Has government response to Helene been flawless? (10-16-2024--Hour2)

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_00]: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So has the government response to Helene been flawless? Serious question. No, it's a serious question. It is. And I don't ask it in order to drag my good friend Ray, Governor Roy Cooper. I'm not trying to score political points or take shots at him or anything.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_00]: It is a vital question to ask. It is necessary to ask where the government response so far hasn't been working very well. We hear reports from people on the ground. I'm getting emails from people almost every single day about various deficiencies or problems with their FEMA applications that they're trying to get the 700

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_00]: $50 that was promised them. And they get rejected. And I think it was last week we talked with Mark Starling from WWNC. We usually touch base with him, but he's obviously been very busy. He's not joining us today, by the way, because he's got a bunch of stuff going on at the salaries and meetings and stuff out in Asheville.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, he said that people, because they've been acting. It's a news talk station I used to work at in the afternoons and he was the morning guy.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And they've been broad. They were broadcasting 24-7 for 15 straight days.

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, what he advised last week was that the people that have been calling in and reporting into him, they've seen some measure of success by going down to the FEMA pop-ups, you know, the tent operations, wherever FEMA has been set up.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And they've got actual people on site that there's been greater success in getting approved by going in person versus applying via the app.

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know why that is. I don't know if FEMA knows why that is.

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure the people that are on the ground at these, you know, FEMA tents, they don't.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I almost called it a FEMA camp, but that's an entirely different thing.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: But people, I'm sure, that are, you know, part of that response, they don't know why this stuff is breaking or doesn't work or, you know, how come I've lost everything?

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_00]: My home was swept down the side of a mountain.

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_00]: My entire house was swept down the side of a mountain, crashed into a bridge and disintegrated with all of my possessions.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And the only thing I have are the clothes on my back.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And I show up to a FEMA tent and I apply for the $750 and I get approved.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe I don't. Why?

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Or why would I get approved if I talk to somebody, but I don't get approved if it's on the app?

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Seems like there's a problem, right?

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_00]: And so that needs to be identified so people can, first off, know that if they get rejected on the app, go down in person.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe just avoid the app altogether and go down in person, if you can.

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_00]: So I asked the question about whether or not the response has been flawless, not to indict people, not to try to undermine their efforts, but to try to identify weaknesses to fix them.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_00]: So we don't make the same mistakes again.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I asked the same thing during the COVID response.

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Did you get everything right, Governor Cooper?

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Two major unprecedented disasters in North Carolina, not even counting Hurricane Matthew because that hit before he got into office.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Although I don't think, did they ever get around to building any of those houses for the people down east?

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's important to ask the questions and to say, hey, we identified a problem.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe Cooper's aware of some problem.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_00]: If he had to do everything over again, knowing what he knows now, would he have done everything the same?

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And if not, what?

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And again, it's not to indict him to say he's not a good governor or anything like that.

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_00]: People can make whatever arguments they want to about that after the fact.

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_00]: But the first step is to acknowledge that there was some problem in some element of the response, right?

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Some facet of the response fell short.

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's why when I saw this piece by Pat Ryan at the News and Observer, I was intrigued by the headline,

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: FEMA must change course to stop North Carolina from suffering through a broken recovery plan.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00]: But then also the response from some, you know, online lefty troll who's like, we don't need to hear this right now.

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_00]: We need to focus on response.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: No, actually, you do need to hear this right now, because if the wheels are in motion for the response,

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_00]: then it seems to me this would be the perfect time to be asking, hey, what can we improve upon?

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Because FEMA's got a track record.

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_00]: FEMA's got, you know, these mechanisms that they employ when they deploy to these areas, to the disaster zones.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_00]: So what are they doing?

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: What have they done?

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Does it work?

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Does it not work?

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Scrap the stuff that doesn't work and find workarounds for the things that are, you know, deficient.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And then elevate the stuff that is working.

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It just seems like that's like, it just seems like a no-brainer to me.

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I was about to say common sense.

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know.

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, so I'll tell you what Pat Ryan wrote about.

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'll tell you what he wrote in a minute.

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_00]: And I've got the governor's update from yesterday evening that his office pushed out at about 6 p.m. last night.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well, let's see what Joanne has to say.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, Joanne.

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_02]: Hi.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Hey.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_02]: I was listening to the radio regarding FEMA.

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Governor Cooper apparently has never handled a major catastrophe before.

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_02]: COVID was a catastrophe, but not like this.

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_00]: No, nobody has.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, so nobody has.

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's important to note also is that nobody has seen anything like this.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I've never seen anything like this.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_02]: But Governor DeSantis in Florida has handled hurricanes.

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_02]: He knows how to get set up.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_02]: He knows how to do it.

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Cooper should have contacted him.

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_02]: He knew a week before it happened.

[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_02]: I agree.

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_02]: He was going to.

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, sorry.

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_00]: So first, I agree.

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_00]: So I agree that Cooper should be asking DeSantis for help and for guidance.

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, there is a big difference, though.

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Florida is pretty flat.

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And...

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't matter.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_00]: It does.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_00]: No, Joanne, it does matter.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_00]: It absolutely does matter because the kind of devastation that affects a flat area versus

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_00]: the mountains where the water...

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not just flooding.

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_00]: You're talking about slope failure, mudslides, rock slides.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I know.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_02]: And the dam failure, too, that should have been fixed in 2000.

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_02]: But the fact is, DeSantis had 1,500 National Guard people.

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Cooper had 175.

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, please.

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, there are more than that.

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_00]: There are more than that.

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_00]: National Guard has 3,400.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_00]: What's that?

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_02]: He only assigned 175 to the western part of North Carolina for the hurricane.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Cooper, I mean.

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_00]: You mean the pre-staging?

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't even know if it was pre.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_02]: I think it was three days later.

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's important.

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_00]: No, well, I mean, that's important if it was pre-staging because, I mean, there are now

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_00]: over 3,400 soldiers and airmen working in western North Carolina.

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_02]: But that's not enough.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's a different argument to say, though.

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_00]: But to say that he hasn't sent any or deployed any.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but he didn't hit the beginning.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_02]: He didn't hit the beginning.

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_02]: He didn't contact FEMA and get all the resources he could have gotten because he didn't know

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_02]: how to do it.

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_02]: He should have asked.

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Quit being proud.

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Ask someone who knows what's going on.

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_00]: So this is why I've been asking this question is, was the response flawless?

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And obviously it wasn't.

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And deploy enough personnel early enough, right?

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_00]: That's a good question to ask that the media should be asking him.

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, and then there's that little email glitch where it sounded like he was trying to stall

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_02]: us out till after the election.

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_00]: An email glitch to stall us out?

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Somebody snitched on him and released emails where he was talking with some form of North

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Carolina and trying to get them to stall out to help until after the election.

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_02]: This was Cooper.

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Are you talking about the emails that went out to Blue Cross Blue Shield and the internal

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Department of Public Safety?

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_00]: They said, hey, don't.

[00:10:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, what that email said was, and it wasn't snitching.

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_00]: It was these were emails that went out and said in the immediate aftermath, don't load up

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_00]: a car of stuff and drive it up there because the roads are impassable.

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_00]: You're better off sending the items to a collection point so they can run fewer vehicles with more

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_00]: stuff.

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_02]: The problem is they didn't run any.

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_00]: They did.

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_00]: That's not true.

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_02]: They did stuff.

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Frankly, Mark Robinson, who was up there right away and helped get 500,000 pounds of relief

[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_02]: supplies up there, Cooper did nothing.

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_02]: He was at a fundraiser or some such thing, and so was Stein.

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Stein was.

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Stein was up in New York.

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Stein was at a fundraiser.

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't believe that Cooper was.

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't believe he was at...

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, he sure wasn't up over in the Western White House because he couldn't get in it.

[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_00]: No.

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_00]: That probably would not have been a safe place for him to be.

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_00]: No.

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_02]: If he drove out the storm there, he probably would have died.

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm glad he didn't.

[00:11:12] [SPEAKER_02]: But he should have been up there.

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_02]: We elected him to help us, not to sit in Raleigh and just say, oh, there's a tragedy.

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_02]: How sad.

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_02]: That doesn't help.

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you think...

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Hang on, Joanne.

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you think that that's...

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, he's getting there to see what's going on wrong and fixing it.

[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So he has been in Western North Carolina like every day for...

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_02]: No, he hasn't.

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_02]: For the first week and a half, he wasn't.

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Robinson was.

[00:11:37] [SPEAKER_00]: So Mark Robinson did go, and so did Roy Cooper.

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_00]: They have both been there, and at this point, Roy Cooper has been there more than Mark

[00:11:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Robinson has.

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_02]: But Mark Robinson did more.

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's true either, Joanne.

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the amount of stuff that...

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_02]: He and a sheriff at the very beginning...

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying Mark Robinson didn't.

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying he didn't.

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, all of the above kind of guy.

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_00]: All of them deployed assets and personnel to the area.

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_00]: They all helped.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_00]: But...

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Cooper knew how many National Guard he had.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_02]: 175 for the entire length of the Appalachian Mountains.

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_02]: That doesn't work too well.

[00:12:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I have not seen the number of this 175.

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I'll look for that 175.

[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I assume you're talking...

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Don't find it, because that's what he deployed at the beginning.

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_00]: So you're saying that's what was deployed after the hurricane hit?

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's all that was there until about a week ago.

[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't a week ago.

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_00]: But all right.

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_00]: See, so this is the...

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So this is the issue.

[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, do I trust everything that's coming out of the governor's office?

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_00]: You should be skeptical of it.

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER_00]: But when I'm seeing press releases from the National Guard itself saying that they've sent

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_00]: a thousand National Guardsmen there, and that happened two weeks ago.

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_00]: See, I understand you may think Roy Cooper hasn't done a good job.

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_00]: That's fine.

[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_00]: But it has to be...

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Like, these have to be legitimate things that we are raising and asking these types of questions.

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know, then I just caution against making an assertion as if you do.

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_00]: That's all.

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate the call, Joanne.

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, stories are powerful.

[00:13:20] [SPEAKER_00]: They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences.

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations.

[00:13:26] [SPEAKER_00]: They help us process the meaning of life.

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And our stories are told through images and videos.

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Preserve your stories with Creative Video.

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Started in 1997 in Mint Hill, North Carolina.

[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_00]: It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos, and

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_00]: videos into high-quality, produced slideshows, videos, and albums.

[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_00]: The trusted, talented, and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_00]: with you to create a perfect project.

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Satisfaction guaranteed.

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Drop them off in person or mail them.

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_00]: They'll be ready in a week or two.

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Memorial videos for your loved ones.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Videos for rehearsal dinners.

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Weddings.

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Graduations.

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Christmas.

[00:14:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Family vacations.

[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Birthdays.

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Or just your family stories.

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_00]: All told through images.

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_00]: That's what your photos and videos are.

[00:14:11] [SPEAKER_00]: They are your life.

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you.

[00:14:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And they will tell others to come who you are.

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Visit creativevideo.com.

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_00]: The Hellion on Twitter.

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_00]: That's his name.

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_00]: He says,

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Man, for Katrina, it was 24-7 failure fest, according to the media then.

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, all the time.

[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I have noticed the difference in the coverage between this disaster and Hurricane Katrina,

[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_00]: which killed, you know, what was it, 1,800 people.

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_00]: The death toll in this is much lower.

[00:14:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And I know some people don't want to believe that.

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know why.

[00:14:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I would think that's a good thing.

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_00]: But there are still, I think the last count was 125.

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_00]: 125.

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And a message here from Timoteo, who says,

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I think people are not understanding that portions of the mountains no longer exist.

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_00]: They are now sediment in Santee Cooper.

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_00]: The scope of the devastation, I think, is hard for people to wrap their heads around.

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And I went, during the break, I went looking for this number that Joanne had mentioned, the 175 National Guard soldiers.

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_00]: They were activated before the storm.

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_00]: That was the pre-staging.

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Cooper and emergency management officials held a briefing that Thursday, right before the storm hit.

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_00]: And they said they've got 175 National Guard soldiers activated in case they're needed.

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_00]: They had 16 swift water rescue teams from throughout the state stationed in the most at-risk areas.

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Three more came from New York, Indiana, and Illinois.

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Three urban search and rescue task forces were also activated.

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_00]: But they were predicting the official NOAA forecast for the Swannanowa River at Billmore Village.

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_00]: They were predicting an all-time record crest of the river at 21 feet.

[00:16:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you know what it actually crested at?

[00:16:24] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like 26.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_00]: It was worse than people imagined.

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_00]: They were saying this is going to be the worst that we've seen since 1916.

[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And it was even worse than that.

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_00]: That's what I mean.

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_00]: The level of devastation, I think, is hard for people to understand.

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Cooper's office deployed National Guard.

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_00]: They did.

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_00]: You could say it should have gone faster.

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And I have been critical of the delayed response by the active-duty military to go and support.

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_00]: That happened on October 2nd.

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Storm hit on the 27th.

[00:17:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: So it was like almost a week later where the active duty was deployed.

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_00]: But they were already going.

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_00]: They were going to join 1,000 National Guardsmen that were already there.

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_00]: So the guard was already there within the first six days.

[00:17:19] [SPEAKER_00]: So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's.

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And before he died, my mom and my dad and all of us really helped take care of him as he got progressively worse.

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Forty years ago, there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family.

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Things are different today because of the work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of Western North Carolina.

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a great organization with awesome people.

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_00]: They've got huge hearts.

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I've been a supporter for like 25 years.

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_00]: This cause means a lot to me.

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I participate in the annual walk to end Alzheimer's.

[00:17:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And I am leading a Charlotte team this year.

[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_00]: It's called Pete's Pack.

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_00]: You can sign up and join the team and walk with me.

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_00]: It's on October 19th at Truist Field in Uptown.

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Sign up at alz.org slash walk and then just look for my team, Pete's Pack.

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And there's also a link in the podcast description here.

[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Also, I'm going to be emceeing the Gastonia Walk on October 5th.

[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_00]: So make a team and join us.

[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Or make a donation to help me hit my goal.

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I would really appreciate it.

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_00]: There are a bunch of other walks around the Carolinas.

[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And you can go to alz.org for all of the dates and locations.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_00]: We are closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's.

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you can help us get there, we would really appreciate it.

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Will you come walk with me for a different future, for families, for more time, for treatments?

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_00]: This is why I walk.

[00:18:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I got a message from Jeff Atkinson, my friend there from the WBT News Center.

[00:18:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And I said that the death toll is 125.

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And that is in North Carolina.

[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_00]: 125 North Carolinians perished.

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_00]: That's the confirmed number.

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_00]: The latest number on the unaccounted is 90.

[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I was going to say 95.

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_00]: That's not correct.

[00:19:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to say it was like 92, something like that, that are still unaccounted for.

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_00]: But the death toll for total for Hurricane Helene was about 300.

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's across, you know, the whole, was it four states that it tore through?

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Bill, welcome to the show.

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, Bill.

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Hello.

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_01]: How are you doing?

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, I'm good.

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_01]: What's going on?

[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Just a quick question for you.

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And I know you have the answer to it.

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about that.

[00:19:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I did try to research online.

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_01]: It was kind of confusing.

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Money that FEMA gives, whether it's the $750 or whatever is given out there from FEMA or however it comes,

[00:19:55] [SPEAKER_01]: are these grants like loans or gifts or how do you pay these back?

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Can you explain it simple, how the money is given and how it's repaid or not repaid, how that all works?

[00:20:06] [SPEAKER_00]: So the $750 is for the immediate cash in your hand response.

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_00]: That's gifted, right?

[00:20:16] [SPEAKER_00]: There's no, that's not a loan.

[00:20:18] [SPEAKER_00]: There's no repay required on that.

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Then there are different types of grants that can be awarded depending on the level of damage.

[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_00]: When you run through their process, there are also shelter options that they do where they put you up in a hotel or,

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_00]: like we saw after Katrina, where they had all of the trailers that they brought in, that kind of thing.

[00:20:45] [SPEAKER_00]: So the Small Business Administration offers loans that you do have to repay,

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_00]: but they're at reduced interest rates and that kind of thing.

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's a mix.

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_01]: So the grant that you were talking about, that's like a gift.

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_01]: That's not repaid.

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's for, they will not pay, like if you have insurance that covers some of your,

[00:21:08] [SPEAKER_00]: like let's say your house is damaged or lost and you have insurance and your insurance company will pay some of that

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_00]: or it will pay towards replacing a lot of that stuff, FEMA will not, so there's no double dipping.

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_00]: FEMA will not pay you also.

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_00]: On top of that, they will pay you the difference if it doesn't make you whole essentially.

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's stuff like that piecemeal, but it's a little bit of everything.

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Gotcha.

[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, that was a simple question.

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I researched it online, but it was confusing.

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I was trying to figure out what they're talking about.

[00:21:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I figured out that you'd know the best.

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Right, well, yeah, no problem, Bill.

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_00]: The only reason I know that is because I get the FEMA press releases,

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_00]: and I was reading about it like a day or two ago.

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, I didn't know that beforehand either.

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_00]: That's just what I encountered.

[00:21:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Let me go over to this Pat Ryan piece at the News and Observer.

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_00]: He quotes a guy named Brad Gair, G-A-I-R, who has managed government-backed disaster recovery

[00:22:08] [SPEAKER_00]: around the world since the 1990s.

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_00]: He helped design and execute rebuilding programs after Hurricane Floyd.

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Hurricane Floyd, remember, flooded half of the state of North Carolina, the eastern portion.

[00:22:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Rebuilding programs after 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria, and more.

[00:22:30] [SPEAKER_00]: He's been in Hawaii since the wildfires last year.

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Pat Ryan worked for Brad Gair on New York City's Hurricane Sandy recovery.

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_00]: In testimony to Congress in 2016, Gair said, quote,

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_00]: The federal government often speaks of the sequence of delivery in disaster assistance

[00:22:51] [SPEAKER_00]: as if there is a coherent plan behind it all,

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_00]: when in reality it is a series of patchwork programs that, more than anything else,

[00:23:01] [SPEAKER_00]: confuse, frustrate, and demoralize both those in need of aid and those trying to provide it.

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_00]: After every declared disaster, Pat Ryan writes,

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Impacted residents can avail themselves of relatively small grants through FEMA.

[00:23:19] [SPEAKER_00]: If that is not enough to return a home to habitable condition,

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_00]: then the residents hole up in FEMA trailers or FEMA-funded hotel rooms.

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_00]: These temporary sheltering options, which sometimes last years,

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_00]: can cost billions of dollars.

[00:23:34] [SPEAKER_00]: In the meantime, damaged homes fall further into disrepair.

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes, Congress passes a special bill authorizing billions in additional aid.

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_00]: A headline-grabbing relief package seems likely after Helene and Milton.

[00:23:49] [SPEAKER_00]: But there's no quick game plan for that money.

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Well-meaning officials have to spend months creating from scratch what's in effect

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_00]: a multi-billion dollar corporation,

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_00]: while tens of thousands of desperate customers wait anxiously for help as hope dwindles.

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_00]: This is what Gare told Congress in 2016.

[00:24:10] [SPEAKER_00]: It's almost a decade ago.

[00:24:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Two federal initiatives offer promise in improving upon the status quo.

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And FEMA could begin executing them tomorrow.

[00:24:24] [SPEAKER_00]: If it wanted to.

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_00]: What are these two initiatives?

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I will tell you.

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'll tell you what Pat Ryan tells me,

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_00]: and all of us in the News and Observer piece.

[00:24:35] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, so picking up this...

[00:24:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Where did it go?

[00:24:38] [SPEAKER_00]: There it is.

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[00:24:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Pat Ryan, writing at the News and Observer.

[00:24:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Remember, the two federal initiatives that FEMA could do tomorrow if it wanted.

[00:24:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Number one, this was a successful pilot program.

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_00]: It was called Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power, or S-T-E-P,

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_00]: or as I like to call it, S-TEP,

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_00]: which FEMA first launched after Superstorm Sandy.

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Rather than spend huge sums of money on temporary housing,

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_00]: FEMA instead pays for contractors to return the damaged homes to safe and sanitary conditions.

[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_00]: It allows the people who have been displaced from their homes to move back in

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_00]: while they await the permanent repairs.

[00:25:32] [SPEAKER_00]: In New York City, the program repaired 20,000 homes in three months for $640 million.

[00:25:41] [SPEAKER_00]: That's under a billion.

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_00]: 20,000 homes repaired for $640 million.

[00:25:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Estimates suggested that temporary housing would have cost six times as much as that.

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Money that would have been doubly wasted because none of the homes would have actually been repaired in the process.

[00:25:59] [SPEAKER_00]: So the STEP pilot saw similar success elsewhere.

[00:26:05] [SPEAKER_00]: But FEMA ended the program in 2019.

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_00]: FEMA's National Advisory Council warned at the time that the agency was turning away from a promising,

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_00]: demonstrably practical and cost-effective mass sheltering option.

[00:26:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Gare said that FEMA could restart the program tomorrow if it chose to do so.

[00:26:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Second, Congress in 2018 directed FEMA to create a new program granting states direct access to federal funds

[00:26:38] [SPEAKER_00]: to quickly start their own housing repair programs

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_00]: rather than wait four months for money to wind its way through a different federal agency.

[00:26:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Right? Like essentially block grants.

[00:26:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Give the money to the states because the states can do it more quickly.

[00:26:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Like with Hurricane Matthew response.

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, South Carolina actually, they built their homes pretty fast after Matthew.

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_00]: But FEMA's own funding could be used for that.

[00:27:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Gare said, quote, it's part of the disaster relief fund.

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_00]: It could start tomorrow.

[00:27:16] [SPEAKER_00]: But FEMA still hasn't gotten it done.

[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_00]: In July, the Office of Inspector General put a report out

[00:27:23] [SPEAKER_00]: that took FEMA to task for its years-long delay in implementing the program.

[00:27:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Here's the thing.

[00:27:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Both of these options can be implemented right now.

[00:27:37] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not too late for FEMA to change course.

[00:27:41] [SPEAKER_00]: But if it does not, then Western North Carolina will almost certainly join the long list of American communities

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_00]: suffering through years of a broken recovery process.

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_00]: This is what Governor Cooper should be asked about.

[00:27:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe this op-ed, written by Pat Ryan, the former spokesperson for North Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger.

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER_00]: So, okay.

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, all right.

[00:28:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, okay.

[00:28:14] [SPEAKER_00]: So, all right.

[00:28:15] [SPEAKER_00]: So now maybe Cooper won't be able to do it because it's coming from Pat Ryan.

[00:28:22] [SPEAKER_00]: If it's a good idea, it should be a good idea no matter who defends it, no matter who supports it, right?

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_00]: If these initiatives showed success, then Cooper should be asking FEMA to do these things.

[00:28:43] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's not indicting Biden or Harris.

[00:28:47] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not indicting them.

[00:28:48] [SPEAKER_00]: It's saying this method that we are using is not working to our satisfaction.

[00:28:56] [SPEAKER_00]: People are suffering unnecessarily.

[00:28:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And there are things that FEMA has done before that it can do now.

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And we're asking FEMA to do them again for us.

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_00]: That's a simple thing.

[00:29:10] [SPEAKER_00]: That's a very simple thing to do.

[00:29:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's an even simpler thing for reporters to ask this governor.

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_00]: The next time he does a media availability, somebody needs to ask him, what did government get wrong?

[00:29:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Was the government response flawless?

[00:29:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And usually politicians like my good friend Ray will say something like, oh, of course, you know, nothing is ever perfect.

[00:29:43] [SPEAKER_00]: And okay, fine.

[00:29:43] [SPEAKER_00]: So name me one of the imperfections.

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:29:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Find something.

[00:29:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Find something.

[00:29:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Because otherwise, then you are saying that it was flawless.

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_00]: But you know, I know, and Cooper knows, and we all know that each other knows these things too, that there was not perfection in this execution.

[00:30:04] [SPEAKER_00]: There is still not.

[00:30:06] [SPEAKER_00]: So let's identify some of the problems and fix them.

[00:30:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I will give you all the credit in the world.

[00:30:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I will give, I mean, I don't have all the credit in the world to give, but I will give all the credit that I have.

[00:30:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I will give Roy Cooper credit if he is able to identify something that's not working and say, hey, let's change course on this that's not working.

[00:30:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's do this other thing instead.

[00:30:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Because that would, the ability to adapt, to identify and then adapt and then overcome, like that's what I want in a governor.

[00:30:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what I like about Ron DeSantis and his response down in Florida.

[00:30:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, to be fair to Roy Cooper, DeSantis and Florida in general, all governors, they have more experience dealing with hurricanes.

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_00]: They have more infrastructure built up around the response efforts because it happens to them way more.

[00:30:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's partly their own fault because they're so long of a state with a lot of coastline.

[00:30:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Right, if they, right, like if they didn't have all that coastline, then, you know, they probably wouldn't have, well, okay, it wasn't their choice, but still.

[00:31:09] [SPEAKER_00]: They deal with hurricanes all the time.

[00:31:11] [SPEAKER_00]: And so their response is more finely tuned.

[00:31:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And the level of devastation that hit North Carolina is unprecedented.

[00:31:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if people realize this or not.

[00:31:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I think there's this, there's a thing called the normalcy bias, you know, where you hear gunshots go off and you think it's firecrackers because that would be normal.

[00:31:35] [SPEAKER_00]: The brain literally has a hard time grasping the thing that is not normal and has no experience with.

[00:31:40] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, that'll do it for this episode.

[00:31:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening.

[00:31:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast.

[00:31:49] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here.

[00:31:51] [SPEAKER_00]: You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com.

[00:31:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.