The Hurricane-Hellene Case: Elon Musk’s Phenomenology Embedded in a Political Controversy
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.
APPALACHIA REGION, N.C. and TENN. The federal response to damage caused by Hurricane Helene is a hot topic on social media, especially during election season. However, some of the conspiracies, misinformation, and rumors that circulate are extraordinary.
Enough so that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is addressing them directly: No, FEMA can’t seize your land if it’s “deemed unlivable” and the agency says rumors it’s confiscating private donations are false.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X has been an especially fertile place for politically charged rumors and conspiracies. Sometimes they have been fueled by the billionaire himself.
Musk fed into a common complaint that the governments are preventing private citizens from helping people in need. Engineers from Musk’s company tried to offer help via helicopter but the FEMA wouldn’t let them land.
Where is the FEMA headquarters? How locals feel about the NOBA flood and how they’ve been affected by hurricanes. The case of Chimney Rock
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. A federal official confirmed to NPR that there have been more than 30 cases where two aircraft almost collided, as air traffic in the region increased 300% after the storm. There are no restrictions to aerial recovery operations.
There are many false online rumors revolving around Chimney Rock, some of which are false and some of which are true, such as the claim that FEMA abandoned the village so the Biden administration could 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.
“People up here aren’t going to put up with the bureaucratic stuff,” says Colt Truesdale, a North Carolinian who organized a donations drive and benefit 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.
There are parallels of the online discussions of politics and the flood of the Nolichucky River in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
“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 just kind of focused on helping each other and just haven’t paid too much attention to it.”
A mile-and-a-half down the road, a local bar has evolved into a collection center and source of hot meals for those helping locals recover. It is the spot where neighbors share and find out more about what is happening.
There is no organization. Tabitha Swinehart has lived here for 30 years and she says it’s called community. Asked about the federal government’s response to storm damage she says, “Honestly, I don’t know what you’re talking about. There has been none. There is no federal response we have seen. More than 7,000 Federal Employees have been deployed across the region.
The Secretary of State for Natural Resources and Emergency Services, Erice Swinehart, tells Puzio on a Trump White House Address at Green Turtle Garage Bar
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 has a shirt on. “Pretty much all of my whole wardrobe is either Trump or Green Turtle,” she laughs. Donald Trump was elected president in 2020 by a two to one margin in Washington County.
There are a lot of conservatives over here that are not fond of the government. The politically charged misinformation about the federal government’s initial response to Helene has reached her, despite the bar only getting electricity restored.
Puzio said that a $750 gift from Vice President Harris will make a huge difference for people who are grieving the death of a loved one.
The $750 Trump refers to is what’s called Serious Needs Assistance, an initial direct relief payment intended to help cover emergency supplies like food, water, baby formula and other basics
The current president of the United States, Donald Trump, accuses the Biden administration 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.
“When that stuff becomes the focus, I think we’re worried about the wrong things,” says King. I don’t think going down those roads is relevant when there are people hurt and in need.
Non-partisanship in disaster relief and social justice: How did FEMA and Senator Johnson steal FEMA money? A case study using a photo by Michael Freas and Mike Johnson
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 Swannanoa, N.C., wedding photographer Michael Freas drops off a Starlink internet receiver to a park where another grassroots relief effort has sprung up. He got a hug from the volunteer in charge of the donation table.
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.
One continuing resolution proposed in the House last month would have included an additional $10 billion for the fund, but that version failed because it was tied to a controversial Republican-backed election bill that focused on further cracking down on already-illegal non-citizen voting.
He wrote that the Administration would keep the Congress apprised of efforts to assess the full resource requirements associated with Hurricane Helene.
Lawmakers could return to Washington to try to pass more aid but they are waiting for the White House to send an updated funding request. President Biden wrote a letter to Congress last week that said FEMA “has the resources needed for the immediate emergency response phase.”
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 fiscal year that ends in October is when the federal government begins, and after a stopgap spending measure was approved last month it gave the DRF $20 billion, but some of that money is used for ongoing recovery efforts from previous disasters.
The Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, made a statement last week that the agency doesn’t have the funds to make it through the rest of the season.
Another popular refrain that has gained traction on the right in recent days is the claim that FEMA has no money for hurricane recovery because of money spent on migrants, something that is not true.
The claims have become so widespread that FEMA set up a response page to debunk many falsehoods around how disaster funding works and what the agency’s response has been.
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. North Carolina received $100 million in federal transportation funds to rebuild roads and bridges damaged in the storm.
At a rally in Pennsylvania Saturday, Trump said that people who lost their homes were being offered $750. We send a huge amount of money to foreign countries that few people have ever heard of. They’re offering them $750. They’ve been destroyed. These people have been destroyed.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is fighting misinformation on top of a major storm cleanup in Florida as Hurricane Milton rapidly intensifies just after Hurricane Helene rocked the state.
Turi warned that misinformation like Musk’s tweet is “damaging to the overall efforts. There are people that are hurting because they’ve lost loved ones. 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.” Disaster survivors need to beware of such claims since they impede their ability to seek help from FEMA.