As East Coast states struggle to recover from Hurricane Helene, and with an even fiercer storm, Hurricane Milton, expected to strike Florida this week, multiple whistleblowers are alleging that the federal disaster relief agency, FEMA, has been shockingly slow to deploy first responders to help the victims.
The whistleblowers made the disturbing allegations to Rep. Matt Gaetz R.-Fla., who wrote a scathing letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last Friday, demanding more details about FEMA’s allocation of funds, NY Post and Fox News reported.
The storm, which was the deadliest mainland hurricane since Katrina in 2005, ripped through Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama from Sept. 24-Sept 29. It brought massive flooding and mudslides that wiped out some communities and leveled entire towns, killing over 230 people.
Tens of thousands of residents, particularly in the large population center of Asheville, N.C., remained without electricity and cell service for over a week, while facing water, gas and food shortages. In some towns, the water system was contaminated, depriving residents of running water and functioning toilets.
Allegations of mismanagement and misappropriated funds at FEMA, a division of the DHS, came just days after Sec. Mayorkas drew fire for admitting that FEMA lacks sufficient funds to cover any additional disaster relief during the current hurricane season.
This is after Congress delegated an additional $20 billion to FEMA before adjourning last week.
In his letter to Mayorkas, Rep. Gaetz noted that his office “had been in contact with whistleblowers in numerous functions at the federal, state, and local levels, and they all point to the same critical mismanagement issues. FEMA has wasted taxpayer funds, misappropriated funds, and left federal, state, and local responders without deployment orders on the ground.”
Gaetz told Mayorkas that his office had confirmed that “hundreds, if not thousands of U.S. service members had been deployed by the Department of Defense to the state of North Carolina and were forced to sit idle, waiting for FEMA.”
These individuals were among a contingent of 1,000 active-duty troops and 22 helicopters from Fort Liberty that were sent by President Biden– five full days after the storm hit—to provide assistance to hurricane victims.
“FEMA pre-disaster aid was thus withheld, exacerbating the emergency,” while hurricane victims were abandoned to their fate, the congressman stressed.
The Florida congressman said that precious time was squandered as servicemen were forced to fritter away the hours until orders arrived. In the meantime, the delay took an immeasurable toll on the embattled residents of hurricane-devastated towns.
‘No Sign of FEMA or Any Federal Entity’
Biden has disputed claims that his administration was caught off guard by Hurricane Helene and insisted he had a plan in place even before the storm made landfall on Sept. 24.
“Days before the storm hit, I pre-positioned extensive resources on the ground throughout the Southeast, extensively — first responders, search and rescue teams, food, water, ambulances — before Helene made landfall,” Biden said after touring the damage in Ray City, Georgia.
But stranded residents begging for help report that the federal government has yet to show up or provide any aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Mr. Donnie Loftis, a Republican in the North Carolina state legislature, told the Washington Times on Oct. 5 that hurricane-ravaged Hendersonville had seen no sign of FEMA or any other federal entity.
“I haven’t seen any federal folks. I haven’t seen FEMA or local emergency crews. It’s just neighbor helping neighbor,” Loftis said, adding that he himself delivered much-needed supplies to Hendersonville, one of the hardest-hit areas in the state. He said nearby churches rose to the occasion and provided residents with food supplies and water to those impacted by the storm.
This situation was mirrored in many rural areas where roads and entire towns have been decimated, and people were forced to rely on help from private citizens and organizations because the government hasn’t arrived.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-KY, said American citizens were again paying the price for the Biden-Harris administration’s “self-inflicted border crisis.”
“President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris must put Americans first and take action now to reverse their open borders policies that are bleeding Americans dry,” he told The Washington Times.
Were Disaster Relief Funds Diverted for Migrants?
Rep. Gaetz in his letter to Mayorkas went on to note that while the DHS Secretary said in July that FEMA “does not have enough funds to make it through the [hurricane] season,” reports show that FEMA has “spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on migrants” due to the Biden-Harris administration’s open border policies.
Gaetz asserted that the White House has prioritized aid for illegal immigrants over “funding for Americans impacted by disasters.” He claimed that FEMA funds have been used by non-governmental organizations to purchase airline tickets for migrants, a charge fiercely denied by the White House and the DHS.
“The aftermath of Hurricane Helene is a major disaster, and your waste and unpreparedness are leaving Americans in distress—unable to access food, water, or medicine—and expecting help, with none coming,” Gaetz charged.
The letter posed a series of questions to Mayorkas about whether FEMA is spending disaster relief money on illegal migrants, with a portion of its overall budget going towards ‘non-citizens.’
“In Fiscal Year 2024, what portion of funds in the Disaster Relief Fund have been spent on non-disaster-relief programs, such as providing services to illegal aliens or providing routine training to FEMA employees?” Gaetz pressed.
Critics have pointed out that the DHS allocated $640.9 million this year in FEMA-administered funds to aid state and local governments coping with the influx of immigrants. Mayorkas’ office insisted that those funds couldn’t be used for hurricane relief because Congress authorized them specifically for the migrant crisis.
“This dilemma is easy to resolve,” retorted Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in an online post. “Mayorkas and FEMA — immediately stop spending money on illegal immigration resettlement and redirect those funds to areas hit by the hurricane. Put Americans first!”
Speaker Mike Johnson spoke with Fox News after he toured hurricane-ravaged areas in Florida and Georgia. “The administration is scrambling to cover their egregious errors and mistakes. And there’s an effort to blame others or blame circumstances when this is just purely a lack of leadership and response,” the speaker said.
“FEMA, which should be focused on helping Americans recover from disasters, is instead directing resources to other programs that are catering to illegals.”
“This is an extension of the nonsense that the Mayorkas DHS has engaged in,” Johnson said. “With their dangerous open-borders policy and then the relocation efforts of taking illegal aliens and transporting them around the country,” Johnson said. “House Republicans are working every day to stop the madness.”
He pointed out that he and his colleagues are seeking to defund the Shelter and Services Program (SSP) for fiscal year 2025, which is the program that houses and subsidizes hundreds of thousands of migrants.
$1 Billion Over Past Two Years for Migrant Housing
FEMA is pushing back against what it calls ‘baseless rumors’ alleging that funds meant for disaster relief have been diverted to border-related issues. On its website, FEMA insists this allegation is false.
But criticism has risen with revelations that programs under FEMA spent more than $1 billion over the past two years, including $380 million allocated in late August, to help communities settle thousands of illegal immigrants encountered at the southern border and released into communities across the United States.
The money was provided by Congress and signed into law by the president specifically to pay for housing and services for illegal immigrants, who have flooded into the U.S. in record numbers under the Biden administration.
Johnson said during the Fox News interview that Americans are “frustrated” and “disgusted” by what they view as distorted government priorities.
“They see illegals in their local airport being transported around the country with planes, trains and automobiles to every community, and every state has now become a “border state” because of that. The NGOs, the non-governmental organizations are transporting those people around. And then they send the receipts to the federal government,” Johnson said.
“And Biden, Harris and Mayorkas gleefully pay those receipts because they open the border intentionally. The American people are disgusted by this. They’re fed up with it, and so are Republicans in Congress.
“This is going to stop after Nov. 5 because we’re going to have a unified government with Republicans in charge, and we will bring sanity back to this situation,” Johnson pledged.
‘Slow, Weak and Deadly’
Except for a couple of conservative news outlets, the mainstream media has been feeding the public a distorted narrative that portrays the government’s rescue effort as robust and efficient.
“The Biden administration surged federal aid to the hardest-hit regions, sending thousands of people to southeastern states to help with the recovery,” gushed ABC News, echoed by major media outlets.
The timeline of the White House’s disaster intervention, however, tells a different story.
Hurricane Helene hit on Thursday, Sept. 26, at 11:10 P.M. dumping up to 30 inches of rain on multiple regions. Five full days after the storm struck, with the death toll rising and countless thousands injured, homeless or stranded, Biden ordered 1,000 active-duty troops and 22 helicopters to provide assistance.
Mainstream news outlets effused over this relief response but critics said it was far too little, and tragically too late for many of the victims.
The Biden-Harris administration’s response to Hurricane Helene was “slow, weak, and deadly” a Fox News op-ed by former California congressman Chuck Devore asserted.
“The sluggish and half-hearted disaster response has put hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk in Helene’s swath of destruction. Displaced citizens in the Appalachian region are at risk of illness due to contaminated water—and in danger from human traffickers who prey upon the confused, weak, and vulnerable,” the op-ed said.
The writer noted that “the hundreds of military police from Fort Liberty’s 503rd Military Police Battalion and the 82nd MP Company could prove a powerful deterrent to potential criminals preying on shelters—if they were activated.”
“Biden’s lackluster engagement in the most powerful office on the planet puts the entire nation in peril as the world spirals into chaos,” the author wrote.
Comparisons With Katrina, 2005
The devastation wrought across the American Southeast by Hurricane Helene has prompted comparisons to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina response. Fox News op-ed author Devore outlined some of the stark differences.
“Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005. President George W. Bush had issued an emergency declaration on Saturday, Aug. 27, two days before the storm struck. Within a day of impact, U.S. Coast Guard helicopters were already working, rescuing some 350 people from rooftops.
On Sept. 1, 2005, Bush asked Louisiana Gov. Blanco to allow a federal takeover of the relief efforts, which by then included 15,256 Guard members expected to grow to more than 40,000 personnel from neighboring states.
Another army veteran, Robert Berthelot of the U.S. Army Heritage Education Center, contrasted the federal response he witnessed to Hurricane Helene with his experiences during Hurricane Katrina.
“In August of 2005, I was a U.S. Army colonel serving on the Army staff in the Pentagon,” wrote Berthelot. “As Hurricane Katrina was nearing landfall, I was assigned an officer’s post in the National Military Command Center (NMCC) for hurricane support operations.
“I was impressed with the sheer power that was brought to bear by our military to support endangered Americans in Katrina,” the author recalled. “Now, as a long-retired veteran, I paid close attention to Hurricane Helene, anticipating the same robust military and federal support. But I’ve been grossly disappointed.
“Much has been made in the media that on Oct. 2, about a week after Helene made landfall, President Joe Biden authorized 1,000 soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division to support Helene relief operations,” the author wrote.
“But the folks trapped in the hollows of North Carolina’s mountains need helicopter support most of all. They need to receive essential food, water, and medical supplies, and to evacuate the stranded, the elderly, the sick, and the injured.”
“Hundreds of active-duty helicopters were involved in the Katrina effort in 2005. But as for Helene, if you look at the DOD’s press releases, it looks like 28 active-duty helicopters were called out as of Sept. 30—five days after disaster first struck.”
“Why this lack of effective response? Why did our military — the actual “muscle” of federal disaster response, as FEMA is a mere coordinating staff agency — sit largely on the sidelines for Helene?” the writer mused.
“Was it gross incompetence?”
“Could it be something more nefarious?”
The article invited readers to draw their own conclusions, hinting at the impact the disaster will have on the Nov. 5 presidential election.
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‘Road Closed’ Sign Scared Off FEMA
Residents of a tiny North Carolina town that was almost totally destroyed by Hurricane Helene have been fending for themselves, after FEMA told them that a “Road Closed” sign placed the town off limits to the agency, the New York Post reported.
“FEMA called me and told me they wanted to inspect my house, then called me back to say they couldn’t drive around the ‘Road Closed’ sign. They weren’t allowed,” Chelsea Atkins, 38, told The Post.
Atkins explained to FEMA officers to no avail that it was quite possible to safely drive around the Road Closed sign. “They said they still couldn’t come,” Atkins said, recounting her “maddening” exchange with the federal agency.
While the sick and elderly residents of Bat Cave were airlifted to safety a week ago, those left behind have seen virtually no sign of government agencies.
Left to fend for themselves, Bat Cave residents joined hands, opened the roads and started the grueling task of cleanup and recovery. Residents told the NY Post that they don’t need FEMA now — and at this point, they don’t even want the disaster relief agency to come.
Home-Grown Rescue
In other parts of western North Carolina, residents have similarly been forced to rely on home-grown rescue efforts “instead of waiting for FEMA to get its act together,” the Post reported.
Afraid that help might not arrive in time, a handful of grassroots search-and-rescue operations spontaneously sprung up. With hundreds of people missing across the rough terrain since the hurricane struck, the search for survivors grows more urgent with each passing hour, the article said.
Local airports like Statesville Regional Airport and Hickory Regional Airport have been converted into donation drop-off and delivery zones, with a few dozen volunteers providing critical supplies for the rescue effort.
“The number of pilots coming in and out of Statesville today is amazing. Because of their generosity, our community is saving lives. We were able to get supplies to a remote area today for at least 100 people who had no contact with anyone until yesterday,” a volunteer posted on the Hurricane Helene Airlift Relief website on October 3.
“In the aftermath of the storm, the skies above Western North Carolina echoed with the heartwarming whirring of helicopters, many of them captained by private pilots eager to lend a hand to their townspeople and beyond,” recounted the Post article. End Sidebar One
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No To North Carolina but Yes to Lebanon
Critics have sharply criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for flaunting a $157 million aid package to “the people of Lebanon,” while many North Carolina residents are struggling to recover from Hurricane Helene, reported Fox News.
“Kamala is touting money to the people of Lebanon, while stiff-arming the humanitarian crisis in North Carolina,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott posted online.
“Could this be any more tone deaf? We have Americans suffering and in danger right now from the hurricane and this is what Kamala has to announce?” fumed Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y.
These comments came as the Biden administration faces continued backlash for its much criticized handling of the historic storm.
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked press secretary Jean-Pierre about the incongruity of the Biden administration insisting it must ask Congress for approval to fund Small Business Association (SBA) disaster loans to hurricane-ravaged areas, while in stark contrast, Biden is bypassing Congress in order to expedite funds to Lebanon.
“What does that say about the Biden Administration’s values?” Doocy questioned.
With no idea how to justify the rank inequity, the White House press secretary took refuge in accusing Doocy of peddling “misinformation.”
“What about what I said was misinformation?” Doocy asked, dumbfounded. “Did the president not say he needs Congress’s approval for the SBA loans to hurricane victims? That means there’s not enough money right now for aid to North Carolina. That’s not misinformation.”
“Your whole premise of the question is misinformation,” Jean-Pierre retorted. “The way you’re asking me the question is misinformation.”
“And that’s very dangerous,” she added, “because when folks on the ground hear that, they may not want to ask for the help that they need that is there for them.”
With that convoluted psychobabble, she stormed out of the briefing room.