A Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) supervisor has been fired for telling staff helping hurricane survivors to skip houses displaying signs supporting Donald Trump.
The agency’s head, Deanne Criswell, described the supervisor’s actions as “reprehensible”, saying Fema takes its mission “to help everyone before, during and after disasters seriously”.
Although Criswell’s statement on X does not indicate when or where the incident took place, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the Division of Emergency Management would be launching an investigation at his direction.
DeSantis called the situation “targeted discrimination” of Trump supporters in Florida.
Fema staff have been in Florida helping residents recover from Hurricane Milton last month, and needed to survey damage to homes to assess who qualified to apply for federal aid.
The Daily Wire reported on Friday that Fema staff had been checking on homes in Lake Placid when they were ordered to skip properties that had yard signs supporting the Republican candidate.
“Trump sign no entry per leadership,” said internal messages in a government system, reports the Daily Wire.
“When we got there we were told to discriminate against people,” a whistleblower told the outlet. “It’s almost unbelievable to think that somebody in the federal government would think that’s okay.”
Criswell, the Fema director, ended her statement saying that she “will continue to do everything I can to make sure this never happens again”.
Congressman James Comer said he would be calling on Criswell to appear before the House Oversight Committee hearing on 19 November.
Josh Hawley, senator for Missouri, also published a letter calling for those involved to be prosecuted if necessary.
Florida was hit by two major hurricanes in the last couple of months.
At least 24 people were killed during Milton, which left millions of homes and businesses without power.
Two weeks before Milton, Hurricane Helene made landfall, going on to become the deadliest mainland US storm since Katrina.
More than 200 people were killed, over half of those in North Carolina, where entire communities were devastated. (BBC News)
