SWANNANOA, North Carolina — The $750 in “immediate relief” announced by Vice President Kamala Harris has become a running joke in the small western North Carolina town hit hard by Hurricane Helene more than three weeks ago, according to conversations with volunteers and locals.
Thousands of residents in the Appalachian Mountain valleys of North Carolina lost everything they owned, fleeing with only the clothes on their backs and their loved ones — if they made it out at all.
Kristina Wong/Breitbart News
Local businesses are completely destroyed or closed. The nearest Ingles, a supermarket, is closed, its parking lot covered in dust.
The closest large city, Asheville, is about a 20-minute drive away — unreachable for those who either do not have or lost their vehicles. Many of Asheville’s businesses were also flooded, or lost power and running water, and are closed.
Hotels in the area are full and charging around $200 per night for one room. Many residents are camping in tents on their land where generations of their family members have lived, afraid it could be seized.
Thus, even if residents are able to apply and be approved for the $750, there is nowhere to go spend it.
Kristina Wong/Breitbart News
“How are they going to spend it? They can’t eat it. It’s a slap in the face,” said Aaron Switzer, a special operations veteran volunteering with Savage Freedom Relief Operations, a completely grassroots and volunteer-run effort stood up by former Green Beret Adam Smith.
After the hurricane hit on September 27, the volunteer group ran the first search and rescue missions for those missing and for residents whose roads were entirely washed out and could not leave their homes. They also airlifted food, water, medicine, generators, Starlink mobile satellite dishes, and other critical supplies to those in need.
With search and rescue largely over, they are now focused making sure residents have what they need to survive, particularly with temperatures dropping fast.
On Tuesday night, the group made sure a disabled veteran whose home was damaged had insulin and a generator to keep him warm. They planned to go back Wednesday morning to check on him and make sure he had everything he needed and to find out what was needed to repair his home.
Residents also drive up to their location at a Harley-Davidson warehouse and lot, which they call Forward Operating Base (FOB) Savage, and pick up needed supplies, from generators, hay for livestock, and other supplies. Residents can also do laundry there out of mobile trailers.
Kristina Wong/Breitbart News
The group also runs the only helicopter landing zone (HLZ) in the area, where volunteer pilots once ran dozens of missions from per day. Eventually, the Federal Aviation Administration recognized them as an official HLZ and now the U.S. military is using it as well.
The FOB now hosts dozens of active-duty military troops and North Carolina National Guard members who are part of the relief efforts. There are employees from SpaceX and Tesla there as well.
Smith said FEMA has been largely ineffective:
When it comes to federal assistance per se, FEMA didn’t get into town until Thursday afternoon, the first week of the rescue effort. They sent search and rescue teams in Saturday morning — the search and rescue teams are contractor search and rescue teams, and they’re firefighters, they’re like us [but] it wasn’t until Thursday in the evening when the actual disaster relief and assistance personnel came into the area.
Kristina Wong/Breitbart News
“The problem that I have with it is that they have poor planning, and they’re ineffective in their approach. They have trucks parked with satellite dishes on top, nobody knew who they were, nobody knew why they were there, nobody had any idea that they were the place to come and sign up so they could get relief assistance and aid,” he said.
“And to go one step further, the aid they offered is $750 per person, and ultimately that doesn’t do anything,” he said. “It’s $750. What does $750 do for someone when stores aren’t open, gas stations weren’t open for two full weeks, $750 is going to do what? It isn’t even going to pay for the majority of people’s bills. It does nothing. It’s not even a Band-Aid on a scratch.”
“I’m not saying, don’t do it. I’m saying, there’s a better way to do it,” he added.
Kristina Wong/Breitbart News
Kim Burleson, a breast cancer patient who lives in the mountains of Newland, North Carolina, said she applied online for the $750 and was denied.
“I applied for FEMA and was denied,” she told Breitbart News. “I don’t know why I was denied.”
She said she was approved for lodging, which she did not need since her home was still intact. She went for two weeks with no power, until she managed to get a donated generator from a local volunteer group.
When asked who the FEMA money was going to, she replied, “Ukraine, I guess. Other countries.”
Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on ”X”, Truth Social, or on Facebook.
