An employee with the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been fired after reports that after Hurricane Milton, the employee told relief workers in Florida to pass over houses with signs supporting Donald Trump, the agency said Saturday.

FEMA confirmed that an employee had issued that guidance and has been terminated. It said that it believed this was an isolated incident and that it was under investigation.

Deanne Criswell, the administrator of FEMA, said in a statement that the employee’s conduct “was reprehensible.”

“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation,” she said.

Criswell added that the agency has referred the matter to the Office of Special Counsel and that she will do everything she can to make sure this never happens again.

“I want to be clear to all of my employees and the American people, this type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at FEMA, and we will hold people accountable if they violate these standards of conduct,” she said.

The agency also said that it was reaching out to people who may have not received aid as a result of the employee’s guidance. It did not reveal the employee’s name.

The initial news of the FEMA employee giving that guidance to relief workers was first reported by The Daily Wire.

Milton hit Florida as a Category 3 hurricane on Oct. 9, killing more than 20 people, flattening homes and knocking out power to millions in the state.

In a post on the social platform X, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said state officials were seeking answers for what he said were “partisan activists in the federal bureaucracy.”

“At my direction, the Division of Emergency Management is launching an investigation into the federal government’s targeted discrimination of Floridians who support Donald Trump,” DeSantis wrote.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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