Some North Carolinians Still Recovering From Hurricane Helene Embrace Abolishing FEMA
HuffPost
President Donald Trump's push to cut the federal disaster relief agency doesn't sound bad to those who say FEMA failed them after the September storm.
SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — Emily Russell remembers feeling hopeful after she managed to get an appointment with the Federal Emergency Management Agency not long after Hurricane Helene ripped though her home in Swannanoa, North Carolina.
But after several assistance requests were denied or left pending, Russell says the agency has been of “no help” to her family after the late September storm. Still reeling in a world turned upside-down by the most damaging storm in state history, she finds herself open to President Donald Trump’s suggestion about “getting rid of” FEMA.
That is a common sentiment in the mountains of western North Carolina, where living in a trailer with limited supplies for months can try anyone’s patience. Russell, who like many others did not have flood insurance, endured those stresses as she prepared for the birth of her son, but then volunteers stepped up to rebuild her home. Back there now, she can cradle her tiny infant in her arms on her newly constructed front porch — overlooking a heaping pile of rotting debris and two Trump-Vance signs posted to a pole in her yard.
Frustration with stopgap relief efforts has been exacerbated by confusion over where long-term help should come from. FEMA is meant to be a first line, providing temporary housing and funding for repairs while insurance foots most of the bill. It is not the message residents heard initially, when politicians, including then-President Joe Biden, who toured the damaged area, promised residents they would have whatever they needed.
As more time passes, the reality of long-term recovery has gotten complicated.
"Let's calm down," the CNN anchor had to repeatedly tell the top Trump White House adviser after he started shouting live on air.
Critics called the footage "unconscionable" and "grotesque."
Critics also slammed the move as “full-blown dictator stuff."
The president's remarks were ripped as "morally disgusting" by Yale history professor Timothy Snyder, who is an expert on authoritarianism.
The Democratic lawmaker put the billionaire on blast during an MSNBC interview.
Harrison Jones, 21, is accused of setting a fire that destroyed a family's home, left them injured and killed their dogs.
More than 4,000 probationary workers lost their jobs in recent days as part of DOGE's ongoing purge.
Somehow, the expense has flown under the radar of the waste, fraud and abuse experts at DOGE.
The College Republicans of America deemed the tame remark "inappropriate."
Joe Biden granted clemency to the Native American rights activist literally minutes before his presidency ended.
Mordechai Brafman, 27, was charged with two counts of attempted murder after shooting and injuring the two men in Miami Beach, Florida.
The judge found some of the concerns raised by the University of California Student Association "entirely conjectural."
The Indigenous activist was serving two life sentences for the 1975 killings, which he argued were in self-defense.