Michelle Woodhouse, Republican Chair of North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, spoke in an exclusive interview with SiriusXM. Breitbart News Daily The spokesperson detailed on Thursday recovery efforts on the ground in western North Carolina, saying the Federal Emergency Management Agency was “slow to the ground” and civilians and philanthropic organizations were doing most of the work in the early stages. said.
“If you ask people on the ground in the 25 affected counties, they will tell you unequivocally that FEMA has been far behind,” Woodhouse said. “I've been waiting for 5 days.”
“We have not seen a single FEMA temporary housing unit on the ground here in Western North Carolina. We have thousands of people living in shelters. The southernmost part of this Congressional district houses some of its staff, but it is more than four hours away on a good day from Avery County, one of the hardest-hit counties, so it is on the ground. is limited,” she said.
“They're very slow in getting here and it looks like the FEMA teams don't even have them in the right place to be able to help people in Western North Carolina,” she continued. “I constantly hear stories every day of people who applied and weren't even given a direct deposit of $750. I also spent time on the app. If you can go there – there is no temporary housing – you can enter your address and it will take you to the FEMA office in Asheville, which is about 40 minutes from my house but incredibly convenient for most people. Especially those who are in situations where it is dangerous to even leave their homes.”
Woodhouse said he did not blame FEMA officials on the ground in North Carolina.
“This is a question for the administration: why did it take so long to get here and why? [was] Mr. Mayorkas' first comment, “FEMA doesn't have enough money to get through hurricane season”? Why didn't you prepare? Hurricane season comes around every year. This is not surprising. “Maybe the devastation is in a different place than you expected, but we knew hurricane season was coming,” she said.
“They weren't ready. And I think this is an indicator of what we've seen time and time again with this administration. They failed domestically. They failed internationally. I don’t think I’m ready,” she said. “Americans continue to suffer because their left hand doesn't know what their right hand is doing.”
She also said that Vice President Kamala Harris' announcement to provide $750 in immediate relief funds to disaster victims was not well received by those she spoke to, including Democrats.
“The news traveled very, very quickly. In fact, one of the Democratic county offices was spray-painted with a very colorful message telling Joe Biden and Kamala Harris what they thought about the $750 from FEMA. was painted on the side,” she said.
“When she announced the $750, I took a note to think about every penny she was going to give to struggling Americans, not just here in Western North Carolina, but also in Tennessee and North Georgia, at the time she did that.” And in the very same news cycle, people here in western North Carolina announced that they had donated $157 million to Lebanon for humanitarian relief in Lebanon over the past three years. Combine that with the fact that for a year and a half, we've been watching hundreds of millions of dollars in dollars being given to illegal immigrants who are infiltrating our country, billions of dollars going to Ukraine, and they're making our way. When they got the news that they were going to give $750 to the people of Western North Carolina, they understood very quickly and very quickly what this government was thinking about them and the rebuilding efforts here. “I want to know,” she added.
He said there has been a lot of discussion about the Biden-Harris administration's “delays” in providing relief to Western North Carolina and whether it takes into account the region's pro-Trump status.
“I think this is a question worth asking, and it's very disappointing. The delay in getting FEMA here, the delay in releasing Joe Biden's troops, which was just a few hours on the other side of the state, and that's North Carolina. “It took the lives of people in the West,” she said.
In contrast, Rev. Franklin Graham's charity, Samaritan's Purse, became a “beacon of light” on the ground in western North Carolina within 24 hours, Woodhouse said.
“We also see neighbors helping neighbors and donations coming in from all over the country, all over North Carolina, all the way to Western North Carolina. And when you look at our communities, there are many communities; People don't have much, they've lost everything, but they're giving to someone — you know, a complete stranger, maybe someone they know who has less, more. We've even lost a lot, and well over 95% of that is driven by private donations and organizations like Samaritan's Purse,” she said.
She called the civilian effort “the heart and soul of here in America.”
“These are the people who will take the shirt off their back and give it to a stranger and do whatever it takes. And we have deep roots in these communities, resourceful, hardworking people. I’ve seen it happen,” she said.
She said local residents will ensure their voices are heard in the presidential election.
“Let Kamala Harris know exactly what these people have done and will continue to do, whether they will vote, whether they will make their voices heard, and how they feel about the way they have been treated. Let me tell you what you mean.’ This is an incredible tragedy,” she said.
Michelle Woodhouse is the host of “Point Counterpoint: The Michele Woodhouse Show” on WPTF in Raleigh, North Carolina. X Follow her at @ew2NCSU
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