‘People Deserve Better’: Mayor Of Florida Town At Center Of FEMA Scandal Speaks Out

The mayor of the small Florida town where FEMA relief workers skipped over homes with Trump signs after Hurricane Milton wants those involved held accountable.

Lake Placid Mayor John Holbrook told The Daily Wire that he was “very much surprised” that FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington instructed relief workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump” while canvassing his community. Whistleblowers told The Daily Wire that at least 20 homes were skipped because of the guidance, which Washington later said was due to “political hostility.” 

”We’ve always had a great relationship with FEMA and that’s what is surprising about this,” Holbrook said. “However far it goes, I hope it’s taken care of and the people are prosecuted the way they should because you know as well as I do that the American people deserve better treatment than this. Nobody should be penalized or discriminated against on who they vote for.”

The part-time mayor, who also manages a local hardware store, said that tornadoes caused by Hurricane Milton did major damage to his community. He said that around 30 homes were taken out in the Tropical Harbor mobile home park, saying that many were out of town when the storm came through. He also said the tornadoes “cut a swath” through a nearby Duke Energy solar farm. 

Holbrook said that he expected FEMA to be focused on other parts of the country that were hit harder by the hurricanes, and only learned the agency had come to Lake Placid after The Daily Wire report. 

“We really haven’t had much interaction with FEMA like a lot of people have,” he said. “I do understand that FEMA is in the area now and they have foot soldiers on the ground and they’re going into a lot of the subdivisions and they’re going house to house to just check with everybody and make sure that they are being properly taken care of, which I got to give FEMA credit for that.” 

Most of the clean-up from the tornadoes caused by Milton in Lake Placid has been done by city and county officials. Holbrook said that Lake Placid and Highlands County staff had already moved some 600 cubic yards of debris with close to 10 loads left. He said he was very proud of how the town had come together to clean up, saying it was a very “close knit” community. 

The guidance from Washington triggered a wave of investigations, including from the House Oversight Committee and the state of Florida. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody sued FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and Washington on Wednesday, accusing them of conspiring to deny aid to Trump supporters. 

Holbrook, a registered Democrat, said that there should be no political discrimination coming from the federal government. 

“We need to let the trees fall where they may and if there’s more involved then they should be held accountable,” he said. “We have to depend on our government to help us out in times of need like this.”