Top story here at 6 o'clock. Federal funds are on the way to help three southern Oregon counties recover from devastating floods earlier this year.

In addition to this pounding lake effect snow are these whipping winds that just make the conditions here brutal.

Hurricane Helene right now a powerful category three storm shaping up to be one of the biggest to ever hit the Gulf Coast.

We've seen homeowners still on this street and they are trying to put out the fire with hoses.

But at this point, this smoke is so thick.

I think we're going to have to fall back.

Yeah, let's head back.

Hi there, everyone. It's now five o'clock in the east. It was maybe one of the last things we still agreed on as a country, the importance of the federal government's ability to help people impacted

by natural disasters like those. Well, that may be

the latest target in Donald Trump's promised public retribution campaign because his administration

just placed more than 30 employees at FEMA. That's the Federal Emergency Management Agency on leave.

Why did they do that, you ask? Well, the Washington Post reports this,

quote, they signed an open letter of dissent about the agency's leadership, according to people

familiar with the situation and documents reviewed by the Washington Post. About 180 current

and former FEMA staffers sent a letter on Monday to members of Congress and other officials,

arguing that the current leaders in experience and approach harm FEMA's mission and could result

in a disaster on the level of Hurricane Katrina. About three dozen people had signed their names.

The majority of signatories were anonymous. Same thing happened at the Environmental

Protection Agency last month. 139 people were put on leave there following their own letter

of dissent. In both cases, the crime or the sin in the eyes of the Trump administration

was simply telling the truth and defiance of the Trump party line.

That was also the recent experience of Lieutenant General Jeffrey Krause, former director of the

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