The Federal Emergency Management Agency did not respond to nearly half of the calls for help and assistance it received recently received during Hurricane Helene and Milton, a report released this week shows.

During a recent week, FEMA’s call centers were so overwhelmed, nearly half of all callers never connected with federal business, according to the data released this week.

And it took federal agents an average of more than an hour to actually pick up those calls that were answered.

The damning report comes as the Harris-Biden administration has been criticized by conservatives for its response to disaster relief after Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit Florida, North Carolina and other southern states.

A man seeking help after his home in North Carolina flooded called FEMA and received a record that said he was the 675th in a row.

On Wednesday, FEMA reported sending $1.2 billion in aid to hurricane survivors in the six worst-hit states.

More than 100 people died in North Carolina during Hurricane Helene.

Another 229 people were killed in seven states because of Helene.

A month after the hurricanes hit the lower United States, FEMA officials acknowledged that the agency is understaffed.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently recognized FEMA ‘doesn’t have the funds’ to help Americans get through the rest of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Critics of the department noted that DHS has allocated $640.9 million this year in FEMA-administered funds to help state and local governments deal with the influx of asylum seekers.

Those funds earmarked for immigrants cannot be distributed to hurricane victims because Congress appropriated those funds specifically to address the migrant crisis.

Friday, former President Donald Trump chastised what he called the “appalling” federal response to Hurricane Helene, while outraged critics aired accusations that aid workers were sitting idle without orders.

FEMA has been struggling to respond to disasters since 2005, when Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 1,400 people in Louisiana.

Residents of New York and New Jersey also had difficulty reaching FEMA workers in 2012 following the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.