Finalist: Staffs of The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C., and The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
Nominated Work
By Drew Jackson, Joe Marusak, Martha Quillin and Ryan Oehrli
At least 10 people died in western North Carolina after extreme rain from remnants of Hurricane Helene raised floods, gouged roadways and toppled trees, Gov. Roy Cooper revealed Saturday.
The death toll will very likely increase, Cooper told Spectrum News in a recorded interview. “This is catastrophic,” he stressed.
Many badly pummeled communities in the western part of the state have been isolated since heavy rains struck, due to power outages, missing cell phone signals and absent internet connections.
In a state familiar with the power of hurricanes along its long coast, the level of devastation seen so far in North Carolina’s mountains, hundreds of miles inland, is sobering.
Images from newsrooms and social media show houses floating down a muddied French Broad River, submerged cars and the town of Chimney Rock seemingly erased by a mudslide.
More than 200 people were rescued from flood waters, according to Cooper’s office, with North Carolina’s search and rescue teams helped by 19 federal and out-of-state teams.
Many mountain locations were pelted with rain totaling more than 10 inches, some as much as 29 inches. That brought catastrophic flooding, Cooper’s office said, with winds that gusted up to hurricane strength.
More than 320,000 homes in North Carolina — and about 550,000 in South Carolina — remained without without electricity Sunday morning in the aftermath of a tropical storm that started as Hurricane Helene, according to Duke Energy’s outage map.
There’s still no timeline for when power will be restored to many of those homes.
According to the Department of Transportation map drivers use to check road conditions, the entire western third of the state appeared closed for business Saturday.
People scramble for necessities
Traveling west from Charlotte, problems got visible around Shelby, where power was spotty and the few places that had it were overrun with customers trying to buy gas, ice and beer.
Terri Morrin had already driven more than 30 miles from her home in Columbus, near Tryon, zooming by the queues of traffic that reached all the way down the exit ramps to the travel lanes of Interstate 85, and decided to skip Shelby. She want further east to Gastonia to fill 13 portable gas tanks for herself, friends and family.
“One neighbor had five trees fall on their house,” Morrin said, and some of the gas she was taking back would fill the chain saws needed to cut those into pieces.
Some of the gas would also power generators to run fans to dry out that neighbor’s house, or someone’s refrigerator or CPAP machine until the power comes back on.
“Duke Power is saying it will be at least a week.”
Governor seeks more help
Gov. Roy Cooper has asked the federal government for a major disaster declaration for 38 North Carolina counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians that would expand access to assistance to governments, some nonprofits, and individuals.
There were more than 400 closed roads across the state Saturday, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which expects closures to hinder efforts to help those harmed.
“The entire emergency response effort will be hampered by the damage to roads and powerlines,” said said NCDOT spokesman Jamie Kritzer.
Those closures include multiple sections of Interstates 40 and 26 around Asheville, the main arteries for traveling through the mountainous region. One section of the eastbound lane of I-40, three miles from the Tennessee border, washed out and fell into the Pigeon River.
“At this point, we’re still advising people not to travel in Western North Carolina,” said NCDOT spokesman Jamie Kritzer. “We’re still assessing what the damage looks like but in many spots, the recovery effort will be long term and labor intensive.”
Of the 400 closed roads, Kritzer said 64 were primary roads, the state’s designation for significant roadways, including highways and interstates. Those closures could impact recovery efforts.
Water supply down, outages widespread
In Buncombe County, I-40 and I-26 were impassable in multiple locations, emergency officials said at a news conference Saturday morning.
A boil-water advisory continues for Asheville. The county also has no cellular coverage, with no estimated restoration time.
Jessica O’Brien has lived in the Asheville area for 25 years, and what she saw this week was “much worse” than the flooding she saw in 2004 after Hurricane Frances, she said.
She doesn’t expect to get running water back until next week. And when her boss in another state questioned why she couldn’t open the store she manages, she drove to Marshall to prove a point.
She took videos and pictures — the courthouse flooded, businesses flooded, everything flooded.
“It was fully engulfed,” she said.
In one of Friday’s most harrowing moments in western North Carolina, an alert was sent out Friday afternoon that the Lake Lure Dam in Rutherford County was set to fail at any moment, with residents below the 100 foot structure ordered to evacuate.
Hours later the Lake Lure Dam continued to hold.
Water levels throughout the Western region reached historic levels of flooding. The Pigeon River crested at more than 25 feet near the Canton station.
People living through the chaos on Saturday were doing what they could to cope.
In the town of Hot Springs, where the swollen French Broad river had closed the Bridge Street Bridge, residents met at Sara Joe’s Gas Station Saturday morning to try and figure out a way around the road closures. The gas station had posted on its Facebook page Friday afternoon that there was free ice in the cooler and that people could take some if they needed it.
A few hours after that message the French Broad River rose to more than 20 feet, reaching major flood level, according to a water data station in Hot Springs. On Saturday afternoon, the river remained at 15 feet deep.
At the Asheville station, the French Broad peaked at 24.67 feet Friday evening, a level surpassing the Great Flood of 1916, which the city says crested at 21 feet and killed 80 people.
An eye on getting to work
With interstate highways, local routes and even favored back roads closed by fallen trees or errant rivers, working people in Western North Carolina who need to be on the job on Monday were like bees in flight on Saturday.
Billie Bradley said she planned to stay in or near Shelby until the power comes back on at her house near Fletcher a week from now. Or two weeks. Who even knows, Bradley said.
She and her neighbors chainsawed their way out of the neighborhood and lit out for the homes of friends or family with spare rooms and city water. Rural wells need pumps and pumps need electricity.
Bradley had to piece together a route to her job in Asheville at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
”We’re going to make a test run tomorrow,” said said, pondering a map with her husband outside the Taco Bell in Shelby Saturday afternoon.
”It’ll be fine, she said, relieved that no one in her neighborhood was hurt.
”We’ll figure it out.”
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer Ames Alexander contributed.
By Martha Quillin
CHIMNEY ROCK
For a while on Friday morning, it looked as if Chimney Rock and Lake Lure had been spared the worst of Hurricane Helene.
And then worse than the worst happened, as a wall of water came rushing down the Broad River, wiping out most of the structures along Main Street — and Main Street itself — in the Village of Chimney Rock, and straining the dam that holds back Lake Lure.
“I’ve never seen concentrated damage like we’ve seen here,” said Chris Murray, an emergency manager in Pamlico County who came to help lead teams of rescuers as soon as Rutherford County could send an S.O.S. “There’s nothing left.”
“The village? There’s just nothing left.”
‘Not so bad’ at first
For a couple of days, the wreckage left the two communities as isolated as they were a century ago.
Townspeople and visitors awoke Friday morning after a restless night to more of what they had seen the day before: tree branches falling in heavy rain and wind as the remains of what became Tropical Storm Helene cut through Western North Carolina. Power had been out since Thursday.
Tracy Stevens had left her house in Chimney Rock Thursday night and gotten a room at the Lake Lure Inn, which had a generator and was staying open through the storm. The two towns, both popular tourist destinations, are walking distance to one another, joined by a bridge across the Broad River in the mountains of Rutherford County.
“I got up around 7 and went down to the lobby and got a cup of coffee,” Stevens said. “I was looking at the lake out the window of the inn, and I thought, Is that all? OK. This is not so bad.”
But when she checked again, it looked like the lake had risen. The next time she looked, she was sure the water was coming up. And by 8:30 a.m., it was several feet higher, nearly covering the door of a small building next to the lake.
The National Weather Service reported that in some places just west of the two communities, more than 19 inches of rain fell. And it kept falling, down the mountainsides and into the creeks and rivers.
Broad River rises
No official source has said yet how deep the water rose in the Broad River, normally so tame that bars and restaurants on that side of Main Street in Chimney Rock serve drinks and meals on patios overlooking the stream.
Some of those buildings had stood since at least the 1950s. A few had gotten wet during historic floods such as one that followed a pair of hurricanes in 1996, “but this is 10 times worse,” said Patrick Bryant, a Lake Lure town commissioner who lives in Chimney Rock.
“This is Katrina-level damage,” Murray said.
With the help of teams from many other North Carolina counties and some from outside the state, Murray said rescuers had fetched more than 150 people by sundown Saturday who had been stranded by the rushing water.
As the water plowed through, it carried the buildings and their contents with it, slamming all that material against the concrete bridge between Chimney Rock and Lake Lure with such force that it exploded refrigerators and trees.
It took a day of heavy equipment and chainsaw work to make one lane of the bridge passable to emergency vehicles and residents who wanted to leave Chimney Rock.
Meanwhile, water completely took out another bridge across the Broad River, this one to Chimney Rock State Park. The park was closed.
Wall of water
On Lake Lure, the water relocated the marina docks and all the boats that had been moored on them. Sunday, the boats seemed to sit on top of a spilled box of toothpicks, some of the remains of the structures swept in from Chimney Rock.
Search-and-rescue teams Sunday were reaching more remote places, and were still finding survivors, including one woman and her dog who appeared to have been pulled from a collapsed home on the riverbank.
Officials have not said whether there were deaths or if anyone still was missing by midday Sunday. Across Western North Carolina, at least 30 people were reported dead and that number was likely to climb, Gov. Roy Cooper said.
While rescuers looked for people, the N.C. National Guard and local chainsaw-wielding volunteers began cutting trees to allow people to leave their homes and neighborhoods. Power was expected to be out in Chimney Rock and Lake Lure for several days at least, but with trees cleared to open at least one lane, residents whose cars weren’t too damaged to drive began making their way out.
Word spread quickly about spots outside of Lake Lure where there might be a cellphone signal, and people congregated in those, calling relieved relatives or reaching out to insurance adjusters with bad news.
Nick Stamper, who lives in Green River Cove, a few miles from Chimney Rock and Lake Lure, had to make some difficult phone calls Saturday night. His house was moved several feet off its foundation by what he estimated was a 20-foot wall of water that came down the Green River, normally more than 100 yards from his house.
He counted 13 other homes that disappeared in the flood.
“Washed completely away,” he said. “Just, gone.”
He was calling the owners to let them know.
By Julia Coin
HICKORY
Right now in North Carolina, an index card could save a life.
Blue-lined, 3-by-5-inch papers sit in a grid on a plastic folding table inside Hickory Regional Airport, listing coordinates and what those stranded in Hurricane Helene’s aftermath need:
Baby formula.
Insulin.
Help.
A patchwork group of pilots inside the two-room airport grab three or four cards at a time, head to their helicopters and fly west. Fuel is expensive. If they end up unable to land on the rickety terrain in the mangled Appalachian Mountains, they need more cards, more options before turning back. Organizers realized that halfway through their second day of missions.
But Andy Petree, a retired NASCAR analyst for ESPN, takes just one card at 5:56 p.m. Monday. The sun will set in about two hours. This is his sixth and last trip of the day. His first was 12 hours ago, when he flew his son out of their hometown, Hendersonville, and dropped him at Petree’s Lake Norman house, one with its own helipad, near Charlotte.
For his second to last trip, Petree flew out to Black Mountain, where he rescued a family of three and their dogs.
Now, Petree loads Pampers diapers, Similac baby formula, his wife’s PB&J sandwiches and a Charlotte Observer reporter into his private helicopter and lifts off from the landing strip that’s about three football fields long.
The 66-year-old is one of 37 pilots offering their private aircraft to Operation Airdrop, a nonprofit that sends volunteer pilots and their aircraft with essential supplies after disaster.
In Asheville, Swannanoa, Lake Lure, Marshall, and many parts of western North Carolina, people are only reachable by air. Roads, shredded by the floods, have turned into narrow dirt paths, riverbeds or cliffs into the orange, murky water below.
Hickory, a North Carolina town of about 44,000 known as a furniture manufacturing capital of the United States, is about an hour drive from Charlotte, Asheville and Boone. That’s about 30 minutes in Petree’s helicopter.
We head to Lake Lure in his Robinson 44 Raven 2 — a four-person helicopter he bought to get from his Hendersonville home in western North Carolina to the NASCAR tracks in the middle of the state, close to Concord and the Lake Norman home where his son now sits with 200 pounds of supplies.
Three days ago, as Helene passed over his home state Friday, Petree was in Port Canaveral, Florida, canceling plans to travel from where he and his wife were about to get onto a cruise ship.
He had to help, he said.
The rest of the volunteers, some dropping supplies and clothes and airlifting people out, have similar stories. Some are in matching black pants, black shoes and black shirts that say “Academy of Aviation,” some are in military camo, and some are in jeans and T-shirts that show their neck tattoos.
Hodgepodge helicopters help Helene’s victims
Pockets of destruction rest between Hickory and the Appalachian Mountains. Some areas seem fine, with outdoor furniture unmoved or at least reset. Then a smear of downed trees that will die before their leaves turn into a cluster of colors this year.
Then a river. Then a lake. Then a whole town tattered into pieces.
“That hurricane basically picked up the whole Gulf of Mexico and dropped it right there,” Petree says, pointing to the thick layer of branches, roofs, umbrellas and siding sitting where Chimney Rock used to be.
I tell him this summer, on a trip back to Charlotte from Topton, a town further out west that escaped total ruin Friday, I considered stopping at the quaint lake town. I didn’t.
“Now you’ll never see it,” he says.
Those with homes still intact won’t be able to get to them, he says. Those with their homes and belongings whisked away won’t see it rebuilt. Those dead in the ruin won’t be found for a few more days, months, maybe years, he says.
As of Monday, officials said more than 100 Americans had died in the 10 states hit by Helene. By Tuesday afternoon, there were 57 people confirmed dead from the storm in just Buncombe County in North Carolina, according to Sheriff Quentin Miller. Hundreds are still missing.
Petree, who was in the rubble talking to people earlier Monday, said the people there are just awestruck. The devastation is unimaginable. And for those who don’t have to imagine — those who heard the freight-train-sounding rush of water and woke up to their neighbor’s homes in the water — it’s incomprehensible.
At 6:45 p.m., after circling above the coordinates listed on Petree’s index card, finding no place to land and seeing no people waving us down, we land on a bridge next to Bat Cave Volunteer Fire Department between the demolished Chimney Rock and Gerton, the next unincorporated community west. The makeshift landing pad is marked with two orange Xs. The next bridge over is marked with black, capitalized words: DO NOT LAND.
The people who asked for diapers and baby food aren’t there, but one bleary-eyed volunteer firefighter with muddy camo boots and a gun in his waistband is. He’s with a few others.
Their eyes are all the same. Wide open, glazed, processing the monster storm that hit their town — one once dubbed a “climate haven” by some for its long distance from the coast and relatively high elevation.
“Everyone is gone,” says Marie O’Neill, a butterfly-booted woman who lives on a slope above the fire department. “The people, the animals.”
We don’t have time to stay long.
She waves as we take off, the setting sun shielded by clouds — remnants of the storm that’s passed and plagued the state.
We fly back over the ruin and land back in Hickory at 7:27 p.m. Inside one of the airport’s rooms, 50 volunteers — pilots, runway golf cart drivers, regular people — eat pizza and hot dogs when a director comes in.
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s niece is out there, somewhere. She asks who is certified to fly at night. One person is. Two people are needed.
They grab an index card and rush out of the building, looking for a second certification — and hoping to save one more life.
By Mary Ramsey
Western North Carolina damage from Hurricane Helene may shake up the presidential election in the critical battleground state, which could have national implications, state politics experts say.
State officials have confirmed more than 50 deaths in North Carolina, a number that’s expected to rise, and President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in 25 counties. Hundreds of thousands were still without power as of Tuesday as power crews, the North Carolina National Guard and other relief workers tried to reach areas cut off by impassable roads.
The general public is more focused on helping others and surviving in Helene-devastated communities than a race where state polls show Republican former President Donald Trump leading Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris by less than one percentage point, experts say.
“It’s just not a priority right now,” said Susan Roberts, a political science professor at Davidson College.
But a drop in turnout due to the storm could swing the presidential race.
“It affects so many people that it will certainly have an effect on the election,” said Eric Heberlig, a political science professor at UNC Charlotte. “... Those small changes in turnout could very much make a difference in who wins and who loses.”
Voter demographics in Western NC
Trump in 2020 won 23 of the 25 counties now included in the federal disaster declaration for Helene, most of them by double digits, on his way to a narrow victory in North Carolina. Biden carried just two — Buncombe County, home to Asheville, and Watauga County, which includes the town of Boone.
The heavy Republican lean in the western portion of the state is a cause for concern for the Trump campaign, Heberlig said.
“If this damage significantly depresses turnout in most areas out there, that’s more likely to have an impact on the Republicans than the Democrats,” he said.
The population differences between many of those rural, red counties and more liberal population centers such as Asheville complicates the electoral math, Heberlig added.
“You can have a 10% drop in turnout in many of the rural counties, but a 10% drop in Asheville has a lot larger numerical impact, just because it has many more people,” Heberlig said.
Roberts said the situation probably doesn’t give Harris a chance to pick up many votes in the affected areas, but she could benefit from lower turnout in rural areas.
“The rural vote has been decidedly for former President Trump … Should Trump lose North Carolina by 1% or less than 1%, then it’s all going to come back to, were there free and fair elections in Western North Carolina?” she said.
Shaking up campaigning and election planning
The devastation in Western North Carolina is so severe people may struggle to cast their ballots, even if state officials give voters and election boards flexibility, Roberts predicted.
“It’s not all going to be solved by making exceptions for absentee ballots,” she said.
Election officials face a short window, with Election Day on Nov. 5 and early voting scheduled to start even sooner, to address disruptions to the postal service, destruction of polling places and voters with missing or damaged IDs.
“It’s a huge logistical feat to put on an election under normal conditions, let alone under these,” Heberlig said.
The campaigns will also have to adjust their strategies, he added.
“Any kind of grassroots door-knocking or mobilization activities that were planned in those counties, those plans are severely disrupted,” Heberlig said.
A likely point of emphasis for both campaigns, according to Heberlig: finding ways to reach affected voters and educate them about their options for casting ballots.
Both campaigns also have to be careful to avoid creating a backlash by appearing insensitive to the loss of life and property in their next moves, Roberts said. That means not getting in the way of emergency response and avoiding a lot of negative messaging, she said.
“The last several weeks prior to an election is when you see more of a deluge, if you will, of negative ads. Would that be the wise choice for the Asheville media market now? I’m not sure that it would,” she said.
Will Helene impact NC election results?
In addition to Republicans and Democrats’ turning out their respective bases in Western North Carolina, there’s also the question of how unaffiliated voters — North Carolina’s largest affiliation — will react to the storm, Roberts said.
“The natural disaster may mean that those people just won’t show up to the polls … It might be too inconvenient,” Roberts said.
In a state where unaffiliated voters are critical to winning elections, a natural disaster can be a real blow to turnout, Heberlig said.
“People who are marginally interested in politics anyway are hard to turn out, but when you have a home and family to worry about, that’s obviously going to take precedence,” he said. “So for lots of people, worrying about the election is going to be No. 47 on the list of things that they want to worry about.”
More could happen to change the dynamics of the presidential race in the last month of the campaign, but Heberlig predicts Helene’s aftermath “is big enough” to “certainly affect turnout.”
“Our statewide races tend to be so close that just about anything can swing it one way or another,” he said.
By Danielle Battaglia
Members of Congress saw Hurricane Helene coming.
Last week, they had planned to be in Washington through Friday, and then recess for the month of October to focus on the election. But as Helene strengthened while approaching Florida, they announced an early dismissal to get home ahead of the storm.
Now, lawmakers from the states devastated by Helene are asking for help from congressional leadership, including the possibility of coming back in October to fund the relief efforts.
And costs could be high.
“I’ve heard numbers in the $150 billion range, particularly in North Carolina,” said Sen. Ted Budd, a Republican from Davie County, who spoke to McClatchy Tuesday night. “If you consider the volume and the velocity of water in the mountains, it’s devastating.”
Both Budd and Sen. Thom Tillis signed a letter Tuesday to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Appropriations Chair Patty Murray and Vice Chair Susan Collins asking for help.
“Although the true level of devastation is still unfolding, it is clear that Congress must act to meet the unmet needs in our states and address the scope and scale of destruction experienced by our constituents,” the senators wrote. “This may even require Congress to come back in October to ensure we have enough time to enact legislation before the end of this calendar year.”
Government shutdown
Congress recessed Wednesday and instead of passing 12 appropriation bills to fund the government, members approved a continuing resolution to keep the government operating at its current levels until Dec. 20. Congress isn’t scheduled to return until after the election to take up the budget again.
The CR included an increase in funding for the Secret Service after two attempts on the life of former President Donald Trump.
But multiple lawmakers raised concerns about the lack of emergency relief aid in the the bill. And they were forced to vote on the bill or risk a government shutdown after Sept. 30.
Both Budd and another Republican from North Carolina, Rep. Dan Bishop, voted against the CR.
How close the country came to a government shutdown while Helene ripped through Western North Carolina is something Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican from Flat Rock, has thought about a lot as he’s tried to help his constituents in the days since.
“I think it’s important to realize how critical it is that our federal government continues to operate, and we should take a moment to take note that we were within hours, yet again, of the federal government shutting down,” Edwards told McClatchy Monday. “I can’t imagine what Western North Carolina would be like right now were we in a government shutdown.”
Edwards said that should be enough of a wake-up call for Congress that it needs to get work done ahead of time.
Begging for emergency relief
The reality wasn’t lost on lawmakers on the Senate and House floors as they had to make that decision.
Both Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut, and Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, expressed their concerns that they were once again voting on a bill at the last minute; and neither liked that it lacked funding for relief efforts. But to vote against the bill had catastrophic consequences.
For Schatz, it was personal. The Democrat from Hawaii is still fighting for additional relief for his constituents whose lives were ripped apart in the fire that tore through Maui in August 2023.
“All across the country, in more than 20 states and territories, millions of Americans are reeling from disasters,” Schatz said, on Sept. 12, on the Senate floor. “Wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, floods. And having lost their homes, their communities, and their livelihoods, they’re counting on the federal government for help.”
Schatz told his colleagues that that was one of their basic jobs in Congress.
Tillis joined Schatz and eight other senators who wrote to leadership Sept. 13 asking for additional disaster relief funding through a supplemental appropriations package.
But when the bill was signed, it excluded billions in requested dollars for emergency relief.
On Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that the CR replenished funds for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that that money could address the immediate response needed for Helene, The Hill reported.
His remarks come just two days after Biden said he may call back Congress to fund Helene relief, and less than 24 hours after Budd and Tillis sent their letter to Senate leadership along with the every senator from South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia.
All of those states experienced devastation from the storm, and Budd said that added an extra complication to relief efforts. He said typically neighboring states would come to each other’s aid, but right now each needs to focus on its own people.
Missing and hurting people
Budd said it will take years to rebuild, but for now, North Carolina is still in a search and recovery phase.
“The search and rescue is still going on,” Budd said. “People are still being extracted. There are people that need oxygen, they need diabetic medicine, insulin, they need critical care, they’re elderly.”
Budd said the first goal is to get them to safety; simultaneous with that is getting communications up and running and power restored.
“You know, this part of North Carolina is resilient mountain people. Given them a chainsaw, five gallons of gas, they’re going to be able to take care of themselves and their neighbors and if you give them some clean water, they’ll be OK — and a little food.”
Damaged infrastructure
Budd, Tillis and Edwards, along with Reps. David Rouzer and Greg Murphy and Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler, took an aerial tour of the storm damage in North Carolina Tuesday.
President Joe Biden planned to take the same tour Wednesday afternoon.
“There is so much damage to critical infrastructure,” Budd said. “Bridges are gone, roads are gone.”
He said there’s an added complication that normally these types of disasters strike flat areas, where sand can be easily moved out of the way, but right now they’re dealing with rough terrain and downed trees.
Budd said state lawmakers had been fiscally responsible and maintained a rainy day fund of $5 billion, but the cost to rebuild will surpass that by leaps and bounds.
He said money is needed to repair Interstate 40, Interstate 26, bridges, roads and other infrastructure.
“That’s what we need support in, and we want to make sure that it’s as clean as possible,” Budd said. “That no one’s taking advantage of anybody, and that the money gets to repair what we say it’s doing. That it’s not doing some sort of social justice program, but it’s really just helping rebuild Western North Carolina, and of course the other states: eastern Tennessee, North Georgia, southwest Virginia.”
Damaged crops
Then there’s the state’s farmland.
“In regard to agriculture, so much of the fertile ground that we have in North Carolina is in riverbeds, creek beds, or floodplains,” Budd said. “It doesn’t get flooded that often, but when it does, it’s usually not this bad, and it’s just devastating.”
Budd said everything from tomato crops to orchards were affected.
“There’s so much produce that comes out of Henderson County,” Budd said.
On Tuesday morning, Rep. Deborah Ross, a Democrat from Wake County, helped lead a group of 33 members from both chambers and parties in sending a letter to Schumer, McConnell, Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries saying it is “imperative that Congress make appropriations as soon as possible upon the completion of damage assessments to fully fund unmet agricultural disaster relief needs in our states and across the nation.”
The lawmakers added: “Farmers and growers nationwide, not only those damaged by Helene, have now faced multiple growing seasons without sufficient federal support. Our constituents are counting on us to act swiftly.”
Tillis, Edwards, Murphy, Bishop and Reps. Don Davis, Kathy Manning, Alma Adams, Wiley Nickel and Jeff Jackson also signed onto the letter.
Coming back to Congress
Budd told McClatchy he wasn’t sure whether Congress would need to return in October to help with relief efforts, but he was ready to respond to whatever North Carolina needs.
“I’m pushing for funding,” Budd said. “How that happens and the timing of it, I don’t know.”
Budd said that in the past, funding was able to be provided through unanimous consent.
But he wants to see any legislation before he cast his vote.
“You want to hold the government accountable, while having excellent use of taxpayer dollars,” Budd said. “So I think we need to see the bill and see where the money would be appropriated.”
By Josh Shaffer
SPRUCE PINE
With the mud ankle-deep inside her music store, and the water stains climbing 8 feet high on the walls, Angie Buchanan said goodbye to 50 years of teaching music in Spruce Pine.
Then she walked through the stinking sludge of Lower Street and tossed her prized cello on a trash pile.
“My life is in there,” she said. “It’s hard. Very hard.”
The Mitchell County town of 2,000 took a beating from the North Toe River, which destroyed its historic brick riverfront and left neighbors still enduring life without power, water or cell service a week after Hurricane Helene roared through.
“Our water treatment plant washed away,” said Sonja Emmett, who was out walking her dog. “All the garbage trucks washed away. Everything civilization is pretty much gone.”
Tiny Plumtree’s near-impassable roads
Nearby, the community store in tiny Plumtree still served as a Grand Central Station for side-by-sides carrying water, food, diapers and toilet paper up narrow, muddy, near-impassable roads where neighbors sat stranded.
And around midday Thursday, they learned one of their own had been found dead after a week. Nobody wanted to talk about it. They hugged and cried as the relief operation became an outdoor wake powered by generators.
Helicopters flew overhead, National Guard trucks rolled past and a community of 818 kept feverishly looking after each other, keeping a list of who is stuck where and who needs what, sending out side-by-sides like free DoorDash service.
“The main thing we don’t want is people to think, ‘These poor, old, ignorant Appalachian mountain people,’ ” said Libby Wise, running to check on her 90-year-old mother. “We have plenty of college-educated people here. We are so appreciative of all the outside people are doing for us. Please don’t think you’re sending food and water to a log cabin.”
Those still ‘unaccounted for’
Back in Spruce Pine, a makeshift relief station opened up outside L&L Furniture on the Upper Road, which barely escaped disaster, unlike its riverfront neighbor.
Many residents couldn’t get out of their houses until Sunday, and an army of 100 volunteers has cut them free one-by-one. One of them on Lower Road Thursday said he’d gotten out 15 families since last weekend.
But fears persist of those still “unaccounted for,” the term Spruce Pine uses rather than missing.
Much like Plumtree, neighbors keep a tally of who is where, sending volunteers out to check. But when the find empty houses, mostly intact, the communication blackout forces them to guess at whether their friends have taken up with family elsewhere or disappeared down the North Toe.
“I can sometimes get Facebook with a generator and a Starlink,” said Shirley Singleton, whose daughter owns L&L. “Kind of that’s how we’re finding people.”
Spruce Pine’s living room washed away
Down on Lower Street, David Niven was shoveling the mud out of DT’s Blue Ridge Java, also sunk under 8 feet of water.
“It’s only $2 million down the drain,” he joked. “I’ve got 40 gallons of gas sitting at my house. I’m blessed.”
He and his wife Tricia opened their coffee house 20 years ago, inside a building listed on the National Register.
“I wish you could have seen it,” she said. “We were the living room of Spruce Pine. Every church group met here. Everyone and anyone met here. God has kept us for 20 years through fires, through pandemic. On the third day after the flood, God spoke to me and said, ‘We’re rebuilding.’ “
On the day after the storm, before she even saw the ruined guitars, drums and dulcimers, someone broke into Buchanan’s music store and stole a harp.
“Kids, probably,” she said. “Probably just kids.”
Somehow, she thought, in storm or fair weather, she will get Spruce Pine playing music again.
By News & Observer and Charlotte Observer Staff
Editor’s note: NC Reality Check is investigating the rumors and misinformation, some of it from official sources, inundating social media about relief efforts in Western North Carolina. If you encounter a rumor that you would like us to check out, email [email protected].
This file will be updated.
Emergency officials responding to the Hurricane Helene disaster in Western North Carolina say false rumors on social media are impeding their efforts to help tens of thousands of people in need.
“False information is being widely shared on social media channels, including AI-generated content and images,” N.C. Department of Public Safety officials said in a statement. ”Nefarious actors and those with ill intent may be taking advantage of this situation by spreading false information.”
The public should find and share information from trusted sources and discourage others from spreading information from unverified sources, NCDPS officials said.
On social media Friday, the American Red Cross said misinformation is hurting its Hurricane Helene relief efforts.
“Misinformation can spread quickly after a disaster, causing confusion and distrust within communities struggling to recover,” the Red Cross said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we’re seeing this during our response to Hurricane Helene.”
Here are rumors being spread on social media and the facts offered in response by government agencies and local officials:
Rumor: 15 people died of hypothermia in Avery County this week.
Facts: A spokeswoman for the county said of this rumor: “Mark it debunked in all capital letters, please.”
The rumor began with a post on social media platform X by an osteopathic doctor from the Midwest who has been working at a disaster relief center at the Avery County Airport. The county spokeswoman said Avery County Sheriff’s Office deputies are investigating the doctor’s intention for spreading the false rumor.
As of Wednesday, there had been four Helene-related deaths in Avery County, with three people still missing.
Rumor: Former President Trump said Gov. Roy Cooper and Washington Democrats blocked people and money from coming into NC to help those impacted by Helene.
Facts: Trump’s statement is false. Gov. Roy Cooper called it “a flat out lie.”
“We’re working with all partners around the clock to get help to people. Trump’s lies and conspiracy theories have hurt the morale of first responders and people who lost everything, helped scam artists and put government and rescue workers in danger,” Cooper wrote on social media, over a screenshot of Trump’s post on Truth Social.
Cooper’s post led to a response from Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers: “A 100% false statement by the former president…”
At least one person who identified himself as an Asheville resident backed up Cooper’s statements under his post saying, “Aid and effort has been coming in and we are grateful for it.”
Before Hurricane Helene struck North Carolina, Cooper activated the National Guard. After the hurricane crippled the region, President Joe Biden, at Cooper’s request, ordered active-military to report to Western North Carolina to assist. Some 1,500 Army troops are now in the region, according to the N.C. National Guard.
Search and rescue teams, utility crews and highway construction teams from around the country have been helping with the recovery effort. Auxiliary law enforcement has been provided by the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The state has also been coordinating and assisting with the collection of both monetary and volunteer donations.
On Thursday, Rep. Kathy Manning helped lead a group of 64 Democrats in Washington to call on House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring Congress back before the end of their October recess to pass additional disaster relief funding.
Rumors that donations and volunteers were being turned away aren’t accurate either. People faced roadblocks for safety reasons and needed to be rerouted to safer areas. (See below.)
Rumor: 163 school-age children were missing in Mitchell County.
Facts: Let’s start with the most updated news. “We have accounted for every child,” Mitchell County School board chair Brandon Pitman said during a phone interview Friday. Pitman clarified that “accounted for” did not mean no students were harmed when then-Tropical Storm Helene swept through Western North Carolina two weeks ago.
Mitchell County is a rural, mountainous area, part way between Asheville and Boone. Home to Spruce Pine and the county seat of Bakersville, it was significantly damaged by Helene flooding and rainfall. This year, Mitchell County Schools has 3,410 students enrolled.
Information that 163 school-age children were missing in Mitchell originated in a TikTok post from Michael Harbaugh, a Dayton, Ohio, resident who is running for Congress as an independent. In his video, Harbaugh interviews Kira Crisco of the Outdoor Wellness League, a North Carolina-based environmental education nonprofit.
“Landslides took out whole gatherings of homes,” Crisco said. “The lady here was actually just telling me that they have 163 kids in the school system that are still unaccounted for.”
On Oct. 9, the X account @GardensR4Health posted Harbaugh’s video, which has been reshared more than 11,000 times. Others have posted the video on Facebook and Instagram.
Pitman said Mitchell County Schools leaders did make a missing students list, though they couldn’t start immediately.
“Right before the storm hit us, we lost all communication,” he said. “All cell phones went down. Landlines. It was a few days before our teachers were able to get in, to start compiling a list.”
Mitchell educators then began contacting unaccounted for students. When internet service came back up, they checked social media accounts to see if students were safe, Pitman explained. Staff also went door to door for house visits.
“Just until probably last weekend, we didn’t really know exactly who was missing, who wasn’t missing,” he said. “So that’s probably where that rumor came from, because it took us some time to try to figure out who we could put on a missing list, and who would not be on a missing list.”
Mitchell County public schools have been closed since the storm.
Pitman wasn’t sure whether the district’s list of unaccounted for students was ever exactly 163 students. And the children the school district hadn’t accounted for weren’t necessarily missing to their family and friends (In Harbaugh’s original video, Crisco used the word “unaccounted,” but subsequent social media posts referred to the Mitchell children as “missing.”)
A certain number of children in Mitchell County, until quite recently, were in fact on a missing students list. On Thursday, Harbaugh posted an update on TikTok. Speaking in front of Harris Middle School in Spruce Pine, he said he spoke to a teacher who said the district had accounted for virtually every student.
Rumor: 1,000 bodies remain unidentified in Asheville
Facts: That claim and other social media rumors are false, Buncombe County spokeswoman Lillian Govus said. The rumors are hurting the emergency response to the Helene disaster in Western North Carolina, she said.
“1,000 unidentified bodies” at the Asheville hospital, the rumor claimed. “Buzzards everywhere.”
“And those hurt, because ... we have to redivert resources and make sure that our emergency personnel check that off the list,” Govus said. “And it may be the fourth time that we’ve done that.
“... It takes away time and resources from us being able to do those critical lifesaving maneuvers in our community,” she said.
“So,” Govus said, “I would ask that if you are so compelled to share information on social media, that those sources be from the county, the city of Asheville, the agencies that are supporting us at the federal level, at the state level with North Carolina Emergency Services, and verified individuals.”
Rumor: The government created the hurricanes that have hit the Southeast to suppress voting.
Facts: Scientists at the University of North Carolina and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say it is not possible to generate the energy required to artificially create a hurricane.
NASA says Hurricane Helene began as a thunderstorm in the western Caribbean first observed on Sept. 23 around 1,500 miles from North Carolina. The National Hurricane Center tracked the entire path of the storm. When it made landfall on Sept. 26, tropical storm-force winds extended more than 300 miles from the center of the storm, roughly the distance from Raleigh to Cherokee. NOAA’s research division says no weather modification technology could produce or steer such a storm.
Small scale cloud seeding has been used in attempts to induce rainfall over small geographic areas, with mixed results.
Read the full explanation here.
A companion rumor, that the government has held a patent on a process to control weather since 1948, is not true. The U.S. Patent Office granted a patent in 1948 to Harvey M. Branau, a man from Wilton, Wisconsin, titled “Process for Controlling Weather.” That patent application, however, describes a process for dissipating existing clouds and fog to keep weather clear around airports. It says nothing about generating storms. The patent expired in 1968. Branau was granted a second patent, in 1956, titled “Process for Weather Control,” which also focuses on ways to dissipate clouds. That patent expired in 1973.
Rumor: Your previous W-2 form can keep you from receiving the $750 initial FEMA assistance.
Facts: FEMA does not consider income when evaluating applications for assistance.
To help people quickly obtain essentials like food, water or baby formula, FEMA will provide $750 in assistance, also known as Serious Needs Assistance, upon an individual’s initial filing for federal relief.
Beyond these initial emergency funds, FEMA has already given out over $60 million to address property loss in North Carolina alone, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said.
The payment does not affect benefits from other federal programs and is not considered taxable income, FEMA said. Disaster assistance are grants and “do not have to be repaid.”
It’s also not the only form of assistance available to disaster survivors. Individuals whose homes are affected by the storm and who incur hotel costs during the recovery, for example, may be eligible for displacement assistance, Criswell said on Friday. “Many will be eligible for this,” she said. “It will just depend where they were during the storm when they incurred the cost. Those are things that we can help them with.”
Survivors can apply for other forms of longer-term assistance such as housing assistance or home repair.
To apply, visit disasterassistance.gov, download the FEMA App or call 1-(800) 621-3362.
Rumor: An unmarked helicopter damaged a supply area, possibly deliberately
Facts: Sunday, video emerged of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flying over a supply donation site near Burnsville, causing tents and supplies to fly around. In posts on X, the United Cajun Navy said the supplies damaged were at a distribution site they’d established.
The aircraft involved in the incident was a North Carolina helicopter, Maj. Gen. Todd Hunt, the adjutant general of North Carolina’s National Guard, said at a Wednesday press conference.
“I’ll take responsibility for it and we own it,” Hunt said.
The crew was trying to deliver a generator to the landing site, Hunt said, but upon approaching noticed there were too many people, tents and commodities near where they were trying to land.
“They pulled in power to take back off to go around in the helicopter and the rotor wash caused that damage,” Hunt said.
Rotor wash is a blast of downward air generated when rotor blades spin to generate lift on a helicopter.
NC National Guard officials are investigating the incident, and the flight crew has been grounded until that probe is complete.
“We are very sorry that happened,” Hunt said.
Hunt also said that while National Guard helicopters involved in the Helene response initially had no communication with people on the ground at landing sites, there is now “some communication,” particularly with emergency personnel.
Rumor: Cooper hasn’t called up National Guard
Facts: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency and activated the North Carolina National Guard before Helene reached the state on Sept. 25.
In the first few days after the storm, the National Guard reported conducting 16 missions and rescuing 119 people, including 41 in one mission to Buncombe County, and 11 pets. Multiple people, including a baby, were flown directly to hospitals for medical treatment, the N.C. National Guard reported.
On Oct. 9, state officials reported over 3,000 soldiers and airmen, including National Guard units from 12 different states and active-duty military from Fort Liberty and Fort Campbell, in the region.
The troops brought with them at least 40 helicopters and over 1,200 specialized vehicles and were helping local responders in a variety of ways, from search and rescue missions to food and relief delivery and cleanup efforts, state officials said.
Rumor: The Lake Lure Dam burst
Facts: The Lake Lure Dam was damaged when Helene’s rains flooded the Broad River on Sept. 27, but is still standing and is structurally stable, town and state officials said.
The dam, built in 1926, sits on the Broad River, which flows from north of Bat Cave and Chimney Rock, N.C., to Lake Lure, where it shifts southeast toward South Carolina.
The state has designated Lake Lure a “high hazard” dam, which means a break could pose a large risk to people and property. In early 2024, town officials said they “are confident the dam is safe unless we experience a significant (10,000 year) earthquake or rainfall in excess of 30 inches of rain in a 24 hour period.”
On Sept. 27, the dam overflowed after over 18 inches of rain fell across northwestern Rutherford County before and during Helene, according to the N.C. State Climate Office.
Residents downstream were evacuated as the water level neared 992 feet, just a half-inch shy of the level at which the dam spills over the 124-foot-tall dam. But the dam held, and within a few days, the water receded enough that an engineer could check the structure.
Despite erosion on both sides of the support abutments, the dam was found to be stable, according to Josh Kastrinsky, spokesman for the NC Department of Environmental Quality.
The town is working with contractors, the National Guard and the state Department of Natural Resources to make repairs and remove debris from the lake, town spokeswoman Laura Krejci said in an update. A hazmat boom will be installed on Oct. 10 to soak up oil and other hazardous chemicals, she said.
A wastewater treatment plant at the bottom of the dam, which was also flooded, is being repaired, and a temporary lift station being installed until the damaged station can be replaced.
The town is in the midst of a 10-year plan to build a replacement dam 100 yards downstream that meets modern safety requirements, with $16.5 million in state funding and $238,070 in FEMA grants, with plans to apply for more, according to town documents.
Rumor: OSHA fined an Asheville fire department for capacity violations related to donations
Facts: The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration, or OSHA, has not been in contact with any fire departments in Asheville, according to Asheville Fire Department spokeswoman Kelley Klope.
A search of OSHA’s online inspections database also did not find any reported violations in Asheville or for a fire department in North Carolina between Sept. 27 and Oct. 10.
Rumor: The government is seizing land in Chimney Rock to get the critical metal lithium.
Facts: The government is not seizing land in Chimney Rock to obtain lithium.
On Oct. 8, Republican U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, who represents Western North Carolina, released a statement debunking several Hurricane Helene myths. His first fact-check focused on a prominent rumor about lithium and a small Rutherford County town that was devastated by the storm.
“Local officials have confirmed the government is NOT seizing Chimney Rock,” Edwards wrote. “There was no ‘special meeting’ held in Chimney Rock between federal, state or local governments about seizing the town.”
False news of lithium inspiring a government land grab spread in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on X, Facebook, and TikTok. “Lithium, that’s why they’re doing it,” is how one person opens her TikTok video, which has since garnered 20,600 likes. Some of the posts referred to an Oct. 2 public meeting during which officials supposedly discussed seizing private property after rushing waters leveled most of Chimney Rock’s Main Street.
The next day, Rutherford County Emergency Management offered clarification on Facebook, stating, “These claims are entirely false.” The department said town officials had met with state, county, and federal leaders on Oct. 2 about coordinating support after Helene.
Lithium is not currently mined in North Carolina, but two companies want to start digging for it.
In 2015, a Charlotte-based resource company called Albemarle purchased a former lithium mine about 30 mile west of Charlotte in the small city of Kings Mountain. Albemarle currently operates the only active U.S. lithium mine, in Silver Peak, Nevada, but the dormant Kings Mountain mine could eclipse Silver Peak’s output by a factor of 10.
A different Charlotte-area lithium company, Piedmont Lithium, is lobbying to dig a brand new mine in Kings Mountain.
Lightweight with a high-voltage capacity, lithium is an ideal component in electric vehicle batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are also crucial to cell phones, laptops, cameras, toys, medical devices, and other electronics. In North Carolina, a series of forthcoming lithium projects has positioned the state as a key player in the emerging “EV battery belt” forming across the Southeast United States.
In late September, Albemarle submitted permits to the state and federal governments in its pursuit to restart the Kings Mountain mine (which is currently a 163-foot-deep lake). The company submitted these permits days before Helene passed over Western North Carolina, and some noted this chronology in posts about a Chimney Rock land grab.
More than 50 miles separate Chimney Rock and Kings Mountain.
As it tries to reopen the mine, Albemarle currently refines imported lithium at its Kings Mountain facility. In a statement to The News & Observer on Wednesday, the company said this plant “did sustain a period of power loss from Hurricane Helene; however the site facilities were not otherwise impacted.”
The site has since resumed normal operations, the company said.
Rumor: 200 people were found inside a church in Candler, NC, where they spent six days without food or water.
Facts: This is false.
Lillian Govus, spokeswoman for Buncombe County, confirmed to The News & Observer that this is false.
This widely circulated story comes from social media posts written by people outside of the area, some of them putting the total at 2,000 people and calling the Buncombe County unincorporated town “Chandler.” Many more from Candler itself have surfaced to debunk the story, noting it has gone unreported by every news outlet in the state, country and world.
This one from Sarah Reams on Facebook’s Hurricane Helene Safety Check-in page has gotten forwarded most often:
“I live in Candler, NC. The information in the post is not true. I have had cell service for most of the time and have been monitoring local and national news. There has been nothing reported about this. In addition, one of my friends has been doing search and rescue with local law enforcement and has not mentioned anything. ... Not to mention, I don’t think a church in Candler could hold that many people. Also, Candler is not that large, and it is definitely not a concentrated town.“
Rumor: FEMA is not responding to Swannanoa.
Fact: FEMA has sent more than 1,200 urban search-and-rescue personnel to Western North Carolina.
On Sunday, a FEMA task force was combing the Swannanoa River near the Whitson Avenue Bridge, searching for victims of the storm. They used excavators to pull cars from the water and search dogs to locate people beneath rubble.
Victims anywhere can apply for FEMA aid at DisasterAssistance.gov.
But many residents remain without power or internet access. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell traveled to Black Mountain, near Swannanoa, with Gov. Roy Cooper last week. On that trip, she said FEMA is sending survivor assistance teams into Black Mountain to register people offline, according to Black Mountain News.
Rumor: There are ‘bodies everywhere’ in Chimney Rock and the government has been seizing private property.
Facts: While the village of Chimney Rock was hit hard by the storm, Rutherford County government has confirmed just one storm-related death.
Rutherford County government said there have been no seizures of private property or discussions about seizing property involving the federal, state or local government. There was no “special meeting” on Oct. 2 about the government seizing the village.
“Town of Lake Lure and Chimney Rock Village officials met with NC House Speaker Tim Moore, NC Senator Tim Moffitt, NC Rep Jake Johnson, Sheriff Aaron Ellenburg, County Commissioner Chair Bryan King, Emergency Mgt Director Frankie Hamrick, and representatives from our congressional delegation to offer them an opportunity to hear directly the impact to their individual municipalities and to request their support and advocacy for federal and state support,” the county said on Facebook.
The county is asking that would-be volunteers stay away from the village while contractors “clear roads and debris, a necessary first step to create safe conditions for any future volunteer efforts.”
Residents will be allowed to visit their properties “when it is safe” and will need proof of residency or ownership.
Rumor: FEMA assistance is taxable.
Facts: FEMA funds are not considered income and are not taxable. Applying for disaster relief will not affect eligibility for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP or any other federal and state benefits.
Assistance from FEMA is a grant and does not have to be repaid. It is not just for homeowners. Renters can receive help for lost personal property. FEMA can’t provide money for losses that are insured, however.
Rumor: Governments aren’t responding to the disaster.
Facts: The N.C. State Emergency Response Team includes local, state, federal and military units; power and cell phone companies and other businesses; and volunteer organizations.
On Saturday, Mooresville Fire Chief Curt Deaton said his team alone has rescued 11 people and two animals in Ashe County and will remain there until it is safe for residents and their first responders.
“This work is very strenuous,” Deaton said. “These men spend most of the time walking and climbing through dangerous debris piles, searching for any survivors or victims ... Some of our team, they’ve been there for 10 days straight now, working around the clock.”
Sunday, reporters watched as a FEMA search and rescue team from Maryland scrambled over a fallen structure in Swannanoa, cutting layers of debris away with chainsaws because a human search team dog had indicated there may be remains there.
Just upstream, a construction worker using an excavator lifted a Dodge Charger out of the banks of the Swannanoa River. Members of the search and rescue team surrounded the car, smashing in windows and pulling off the door before shoveling thick layers of silt out of it. No one was in the car.
Also Sunday, the 18th Airborne Corps from Fort Liberty announced that the 1,000 troops requested last week had arrived in Western North Carolina, along with 500 Fort Liberty troops from the 1-502 Infantry Battalion and the 101st Airborne Division. I
t said the military has identified “trafficable routes” for aid delivery in Swannanoa, Pleasant Grove, Old Fort, Spruce Pine, Bakersville, Fairview and Emerald City. Soldiers had begun distributing 2,800 meals and 4,500 bottles of water. The 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade on Saturday delivered more than 85,000 pounds of recovery supplies.
Urban search and rescue personnel organized by FEMA have been in the field across the western part of the state and thus far have rescued over 3,200 people, according to the White House.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has conducted 68 hours of flights to capture post-disaster imagery with a focus on Western North Carolina, helping local, state and federal officials to determine the extent of damage throughout the region and where to allocate resources.
FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance staff, including some of the agency’s most experienced leaders, are on the ground to help affected North Carolinians navigate their applications for federal assistance.
Overall, 10,000 federal staff are on the ground throughout the Southeast supporting relief efforts.
Rumor: Donations, volunteers turned away at checkpoints.
Facts: Western N.C. roads are still dangerous and impassible in many places, and landslides remain a threat. Traffic is being rerouted on some roads so emergency vehicles, disaster relief efforts and local traffic can still access them.
Rumor: Governments are discouraging and confiscating donations.
Facts: The state encourages financial donations to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund and to N.C. volunteer organizations responding to the disaster. The state is working with the organizations to collect and distribute physical donations coming in from across the state and country.
Coordinated volunteer disaster relief efforts are needed in Western North Carolina, according to the NC Department of Public Safety.
“We strongly encourage neighbors to continue helping neighbors in impacted areas,” department officials said. “Those wishing to volunteer should register at www.nc.gov/volunteer,” and not “self-deploy” to the region.
But emergency officials are asking people not to show up on their own bringing supplies.
In Banner Elk, the fire and rescue department posted on Facebook that the outpouring of donations has met their needs for the next week, and that the wave of suppliers are creating a “bottleneck” that compromises their already strained infrastructure.
“Cash donations offer voluntary agencies and faith-based organizations the most flexibility to address urgently developing needs,” NC Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster President Kristy Kulberg said in a news release. “Although the need is great, and desire to help strong, it is important to avoid donating material goods or self-deploying to help until communities are safe and public officials and disaster relief organizations have had an opportunity to assess the damage to identify what the specific unmet needs are.”
Rumor: The FAA is restricting access to the airspace.
Facts: The FAA is not restricting access for recovery operations but is trying to people safe. There has been a 300% increase in air traffic in the region, the FAA says.
“The FAA is coordinating closely with state and local officials to make sure everyone is operating safely in very crowded and congested airspace,” according to a statement by the N.C. Department of Public Safety.
When President Joe Biden visited the area on Wednesday, the Secret Service took painstaking care to keep all search-and-rescue and relief flights going, a U.S. official told The Charlotte Observer.
The official said recovery-related flights that are coordinated by the N.C. Emergency Operations Center are assigned special Beacon codes and allowed to proceed. If a pilot lets the EOC know they are planning to deliver aid, the plane would be pre-cleared by the FAA.
The only flights affected would have been by pilots unknown to members of the relief or search-and-rescue community, the official said.
Rumor: “The Red Cross isn’t here.”
Facts: At least 1,300 Red Cross disaster responders are helping people in the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia with safe shelter, food, hygiene items, medications and emotional support.
Before Helene made landfall, the Red Cross positioned hundreds of disaster responders and thousands of relief supplies across the Southeast.
The Red Cross is “engaging in targeted distribution of emergency supplies in low-income communities with high levels of minor or affected residential damage,” the White House said, alongside the Salvation Army, which has set up nine mobile feeding units that have distributed over over 12,600 meals, 9,600 drinks and 5,600 snacks.
Rumor: The Red Cross is confiscating or discarding donated items.
Facts: The Red Cross is not “confiscating, removing or discarding donated items,” Red Cross officials said in a statement Friday. The Red Cross focuses on providing shelter, food and relief after disasters.
“While we don’t accept physical donations, as managing them takes time and resources away from our mission, we work with community partners who are better equipped with these resources to handle and distribute these items,” Red Cross officials said.
Call 211 to find out where donated goods are available.
Rumor: The Red Cross is taking over shelters.
Facts: The Red Cross does not take over shelters. Rather, it provides management support at the request of local partners.
Rumor: The Red Cross is taking over volunteer groups.
Facts: While the Red Cross is working alongside other volunteer groups, the Red Cross is not taking over their efforts or services.
Rumor: FEMA does not have enough money to provide disaster assistance for Helene.
Facts: FEMA has enough money right now for immediate response and recovery needs.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said on Friday that “the disaster relief fund certainly does not have enough money to continue recoveries for everything that I have through the entire fiscal year.”
“But I have enough money to support the immediate needs for everybody impacted by Helene and Milton,” she added. “We’re assessing every day how much it’s drawing down on that.”
In North Carolina alone, FEMA has provided more than $26 million in housing and other types of assistance to over 25,000 households, it said in an Oct. 5 release.
More than 700 FEMA staff and over 1,200 urban search and rescue personnel are on the ground. Over 1,000 National Guard troops have also been deployed to the state.
Caitlin Durkovich, Deputy Homeland Security Adviser for Resilience and Response helping lead the response at the White House, told McClatchy that “that rumor, or misinformation, was not something that was ever conceived here. There was never a doubt that we could do both, and we’ve been doing both since the very beginning.”
FEMA and the rest of the federal interagency “have been very resourceful in terms of thinking about how we make sure we have sufficient resources going into Florida without disrupting what’s happening in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee,” Durkovich added. “We have brought search and rescue troops from as far as California. The Coast Guard is surging resources — they were not as needed in Helene as they might be in Milton.”
Rumor: FEMA is no longer accepting applications for housing assistance.
Facts: FEMA is still accepting assistance applications throughout areas affected by Helene, it said.
Over 1,400 people who cannot return home are currently staying in safe and clean lodging through FEMA’s Transitional Shelter Assistance program.
FEMA said residents in declared counties who have applied for disaster assistance may be eligible to stay temporarily in a hotel or motel paid for by FEMA while they work on their long-term housing plan. People do not need to request this assistance. FEMA will notify them of their eligibility through an automated phone call, text message, and/or email, depending upon the method of communication they selected at the time of application for disaster assistance.
Twenty-two shelters are housing just over 1,000 people, FEMA said. Mobile feeding operations continue to help survivors in hard-hit areas, including three mass feeding sites in Buncombe, McDowell and Watauga counties.
For current application timelines, visit disasterassistance.gov or FEMA’s state-specific Helene disaster site for North Carolina.
Rumor: Funding for FEMA disaster response was diverted to support international efforts or border-related issues.
Facts: This is false, FEMA said. No money is being diverted from disaster response needs.
After the Homeland Security secretary last week warned that FEMA can meet immediate needs but is short of funding to make it through hurricane season, some are wrongly blaming agency spending on migrant services for draining disaster relief funds.
Contrary to claims made by former President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, FEMA did not divert disaster relief funds to house people who are living in the country without legal authorization.
Some Trump supporters amplifying this claim are alluding to a migrant services program funded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection money at Congress’ direction. FEMA distributed about $650 million last fiscal year under the program to relieve overcrowding in temporary shelters.
Others, like right-wing X user Libs of TikTok, are referring to a FEMA program that helps provide food and shelter to those in need. Congress previously appropriated funds under the program to a now-defunct arm that provided humanitarian relief for migrants, which was replaced by the CBP-funded program.
FEMA’s disaster fund, which supports federal disaster relief, is a separate spigot.
Read our full FEMA funding fact-check here.
Rumor: NC members of Congress voted against disaster funding.
Facts: Sen. Ted Budd and Rep. Dan Bishop, both Republicans, voted against a continuing resolution to keep the government funded at its current levels through Dec. 20. The CR refilled FEMA’s $20 billion budget.
Eighteen senators and 82 House members voted against the package. Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and others have used the vote to criticize Budd, Bishop and the other 98 lawmakers for voting against disaster relief funding.
But is that a fair assessment?
“Appropriations bills are large, unwieldy pieces of legislation by design,” said Chris Cooper, a political science professor from Western Carolina University. “While it is true that the bill they voted against would have included FEMA funding, it also would have included a host of other provisions that have absolutely nothing to do with emergency management or disaster relief.”
Bishop took to social media to explain his vote, saying he won’t vote to spend billions on things the country doesn’t need when he has concerns about the election and “our debt is sky-rocketing.”
Budd’s spokesman told McClatchy he “wanted to see reform to the broken budget process” and that “when the government overspends on things it shouldn’t, it crowds out the real responsibilities it has, like disaster relief.”
Read our full Reality Check here.
Rumor: FEMA is in the the process of confiscating Helene survivor property. If I apply for disaster assistance and my land is deemed unlivable, my property will be seized.
Facts: FEMA cannot seize your property or land. Applying for disaster assistance does not grant FEMA or the federal government authority or ownership of your property or land, FEMA said.
When you apply for disaster assistance, FEMA said an inspector may be sent to verify the damage on your home. “This is one of many factors reviewed to determine what kind of disaster assistance you may be eligible for,” it said. If the results of the inspection deem your home uninhabitable, that information is “only used to determine the amount of FEMA assistance you may receive to make your home safe, sanitary and functional,” it said.
‘I only believe what I hear from people on the ground, who are actually there.’
Facts: Reporters and photographers from The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer have been in Western North Carolina since the day the storm hit. This map will show you where they’ve been, with links to some of their stories. All of our Helene-related coverage is free.
Reporters Chantal Allam, Danielle Battaglia, Brian Gordon, Tammy Grubb, Mary Helen Moore, Josh Shaffer, Emily Vespa and Adam Wagner of The News & Observer, Joe Marusak of The Charlotte Observer, and Michael Wilner of the McClatchy Washington Bureau contributed to this fact-check roundup.
If you were affected by Helene, apply for disaster assistance. The fastest way is through DisasterAssistance.gov. You can also apply through the FEMA mobile app or by calling the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362. If you use a video relay service, captioned telephone service, or other communication services, provide FEMA the specific number assigned for that service.