Source New Mexico: NM Congressional delegation reports continued delays to Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire compensation

Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation say the office overseeing $5.45 billion in compensation funds for victims of the state’s biggest-ever wildfire continues to delay payments and put up unnecessary barriers, particularly for people who lost their homes.
The Nov. 6 letter from U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, along with U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján and Martin Heinrich, calls on the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire Claims Office to account for reports from fire victims that the office is breaking promises about the pace of compensation and refusing to reopen claims from people who suffered new losses from the 2022 wildfire.
FEMA and Claims Office officials did not respond to Source New Mexico’s inquiry about the letter on Tuesday, which is a federal holiday.
“We understand that many of these cases are complex and require detailed review by the office,” the members, all Democrats, wrote in the letter. “But it is unacceptable that these people who have suffered so much haven’t been paid three and a half years after the catastrophe.”
Congress awarded the Federal Emergency Management Agency$5.45 billion in a series of bills beginning in late 2022aimed to “fully compensate” victims of the 534-square-mile wildfire in Northern New Mexico that was the result of two botched prescribed burns the United States Forest Service conducted. According to the office, it has so far paid out a little more than $3 billion of that.
Around this time last year, the office reported it had fully paid one-third of the 272claims it received from people who reported total losses of their primary residences in the fire, and that approximately another third of them had gotten partial payments.
According to the Nov. 6 letter, claims office officials promised the delegation it would pay the remainder by March of this year, but “nearly seven months later, several total loss claimants still await payment,” the members wrote.
The letter calls on FEMA officials to report how many total loss claims remain outstanding and what their plan is to close the claims fairly and quickly.
The letter also says fire victims have reported repeated denials for new claims of damage. Because the fire burned at high intensity in certain areas, the burn scar and areas downstream continue to be vulnerable to post-fire flooding and debris flows, including as recently as this summer.
Claims office guidelines require the office to consider compensation for those “cascading events” that directly result from the fire, but the letter says that isn’t happening.
“We are alarmed that many community members have reported that the Claims Office has refused to reopen their claims to account for cascading events,” according to the letter. “That is inexplicable.”
The Nov. 6 letter marks thelatest outcry from the delegation, which has repeatedly criticized the office for delays. It also calls on FEMA to answer for why it has not met legal requirements for reporting on its spending to Congress.