Here’s What You Need to Know About Aid in North Carolina, Disinformation Campaigns

Emergency and recovery assistance to the communities slammed by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and neighboring states continued to expand over the past week. Meanwhile, a second Class 4 hurricane, Milton, ripped its way across Florida, wrecking communities, spawning tornadoes, and leaving millions without power.

Aid in North Carolina

In North Carolina, the scale of the response grew to include more than 3,500 soldiers and airmen (coordinated by the NC National Guard and including airborne corps units from Ft. Liberty and Ft. Campbell, as well as over 40 helicopters and 1,200 specialized vehicles). This is in addition to the federal, state, and local agencies bringing aid to residents in all the impacted counties, including more than 900 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff. 

Over $60 million in FEMA Individual Assistance Funds have been paid so far to Western NC disaster survivors and more than 134,000 people have registered for Individual Assistance. Approximately 2,600 people are now housed in hotels through FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance. Federal partners have delivered approximately 9.78 million liters of water and approximately 7.7 million meals in North Carolina to support both responders and people living in the affected communities.

At the state level, the normally partisan and fractious NC General Assembly unanimously approved a $273 million aid and recovery package that was swiftly signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper. “Recovery for Western North Carolina will require unprecedented help from state and federal sources and this legislation is a strong first step,” said Cooper. “Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage but also showed the resiliency of North Carolina’s people and its communities and we must continue the bipartisan work to help them build back strong.” 

Attacking Aid Efforts with Disinformation

In light of this massive, cooperative response to the climate-change-supercharged catastrophe of Hurricane Helene, it has been especially jarring to see the Trump-Vance ticket attacking the aid effort and the agencies leading it. 

At campaign events and in social media, Trump has kept up “a barrage of lies and distortions about the federal response to Hurricane Helene.” His false claims have especially targeted Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, and Democratic state leaders. 

The baseless claims have included assertions that Biden refused to take or return calls from Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp—a claim immediately debunked by Kemp himself. More broadly, Trump has claimed without basis that he received reports about “the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State [NC’s Cooper], going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”

Climate Deniers Lie About Efforts

At a campaign event in North Carolina, Vance repeated Trump’s false assertion that disaster aid has been diverted to assist immigrants elsewhere. FEMA has debunked that claim. 

It may be unsurprising that candidates who have continued to deny the realities of climate change, and who still refuse to acknowledge the fact of Trump’s 2020 election defeat, will lie about disaster aid and recovery efforts. However, the blatant use of false claims to impede efforts during a major disaster response represent another democratic norm violated.

Harris Response

In response to a question at a town hall event Thursday, Vice President Harris said, “In this crisis — like in so many issues that affect the people of our country — I think it so important that leadership recognizes the dignity” to which people are entitled. “I have to stress that this is not a time for people to play politics.” Rumor-checking web pages have been set up by both FEMA and the NC Dept. of Public Safety.