It’s more political online than in the real world
Lynds Freas in the Post-Seliotide Era: A Pedestrian’s View of the Emergency Management in Asheville, North Carolina
In fact, Freas says, he’s been having unexpectedly poignant moments with people on the other end of the political spectrum — including with one stranger who parked a car covered in MAGA bumper stickers on the same bridge from which Freas surveyed the damage to south Asheville.
“I think with the climate, with how everything [was] pre-storm, I haven’t heard one talk about this or that,” he says, referring to how politically charged his interactions had been before tragedy put everyone on common ground.
On the ground in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, NPR reporters are hearing echoes of this misinformation. But they’ve also found less politicization and a more nuanced view of the federal response, especially in communities that have been without internet access since Helene raged through the region.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency says that it can not seize land if it is deemed unlivable and that rumors of confiscating donations are false.
For politically charged rumors and conspiracies, Musk’s social media platform is an especially fertile place. Sometimes they have been fueled by the billionaire himself.
Musk said that governments are preventing private citizens from aiding people in need. Musk wrote that his “blood is boiling” after engineers from his company SpaceX tried to offer help via helicopter but “@FEMA wouldn’t let them land to deliver critical supplies.”
An Internet Black Hole? The Case of the Chimney Rock, North Carolina, Village of Collisionless Hurricanes and the Failure of the FEMA Agency
Actually the Federal Aviation Administration regulates airspace and the FAA said in a statement that following Helene the skies have been crowded and it’s trying to maintain safety. There have been more than 30 cases of aircraft close to one another since the storm and air traffic in the region increased 300%. There are no restrictions to aerial recovery operations.
No area in North Carolina has been the subject of more blatant false online rumors than the village of Chimney Rock, which is the subject of constant untrue claims that the FEMA abandoned the village due to the Biden Administration’s plans to mine lithium there.
FEMA could be moving a little faster than it has been, he admits, and he has had moments of frustration, “[but] every time I found out why somebody’s not moving as fast, the reason for it is always a good, sound reason,” he says.
North Carolinians with no previous experience living through a natural disaster may be understandably wary of FEMA. The agency has received a lot of bad press in the past for how it handled other disasters, such as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.
Colt Truesdale is a North Carolina man who organized a donations drive and concert Saturday afternoon in Mill Spring. Like so many people in this part of the country, he’s not waiting for government assistance or leadership, instead taking matters into his own hands to help neighbors.
In Jonesborough, Tenn., where the Nolichucky River flooded rural farms and homes, there are echoes of the online kerfuffles but also a desire to step away from politics.
“We’ve been in a bit of an internet black hole down here,” says Mollie Freeman, as she picks up muddy items off the floor of her mother-in-law’s flooded house and puts them in a trash bag. We’re focused on helping each other and haven’t paid much attention to it.
A mile-and-a-half down the road, a local bar has become a collection and distribution center for donations and a source of hot meals for those helping locals recover. Not all of the news is true, as it is also where neighbors share it.
“There is no organization. Tabitha Swinehart has lived in this area for 30 years. She says she doesn’t know what you’re talking about when you mention the storm damage response by the federal government. There has been none. We haven’t seen any federal response.” FEMA says nearly 7,000 federal employees have been deployed across the region.
Source: Helene recovery is more political online than on the ground
FEMA: Giving FEMA a Half Million Meals to Helene in the Southeast, and Why Do We Care About It? A Conversation with Sue Puzio
Swinehart then packs hot meals onto a blue four-wheeled utility vehicle and speeds away to deliver them up mountain roads that are no longer accessible by car.
The owner of Green Turtle Garage Bar, Stacey Puzio, is wearing a Trump t-shirt. She says that most of her whole wardrobe is either Trump or Green Turtle. Donald Trump won Washington County in 2020 by a two to one margin.
Many of the conservatives over here are not fond of the government, Puzio says. Some of the misinformation about the federal government’s response to Helene has made its way to her.
Puzio thinks that Vice President Harris will provide $750 to ease the strain caused by losing a loved one and pets, and that will make a huge difference for everyone.
As of Sunday, FEMA says it has provided more than $137 million in assistance to six states in the southeast, including 7,000 federal personnel, nearly 15 million meals, 14 million liters of water, 157 generators and more than half a million tarps.
Donald Trump has accused Biden of going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas. But relief volunteers like Tyler King of Johnson City, Tenn., say they want to avoid partisanship now.
King thinks that we are worried about the wrong things when it becomes the focus. I think that going down those roads is pointless when there are people in need.
The Failure of Congress to Act Towards Disaster Relief Funding During the 2010 Hurricane Meltdown: An Insensitivity to Non-Partisanship
Along with FEMA assistance, volunteers and community food and supply drives help fill the gaps, and these efforts sometimes lead to striking displays of non-partisanship.
In a park in N.C., a wedding photographer drops off a Starlink internet receiver to get the attention of the grassroots relief effort. The volunteers in charge of the donation table gave him a hug after his contribution.
Meanwhile, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday he had no plans to bring lawmakers back from recess before the election to address requests for additional disaster relief as Hurricane Milton approaches the Florida coast as a Category 5 storm.
That program was a separate funding source with a separate purpose covering separate years – and not relevant to the current hurricane recovery efforts.
“They stole the FEMA money, just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season,” Trump said in Michigan last week.
An August report from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General argues that billions of dollars earmarked for disasters that occurred more than a decade ago could be returned to the Disaster Relief Fund.
A proposal in the House last month to add $10 billion to the fund failed because of a Republican-backed election bill that focused on harsher punishments for already-illegal non-citizen voting.
“My Administration will keep the Congress apprised of efforts to assess the full resource requirements associated with Hurricane Helene, including for long-term rebuilding and resilience efforts, as those estimates become available,” he wrote.
Congress has yet to pass supplemental funding for other disasters that took place earlier in the year, much to the frustration of members in the communities recovering from floods and fires. Even if they had approved the existing funding request, the money would not have been directed to Helene relief since the storm damage happened after Congress left Washington at the end of September.
FEMA is required to share monthly status reports on the DRF, and before the end of the fiscal year the agency had to implement “Immediate Needs Funding” that puts a pause on some of the agency’s spending that is not tied to lifesaving and life-sustaining efforts when the needs of the DRF could be more than the remaining balance.
The federal fiscal year starts in October, and last month Congress passed a temporary spending measure that replenishes the DRF at last year’s baseline level of $20 billion, but some of that money is reserved for recovery efforts from previous disasters.
The agency does not have the funds to make it through the rest of the season, according to the secretary last week.
A popular refrain on the right is that FEMA does not have enough money for Hurricane Recovery because of the amount of money spent on migrants.
FEMA has set up a response page to debunk some of the false claims about how disaster funding works.
The agency also says more than 3,000 North Carolina residents have been rescued or supported by more than 1,200 urban search and rescue personnel, with recovery efforts aided by National Guard and active-duty troops. The state of North Carolina received $100 million in federal funds for road and bridge repairs.
Trump said Saturday at a rally that people who lost their homes in the floods are being offered $750. We send billions of dollars to foreign countries that people have never heard of. They are giving them $750. They’ve been destroyed. These people have been destroyed.”
Criswell said misinformation could impact FEMA workers, too. “If it creates so much fear that my staff doesn’t want to go out in the field, then we’re not going to be in a position where we can help people,” she said on the press briefing, according to Axios. Criswell said it’s not yet confirmed if foreign actors are involved in the spread of misinformation, according to Axios, though the agency found “Pro-China actors” involved in similar efforts around the Maui fire response last year.
Turi said that misinformation like Musk’s is harmful to the efforts. There are people who are hurting because of the death of a loved one. Their homes have been destroyed. We need to be able to have an environment where we can trust each other and they can trust that there is help on the way.” He warned such claims inhibit disaster survivors from seeking help from FEMA that they’re entitled to.