Trump, Musk want to curb FEMA. Its North Carolina response says volumes.
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Patrik Jonsson Staff writer
| Bat Cave, N.C.
Lynette Staton鈥檚 first thought as she descended a mountain trail after massive floods here in North Carolina in September was 鈥淏at Cave is gone.鈥� Her second: 鈥淭ime to get to work.鈥�
Ms. Staton wasn鈥檛 alone in her determination as platoons of relief workers 鈥� neighbors and strangers, firefighters and Mennonites 鈥� toiled together in a remarkable mass effort across a broken landscape where 74,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, and 50 million cubic yards of debris were scattered through valleys.
Largely missing then and now in this unincorporated village, named for its mountain fissure where bats live, are folks wearing Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) caps, says Ms. Staton.
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onFederal efforts to respond to disasters are facing heavy criticism. North Carolina鈥檚 flood recovery shows that FEMA鈥檚 role matters but must include improved outcomes and reforms.
It is emblematic, in Ms. Staton鈥檚 view, of the federal response here in North Carolina: The first government person she saw after the flood was a National Guard member. She asked him to help her carry some belongings across a makeshift bridge.
鈥淗e apologized but said he was there to take photos for FEMA,鈥� says Ms. Staton, whose curiosity shop, HipHen Uniques, is now a relief center. 鈥淗e said he鈥檇 come back the next day to help. I never saw him again. I could say more, but I won鈥檛.鈥�
Precise photo records can be critical for emergency workers to triage catastrophe responses. But small acts like not putting the camera down to help someone in a desperate situation, she says, have fueled the frustration expressed in President Donald Trump鈥檚 executive order last month, condemning the federal response headed by FEMA as too slow, bureaucratic, and politicized.
鈥淔EMA has turned out to be a disaster,鈥� he said during a visit to North Carolina.
Cameron Hamilton, President Trump鈥檚 new acting head of FEMA, said otherwise. FEMA 鈥渋s a critical agency which performs an essential mission in support of our national security,鈥� he wrote in a recent note to his staff.
The agency has the subject of fierce controversy and a target of the Trump administration鈥檚 accusations of government ills. On Monday, FEMA鈥檚 acting head said he had suspended FEMA payments to New York City after Elon Musk claimed that the agency paid $59 million 鈥渢o luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants.鈥� The city noted that the payments were appropriated by Congress to help shelter migrants, according to news reports. On Tuesday, the agency announced it was terminating four FEMA employees for 鈥渃ircumventing leadership鈥� in making hotel payments.聽
Here in North Carolina, the Appalachian flood recovery to date offers insights into that debate 鈥� including that even hurricane-tested North Carolina cannot handle a catastrophe like Helene. That suggests that FEMA, as it considers reforms, must address how it can be more effective and how it can help places become more resilient.
鈥淧eople often say that disasters are windows of opportunities 鈥� a time to reimagine and fix things that are broken,鈥� says Aaron Clark-Ginsberg, a policy analysis professor at the Pardee Rand Graduate School in Santa Monica, California. 鈥淏ut we can also lose attention and forget鈥� what we鈥檙e working toward.
For FEMA, part of the problem is also public misconceptions. Often, the agency is supporting relief efforts by other government personnel who don鈥檛 wear FEMA caps. And while the agency assists with recovery, it was never designed to provide full funding toward that goal. Meanwhile, some increasingly extreme weather events are placing new demands on the agency.
After days of warnings, Hurricane Helene, by then a tropical storm, dumped of water on the southeastern United States Sept. 27, destroying most of Bat Cave, population 300, and other towns and places across western North Carolina. Over 100 people died in mudslides and rushing whitewater. Thousands of families remain displaced.
Four months later, in Bat Cave, progress is painfully slow. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 need clothes donations. We need bulldozers and people to run 鈥榚m,鈥� says volunteer Ben Holmes, an HVAC mechanic from nearby Hendersonville.
Mission and focus
Much of residents鈥� frustration here and throughout this mountain region has landed on FEMA, an agency created in the 1970s by the late President Jimmy Carter to manage federal resources and write reimbursement checks when a state asks for help. The agency employs over 20,000 people and juggles dozens of national disaster declarations.
But rarely has the agency faced the nation鈥檚 recent one-two punch of flooding in the East and fires in the West, and then the uppercut blow of partisan political pressure from the White House. President Trump鈥檚 order created a commission to review the agency鈥檚 performance regarding Helene.
鈥淚 think, frankly, FEMA is not good,鈥� the president said during the same remarks in last month. He suggested, offhandedly, 鈥渇undamentally reforming or maybe getting rid鈥� of it.
To critics, FEMA has 鈥渓ost mission focus,鈥� as President Trump鈥檚 executive order claimed. They point to the FEMA worker in Florida who was fired during the Helene response for suggesting that colleagues should ignore victims with Trump flags in their yards.
Blatant politicization doesn鈥檛 jibe with what many first responders say they see on the ground in North Carolina. But the deeper critique is fair, says Susan L. Cutter, author of 鈥淎merican Hazardscapes.鈥�
鈥淏ecause FEMA was doing a reasonably good job of responding to disasters, there was more and more put on its plate, diluting some of its core missions,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat has happened at a time when more disasters are going on.鈥�
Bat Cave, meanwhile, became a nexus of misinformation that helped fuel a national barrage of criticism of FEMA and the Biden administration, led by Mr. Trump.
In December, a local sheriff posted a lengthy Facebook video correcting misinformation from an influential TikTok video creator about a Bat Cave road being blocked by FEMA. The roadblock was, in fact, due to a private property dispute.
As of November, over $244 million in FEMA individual assistance funds had been paid out to nearly a quarter million North Carolinians. At the height of the recovery, some 2,000 FEMA personnel were on hand in the state to help, seeking out victims in places from shelters to neighborhoods. 鈥淭hey can be identified with their FEMA logo apparel,鈥� an agency fact sheet says.
FEMA鈥檚 faltering, fact or fable?
Still, there鈥檚 a feeling among some Bat Cave survivors that it is 鈥渓ike we are in the land of the lost,鈥� as Mark Staton, Lynette鈥檚 husband, says.
Ms. Staton says she has applied for but has been denied assistance. 鈥淎fter a while, you just give up,鈥� she says.
Such reactions stem in part from the law鈥檚 constraints on FEMA 鈥� and strict budgetary oversight by Congress and government auditors. The agency can award individual cash assistance of just over $40,000, enough for repairs but not for a new home.
As disasters become more frequent and insurance costs rise, federal programs seem inadequate, if not useless. After all, very few people have flood insurance 鈥� only in one of North Carolina鈥檚 flooded counties, for example 鈥� and many of them are middle-income residents ineligible for rebuilding grants that focus on low-income Americans.
鈥淗ow are we going to fill that hole?鈥� asked North Carolina Rep. Eric Ager, a Democrat. The answer is not clear.
Indeed, the individual assistance program is hard to explain 鈥渂ecause it wasn鈥檛 designed to be the primary thing for people,鈥� says former FEMA director Craig Fugate, who managed 87 disasters in 2011 under President Barack Obama. 鈥淲hen people get asked, 鈥楥an you pay back a loan?鈥� 鈥� they say, 鈥業 don鈥檛 want a loan. One of my family members was killed. I just lost my home. Can鈥檛 you just help me?鈥� Well, FEMA can help, but nothing to replace your home.鈥�
That dynamic came to a head last month in Raleigh, the state capital, when lawmakers grilled representatives from the Governor鈥檚 Recovery Office for Western North Carolina (GROW NC), a new state agency.
When asked why FEMA emergency trailers that were provided as temporary housing were empty, Jonathan Krebs, an adviser to GROW NC, said that 鈥淢ost people don鈥檛 want them.鈥� He said that many people have, in fact, found decent and safe housing. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe we鈥檙e being held back by FEMA,鈥� said Mr. Krebs.
Some lawmakers took umbrage.
鈥淭he way it鈥檚 being presented is that FEMA is taking care of it, and they鈥檙e not,鈥� responded Rep. Mark Pless, a Republican from hard-hit Haywood County, who says he knows people still struggling to find housing.
In 2019, with the dramatic rise in the number of people crossing the U.S. southern border, Congress authorized the federal government to reimburse cities that helped house unauthorized migrants as part of a new 鈥� and separate 鈥� Shelter and Services Program, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security but is run by FEMA, according to The Associated Press. That program has become a flash point for some Republicans, who incorrectly claim it鈥檚 taking money from people hit by hurricanes or floods.
A series of unfortunate events
In many ways, North Carolina is an example of a disaster-resilient state. Deep veins of self-reliance and anti-government sentiment run through these mountains. But it鈥檚 also a state that created 22 separate rebuilding programs after Hurricane Floyd in 1999, and a subsequent surge of hurricanes left parts of North Carolina in tatters.
As such, North Carolina serves as a guidepost for reforms, says Gavin Smith, who managed hurricane recovery efforts in North Carolina and Mississippi after Hurricanes Floyd and Katrina.
鈥淪tates ought to take more responsibility,鈥� says Dr. Smith, now an environmental planning professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. But states can鈥檛 serve up help like the phalanx of Blackhawk helicopters that the U.S. Army provided after Helene. Indeed, there was talk after the flawed response to Katrina in 2005 of abolishing FEMA.
Mr. Fugate, the former FEMA director, says that reforms should include rethinking federally funded programs that incentivize building in vulnerable areas by better assessing the economic costs. Another idea is to reward states that take steps toward resilience.
Risks and responsibilities
鈥淲e鈥檙e living in an era of unusual events,鈥� says Professor Cutter, co-director of the Hazards Vulnerability & Resilience Institute at the University of South Carolina, in Columbia. 鈥淵ou do need some mechanism to force states, communities, and individuals to take more responsibility for the risks they assume.鈥�
David Wyatt, a local farmer from Bat Cave, says wistfully that the town 鈥渁in鈥檛 ever going to be what it was.鈥� But he鈥檚 also not ready to blame FEMA. He knows FEMA funds help pay for the state dump trucks and bulldozers rebuilding the road to neighboring Chimney Rock. That money will also pay to .
And when Mr. Wyatt raised concerns with a U.S. representative that farmers seemed left out of the recovery loop, a meeting that included FEMA representatives was quickly called to discuss farm aid.
鈥淚 made a call,鈥� says Mr. Wyatt. 鈥淎nd something happened.鈥�
Editor's note: This story, originally published on Feb. 11, has been updated to include the correct date for Hurricane Floyd, which is 1999.
