Residents of Western North Carolina are grappling with confusion and frustration over the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) decision to end temporary housing assistance for nearly 2,000 families displaced by Hurricane Helene. The announcement comes just days before the region is expected to endure harsh winter conditions, including a snowstorm and temperatures that could dip below 20 degrees.
FEMA’s decision to halt the housing program — which provides temporary shelter in hotel rooms — has left many survivors uncertain about where they will go when the program concludes on Saturday, January 11th, 2025 following a one day extension.
Ryan McClymonds, founder of Operation Boots on the Ground, a volunteer group providing aid in the region, expressed his concern over the abrupt termination of FEMA’s support. “I’m talking to several people who are losing their FEMA vouchers,” McClymonds told Fox News Digital. “They’re terrified that they’re going to have nowhere to stay after today. But we did find out last night pretty late… that FEMA is extending it a whole whopping 24 hours.”
FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program has been a critical lifeline for thousands of survivors since Hurricane Helene struck the region in late September 2024. The storm caused widespread flooding, killed at least 104 people, and left thousands homeless. Since then, FEMA has been providing shelter to approximately 13,000 displaced families. But as of January 6, about 2,000 households are facing the prospect of losing their shelter during a winter storm, exacerbating the already dire situation.
FEMA’s policy change has left many families scrambling. On January 3, FEMA began notifying families staying in hotels that they were no longer eligible for continued assistance.
“I don’t know what goes into their thinking,” said Steve Antle, a retired Asheville police officer who has been helping his community since the hurricane. “You know, I want to think that it’s government incompetence because that’s the better alternative. … And I hate to think that.”
For many families, the loss of FEMA housing assistance is just the latest in a series of hardships. Some residents are still living in tents or makeshift shelters, reluctant to leave their damaged properties. With fragile infrastructure and continued power and water outages, the winter storm threatens to compound the challenges these communities already face.
Asha Wild, a resident of Swannanoa, North Carolina, who lost her home to floodwaters, told Fox News Digital that she and her community are bracing for the worst. “We are told to expect power outages and possibly water outages. Yeah, I’m not thrilled about that. And in the cold,” Wild said, as snow began to coat the mountains.
The looming storm has many worried about the safety of those who will be left without shelter, especially with the prospect of more power outages and continued fragile conditions on the ground. Local volunteer organizations, including McClymonds’ group, have stepped in to provide critical supplies like propane, food, and water, but the severity of the situation remains overwhelming.
The timing of FEMA’s decision to terminate housing assistance has led to widespread outrage. “This is unfair and arguably criminal,” said Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for former President Donald Trump. Leavitt, who is also slated to become the incoming White House press secretary, slammed the Biden administration for prioritizing illegal immigrant housing over American citizens impacted by natural disasters.
“Biden and Mayorkas bankrupted FEMA to pay for illegal immigrant housing, and now American citizens who lost their homes in Hurricane Helene are essentially being told to screw,” Leavitt added, referring to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. “The good news is: President Trump will be back very soon to put Americans first again.”
READ NEXT: FEMA Official Told Employees To Avoid Helping Trump Supporters
Planning was not a priority of the Biden administration. They robbed every piggy bank to support illegal aliens illegally. And this year has proved to be a bad weather one on top of poor federal and some states mismanagement. So what has happened was preventable but this Biden administration was as well managed as the senile old coot who was in charge.
Now help has to come and the illegal aliens need to be removed quickly and a permanent wall put up, immigration laws enforced, and everyone who helped rob the piggy banks must be expelled from government anything. And punishment at all those several levels in federal and state organizations should be given out appropriately to those in charge and responsible. In fact, this ought to drive some new laws and regulations while they purge any that enabled the lack of intelligence demonstrated. How do people this stupid even get hired and promoted?.Oh that’s right, it’s the peter principle in operation!! Newsom seems to be an outstanding example of that little infamous principle.
With regard to trying to stone wall conservatives, that boat has already sailed. It has been a fight but logic in the end always wins and this is the new law of the USA. Get on board or while you ponder what a conservative is, I can assure you it is not a war mongerer or a woke dimwit! And H1B or any of those sneaky work arounds has been offensive since it first began in the 1970s and we have the skills in the USA and plenty of levels of educated people. Hire in the USA and when we hear anyone including titans like Musk and his pals say they need those imports, conservatives just hear that the owners want to just pay less for the services! And eventually the cost go up anyway. DAH! I guess that makes the H whatever programs work with short term jobs so a constant turn around cycle. Hum?
1. How many illegal immigrants did the govt. evict!
2. Who did NC vote for? ( clue:not SloJoe)
FEMA is deliberately shutting down at this terrible time only to cast trouble at the incoming Trump Administration at the instructions of the failed Biden government without any care for our suffering citizens.
It is very difficult to keep from demanding Revenge by friends and relatives toward the FEMA staff & Their friends and relatives. It is inconceivable that any American can walk up to a door and force another out into bad weather, carrying whatever possessions, children, food they can manage. While I have never been in nor witnessed anything like this, I am wondering if any have just refused to leave? Would they be arm dragged, babies too? Would they be shot? Quite obviously I am of the mind that those Brown-shirts (1937-1944) should be offering refuge to atone for such unamerican activity. I have seen no mention of churches opening their doors, where are these people that claim they are donating to missions, but have horse blinders on so can’t see the most obvious closest to them? I pray I have this totally wrong, that schools have opened their gyms, the churches their doors, townhalls their facilities. Even an an hour or two away… Awaiting clarification….thank you.