Hawaii state Sen. Angus McKelvey dressed down the federal government over its response to the wildfires that devastated the Lahaina community on the island of Maui, Hawaii in recent days.
The lawmaker noted that while he appreciated President Joe Biden’s plans to visit the Island state, he urged him and his team not to cause "chaos" at the recovery sites.
McKelvey also had words for FEMA, asking that they come down off of their "30,000 foot cloud" and come into the Honolulu community to actually help the victims of this horrific natural disaster which has claimed the lives of more than 100 people.
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Additionally, the lawmaker rebuked the lack of communication that local disaster relief teams have had with federal crews after the wildfires.
McKelvey made his points during Thursday’s episode of CNN News Central. The lawmaker spoke with host Jim Sciutto about the problems he noticed with the local Maui relief efforts before Sciutto invited him to give his opinion on the federal government’s response to the crisis.
The host noted that McKelvey "expressed frustration" with the U.S. government’s response during an earlier CNN segment and asked if the state senator had a message for Biden upon hearing about his plan to visit the island.
McKelvey replied, saying, "My message to him is I hope in coming that he’s not gonna basically – you know when the president usually arrives, it’s a huge, you know, production and I’m hoping that it’s not going to cause a lot of chaos in the recovery zone."
The lawmaker added, "But I appreciate the fact that he is coming out here to look at it. I don’t know if I’ll be invited to meet with him, but if I were I would be like, ‘You know, the community here is suffering, you see it here firsthand.’"
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He continued, providing a scathing characterization of FEMA. "We need federal resources. It’s better to have more resources than less, but the biggest thing we need is we need FEMA to come off that 30,000-foot cloud to come out to Honolulu and actually be working with the community leaders at the hub level."
McKelvey then voiced his problems trying to coordinate relief effort with the federal government. He said, "Part of the frustration I’ve had is we know what’s going on on the ground. We’re getting requests and information and feedback. We’re sending it up and we’re not getting any kind of response."
"When decisions are made, D.C. and elsewhere, we don’t know about it and of course the community doesn’t know about it because of the communications," he reported.
The state lawmaker added, "And here’s the reality, when you’re in the community people look at you. They don’t care if you’re the state, the county – you’re government. And if you can’t provide answers and information then that helps to create more of a resentment and distrust."
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