When even members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus are sitting down with Joe Biden, you know something serious is going on. And in this case, it’s the devastation caused by Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene that has spurred these unusual conversations.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a staunch Republican from Florida, was caught off guard when Biden personally called her last week. Their phone conversation, followed by an in-person meeting during Biden’s tour of the storm-damaged areas, highlights how national crises can force political adversaries to collaborate.

In a surprising admission, Luna—who has been one of Biden’s fiercest critics—praised the president for taking control of the situation and recognizing the inadequacy of FEMA’s $750 upfront payment to disaster survivors.

“He said it was a ‘bunch of malarkey,’” Luna recounted, a rare moment of agreement between the first-term Republican and the Democratic commander in chief. This is the same Luna who has spearheaded efforts to hold Biden’s Cabinet in contempt of Congress, yet here she was, acknowledging that Biden was working with her to address the dire needs of her constituents.

This kind of bipartisan cooperation is increasingly rare in Washington, but natural disasters tend to force political leaders into uncomfortable alliances. Biden and Luna’s discussions covered not only immediate relief efforts but also long-overdue reforms to FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program, which Luna noted has remained largely unchanged since the 1960s.

To be fair, Luna didn’t let Biden or FEMA entirely off the hook. She emphasized that FEMA still has a lot to answer for in terms of getting debris cleared and holding cities accountable for delays in storm recovery. But her measured response stands in stark contrast to the GOP’s usual barrage of criticism. Luna’s praise was even more striking given the context of the broader Republican frustration with the administration’s handling of disaster relief, particularly from House Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Chuck Edwards.

Johnson, representing Louisiana—a state all too familiar with natural disasters—has resisted calls for an early emergency session of Congress to deal with disaster relief, arguing that the $20 billion already freed up for FEMA should suffice for now.

His reluctance, paired with Edwards’ accusations that the Biden administration is using the disaster to distract from its shortcomings, reflects a growing divide even within the GOP about how to address the crisis.

What’s clear is that despite these partisan undercurrents, Biden has managed to secure rare praise from Republicans, including the governors of South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, for his administration’s response to the storms. In a time when every move is scrutinized and politicized, this cooperation—however temporary—between Biden and Luna signals that when disaster strikes, even the deepest political divides can be bridged, if only briefly.