Media Blackout? Trump's New FEMA Has Handled 80 Percent of Cases in Western NC in Just 5 Days - Biden Had 116 Days

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem emphasized that the Trump administration is actively addressing the needs of North Carolina residents impacted by Hurricane Helene.

“President Trump came in and visited this community, and in less than 20 days secured over $54 million for families in need and registered 2,600 families that needed assistance and hadn’t gotten that type of help to get signed up for the programs that we have,” Noem stated in a social media post on platform X.

“In the past five days, we’ve decreased the number of open cases by almost 80 percent,” she added.

“President Trump is ensuring that communities aren’t forgotten, and he launched the first major initiative to connect farmers with recovery assistance as well,” she continued.

Hurricane Helene struck the U.S. in late September, with North Carolina suffering the most damage when the storm hit on Sept. 27.

During his visit to North Carolina, Trump criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response under former President Joe Biden.

“At one point, half of the emergency calls to FEMA went unanswered. That’s real bad. FEMA was not doing their job,” Trump remarked, as per a White House transcript of his Jan. 24 speech.

“Biden did a bad job,” Trump said. Based on analysis from The Western Journal, Biden remained in office for 116 days after the storm subsided, yet Trump argued that the area still hadn’t fully recovered.

“Some residents still don’t have hot water, drinking water, or anything else. And many of them don’t have quarters. They don’t have anything. They got a stipend for what they lost, and we’re going to take care of it. This is totally unacceptable, and I’ll be taking strong action to get North Carolina the support that you need to quickly recover and rebuild. We’re working on it very hard,” Trump said.

FEMA has since reported that 153,000 households have received aid since the storm ended, according to KATC-TV.

Noem noted that the recovery efforts led by the Trump administration are only beginning.

“FEMA can often be slow and confusing and a lot of paperwork. I heard that over and over and over again today. And we’re going to fix that,” Noem said, as reported by the North State Journal.

“I’ll promise you one thing: President (Donald) Trump has committed, and I’m committed with him, to bringing FEMA into the 21st century.”

Trump issued an executive order to evaluate FEMA’s operations, and Noem addressed this initiative during her visit.

“You’ve heard him make comments that he might even want to end it and have it be a process where the federal government sends block grants or sends the dollars to the state or to the local communities, and they decide how it’s spent,” Noem stated, according to USA Today.

“I want to be clear; I heard from people today that had good stories and positive testimonies of what FEMA has done. There were some folks that got their checks promptly, had the assistance that they needed, and we appreciate that, but we also know that isn’t true for everybody,” Noem said.

During a Sunday interview, Noem further explained her stance.

“We still need the resources and the funds and the finances to go to people that have these types of disasters, like Hurricane Helene and the fires in California,” Noem told The Washington Post. “But you need to let the local officials make the decisions on how that is deployed, so it can be deployed much quicker.”

She also stated that any FEMA reforms would be made in collaboration with lawmakers to ensure that changes are “done correctly and that we’re still there to help folks who have a terrible disaster or crisis in their life.”