FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell criticized claims and conspiracies that money for the federal emergency agency was not reaching conservative areas hammered by Hurricane Helene.
“It’s frankly ridiculous and just plain false,” Criswell said on ABC’s This Week, about claims that money for disaster relief was being funneled to migrants. “This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people. It’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people, and that’s what we’re here to do.”
The Department of Homeland Security helps provide food, housing, and transportation to illegal immigrants through FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program and Shelter and Services Program Awards program. In response to requests from Democratic mayors, whose cities were experiencing an influx of migrants this past winter, the Biden administration spent over $1 million to give local communities the resources they needed.
Federal officials have also been critical of the misinformation on social media sites that are hampering the ability of emergency responders, such as false claims that another storm is headed to Asheville and a dam was about to burst in western North Carolina. These claims sent residents into another round of worry after their homes were already ravaged by Helene, and many called the reports to the emergency responders, who were already struggling to meet the needs of Helene’s victims.
Former President Donald Trump has also repeated false claims that the federal government isn’t doing anything to help those affected by the storm. He seized on Vice President Kamala Harris‘s announcement that victims would be receiving a $750 grant, falsely claiming this is the only money FEMA would be sending out to victims. In reality, the agency has directed over $110 million to survivors, and the $750 grant is intended to be used for essentials such as food, water, and baby formula.
Criswell went on to call Trump’s rhetoric a “truly dangerous narrative that is creating this fear of trying to reach out and help us or to register for help.”
“People need resources, and we need them to get into the system,” Criswell said. “It’s just a shame that people are sitting home on their comfortable couches while we have thousands of people here on the ground that have left their own families to be able to help those in need.”
State and federal officials have rebutted the notion that aid is not flowing to hard-hit areas with large Republican populations or GOP elected officials. Many of the Republican officials have praised the efforts of the emergency responders.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has praised relief efforts and responders, characterizing conspiracies and falsehoods about the operation as “distractions” but did not call anyone out by name.
“This is when, I believe, discipline is absolutely essential,” Tillis said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation. “We don’t need any of these distractions on the ground that’s at the expense of hardworking first responders and people who are just trying to recover their lives.”
Tillis disagreed with Trump claiming emergency FEMA resources were being directed away from recovery efforts and instead toward handling illegal immigration.
“We can have a discussion about the failure of this administration’s border policies and the billions of dollars it’s costing, but right now, not yet, is it effecting the flow of resources to western North Carolina,” he said.
A Republican state senator from North Carolina also pleaded for people to stop spreading misinformation.
“Friends can I ask a small favor?” state Sen. Kevin Corbin wrote in a Facebook post. “Will you all help STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods in WNC?’
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Criswell said FEMA has the necessary resources to continue recovery efforts, as members of Congress from both parties press for lawmakers to return from recess before next month’s elections to pass emergency aid.
“We moved resources in before this storm happened. We embedded our staff in the state to work side by side so we could quickly employ those resources to where they were needed,” she said. “And as we continue to see how long we’re going to have to provide this level of sustained support, we will continue to do that.”
