Gov. Andy Beshear and Sen. Brandon Smith join Issues and Answers, talk flood and FEMA

HAZARD, Ky. (WYMT) - Governor Andy Beshear joined Steve Hensley on Issues and Answers, talking the flood, FEMA, and the Economy.

Beshear praised the work of first responders during the flood, but said FEMA should have payed out more to victims.

“What it led to is one of the highest acceptance rates that we’ve seen and one of the highest average payouts, but it’s still not enough,” he said.

The Governor hopes to have better communication from FEMA in the future.

”One thing that I hope we can figure out, is how to get people to answer the phone. We have a number of claims that could be valid claims, that FEMA wants to get through but we can’t get the folks that filed to pick up and/or to be there for the inspection itself,” said Beshear.

State Senator Brandon Smith also joined Issues and Answers this week, saying there should be an investigation in to FEMA’s flood response in Eastern Kentucky.

“I think there needs to be an investigation. I believe some of the stuff that I heard was criminal with consideration of the environment that we are in,” he said.

Smith also criticized the Governor’s comment about survivors answering their phones.

“And this thing about complaining that people couldn’t get help because they didn’t answer their phones, a lot of these people didn’t have phones. They were on the ground or in some makeshift tent, and so to kind of hear that comment about, ‘well FEMA couldn’t reach them.’ Get yourself in your car and get your hind-end out there and find some of these people like the rest of us are doing.” he said. “Because if you go, they’re out there.”

Smith believes the lack of housing in Eastern Kentucky, made worse by the floods, is leading to folks leaving Eastern Kentucky.

“Where are we going to put these families if we don’t meet the need for this housing? So, if we miss that mark then we will have a tremendous outmigration,” said Smith.

Beshear says the state is working on purchasing land to move communities to higher ground.

“So we are in active talks to purchase land on higher ground in virtually all the heavily impacted communities,” said Beshear.

You can watch Steve’s full interview with both Governor Beshear and Senator Smith above.

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