Hurricane Survivor Blasts Biden-Harris Admin For Helene Response

In an interview on Jesse Watters Primetime, Asheville, North Carolina resident Jordan Lanning expressed his anger and resentment towards the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene, and the historic devastation it wreaked on mountain towns in Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia, in addition to Florida’s big bend.

Watters asked him, “How have you felt the response has been so far?”

Lanning responded, “It’s too late. I mean, they took too long.” He looked off camera and his voice began to crack. “It took them five days to get here. And it took five days for Biden to come here. And he didn’t think we were worth coming down to see him, us, himself. He had to fly over on his way to Raleigh. It’s disgraceful. I mean, they keep saying we the people. No, there is no we the people. It’s them versus us. So they’re not for us. It’s all about them. They tell us what we need instead of listening to us.”

Readers should note that George Bush was widely criticized for his response to Hurricane Katrina when he didn’t travel to New Orleans until three days after the storm, making Biden’s delay all the more egregious to those effected.

Watters continued, “Well, they’re listening right now. What do you have to say to them? Is $750 enough?”

“No…There’s people that have lost everything. They’re home. They’re everything, priceless items that were worth thousands of dollars. And I’m not expecting them to actually give us thousands of dollars, but they can do more than that. And that it’s not worth anything.” After being questioned by Watters on the controversial FEMA spending leading to a shortage in their budget, he said he felt “betrayed” and “not worth it” to his own government.

The Daily Caller explained the mounting frustrations victims and their sympathetic citizens feel after learning that FEMA — designated to respond to natural disasters — spent over $1 billion on migrants, and as a result, will be giving Helene victims menial payments.

The frustration stems not only from the delayed response but also from financial aid offers that Lanning says many community members consider inadequate. The federal government has offered a one-time $750 payment for essentials such as food and baby formula to residents of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, who may also receive further financial aid for home repairs and temporary housing after registering for disaster assistance.

Since making landfall on Thursday night last week, Hurricane Helene has wreaked havoc in the Southeast, resulting in 132 deaths and nearly 600 people missing as of Monday. The storm’s impact has shattered homes, crushed cargo containers and swallowed highways in mud, plunging Western North Carolina into a crisis with severed roads and disrupted utilities.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) faces a cash shortage for disaster relief amid Hurricane Helene after spending over $1 billion on migrant assistance in the last two years, according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Mayorkas said that the agency’s financial reserves are insufficient to cover the ongoing hurricane season, particularly with resources stretched thin for Americans affected by Helene.