ASHEVILLE — Standing at an aid distribution site, Gov. Roy Cooper told reporters former President Donald Trump should not come to the region to tell “lies,” while also saying bipartisanship was critical to recovery from Tropical Storm Helene.
Cooper made the remarks during a news conference Oct. 21, the same day the Republican candidate for president spoke in nearby Swannanoa.
Cooper toured the city-run Community Care Station, a pop-up facility along Tunnel Road that affords victims of Helene’s wrath temporary housing and access to clean water, food and other aid.
“Helene has been the deadliest and most devastating storm in North Carolina history,” Cooper said. “Because of the heroic rescue work of first responders, soldiers, search and rescue teams and even neighbors, thousands of lives have been saved.”
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The Democratic governor, who cannot seek reelection in November due to term limits, said local cooperation with the federal government was continuing apace, adding that President Joe Biden’s administration had responded “quickly” and “positively” to the state’s requests for assistance in the aftermath of Helene.
The storm exacted a crushing toll when it moved across Western North Carolina in late September. As of Oct. 21, state officials had tallied 95 storm-related deaths, the majority of which were attributed to drowning and landslides. Buncombe County lost 42 of its residents to Helene, according to the Hurricane Helene Storm-Related Fatalities Report.
Cooper said the number of North Carolina residents who still lacked power had dropped to 5,400 from a height of more than a million. The North Carolina Department of Transportation had reopened more than 750 roads, Cooper said, and only seven school districts remained closed.
Deanne Criswell, the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, visited Asheville alongside Cooper and provided an update on FEMA’s assistance efforts, which so far have entailed temporarily rehousing more than 5,300 people. Criswell touted a newly bolstered program to hire North Carolina residents to work on behalf of FEMA as the agency’s assistance begins to center on WNC’s long-term recovery.
“We’ve always been able to hire people from the local community to come help and support the work that we’re doing,” Criswell told the Citizen Times as she toured the Community Care Station. “We’re really expanding that because we know that there’s so much need here and so many small communities that people perhaps aren’t going to be able to go back to work for a while.”
FEMA has more than 1,400 staff on the ground in North Carolina and has registered more than 200,000 residents for individual financial assistance, according to Criswell. She said the federal government had provided more than $124 million directly to disaster victims in the state thus far.
FEMA personnel are not alone in the recovery effort. More than 3,100 soldiers and airmen from 12 states were working alongside the North Carolina National Guard, local law enforcement and a slew of contractors as the state works to rebuild hundreds of washed-out bridges and roads, Cooper said.
When asked what North Carolina’s next governor — and the next president — must do to ensure WNC receives long-term assistance, Cooper said state officials were working to build a “blueprint” that would net the state “commitments of every stream of funding that we can.”
“We’re going to work on making sure that everything is rebuilt, while also keeping in mind resiliency,” Cooper said. “We know where this water can go now, so bridges have to be rebuilt in a stronger way.”
Cooper and Criswell’s visit to Asheville came as Trump visited the area to “see the devastation of Hurricane Helene first-hand and deliver remarks to the press,” Trump’s campaign stated. The Republican presidential nominee has drawn the ire of Cooper and the Biden administration, saying he is spreading misinformation about the federal government’s role in Helene-related disaster recovery efforts.
Cooper told reporters that he had asked the former president’s campaign not to spread “lies” and mistruths about the storm during Trump’s visit here. Misinformation hurts “the very people we are trying to help,” Cooper said, adding that it “discourages people and makes people fearful of signing up for help.”
“It enables scam artists, and it hurts the morale of government officials, first responders and soldiers who are on the ground trying to help,” Cooper said.
During his visit to Asheville, Trump called FEMA’s response to Helene a “disgrace” and claimed, without evidence, that the agency had neglected to direct assistance funds to North Carolina residents because the federal government was “bringing in illegal migrants.”
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Sala Menaya-Merritt, who leads the Community Care Station that Cooper toured, said that at least locally, the storm and its aftermath had ratcheted down tensions between governments and the people they serve. The care station Merritt leads hosts laundry machines, portable restrooms, heated tents, running water and a stockpile of other necessities.
“I keep hearing people saying, ‘I just can’t believe how the community has come together,” Merritt said. “They understand that these are trying times. Everyone’s kind of banding together and we’re making it happen… Doesn’t matter what your race is, doesn’t matter what socioeconomic status you have, everyone’s coming out and they’re pitching in.”
Houston Harwood may be contacted at [email protected]. He works for the USA TODAY Network and is based in Evansville, Indiana.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: NC governor describes ‘heroic’ relief as Trump visits Asheville area
