The community of Globe is still fighting for help after the Federal Emergency Management Agency denied its request for disaster aid last month to help rebuild from major flooding in September.
At the time, they had submitted an initial claim for aid that added up to damages of about $33 million. But now, Mayor Al Gameros tells The Show they’ve calculated the total costs to be closer to $96 million.
Either way, FEMA turned them down before they had even added up all of the costs.
Now, the state is appealing that decision. A coalition of Republican congressmen penned a letter urging FEMA to reconsider — and Gov. Katie Hobbs spoke out against FEMA’s denial in her State of the State address last week.
"Blood, sweat and tears went into building these livelihoods," Hobbs said. "How can our federal government turn its back on Arizonans who are simply trying to get back on their feet?"
FEMA sent The Show the following statement:
"FEMA has now received the State of Arizona’s appeal related to the September 25–27, 2025 severe storms and flooding. The appeal is currently under review in accordance with the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. FEMA has sent staff to Arizona to join state and local representatives to validate new information contained in the State’s appeal.
As far as the original denial is concerned, with all declaration requests, FEMA follows the Stafford Act and its regulations to support the determination process on whether federal assistance is warranted to supplement state, local, tribal, or territorial efforts and capabilities. FEMA worked closely with the state of Arizona to collect and analyze damage information. The law and regulations require FEMA to review each request closely and consider the unique circumstances of disaster-caused damages as well as state and local capacity. This decision just like all disaster requests was based on policy not politics."
Gameros said Globe will be in a tough spot without the federal dollars. The city of about 7,000 people was hit with more than 2 inches of rain in 24 hours on Sept. 27, 2025, flooding creeks and roads and washing through downtown businesses and homes. Three people died.
Gameros spoke more with The Show about the day the flooding hit. It had been raining for a few days, which wasn't out of the ordinary. And he had driven through downtown Globe just before it turned into a river.
Full conversation
AL GAMEROS: And it was packed. I mean, the restaurants are full. There was people in the bars, people in the downtown area. And that was about 6 o'clock. I got home probably about 30, 40 minutes later. I got a call and asked if I was watching social media. And I said, no, I wasn't.
And I got on social media and I saw cars and propane tanks and just like a river flowing. I thought it was another state. And they advised me, no, that is downtown Globe. ...
Yeah, it was like 30, 40 minutes. There was no warning. We had rain. You know, I live about 2 miles from the downtown area. ... So I immediately headed that way. There was roadblocks, obviously, because the water was still flowing. Once the water receded, I was able to drive towards the downtown area.
About a mile away, when I approached the entrance to it, it was just heart-wrenching. There was cars everywhere. There's debris on the road. There was propane tanks. We have a large Courtesy Ford facility before you enter Globe. And I noted that all the new cars ... that used to be in the parking lot were gone.
... They were in the parking lot next to it, in Circle K, they were down the road. So as it turned down into the downtown area, into north side of Globe, that's where it hit the the hardest. It was just — to see the front of these buildings, these businesses were just ripped out. ... And the contents were all spread all over the roadway or the street and everything.
It was just devastating. It was, you know, just to see all the work and everything that had been done, not only by these business people, by our community, by our staff, our council to build our community. It was horrendous.
What had happened, the water had overflowed, ran through the back of the buildings, ripped through the front, out into the roadway.
GILGER: So, I mean, this was all of the sudden, it sounds like — and really devastating. There were some people who lost their lives in these floods. I mean, tell us about how these impacts have continued. Like it's many months later now. What's it like there today in Globe?
GAMEROS: Well, it's really — I'm really impressed with the resilience of our community. Not only our business community, but our residents. Our downtown area is open. We probably have all the businesses open, except that maybe three or four that were before the flood. So over — close to 30 businesses have opened back up that were affected in some way.
The cleanup was amazing. Once we opened up on that Sunday around noon, we had hundreds of people show up with shovels and rakes and brooms. And we had heavy equipment down there, people bringing their own heavy equipment. At one point, I think it was Monday or Tuesday, we had 3,000 volunteers come all over from all over the Southwest United States.
They were in the community, cleaning up.
GILGER: That's amazing. So, I mean, a big effort by folks there and around the area. And it sounds like you've made a pretty good comeback. But there's, I'm sure, ongoing damage, it sounds like. What's that look like?
GAMEROS: You bet. We still have ongoing damage to our residents. Obviously, there's some homes that are going to have to be condemned and have to be torn down. An our business district was affected. We have about six buildings that are still fenced off. They're going to have some extended engineering assessments in order to see if we're going to be able to save them.
I believe probably around three of them we're going to have to take down in the end. But just those areas are fenced off. Everything else is cleaned up and opened up to business in the downtown area.
GILGER: OK, so you assessed the damage. You kind of came up with an estimate of how much it might add up to. And you submitted a claim to FEMA — and you were denied. I mean, what was your reaction?
GAMEROS: Yeah, you know, in the initial — everything has to go through our county, Gila County, and then up to the state, to the state level, to the Governor's Office. Our initial assessment amount was about $33 million. That was early on.
The final assessment report wasn't due till Dec. 28, but we received on Dec. 23 that the FEMA had denied our request before we even submitted our final one. And the final estimate is $96 million that we submitted on Dec. 28, which was the deadline date.
GILGER: So that is a lot higher.
GAMEROS: Oh, yeah, three times higher. We have a lot of damage to our area, in our infrastructure. You know, our sewer lines, water lines. We got roadways. We got a lot of things that we got to do, you know. And right now we're working off DEMA, which is state funding. And that's a 75/25, meaning we get 75% reimbursement, but it still costs us 25%.
So, you know, our staff has been amazing. They've been working nonstop, and it's almost four months later, and they're still working hard at different things. We have submitted through the NRCS, which is a National Resources Conservation Service. And our initial program is for $22 million, and that's part of that $96 million. But this is to take sediment out of our creeks.
What we want to do is make sure that we build capacity in case it rains again, that we protect — try and protect some of these businesses that have reinvested hundreds of thousands of dollars into their business to open again. And they're in harm's way unless we build capacity in order to get the water through.
GILGER: So as you said, you're appealing this decision by FEMA. You've submitted, you know, a new and more total estimate of the damages. I mean, you've got Congress members from Arizona advocating for you to the federal government. The governor denounced this denial in her State of the State address. You're asking FEMA to come and see the damage and see what needs to be done.
GAMEROS: You bet. And the governor is the one that has to provide the appeal. We provide all the support letters to her. Also another one, Congressman Eli Crane, which represents our area, has been really aggressive in trying to turn around the denial of FEMA.
What we found out last night, we got a call last night that FEMA was heading to Globe again. So they are in Globe today, which may be a good sign. They're in here with state representatives and federal representatives to do reassessments. So we're hoping that's a good sign on our appeal.
GILGER: So let me ask you, if you were not to receive these funds from the federal government, if the denial stands, like, what would that mean for Globe for these people who have put a lot of money into repairing the damage and for the damage that still needs to be repaired?
GAMEROS: Well, we're going to have to come up with ways to fund it. You know, the initial program through the NRCS that I just talked about is $22 million. But if we only have state funding, that's still $6 million to us. Money that, you know, a rural community really doesn't have.
So we're going to have to come up with creative ways. It's how we're going to pay the pay for this, this amount that the city has to pay.
But our priority right now is to remove sediment and stabilize some walls along the creek bed. What the federal designation will do, it'll open up programs for residents and businesses in the form of buyback programs like these people that lost their homes.
It allows also for tax credits for business people. So it doesn't bring direct money to them, but it brings resources to them that are available that they can provide to them directly.
