimbursed for some of those costs, said Karina Shagren, a spokesperson for the state’s emergency management department.

In April, the Trump administration rejected the request in a one-page letter from senior FEMA official Cameron Hamilton stating “based on our review of all the information available” the federal help “is not warranted.”

The state appealed that decision but was rejected again in June.

“We are going to be on our own”

The decision leaves towns in Washington with no federal help even as states like Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas have had multiple disaster-aid requests approved by the Trump administration this year.

FEMA’s public assistance program is supposed to help states and cities with costly natural disasters they can’t easily handle on their own.

Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers said FEMA’s aid denial was “a big disappointment” and that he’s concerned with the overall direction of federal disaster help.

“It appears to me that the federal system of assistance, which we really rely on, we don’t know if it is going to be there or not,” Somers said. “That means when we get hit, we are going to be on our own.”

The bomb cyclone damage in Snohomish County totaled more than $15 million – nearly three times the level that qualified the county for FEMA assistance, according to the state’s damage assessment.

The bulk of that expense was for the Snohomish County Public Utility District, the publicly owned electric utility, which had to replace more than 130 power poles, 110 transformers and 33 miles of damaged electrical wires.

“The damage was very severe and it impacted a lot of infrastructure,” said Kellie Stickney, a PUD spokesperson.

She said that in the past, the utility could count on getting at least some FEMA help for those costs, providing a level of certainty for customers. The surprise denial this year left the utility and its ratepayers absorbing the costs, which were covered from a reserve fund.

The utility raised its rates in February, in part due to the storm, and Stickney said uncertainty about federal help in the future could have an impact on ratepayers.

“That would be the decision we would have to make,” Stickney said. “Either we don’t serve our customers to the level we want to, or it could eventually impact rates. Neither of those outcomes are ones we desire.”

The PUD is backing bipartisan legislation co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, that would make a number of reforms to FEMA aid – and specifically prohibit basing grants on “political affiliation.”

Coen, the former FEMA chief of staff, said the agency’s threshold for awarding disaster aid had given some transparency and consistency to its decisions – certainty that has now been eroded.

He reviewed Washington’s request for FEMA aid, saying it appeared “very compelling” and said the Trump administration’s lack of clarity about its denial is a troubling sign.

“If you are a state with a Democratic governor, or a state that voted for Kamala Harris, is there a different threshold? How bad does it have to be? We don’t know, he said.