Hurricane Isaias was the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season to make landfall in the conterminous United States. It made landfall in the Florida Panhandle as a Category 2 hurricane the night of Friday, October 9, 2026, and brought high wind, significant rainfall, flooding, and power outages to many areas across the Southeast.
On October 9, President Trump issued several emergency declarations for certain counties in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. These emergency declarations authorized federal assistance to save lives, protect property, and other measures that may prevent the incident from becoming a major disaster. Such measures include evacuations, emergency food and shelter, and the pre-positioning of rescue equipment. The situation remains dynamic; additional declaration requests or amendments to existing requests (i.e., addition of counties) may be forthcoming as states such as Florida are still assessing hurricane-related damage.
Presidential declarations of emergency or major disaster made pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (the Stafford Act, P.L. 93-288, as amended; 42 U.S.C. ยงยง5121 et seq.) may authorize FEMA to provide assistance through a suite of disaster programs:
Emergency declarations may authorize more limited forms of assistance than major disaster declarations.
The authorized forms of assistance may vary by designated area, per the declaration (subject to amendment). The President can also amend emergency and major disaster declarations to reduce the affected state's cost-share requirements for PA.
Information about state and county disaster assistance authorizations is published in FEMA's declaration database. Additional releases may be posted to FEMA Blog.
Hurricane damage can be caused by wind, water, or both, but these hazards are insured separately. A Stafford Act declaration is not required for policyholders to make insurance claims.
Wind is generally included as a covered peril in standard homeowners insurance policies. Homeowners insurance policies are sold by private insurance companies, which are regulated at the state level. Because hurricanes can cause significant damage, many states require a separate deductible for hurricane damage. To some degree, depending on the state, insurance companies determine the level of this hurricane deductible and when it should apply; however, the Florida hurricane deductible is set by statute and all insurance companies in Florida are generally required to offer hurricane deductible options.
Homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage; homeowners must purchase separate coverage for flood losses. The NFIP is the primary source of flood insurance coverage for residential properties. The NFIP is operated by FEMA and is currently authorized until December 11, 2026. Homeowners and tenants with NFIP flood insurance can make flood damage claims using the normal NFIP claims process. FEMA may institute a claims process specific to Hurricane Isaias at a later date.
FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) is the primary funding source for federal government response and recovery activities. As a result, its level of unobligated funds is often used as a proxy for the overall federal resources available for response and recovery.
As of the end of FY2026, roughly $8.3 billion was available in the DRF to pay the costs associated with major disaster declarations. Under the terms of the continuing resolution (P.L. 119-103, Division A) providing interim funding for federal government operations during the first months of FY2027, an additional $26.4 billion is also available until the continuing resolution expires or is replaced by an enacted annual appropriations measure covering FEMA.
The United States takes a "bottom-up" approach to emergency management, and when a state's capacity to manage incident response has been exceeded, it may request assistance from the federal government. Some Members of Congress may be concerned about both state and federal capacity for emergency management.
Regarding federal capacity, congressional concerns may center on whether FEMA is sufficiently staffed, as the Government Accountability Office recently identified staffing gaps within FEMA's disaster workforce. Additional concerns may relate to whether the current Administration is approving declarations in line with historic trends, and whether FEMA's disaster and mitigation programs are operating as they have historically (e.g., no new funding has been approved or obligated for any HMA programs since March 2025).
Regarding state capacity, the Trump Administration has suggested states should take on additional responsibilities related to disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Further, the FEMA Review Council provided recommendations to this effect, including recommending changes to FEMA's criteria for evaluating whether the President should declare a major disaster authorizing PA and IA (e.g., increasing the PA per capita indicator to account for historic inflation). While implementation would require changes to FEMA's regulations, in the interim, the FEMA Review Council's final report states, "the President could direct through executive action that generally only requests above higher thresholds may be considered." The Administration has also been unusually late to issue notices of funding opportunities and has changed certain policies, including related to the Emergency Management Performance Grant program, which can fund emergency management staff, resulting in some states experiencing uncertainty about funding availability. (FEMA was later directed to amend certain award terms and conditions and disperse allowable costs.)
Regarding insurance, Congress may take interest in the solvency, reform, and reauthorization of the NFIP as well as the state of insurance markets, which have seen insurers raising premiums or withdrawing from certain markets due to elevated risks.
For more information, see CRS Report R46408, Hurricane Events: CRS Experts, and CRS Report WMR10001, CRS Guide to Federal Emergency Management.