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UPDATE: Trump Administration Supercharges North Carolina Disaster Relief

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https://amac.us/newsline/society/update-trump-administration-supercharges-
north-carolina-disaster-relief/

When one of the most devastating storms on record ripped through Western 
North Carolina last year, then-candidate Donald Trump pledged he would not 
forget the people whose lives and businesses were uprooted if he won back 
the Oval Office. Less than one month into his second term, he is making 
good on that promise.

Trump’s first official trip as president, just days after taking office, 
was to North Carolina, where he visited the disaster zone and promised an 
“overhaul” of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to better 
serve displaced residents. FEMA had notably come under withering criticism 
in the final weeks of the Biden administration, including for threatening 
to kick displaced families out of temporary housing amid a brutal winter 
storm with little to no warning.

Now, it appears that Trump’s efforts at reorganizing FEMA and devoting 
more resources to recovery efforts are bearing fruit. New Department of 
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on February 10 that, 
over the five preceding days, FEMA had “decreased the number of open cases 
by almost 80 percent.” Noem also noted that Trump has approved “more than 
$54 million” in disaster aid for the Tar Heel State.

In addition, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has already removed 
more than one million cubic yards of debris from the Swannanoa River, a 
tributary of the French Broad River that saw devastating flooding last 
September.

While cleanup crews still have a long way to go, North Carolina residents 
are seeing progress. “Things sat pretty inactive for probably three or 
four or five weeks,” one property owner told NewsNation. “We didn’t see 
any Army Corps of Engineers. Not really any work. Then yesterday I got a 
phone call, ‘hey, we’re out here, we’re going to clean up the river. Can 
we use your property to access the river?’ It’s just a fantastic gift.”

Trump also signed an executive order cutting red tape to speed up the 
rebuilding of roads in North Carolina. “We’re going to go through a 
permitting process that’s called no permitting, just get it done, that’s 
the way they built them many years ago, I guarantee you that,” the 
president said.

Restoring roads is particularly important in order to begin rebuilding in 
some of the more remote and mountainous areas hit by Helene, many of which 
have only one route in and out.

The order specifically requires “the Secretary of Transportation, the 
Secretary of Homeland Security, acting through the Administrator of FEMA, 
and the Administrator of the Small Business Administration” to 
“immediately take all necessary and appropriate measures, including 
through direct assistance, loans, and other available means, to expedite 
roadway clearance or rebuilding, including the section of Interstate 40 in 
North Carolina that remains closed, and the repair or rebuilding of roads 
and bridges on private property in areas of North Carolina affected by 
Hurricane Helene.”

USACE has reported “surging resources” following Trump’s executive order 
to aid with road and bridge construction. “You can’t be instantaneous, but 
we surged our own assets and resources here in terms of Corps of Engineers 
personnel,” Brig. Gen. Daniel Hibner said. “That’s what we’re really doing 
now, we’re moving on that executive order.”

Trump’s order has also enabled the North Carolina Department of 
Transportation (NCDOT) to explore alternative options for restoring 
roadway access for citizens that would not have been possible under the 
old regulatory process. One of those options came in the form of the 
Innovative Bridge Company, an enterprise which takes retired railcars, 
strips them down to their beds, and then repurposes them as bridges. These 
“boxcar bridges” can be built and available in one-third the time of a 
conventional bridge.

The Helene response is the first time the company has worked in a disaster 
area, yet they have proven enormously successful, installing 37 bridges. 
This critical step permitted supplies and support to move throughout 
affected counties.

NCDOT assistant division construction engineer Jody Lawrence noted that 
the bridges “are not meant to be in place for 50 years” and will need to 
be replaced. Nonetheless, the bridges have enabled residents to return to 
their homes and travel to get supplies until more permanent bridges can be 
constructed.

Trump also signed a second executive order creating a “council to assess 
the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” in which he notes “the need to 
drastically improve FEMA’s efficacy, priorities, and competence, including 
evaluating whether FEMA’s bureaucracy in disaster response ultimately 
harms the agency’s ability to successfully respond.”

That order comes alongside additional efforts to hold FEMA officials 
accountable for wasting disaster response money. Just this week, Noem 
announced that DHS had fired four FEMA officials for spending $59 million 
to house illegal aliens in luxury hotels in New York City.

In just a few weeks, the Trump administration has done more to help the 
victims of Hurricane Helene – and ensure emergency response agencies are 
doing their job – than the Biden administration did in four months. Though 
there is still a long and arduous road to recovery, North Carolinians can 
be confident that the White House will stand beside them every step of the 
way.

Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His 
commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and 
eradicated.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem.  It has none.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden 
fiasco, President Trump.  

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.

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UPDATE: Trump Administration Supercharges North Carolina Disaster Relief "Leroy N. Soetoro" <democrat-insurrection@mail.house.gov> - 2025-02-18 02:39 +0000
  Re: UPDATE: Trump Administration Supercharges North Carolina Disaster Relief Siri Cruise <chine.bleu@www.yahoo.com> - 2025-02-17 19:32 -0800

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