When a February flood tore through Richlands, Virginia, it left more than 150 homes damaged and dozens of families displaced. But unlike their neighbors just across the border in West Virginia and Kentucky—who got federal money to rebuild—many Virginians were told they didn’t qualify for FEMA’s individual assistance. The reason? A formula that counts the wealth of Northern Virginia’s million-dollar homes against the needs of Southwest Virginia’s poorest residents.

In this episode, host Dutchie Jessee sits down with Cardinal News politics and policy reporter Elizabeth Beyer to unpack how FEMA calculates disaster aid, why Virginia’s relative wealth raises the bar for help, and whether a regional approach, or state-funded safety net, could close the gap. Through the voices of residents like Mike and Sherry Smith, who lost the home they’d lived in for decades, we examine the human cost of a system where the same storm brings two very different recoveries.