'Gut punch': Trump admin ripped for denying aid following emergency

28 July

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a law enforcement event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

A decision to deny federal emergency aid to areas of Western Maryland hit hard by flooding in May is being called petty, partisan and punishing by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D).

State, federal and local officials met for 90 minutes inside a Westernport restaurant Sunday to discuss last week’s denial by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the next steps they can take.

And while there is bipartisan agreement that the denial is a “gut punch” to the area, ant that there must be an appeal, there is disagreement on the motivations behind the decision.

Sen. Mike McKay (R-Western Maryland) said that while the reason for the rejection is not yet clear, he does not believe it was political. But Gov. Wes Moore blamed the denial squarely on President Donald Trump (R).

“His decision was a political decision,” Moore told reporters gathered under an awning next to the Port West restaurant Sunday. “There’s no other justification that could make where West Virginia had around the same amount of damage that was done” and had its application approved, while Maryland was rejected.

The comments to reporters are some of the strongest yet made by Moore as he continues to decry a denial of federal aid by the Trump administration.

Moore, McKay, Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-6th) and Westernport Mayor Judy Hamilton met at Port West Restaurant, which was hit hard by flooding that overwhelmed the town’s Main Street area in May. But on Sunday, it was reopepned and doing brisk business.

“Port West and the Subway are staples here,” McKay said, standing outside as a thunderstorm passed through.

Lawmakers call denial of disaster assistance for Western Maryland floods a ‘gut punch’

McKay said the two restaurants were beneficiaries of both a shovel brigade organized by area residents and local government aid that quickly provided some funding that allowed both to jumpstart their own recoveries.

The town and parts of Allegany and Garrett counties were inundated by storms in May. Westernport, which sits near the Potomac and George’s Creek, was among the flood damaged towns.

George’s Creek surged to more than 12 feet above major flood stage. Wills Creek in Cumberland rose 8 feet. The Potomac River also flooded. Areas of both counties were evacuated. Midland, Lonaconing, and Westernport were among the hardest-hit areas.

Moore declared a state of emergency in the area. In addition to providing some state aid, an application for federal recovery funds was also submitted.

Official damage estimates in that request approached $90 million, including damage to the George’s Creek Railroad and to exposed water and gas lines. Many of those damages were offset by insurance claims and further reduced through a “joint assessment” process in which FEMA agrees with some claims but denies others, until the damage estimate was reduced to $15.8 million.

In a letter sent to state and local officials last week, FEMA denied that funding even as it approved $11.7 million in aid for two West Virginia counties hit by a different storm in June.

Hamilton said the area is still struggling to recover. Half a mile away, Ross Street is still closed after part of the road was damaged by the flooding.

“That road alone leads down into town,” Hamilton said. “We have approximately 10 first responders from the fire department, EMS, that live on that hill. By that road not being open, it’s going to delay response. They’re going to have to go a little further out and down … that is going to be a major problem.”

The town of about 2,000 people has a $2 million budget. Damage to the municipality — excluding private property — is currently estimated at $10 million, including the loss of four city vehicles, Hamilton said.

“We lost a lot — the town itself — all of our equipment, our trucks … we lost four vehicles,” she said. “We were able to recently, through insurance money, to replace only three.”

The town has been renting additional equipment “because we don’t have the money to purchase that as well. So financially, it is affecting the town as well as all the citizens.”

With months left in the summer, Hamilton said she is already concerned about residents in the area come winter.

“Families here lost their furnaces. They have no money to replace those. So, we have families that will be cold this winter or will result to other means to heat their homes, which is a concern for the fire department as well,” Hamilton said.

“I’ve been a 25-year member with the fire department and usually homes that don’t have the capability of heating, they switch to kerosene, they switch to electric heaters, and it’s very scary for us to know that that’s probably what a lot of those families are going to do,” she said.

Hamilton said a lack of federal aid will hamstring recovery efforts.

“Honestly, I think we’re going to have to let the road set closed as it is right now,” she said of Ross Street. “You know, we’re only able to do what we can do.”

“There is money that the state has given us that right now we’re using for hot water tanks, looking to provide furnaces, those types of things for our residents,” she said. “People have to come first. The road is secondary to our residents.”

Still, Moore, Delaney and McKay said they hold out hope of reconsideration.

Moore said the state is appealing even though the denial letter offers little insight as to the reasons the state request was rejected. And while McKay and some others said they hoped the federal agency would elaborate on the reason for the denial, Moore was more cynical.

“I’ve stopped trying to do the mental gymnastics of trying to understand how this administration is making its decisions, or what to expect when it comes to partnership with them,” Moore told reporters. “What I do know is the decision that they made, it is petty, it is partisan, and it is punishing and is deeply unfair to the people of Allegany and Garrett County.”

McClain Delaney and McKay both said they have asked for meetings with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“It’s important that they are forced to justify why … they rejected it so abruptly, because it does seem that any Democratic member who’s asked for help hasn’t received it,” McLain Delaney said.

“I believe that no matter what, your ZIP code doesn’t matter. You know, people over politics, so it’s horrific,” she said. “But the one thing I keep reiterating is this is the best of what recovery looks like — it’s when state, federal and local come together. They pool their resources, and they figure out ways to leverage them to, you know, lift up in the best and most economical way.”

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McClain vowed to press the administration for funding.

“We’ll embarrass them,” she said.

When asked if she thought the Trump administration is susceptible to those tactics, McClain Delaney said that “if there is enough publicity and enough of an outcry, it does look embarrassing for them because it looks like they’re penalizing people.”

McKay said he still is not attributing the decision to politics and to punishing an area that voted for Trump even as the state overall did not in 2024.

“I tend to believe that it is not political,” McKay said. “I tend to believe, just from the simple fact … that I don’t believe that FEMA, those who are at FEMA, at that level, are playing politics with applications.”

McKay said he hoped state leaders could push for a reconsideration on the merits of the case.

“I believe that we have shown the metrics that we meet everything,” McKay said. “There is an appeal process. I disagree about trying to embarrass anybody. My grandma said you could always catch a whole lot more flies with honey than a baseball bat.”

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.

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