Helene Death Toll Passes 200, FEMA Accused of ‘Seizing’ Aid
The man-made disaster that is FEMA: Whistleblower details ‘waste’ of taxpayer funds and staff waiting in hotels.
The official death toll from Hurricane Helene is now 213, and desperate aid and recovery efforts continue throughout the American Southeast.
Searches for missing loved ones grow more desperate each day as officials say hundreds are unaccounted for. Rescue crews are hindered by cell service outages and ruined roads and bridges as federal officials warn money to help people get back on their feet is tenuous with 57 days still left in the official hurricane season.
…A massive relief effort is underway across the region to restore shredded power grids and rebuild damaged water and cell infrastructure. Transportation infrastructure across the region also has suffered “unprecedented damage” after Helene ripped up and washed out roads and blasted through bridges, Polly Trottenberg, deputy secretary of the US Transportation Department, said Thursday.
Hundreds of roads remain closed, hampering efforts to send aid to hard-hit communities. And for those who left before Helene, the closures have delayed their return to check on family, friends and the state of their homes. Some areas are so inaccessible supplies are being delivered by mule and air.
The death toll is likely to be much higher when recovery efforts are complete, based on reports streaming in from social media.
Eastern Tennessee devastation is also beyond belief…it is painful to watch
Hurricane Helene cut a path of over 500 miles of complete destruction.
Cadaver dogs have been brought onsite across many of the gutted areas. Death tolls are expected to climb…whole towns missing.… pic.twitter.com/lTrdlTQSHj
— 🇺🇲Take a Stand 🇺🇲🙏 (@keepitwilder) October 3, 2024
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) faces backlash over reports that claim the agency supplies indirect aid supporting illegal aliens. Then Mayorkas announced FEMA had no money for a second hurricane response.
The agency’s solution was an attempt to gaslight Americans…which was a poor choice.
Question:
How do you think people are going to react after they've had everything taken from them and you call them liars? pic.twitter.com/4D35ewxHuF— Into the Memory Hole (@frogNscorpion) October 4, 2024
Now the agency is facing allegations that relief workers are sitting idle without orders — and that those who are working are “seizing” aid deliveries and slow-walking distribution of Starlink satellite internet equipment.
The allegations were outlined by Elon Musk, the CEO of Starlink operator SpaceX, and by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), citing on-the-ground whistleblowers as the death toll topped 215 across six states, making the storm the deadliest in America since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“Just received this note from a SpaceX engineer helping on the ground in North Carolina. @FEMA is not merely failing to adequately help people in trouble, but is actively blocking citizens who try to help!” Musk wrote on X.
The note read: “Hey Elon, update here on site of Asheville, NC. We have powered up two large operating bases for choppers to deliver goods into hands. We’ve deployed 300+ starlinks [sic] and outpour is it has saved many lives. The big issue is FEMA is actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally and locking them away to state they are their own.
..[Congressman Matt] Gaetz, meanwhile, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that “my office has been in contact with whistleblowers in numerous emergency-management functions at the federal, state, and local levels, and they all point to the same critical mismanagement issues.”
“FEMA has wasted taxpayer funds, misappropriated funds, and left other federal, state, and local responders without deployment orders on the ground,” Gaetz wrote.
BREAKING: Numerous whistleblowers came forward to my office this week to sound the alarm on FEMA’s severe mismanagement issues, which have left first responders on the ground to assist with Hurricane Helene recovery efforts without deployment orders.
For context, @FEMA… pic.twitter.com/WB8eL2shB2
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) October 4, 2024
The FEMA whistleblower allegations are quite damning, especially in regards to the deployment of first responders.
A letter from a whistleblower to Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. details how the department has wasted and misappropriated funds in the wake of Helene and is now ‘exacerbating the emergency.’
The letter also alleges ‘hundreds if not thousands’ of first responders and service members have been ‘without deployment orders’ with some waiting around in hotels while others ‘have sat idle’ as Americans throughout the southeast are in dire need.
…’FEMA has wasted taxpayer funds misappropriated funds, and left other federal, state, and local responders without deployment orders on the ground,’ Gaetz, a close ally of ex-President Donald Trump, wrote.
One last bit in this array of troubling news: Not one, but potentially two hurricanes are forming. At the present time, Hurricane Kirk and Tropical Storm Leslie (slated to develop into a hurricane) are predicted to head back out to sea and likely won’t strike either the Gulf or East Coasts.
Hopefully, both storms will maintain this trajectory. Otherwise, more Americans could be dealing with both a natural disaster and a man-made one, such as FEMA.
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Comments
I don’t know what to believe with stories about private helicopters not being allowed to help and slow to no deployment of emergency personnel that could be used…
But I noticed this-now I don’t watch much news so maybe it is out there, but I would have expected more “feel good”/ heroic stories of people being rescued and such, but I haven’t seen them.
I know a lot of people might want their 15 minutes of fame stretching the truth, but Musk has no reason to do that.
Why would the media, that has been transparently partisan in a way the US media hasn’t been for the last 130-years, recount stories of private citizens having to rescue Americans because their government has failed them? You know who that feel good story doesn’t feel very good to? Kamala Harris. It’s incredibly damaging. So, the media smothers the story in its crib. Not a SINGLE question about the response was directed at Biden today. Not one.
There is PLENTY of video of people getting lifted off the mountains, or having food/water/supplies dropped to them by helo and other non-conventional transportation methods. NASCAR driver Greg Biffle has documented dozens of these events on his own X-feed using his own helicopter. There are scores of other people/organizations doing the same thing. Check out Glenn Beck’s Blaze. Glenn is there documenting the outrageous incompetence of FEMA.
https://twitter.com/glennbeck/status/1842293685834416174
All we need now is Biden to come out and say “good job Mayorkus”.
FEMA is doing such a Crappy job in Western North Carolina, they will get a huge bump in their budget next year.
Thank you!!!
There’s a ton of incidents online fully available to review. These volunteers ain’t after praise they are trying to raise awareness of:
1. The scope of the disaster
2. The incompetence of gov’t led efforts
3. The lack of govt willingness to incorporate their efforts into a plan and instead baring their efforts or worse I’m pounding the donated relief supplies
That the govt can’t seem to figure out how to utilize free labor from volunteer trucks, helicopters, trained personnel and incorporate them into a plan is not encouraging. Telling them in essence we got ‘top men’ on it, no thanks/pound sand but leave us the donated supplies and we’ll figure out how to distribute them later is bordering on criminally stupid.
The death toll is going to be far, far higher than anyone realizes. Lots of the folks are still isolated, no clean water, no electricity, no replacement prescription meds. Some like diabetics and those on oxygen are likely dead as a result of the govt dithering in the days after the storm. I suspect much of the population in these rural Counties skews older and thus very likely less robust and less able to withstand sustained exposure to elements…
Thank you too!
You don’t hate them nearly enough
They are this evil
Department of Homeland Security
great job, Bushy
Will no one rid us of this turbulent Secretary?
Will no one rid us of the tens of departments, agencies, bureaux, commissions, and other such things put in place just in my lifetime that have not really brought any improvement to saving lives or getting things back into shape after disaster, whether manmade or natural?
That “unexpected” increases in reported jobs…. half are new government jobs.
The very fact that the media wants to talk about literally ANYTHING else but the hurricane tells you all you need to know.
What’s more important? Dying rural southerners, or what [insert celebrity name here] did at [insert famous night spot here]? Or, what Taylor Swift said the other day? Or, Sean Combs’s scandal?
I’m in the state. The helicopter story is true as well as the drones being grounded. People are being denied access to the area to help and aid is being seized by FEMA and officials to centralize it for distribution but it’s not be sent out, no one seems to be in charge so its just sitting there. I know my wife works for a major grocery chain and had one of her drivers delivering to a store stopped 20 miles from it and turned around by the police. They said they didn’t want the road to be turned into an interstate. He had to make a 300 mile detour. They denied a semi full of food access to a store 20 miles away.
This is the federal government that wants to centralize all control in Washington.
Vote for BIDEN-HARRIS and you can have more of this.
I am in Georgia and I have heard many similar stories from people attempting to assist from our local area. One thing I learned is that they cannot/will not (?) take supplies from churches so anyone who can donate to a church that is assisting will get there help out there sooner. Also, donating to Samaritan’s Purse is a good idea.
If the government, specifically BIDEN-HARRIS, you can bet your life’s savings that everything is FUBAR.
FEMA commandeers aid.
Hmmm, just what HAMAS does for all aid, money and matériel, coming into Gaza.
I am beginning to see a pattern here.
If donated goods are being seized and supplies being obstructed, it is time for some… exercise of what the 2nd Amendment is in place for. This is government tyranny.
There are a number of stories of people being told by “authorities” that they were not allowed to help in the area and if they did they would be arrested. The people told the “authorities” to go screw themselves and that is the polite way to put it.
There are a lot of hollers and back woods areas where revenuers were sent many decades ago.
Now that the floods have probably washed those folks back into the open, perhaps they need to be replenished.
I wonder how many revenuers disappeared up in those hills?
I wonder if the message of “screw themselves” was given not just verbally, but to the sound of racking the slides on various firearms?
Was this anywhere near Athens?
I wonder how much of FEMA’s problem is Affirmative & DEI?
People are reporting FEMA people sitting on their backsides in motels, and FEMA seizing aid being sent in from other places like Florida.
The scope of this disaster is certainly far worse than I expected.
The problem with FEMA is that it is set up exactly to do what’s being done now. Cut off all of these people and show them who’s boss. They don’t have those camps out west for nothing.
In 2022, when the Fed set over 341K acres on fire in New Mexico, Congress set aside 4 billion dollars to compensate victims. As of this summer, only about a billion has been distributed and that’s due to lawsuits filed against FEMA. That accounts for about 25% of the victims. Anyone who trusts this government to do the right thing, is a idiot.
If I had the power to do so, I would summarily close down these various agencies, departments, whatever, sell off all of their supplies, buildings, vehicles, weapons, ammunition, etc to the general public, and send the employees* on their way.
* Note my use of “employee”. That is because none are workers.
A better question would be: What can they do about it? Stolen elections have consequences.
An interesting topic for discussion: “What basis is there to assume that the US Federal government sees itself as in any way responsible to and for the people of the United States; especially those who are not Leftists?”
Subotai Bahadur
Mayorkas.,..”su casa , mi casa”. People are to die only that the hands of government. Saving them wastes money to be used for migrants and the One Party State. The admin and media will not let this be found out to be worse than Katrina.
Let me repeat…. What Stalin did to the Ukraine, Biden/Harris is doing the Southearn Appalachia.
For hurricane information, use https://earth.nullschool.net/
So private helicopters are doing it, “allowed” or not,
But no coverage of it
Thanks for clarifying
Don’t let them fool you. It’s not completely incompetence. It’s on purpose. These are Trump voters, they don’t want to help them. As much as you may hate the government I guarantee you it’s not anywhere near enough.
Agreed. It’s a combination of incompetence and outright maliciousness. Ol’ Ayn Rand was right about the people we’re facing. They’re not people with different beliefs, they actively wish us harm.
It all starts with not allowing old ladies to feed ducks.
157 million for Lebanon was announced yesterday by that piece of shit Blinken.
He, and his thoughts (yeah, I know, right?) and actions, tarnishes the reputations of all other pieces of shit.
This is true from first hand accounts I have heard…give to Samaritan’s Purse and churches with rescue missions. They can get through.
Samaritan’s Purse got hammered in Boone… I left a call back about donations and they may not be able to get back by phone…. donate by credit card. A reminder…. Franklin Graham was targeted for death and wounded by ISIS…. he is in the trenches along with all of their volunteers. I know from personal experience that they are the real deal.
If ever, since 1788, we have been there, we are now clearly at a …
moment. The time to act is clearly upon us, and it needs to be understood and accepted.
Regardless of who is declared winner in November, I think you will see the lid blow off, not just in cities. I’m just up the road from Erwin, safe and sound. I can’t even imagine what my “neighbors” are going through.
Glad to hear you are out of harm’s way. You have more than enough to deal with already.
Getting Mayorkas in front of a camera, saying anything, is worth 100 trump ads.
He’s almost but quite as unlikable as Koskinen.
After Mayorkas on the border, Cheatle in the USSS, Austin at Sec Def, and Blinken at State, does anyone see any competence in this admin? Now we have another DEI hire at FEMA! None of these people have one ounce of skill needed for their positions. And don’t get me started on the empty suit Buttigieg! America has surely had enough!
If I had to guess, I’d say the people making these fool decisions were hired in the last four years (or during the Obama administration), and that their DEI training was all passed with flying colors despite them never actually being in charge of a disaster relief even as small as a tornado. They are making the prime mistake of governmental assistance: trying to *control* instead of *manage* the efforts. It’s very much a police/military mindset. Instead of reacting to “Bob is using a helicopter to deliver aid” with “How can we help Bob” they have a knee-jerk reaction of “We’re supposed to have a helicopter here in a day or two, so Bob needs to stop what he’s doing so our helicopter can have something to do.”
Over in Iceland they have amateurs flying 4K drones through the lava fountains. On the big Island they fly by in a helicopter from a half mile away and most of the shaky video has the backs of other passengers heads. If you want something done poorly, enlist .gov
Could it be that the parts of the states that an are most desperate for aid are those that generally vote conservative? Quisling Joe is using FEMA to hurt his political enemies.
Private aid groups need to have security composed of sheriffs, veterans and volunteers armed with assault weapons. They will defend. The private rescue groups from pirates.