In the wake of Hurricane Helene in October 2024, significant damage was inflicted on areas near Asheville, North Carolina. Providing initial relief, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) arranged temporary shelter for the citizens by offering hotel and motel rooms to those left homeless. However, the financial support provided exposed inefficiency and neglect, particularly when viewed under the lens of previous presidential leadership.
Following the hurricane, over 2,600 North Carolina families remained housed in hotels. While these accommodations were meant to be temporary, the callousness of the previous Biden administration became evident in the handling of such accommodations for the victims.
The mandated review of FEMA’s aid recipients which occurred every two weeks brought unexpected and shocking news to about 740 families in late January. They were informed that, according to their program’s standards, they no longer qualified for assistance. To add insult to injury, they were given a mere three weeks to find new living arrangements, a task nearly impossible given their traumatic ordeal.
Such logistics of the program of periodically reviewing eligibility and weeding out some recipients may be systematic, but in practice, it intensified suffering for many. The timing and manner of these removals proved questionable and inhumane, a grim reflection of Biden’s approach.
Under the stark cold of January’s 20-degree weather, ex-President Trump stood up for the victims during a visit to North Carolina. He voiced stern criticisms for the Biden administration’s handling, contrasting it with his administration’s commitment to the people.
Trump pinpointed the grave shortcomings of his predecessor, saying that the Biden administration ‘kicked 2,000 displaced North Carolinians out of their temporary housing into freezing 20-degree weather.’ This claim mirrored a Fox News report, shedding light on an unjustly bleak situation thrust upon the disaster victims due to unnecessarily rigid policies.
Trump’s words may have overstated the number who lost eligibility. Still, it underscored a grim reality: Biden’s administration allowed hundreds of victims to be ejected into the cold without proper notice or a humane plan to relocate them.
Although FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program aimed to provide disaster victims with free short-term accommodations while their homes are repaired or they found other housing, its execution during the Biden era left a lot to be desired. Bureaucratic technicalities and rigid protocols seemed more important than the well-being of citizens.
Towards the end of 2024, FEMA announced that the temporary housing program had been stretched, ironically, until January 11. Approximately half of the 10,000 participants had, until then, managed to locate longer-term housing. However, the callous reality of the reviews resulted in many unfortunate evictions in the heart of winter.
The State Governor, Josh Stein, penned a letter to FEMA in mid-January, pleading for a further extension until the end of September. His plea highlighted the ‘chaos and uncertainty’ experienced by residents regarding their temporary housing — an unstable situation allowed to continue under the Biden administration.
The Biden administration did finally extend the temporary shelter program on its last full day in office. However, one cannot help but observe the delay in extending the program. At a time when swift decision-making was required, the Biden administration hesitated, adding turmoil to the lives of already distressed individuals.
As the aftermath of the hurricane continued, a significant number of North Carolinians remained in dire straits. Some families were in fact forced to find new housing due to their lack of funds, leading to amplified agony and stress, further underscoring the failures of the Biden administration’s handling of the disaster.
As of January’s end, 701 households in Buncombe County, one of the most severely affected areas, lingered in the FEMA program. At the same time, 407 households had been deemed ineligible for housing aid because their homes were considered fit to live in, yet another questionable call made during the Biden era.
In conclusion, the mishandling of the Hurricane Helene disaster by FEMA paints a darker picture of the Biden administration. The overemphasis on bureaucracy over human compassion points to a failure of governance during a time when leadership was most needed.