According to a person with insight, the deficiencies were due to the fact that hundreds of employees were made to leave the customer service at the disaster authority Fema at the same time as the flood disaster was ongoing. Last week's floods have claimed at least 120 people's lives and a large number of people are still missing.
The employees were forced to leave the workplace on July 5 when their contracts were not extended, according to documents and the anonymous source. The US Minister for Internal Security, Kristi Noem, had previously introduced a requirement that she personally must approve new costs exceeding 100,000 dollars. She did not renew the contracts until Thursday - five days after they had expired.
People affected by the disaster should be able to contact Fema to receive financial support. During the day of July 5, before the employees were made to leave the authority, 3,027 calls were received and 3,018 were answered. The next day, 2,363 calls were received but only 846 were answered and during the following day, 16,419 calls were received but 2,613 were answered.
An anonymous spokesperson for the department states that the calls increase during natural disasters with longer waiting times and means that they "answered every call quickly and efficiently, and ensured that no one was left without help."
President Donald Trump has been shaking off questions during the week about the significance of the cuts in federal authorities in relation to the consequences of the natural disaster.
