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Misinformation about Federal Emergency Management Agency resources has taken over social media, worrying many residents in North Carolina who are still looking for aid. FEMA spokespeople said there is still plenty of money and agents to go around, even with Milton approaching Florida as a major hurricane.La-Tanga Hopes, a FEMA spokesperson for Western North Carolina, said rumors online make it difficult for FEMA to get families the help they need. She said misinformation isn’t helping with building trust in the community.”Funding has been made available for North Carolina, and they need not worry about Milton,” Hopes said. “There are some people that are going to take care of everything that’s happening with that new disaster.”FEMA does have a deadline of Nov. 27, 2024, for North Carolina Hurricane Helene applications, but as with other storms in the past, it could be extended. The agency announced the Boone recovery center will close on Oct. 12.One expert from the University of North Carolina says it is the shared responsibility of social media users, platforms and government agencies to squash misconceptions. “In the same way that there are those who are out intentionally trying to mislead people for political purposes, we have an opportunity and really an obligation to one another to make sure that our affected friends and neighbors do have reliable information,” said Meredith D. Clark, associate professor of race and political communication at UNC Hussman. Claim: FEMA will reallocate resources away from North Carolina to Florida or foreign efforts.Fact: FEMA said resources are not moving from Western North Carolina until claims are closed. Floridians impacted by Hurricane Milton will have their own FEMA agents to address their claims and allocate funding to them. Claim: FEMA will take away your home or property if you file a claim.Fact: “FEMA is not interested in your property other than helping you restore and rebuild it,” Hopes said. “FEMA is not an income driven agency, and what I mean by that is this: there is money being made available to you in the form of a cash grant.”FEMA said getting denied after submitting a claim may be the result of not providing enough documentation, and field agents may be able to connect families to resources to track the status of their report.Claim: FEMA is not helping on the ground.Fact: FEMA said they have crews across Western North Carolina. Tracey said FEMA, along with military operations, were authorized by the federal government to assist in search-and-rescue operations units and disaster survivor response teams. Temporary centers for assistance are being implemented in each county so residents can follow up on the status of their claims. Calling their hotline 1-800-621-3362 will get you connected to an agent and allow you to start your application for assistance if you haven’t already. Jann Tracey, a FEMA spokesperson in Avery County, said that, for those without internet, calling over the phone or speaking with an agent face-to-face is the best option.”Talking to somebody one-on-one is really helpful,” she said. “Rather than just talking to your neighbors and getting rumors and not getting after the information, that’s the ideal way.”Claim: FEMA is taking away food and donations from distribution sites.Fact: They said food and water resources delivered to distribution sites in many counties have been dropped off by FEMA resources. Just because someone working at distribution sites or fire stations is not wearing a FEMA polo shirt does not mean the work was not authorized by FEMA, Tracey said.Claim: FEMA is only giving residents $750 in aid and withholding funding from North Carolina.Fact: The initial funding you can request from FEMA is $750 for necessities, food and water, but that does not exclude you from getting more funding and submitting an application for aid. There is a cap on funding that FEMA can provide, but Hopes told us the agency will defer to state and other resources to provide aid until claims are closed, and that is not expected to happen soon. “They need to reassure people that withholding aid, especially on the basis of partisanship, isn’t a practice of the federal government,” said Clark. “And then, they need to provide people with a way to check honestly, verify, that what they are saying is true.”FEMA said it will never ask for money from disaster survivors and that you should report anyone trying to get you to pay for aid.
What started as a small donation drive in a local garage has transformed into a full-scale relief effort, with the Henderson County community coming together to provide aid to those
A devastating fire in Haines damaged the Quick Shop building, displacing families and impacting local businesses. Governor Mike Dunleavy expressed support for those affected as an investigation begins.
Chris Shimamoto owned Barrio, a bottle shop that was significantly damaged alongside other small businesses by a fire at Portland Mercado.
Brad Farrington pulls over to grab a case of water bottles being passed out in Vilas, a small rural community tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He’s on his way to help a friend who lost much of what he owned when Hurricane Helene blew through last weekend.Related video above: Maine man travels to North Carolina with supplies for Helene victimsHis friend, like countless others across western North Carolina, is starting over, which explains why Farrington isn’t thinking too much about politics or the White House race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris right now.”I don’t believe people’s hope is in either people that are being elected,” he said.Farrington pauses, then gestures toward a dozen volunteers loading water and other necessities into cars and trucks.”I believe we’re finding a lot more hope within folks like this,” he said.In the election’s final weeks, people in North Carolina and Georgia, influential swing states, are dealing with more immediate concerns: widespread storm damage. If that weren’t enough, voters in Watauga County, a ticket-splitting Appalachian county that has become more Democratic in recent years, must contend with politicians laying blame while offering support as they campaign in a race that could be decided by any small shift.Large uprooted trees litter the sides of roads, sometimes blocking driveways. Some homes in Vilas are inaccessible after bridges collapsed and roads crumbled. More populous areas like Boone, home of Appalachian State University, saw major flooding.Residents wonder where missing friends and relatives are, if there is enough food and water to last until new supplies arrive and how will they rebuild.The focus is on survival, not politics and may remain that way for weeks.Politicians travel to affected battleground statesTrump and Harris have visited North Carolina and Georgia five times since the storm hit. Trump was in North Carolina on Friday, and Harris was there the next day.After Trump went to Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday, 20-year-old Fermin Herrera said the former president clinched his vote with his display of caring, not out of any frustration with how President Joe Biden and Harris, the vice president, are handling the federal disaster response. Herrera already leaned toward voting for Trump.”I feel like everybody’s kind doing what they can,” he said. “All the locals are appreciating the help that’s coming.”Trump, who has his own mixed record on natural disaster response, attacked Biden and Harris for what he said was a slow response to Helene’s destruction. Trump accused the Democrats of “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas” and said there wasn’t enough Federal Emergency Management Agency money because it was spent on illegal immigrants. There is no evidence to support either claim.”I’m not thinking about voters right now,” Trump insisted after a meeting with Gov. Brian Kemp, R-Ga., on Friday. “I’m thinking about lives.”Biden pushed back hard, saying he is “committed to being president for all of America” and has not ordered aid to be distributed based on party lines. The White House cited statements from the Republican governors of Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee expressing satisfaction with the federal government’s response.Criticism so soon after a natural disaster is “inappropriate,” especially when factoring in the daunting logistical problems in western North Carolina, said Gavin Smith, a North Carolina State University professor who specializes in disaster recovery. He said the perilous terrain from compromised roads and bridges and the widespread lack of power and cellphone service make disaster response in the region particularly challenging.Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has made several stops in western North Carolina, including Watauga County and surrounding areas, and Biden viewed the extensive damage via an aerial tour.A focus on recovering and rebuildingIn Watauga County, Jessica Dixon was scraping muck and broken furniture off the ground with a shovel, then dumping it in the bucket of a humming excavator. The 29-year-old stood in a home she bought two years ago. It’s now gutted after a rush of water forced Dixon, her boyfriend and their two dogs to flee to safety.Without flood insurance, Dixon is not sure what will happen over the next month. She said she filled out a FEMA application but hasn’t checked her email since. She had given the presidential election some thought before Helene, but now she’s preoccupied with cleaning her home.”It wouldn’t change my views on anything,” said Dixon, who was planning to vote for Harris.The presidential election isn’t top of mind for 47-year-old Bobby Cordell, either. He’s trying to get help to neighbors in western Watauga County, which has become inaccessible in some parts.His home near Beech Mountain is one of those places, he said, after a bridge washed away. Cordell rescued his aunt from a mudslide, then traveled to Boone and has been staying in Appalachian State’s Holmes Convocation Center, which now serves as a Red Cross emergency shelter.He’s trying to send disaster relief back where he lives by contacting officials, including from FEMA. That conversation, he said, “went very well.”Accepting help isn’t easy for people in the mountains, he said, because they’re used to taking care of themselves.Now, though, the people who are trapped “need everything they can get.”Helping neighbors becomes more important in Helene’s aftermathOver the past week of volunteering at Skateworld, where Farrington stopped for water, it’s become harder for Nancy Crawford to smile. She’s helped serve more than 1,000 people, she said, but the emotional toll has started to settle in for “a lot of us that normally are tough.”That burden added to the weight she was already feeling about the election, which she said was “scary to begin with.” Crawford, a registered Republican, said she plans to vote for Harris. As a Latina of Mexican descent, she thinks Trump’s immigration policies would have harmful effects on her community.The storm, she said, likely won’t change her vote but has made one thing evident.”It doesn’t matter what party you are, we all need help,” she said.Jan Wellborn had a similar thought as she made her way around the Watauga High School gym collecting supplies to bring to coworkers in need. A 69-year-old bus driver for the school district, she said the outpouring of support she’s seen from the community has been a “godsend.”She takes solace from the county’s ability to pull together. The election matters, she said, but helping people make their way through a harrowing time matters more.”The election, it should be important,” Wellborn said. “But right now we need to focus on getting everybody in the county taken care of.”Associated Press writer Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.
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