When historic flooding ravaged southeastern South Dakota final summer time, leaving houses and companies in ruins, Gov. Kristi Noem made a controversial choice: She selected to not deploy the state’s Nationwide Guard.
Citing the excessive value and arguing that the Guard ought to solely be known as for “a real disaster,” Ms. Noem left hundreds of residents to deal with the aftermath with out the extra help, regardless of widespread devastation and mounting requires assist.
“We now have to be clever with how we use our troopers,” she stated throughout a June information convention in Yankton, S.D.
Her reasoning shocked residents and lawmakers throughout the political spectrum, notably in gentle of Ms. Noem’s earlier choices to spend tens of millions of taxpayer {dollars} to deploy the Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to handle the immigration disaster.
That transfer was one purpose Ms. Noem was picked by President-elect Donald J. Trump to guide the Division of Homeland Safety, a sprawling division that features Customs and Border Safety and varied different immigration-related companies.
“Kristi has been very robust on border safety,” Mr. Trump stated in a Nov. 12 assertion. “She was the primary governor to ship Nationwide Guard troopers to assist Texas struggle the Biden border disaster, they usually had been despatched a complete of eight instances.”
The Division of Homeland Safety additionally consists of the Federal Emergency Administration Company. Though Ms. Noem wouldn’t be working FEMA’s day-to-day operations — the company administrator does that — she shall be anticipated to make sure that the company has the assets it wants to help these harm by calamities equivalent to wildfires and flood.
The company is already coping with aiding victims from the huge swath of injury left by Hurricane Helene within the southeastern United States final fall and the wildfires that roared by Los Angeles this month. Extra climate-related disasters will undoubtedly come up throughout her tenure if she is confirmed.
However when confronted with the choice to make use of the Guard for catastrophe support in her residence state as she did for border support 1,000 miles away, Ms. Noem didn’t ask the state legislature for the funds to take action, though officers there say the request would have been granted as routine.
“Gov. Kristi Noem despatched troops to Texas and billed us, South Dakota taxpayers,” Lee Schoenbeck, then a Republican state lawmaker, wrote on X in June. “BUT Noem stated it’s too costly to make use of our Guard to assist our taxpayers struggle the flood. Clarify this hypocrisy???”
Ms. Noem additionally confronted criticism for being on the nationwide circuit campaigning for Mr. Trump as a substitute of being in South Dakota to help the flood victims and for ready a couple of month to ask for federal catastrophe help, together with from FEMA.
Ms. Noem’s dealing with of each border safety and catastrophe administration in South Dakota is more likely to be carefully scrutinized throughout her Senate affirmation listening to, although she is predicted to be confirmed. She didn’t reply to an interview request from The New York Occasions.
On Dec. 18, Chris Antonopoulos sat in his white Toyota Tundra, parked on the fringe of McCook Lake in North Sioux Metropolis, S.D., his eyes fastened on the backhoes leveling the stays of his dad and mom’ residence.
In-built 2015, the home had as soon as stood as a proud image of his dad and mom’ desires after they immigrated from Greece. Now it was simply particles, swept away by a catastrophic flood that hit throughout the night of June 23.
He stated the final time a flood occurred within the space, the Nationwide Guard helped with sandbagging. If the Nationwide Guard had been deployed for this occasion to help with mitigation and sandbagging within the space, he stated he was “one hundred pc assured” it will have prevented the harm to his dad and mom’ residence.
Mr. Antonopoulos known as the response this time a whole failure of presidency that began with Ms. Noem.
“How’s the governor going to guide the Division of Homeland Safety and he or she couldn’t even assist a neighborhood?” he stated.
Linda Duba, a Democratic former lawmaker who served on the state Home Appropriations Committee, stated in an interview with The Occasions that Ms. Noem might have used the state’s emergency catastrophe reduction fund to assist with the flooding in McCook County, together with the price of deploying the Nationwide Guard.
Traditionally, the fund has lined disasters like floods, tornadoes and blizzards, relatively than border missions, till Ms. Noem started utilizing it for that goal after taking workplace. Ms. Duba stated the fund doesn’t have a set finances. As an alternative, cash is spent as wanted, and the state legislature backfills the account the next 12 months, as predicting catastrophe bills is troublesome.
“The residents of South Dakota belief that their public officers will help them of their time of biggest want and catastrophe, and I feel we considerably failed on this effort,” Ms. Duba stated.
Since 2021, South Dakota has spent about $3 million to ship Nationwide Guard troops to the border, in response to knowledge obtained from the state’s legislative analysis council. The latest deployment, which came about between April and June, value the state about $1 million, in response to the info.
Along with criticism over Ms. Noem’s failure to deploy the Guard at residence throughout the flooding, she got here below fireplace for taking a large non-public out-of-state donation to fund the Guard’s deployment to the Texas border. In 2021, she accepted a $1 million donation from Willis Johnson, a Tennessee billionaire and Republican donor, to assist recoup a number of the value of the border missions.
Ms. Noem, in a January 2024 speech to the South Dakota state legislature, stated she believed that deploying Nationwide Guard troopers to the border was important to the security of her state’s residents.
“South Dakota is instantly affected by this invasion,” Ms. Noem stated. “We’re affected by cartel presence on our tribal reservations; by the unfold of medicine and human trafficking all through our communities; and by the drain on our assets on the native, state, and federal stage.”
The summer time floods hit simply after the latest border deployment of the Guard and plenty of native residents hoped they might then be used to help at residence. However Jeff Dooley, North Sioux Metropolis’s administrator, stated in an interview that the Nationwide Guard wants a transparent mission to behave, which he stated was not potential given the quickly altering circumstances.
“In hindsight, it’s simple to say ‘I ought to’ve executed this or that,’ however the scenario was evolving too quick to make these choices on the time,” Mr. Dooley stated.
Ms. Noem was touring throughout a essential level within the catastrophe.
She was on the “Highway to Majority” convention in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Religion and Freedom Coalition, the day earlier than the flooding started on June 22, supporting Mr. Trump, as a video of her talking on the occasion exhibits. The following day, when the flooding started, she appeared with the emergency supervisor in Union County, S.D., to debate the scenario. That very same day, she appeared within the studio for an interview on “Meet the Press” in Washington.
Morgan Speichinger, whose residence was severely broken within the flood, stated she was dissatisfied that the governor left the state as she and her neighbors had been dwelling by their nightmares.
“That is your group,” Ms. Speichinger stated. “That is your state. You’re purported to help your folks.”
Ms. Noem’s Republican predecessor deployed the Nationwide Guard throughout previous floods within the area. In 2011, when the Missouri River flooded Dakota Dunes close to McCook Lake, Gov. Dennis Daugaard known as within the Guard, and once more throughout flooding in 2014.
The least costly deployment occurred within the fiscal 12 months 2023 and price South Dakota about $800,000, in response to the info from the state legislative analysis council. The costliest deployment was the about $1.5 million project to Texas in 2021, for which she took the $1 million non-public donation.
Ms. Noem’s dealing with of final 12 months’s floods was totally different from that of governors in close by states.
She waited greater than a month after the flooding, July 26, to request a catastrophe declaration from President Biden, which critics stated delayed essential federal support to the struggling communities. Mr. Biden permitted the declaration on August 15.
In distinction, Iowa’s governor requested expedited federal help on June 23, receiving approval the subsequent day, whereas Minnesota sought assistance on June 26 and was permitted two days later. The governors of Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska deployed Nationwide Guard troops to help with flooding, leaving South Dakota as the one affected state that didn’t.
“In the end, South Dakota received the FEMA support it was going to get,” stated Janet Napolitano, the previous homeland safety secretary who served within the Obama administration. “The query is why did it take so lengthy.”
Ms. Napolitano stated that officers in Ms. Noem’s workplace ought to have advised her concerning the potential to get support shortly and that the governor ought to have recognized of the method. She added: “It’s actually laborious to elucidate a delay like that.”
The governor’s workplace referred remark to the state’s Division of Public Security.
Brad Reiners, a spokesman for the general public security company, stated “our flooding scenario was totally different than Iowa’s and Minnesota’s in influence, measurement and scope.” He didn’t elaborate on why that contributed to the delay in requesting support.
Hamed Aleaziz contributed reporting from Washington, and Kitty Bennett contributed analysis.
