The disaster relief workers in the US state of Florida were directed to "avoid homes" with signs supporting President-elect Donald Trump when Hurricane Milton ravaged the area, according to a report in NY Post, citing the Daily Wire. Marn'i Washington, a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supervisor passed the order to her workers both verbally and in a Microsoft Teams chat used by the group, which was working to secure homes and rescue people around Lake Placid - one of the worst-affected areas.
"Avoid homes advertising Trump," Washington wrote in a "best practices" memo sent to employees. As many as 20 homes displaying signs for the Republican leader - a common sight during the election season, were ignored between the end of October and into November, as part of the directive by Washington.
"I thought we could go help and make a difference. When we got there we were told to discriminate against people. It's almost unbelievable to think that somebody in the federal government would think that's okay," one of the workers was quoted as saying by the outlet.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took to X (formerly Twitter) and announced an investigation into the matter, calling it a "blatant weaponization of government by partisan activists".
"At my direction, the Division of Emergency Management is launching an investigation into the federal government's targeted discrimination of Floridians who support Donald Trump," wrote DeSantis.
"New leadership is on the way in DC, and I'm optimistic that these partisan bureaucrats will be fired," he added.
A FEMA official conceded that they were aware of the incident and "taking action at this moment regarding the situation". Meanwhile, Washington had not been punished for the guidance but shifted to a different Florida county, according to the last update.
Notably, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance had criticised the current Biden-Harris administration for their slow response to the disaster as the region was pummeled by several two hurricanes in a relatively short period.
Also read | Explained: How Milton Became A Powerful Hurricane And Why It's A Concern
Hurricane Milton's impact
At least 16 people lost their lives when Hurricane Milton dumped around 229 mm of rainfall in just three hours in Florida, causing flash flooding. Powerful tornadoes that preceded the hurricane's landfall further added to the destruction. At one point, over three million people were without electricity as the hurricane tore through the region.
A study last year stated that storms originating in the Atlantic Ocean were now more than twice as likely to strengthen from Category 1 to Category 3 in just 36 hours, based on data from 2001-2020 compared with 1971-1990.
