FEMA deploys to difficult terrain after Helene as it faces criticism and fights misinformation

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has deployed more than a thousand personnel and millions of meals and liters of water to the communities hard hit by Hurricane Helene, but is struggling to reach some communities deep in mountainous and remote areas of North Carolina that were most affected by the storm.

FEMA has deployed more than 1,500 personnel to respond to Helene. As of Friday, the agency had shipped more than 11.5 million meals, more than 12.6 million liters of water, more than 400,000 tarps and 150 generators to the affected region. The agency sent a similar number of personnel - roughly 2,000 - to Florida and the Southeast a week after Hurricane Ian struck there in 2022, according to a news release.

About 6,700 National Guard members from 16 states were involved in relief operations as of Thursday, said Maj. Gen. Win Burkett, director of domestic operations and force development for the National Guard Bureau, along with roughly 1,000 active-duty troops.

But the sheer scope of the disaster area, which stretches across six states in the Southeast, has presented an enormous logistical challenge. And as federal officials help state and local agencies respond, they are battling significant misinformation - only underlining and adding to the challenges of the mission that has no immediate end in sight. As of Friday, at least 221 people have died in six states across the Southeast as a result of the storm.

Several Republican governors and senators from storm-battered states that could prove pivotal in the 2024 election have praised FEMA’s response. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Friday offered a robust defense of the federal recovery efforts so far.

“I’m actually impressed with how much attention was paid to a region that wasn’t likely to have experienced the impact that they did,” Tillis told reporters, adding, “I’m out here to say that we’re doing a good job, and those who may not be on the ground, who are making those assessments, ought to get on the ground.”

But some residents of western North Carolina have lamented that federal assistance has not yet reached them.

“Nobody has come for us,” said Josh Paul, founder and president of Anchor Ridge, a western North Carolina-based nonprofit supporting families across Appalachia. “Of course it takes a long time for the government to respond, but not a lot of people have heard from them.”

FEMA is at the center of a number of debates about the administration’s ability to respond to the crisis - fueled in part by the agency’s comments but also by mischaracterizations or incorrect information repeated on social media about the agency’s response.

Politicians and others have spread false information about the response to the storm on social media. For example, some have claimed that the agency has run out of disaster response money and that hurricane victims can only receive $750 in federal assistance.

Several right-wing influencers have used their large online followings to amplify these claims on X, which has declined to remove these posts or label them as misleading. The trend underscores how election-year politics - combined with lax misinformation policies by major tech platforms - are complicating efforts to keep communities safe.

“There’s always misinformation that flows during disasters, but after Helene, it is really difficult to find good and accurate information,” said Samantha Montano, a disaster expert and assistant professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

“The average person does not know how FEMA aid works, so some of this is unintentional,” Montano added. “Where I see lines potentially being crossed here is the intentional misinformation being spread.”

During a rally Thursday in Saginaw, Mich., former president Donald Trump suggested without evidence that FEMA had used some disaster relief money to help immigrants who are in the country illegally to resettle in the United States. There is no evidence that FEMA has diverted any disaster relief funding for this purpose.

“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.

The claim about migrants appears to have originated with America First Legal, a group headed by Stephen Miller, the longtime Trump adviser and prominent anti-immigration voice. The group has been harshly criticizing FEMA’s humanitarian work with migrants on social media since at least May 2023, and made another X post on Sunday.

In a memo Friday, White House spokesman Andrew Bates slammed conservative officials and media outlets for amplifying the falsehood about migrants.

“Some Republican leaders - and their partners in rightwing media – are using Hurricane Helene to lie and divide us,” Bates wrote. “Their latest missive: baselessly claiming that FEMA is out of money to respond to Hurricane Helene - because of an existing program that supports cities and towns that are sheltering migrants. This is FALSE.”

While FEMA can meet immediate needs, it does face a funding shortfall. On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters that the agency doesn’t have enough money to make it through the hurricane season, which ends in November.

President Joe Biden said Monday that he could call lawmakers back to Washington for an emergency session to approve more disaster relief funding. Congress is on recess until Nov. 12, after Election Day.

Separately, Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., on Wednesday shared with his roughly 12.3 million X followers a video clip of Vice President Kamala Harris discussing Helene. He criticized the vice president for seeming to suggest that FEMA was offering $750 to each storm survivor.

“$750 for Americans in desperate need many of whom lost everything including family,” Trump Jr. wrote. “$250 BILLION spent in Ukraine. … Enough of this madness!”

Harris did say in her speech in Augusta, Ga., that FEMA was “providing $750 for folks who need immediate needs being met, such as food, baby formula and the like.” But she then described tens of thousands of additional federal dollars available, and FEMA has since clarified that the $750 represents only one type of federal assistance for hurricane victims.

“Rumor: FEMA will only provide $750 to disaster survivors to support their recovery. Fact: This is false,” FEMA says on a section of its website devoted to debunking misinformation.

The agency said it often quickly approves applications for $750 worth of Serious Needs Assistance, which helps pay for essential items such as food, water, baby formula, breastfeeding supplies and medication. Survivors can apply for other types of assistance that covers the costs of temporary housing, home repair, hotels and other needs, FEMA said.

In Deep Gap, N.C., Celise Vaughn has been hosting search-and-rescue volunteers at her home. She said she had heard the rumor about $750 FEMA payments.

“It would be very unfortunate if that was the case because not only is that such a small sum, it wouldn’t even really make a difference and then you’d have another group of people who wouldn’t even qualify,” she said.

Vaughn added that local residents are conducting searches for survivors. “You see people coming together doing their part. What we don’t see is resources,” she said.

“They are simply giving direction to residents to apply for assistance online,” she said of federal officials, “but that is a tough pill for citizens to swallow when you don’t have a house and your relatives are still missing.”

Sydney Wilson, 31, whose home and husband’s welding shop flooded in the mountain town of Vilas, N.C., said she submitted an online application for federal disaster aid and officials followed up by phone. But Wilson, a stay-at-home mother of three, said she herself hadn’t seen any FEMA personnel on the ground in the community.

“I haven’t seen any FEMA out here, no government type of help,” Wilson said. “I know they’re overwhelmed probably with the amount of applications and luckily we have what we need in terms of the basic necessities. We’ve had a lot of volunteers here. But I know there’s others who haven’t.”

However, local officials in places such as Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, said FEMA personnel and resources have flowed into the area in the days since the storm. The agency has sent roughly 500 staff to North Carolina, including 30 staff tasked with helping hurricane survivors apply for federal assistance, according to a news release.

“At the beginning, we will say the first 72 hours, it was hard to get any help in here, but they are here on the ground with us,” said Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder during a Friday morning briefing. “I was told that we have over 1,000 responders coming in from across the country helping us. … We have lots of resources.”

While the county has set up food and water distribution sites, it is one of many areas in western North Carolina that remain without safe running water, with officials unable to give clear timelines for when service might be restored.

Tens of thousands of people across the mountain region are also without power, said Bill Norton, a spokesperson with Duke Energy, during the Friday morning briefing. Norton said crews are continuing to work on restoring power, but noted that about 105,000 customers live in “areas where catastrophic damage exists.”

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Hennessy-Fiske reported from Houston. Allyson Chiu and Caitlin Gilbert in Washington and Brianna Sacks in Valdosta, Ga., contributed to this report.