Harlingen mayor calls on Trump to trigger FEMA aid

Norma Sepulveda

HARLINGEN — More than a month after a historic storm rushed floodwaters into thousands of homes, officials from across the Rio Grande Valley are still waiting for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

On April 17, Gov. Greg Abbott finally issued a disaster declaration, requesting federal aid for residents in Cameron, Hidalgo, Willacy and Starr counties.

But here at City Hall, Mayor Norma Sepulveda’s calling on the highest echelons of government to help residents — the big man in the White House.

She’s counting on President Donald Trump.

In a letter to Trump addressed to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C., Sepulveda wrote, “Harlingen cannot recover without your support.”

”I write to you today as the mayor of Harlingen, Texas, on behalf of a community in crisis,” she said.

November’s presidential election showed a majority of voters in Cameron County — and across the Valley — cast ballots for Trump.

Residents here, Sepulveda wrote, “placed their trust in their city, in their state and in their nation. Now is the time to show them that trust was not misplaced.”

”I respectfully urge your approval of Gov. Greg Abbott’s request for a presidential disaster declaration,” she wrote to Trump.

“Mr. President, Harlingen needs help,” Sepulveda said. “Approving the governor’s request would activate critical federal resources to assist families, restore public infrastructure and help our city begin to rebuild. Harlingen is resilient, but we are hurting. Please do not let another day go by without action.”

In the wake of the historic storm, the federal response is late — after the region met FEMA’s threshold based on regional damages.

“This has never happened before,” Tom Hushen, Cameron County’s emergency management coordinator, said Wednesday. “It’s usually a lot quicker. It’s usually pretty immediate. I don’t know why it’s taken a while.”

After its assessment of the storm’s damages, FEMA put Cameron County’s “threshold for individual assistance” at $1.9 million, Hushen said.

Across the state, he said, the agency put its threshold at $5.5 million.

In the state’s disaster declaration, Abbott put the number of “severely damaged homes” at 2,000, Hushen said.

Motorists are seen on the expressway in the Wilson Road area of Harlingen following heavy rainfall and widespread flooding in Harlingen on Friday, March 28, 2025. (Erica Ysasi | Raymondville Chronicle)

Across the country, the Trump administration has been denying disaster declarations.

In Arkansas, the administration’s denied Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ request for federal aid after an outbreak of severe storms and tornadoes ripped across parts of the state and into neighboring Mississippi and Missouri, leaving more than 40 dead.

Meanwhile, the White House has denied help to states including Kentucky, following Mississippi River flooding, and Washington state, where a bomb cyclone left behind an estimated $34 million in damages, along with two dead.

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