way even for a short period of time. the second is more important. there were like three massive hurricanes that devastated taxes in florida and puerto rico. if he had gone that route, it would have been that pot of money. could you get congress to approve more money? sure. it s a bottomless pit of need in puerto rico right now. the opioid crisis is so expensive. even if you tapped all of the fema funds which are not going to do, it would not fix the problem. now you have the problem again. any attention from the president is good, but you have the issue i think i the lot of these families would argue that this is a daily natural disaster for
this morning on the idea that they have reneged or changed direction, nonetheless it s clear that the white house believes a public health emergency is the right way to go on the opioid crisis. it opens up the ability of the government to use certain funds out of the pool of health money as opposed to using fema monies, which obviously are in short supply due to hurricanes and other disasters. back to you. joe johns at the white house. again, we will hear from the president again on this and get more of an explanation of what is going on. it is different because it doesn t open up the fema funds, and it s not the same thing or level. major interests, we know the president loves deal making and golf and wikileaks. how do we know that? he told us so.
industry. who s going to pay for that and plan it? puerto rico didn t have the money beforehand. so the federal government through not only fema funds but other sources and through the federal government provides a large portion of the call share. everything is done by call share basis. in some cases, you know, like, we may pay for the first 100% of the first, you know, 30 days of emergency expenses depending on how the declaration comes up and what s approved. brock long, we re going to just go right to the school in mexico city where we are seeing a rescue under way. we appreciate you being with us. let s take a look at these live pictures now from mexico city. there are as we know up to 225 people who have been killed in mexico. but this is a school where rescuers are trying to find other students. this is where 21 children and four adults have been pulled out
they should be and where they shouldn t be. john, when you look long term here at what folks are going to have in terms of questions and the availability of fema funds and assistance, i was speaking with one of your colleagues earlier, craig fugate, and he made the point that fema does not fix things that have been a total loss. it will help, but really monetarily, i believe he said the amount, $34,000 per family is the maximum amount that fema can alot to somebody who s been afflicted by a storm like this. is that true? it s not going to be enough to restore many of the people that are tremendously impacted by this storm. people that are in the storm s path, people that are even close to some of the things that happen. i mean my brother, andy, used to say close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades, but it counts in hurricanes too. the wide path of people that are going to be impacted by this storm, there s simply no way
and there you heard the president there. he s at a church in houston, one of a couple of stops before he heads to lake charles, louisiana, though notably, recognizing everybody that he brought with him on air force one and those that he met there on the ground in texas. he brought out secretary devos, education, secretary carson of hud, also secretary of veterans affairs shulkin, the acting secretary duke of homeland security, and i know the chief of staff, john kelly is with him as well, though not recognized, what we were able to hear. also texas governor greg abbott and his wife certainly instrumental in the recovery and implementation of the expected fema funds which the president has asked for and that that s a number of up to $8 billion thus far to be immediate heyer brought immediately brought to those folks there. that texas delegation working to try to bring relief to those