WEBVTT - The Truth with Lisa Boothe: Forgotten by FEMA: The Untold Stories of Hurricane Helene with Matt Van Swol 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:05.200 In our first White House Press Secretary briefing, Caroline Levitt 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:07.800 made a point to talk about how President Trump wanted 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:10.760 his first presidential visit to be to western North Carolina 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:14.840 and to California. That this is why Americans know that 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:16.520 he's a man of the people, that he doesn't want 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.800 any American to feel forgotten. And we know that, especially 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:24.600 the citizens of western North Carolina, four months after Hurricane Helene, 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:26.680 have felt forgotten. That they have felt like they haven't 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.159 been heard by the Biden administration, that FEMA was not 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.199 there for them, that FEMA was actually causing more harm 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:36.360 than good. They felt left behind. And if you remember, 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:40.279 Hurricane Helene caused devastation in western North Carolina. There were 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.960 at least one hundred and four reported deaths. The flooding 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.760 was so severe, exceeding thirty inches in some places, resulting 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:52.120 in historic widespread flooding. It was described with terms like 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:56.520 biblical that's how bad it was, leaving neighborhoods destroyed, communities 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:00.000 isolated with no access out. But those days are over 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.160 or with President Trump, and he made a point to 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:04.040 let them know that. And what I think was so 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:07.479 cool about his visit to western North Carolina and to California. 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:11.080 If you watched the press conferences, he handed the press 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.840 conference over in both instances to the citizens, to the people. 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:18.280 He wanted them to be heard. And in one instance, 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:20.560 when one man was talking about the difficulties that he 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.360 has had, the struggles that he has had, President Trump 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:25.840 asked him to name the insurance company, to name and 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.880 shame the insurance company that hadn't been helping him. And 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.360 I think those Americans felt heard for the first time 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:33.800 in a long time. And as much as President Trump 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.640 gets criticized, this is someone who loves America, who wants 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:39.120 to put citizens first. I mean we saw it during 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:43.440 his first term when he visited Texas twice after Hurricane Harvey, 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:46.360 or when he visited Florida after Hurricane Irmar, even as 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.800 a candidate, when he visited East Palestine, Ohio after they 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.960 were ignored by the Biden administration. So we're going to 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.800 talk to one man today who's from Western North Carolina, 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.440 who has been relentlessly fighting to try to bring the 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.520 truth about the day image that was done to Western 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:05.000 North Carolina, as well as just the fact that the 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.400 community has been ignored by FEMA, bringing a lot of 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:10.040 those issues to light as well. So he's been a 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.120 truth teller for his community. His name is Matt Vincewell, 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.359 we're going to talk to him about that, his experiences 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:19.639 living through Hurricane Helene, and then also how this has 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:25.000 shaped his personal opinions, his politics, his viewpoint on the government. 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.320 What's it like to live through something like that. So 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:35.639 stay tuned for Matt Vanswoll. So, Matke, you lived through 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:40.000 Hurricane Heleen and western North Carolina where you reside, First 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:42.240 of all, tell us what that was like to have 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.560 gone through that, to experience it, you know, walk us 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:47.240 through your story so we have an understanding of kind 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.120 of where you were and what you've been through. 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.440 Yeah, So we live in a small town just outside 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:57.000 of Asheville called Weaverville. We live along just a little 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.800 ways from like this, this very small creek. And during 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.360 Hurricane Helene, this little creek that was maybe five feet 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:09.880 wide it its max went to essentially two football fields 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:13.760 wide during the flooding and took out most of the 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:18.960 homes along the creek, nearly all of the bridges, and 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.520 we saw like eighteen wheelers like floating in the creek. 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:24.919 It was just one of the wildest things you've ever 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:26.000 seen in your life. 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.680 I couldn't believe it was real. Like I still. 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:34.600 Remember driving out of our neighborhood after a neighbor actually 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:38.040 took his tractor and pushed all of the trees out 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:40.960 of our road because we had probably one hundred trees. 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.200 We lived on this little cul de sac, and we 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.920 probably had one hundred trees down over over our road. 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.960 We couldn't get out, so a guy with a tractor 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:54.600 ended up chainsawing some trees and clearing the road for us, 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:57.480 which was awesome that I'll never forget pulling out of 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:01.160 our driveway and seeing what I thought looked like an ocean, 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.040 but it was actually our little creek that had just 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.520 risen and just smashed through everything in sight. It was 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.840 one of the craziest things I've ever witnessed. But we 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:15.000 were with that power for three weeks. We left and 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.240 went to Charlotte, North Carolina, got starlink and a generator 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:22.800 one night, and then came back and actually ended up 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.919 running really long extension courts into our neighbors' homes so 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.200 they could power some of their appliances for a couple 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.039 of weeks, and then our home kind of became like 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.800 the internet cafe for the neighborhood because we were the 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:39.039 only ones with starlink. So it's crazy to just see 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:41.280 people come in and like call loved ones and say 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:42.159 like we're okay. 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.880 It was just, I mean, this is the craziest experience. 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.039 I guess living through. I mean, it's always crazy to me. 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.159 You know, Thank God I've not had to live through 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:52.680 something like that. 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:52.960 I might. 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:54.839 I do live in Florida, so you know, there's always 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:55.960 the possibility. 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:57.240 You know. 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.280 I can't imagine just having you know, resided someplace for 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.440 you know, a while, it's your home, and then just 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:06.000 wake up one day and everything you knew is gone 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.359 and different and life has changed that substantially. I just 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:14.040 I imagine that's a really hard thing to digest in life. 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.440 Yeah, it's been really hard on our kids the most. 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:24.040 And how old are they They are thirteen, eleven and four, 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:31.120 so man, it's so so hard. But they see, you know, 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:35.040 all the parks that they normally play in are still 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:36.640 just completely destroyed. 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:38.360 You know. 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:40.719 I've posted a couple of videos of the soccer field 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:42.800 just right across from my home, and you can see 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.640 like tractor trailers on the soccer field and campers and 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.800 it's all still there, and so many of the parks, 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:53.920 the playgrounds that we used to go to are gone. 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.760 And I think my wife posted this the other day. 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:00.400 But we were driving just a target to get some 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:02.560 stuff and my son looks out the window of the 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:04.599 four year old and he goes. 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:09.120 Are there dead people there? And it's just something he 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:11.080 thinks about constantly. 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.839 When we drive by all this debris piled up everywhere, 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:16.520 because he you know, he has just such a basic 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.919 understanding of what happened, but he knows it was horrific 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.039 and that you know, people died, and it's just, you know, 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:24.720 it's one of those things you should never have to 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.480 explain to your toddler that, like, yes, it was hard 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:29.840 and we're getting through it, but they just feel the 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.080 effects every single day, if. 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.800 I mean, that's got to be hard as parents, because 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.720 you know, with young kids, obviously you want to protect them. 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.520 You want to shield them from pain and from you know, 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.080 having to witness bad things. I guess how do you 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:47.320 kind of balance that with also you know, they're they're 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.200 probably wondering why their lives have been so disrupted as well. 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:51.800 So I mean, I guess how do you balance that 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.320 as a parent. I imagine that's got to be a 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.360 really challenging thing to try to navigate. 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.000 Yeah, as a parent, you just hate it. 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:01.720 You know, your heart, you don't know what to say, 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:06.280 But I have to say that kids are so resilient 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.040 and one of the greatest things that's come out of 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:15.040 this is seeing my kids volunteer and help other people 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:19.840 like they volunteered at so many different places, sorting clothes, 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:24.040 food items, putting you know, food in people's cars. 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:26.360 My four year old got. 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.200 To deliver an RV with us to a woman who's 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.480 homeless after Hurricane Helena lost her home and got to put. 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:36.080 Toys in it for a kid a year younger than him. 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:38.640 And I think that's just such a good experience for 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.680 kids to be able to give back in a way 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.040 they never would have been able to if a natural 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:47.080 disaster like this. 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:47.679 Wouldn't have happened. 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.080 But I'm truly, I'm really so proud of my kids 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:52.400 for the way that they have they've handled it and 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:56.280 being able to give them an experience of giving back. 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:58.160 I think it's so important. 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:02.360 What is living through through a natural disaster lake that 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.600 teach you about humanity. I know you had talked about 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:07.760 how you know your neighborhood. You set up sort of 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:12.160 an Internet cafe for the rest of the neighborhood. I 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:13.680 guess what does it show you? What does it tell 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:14.800 you about humanity? 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:17.720 Yeah, I mean it brings out the best and the 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.720 worst simultaneously, you know, and you find out very quickly 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:25.200 that essentially nothing else matters except the friends that you've 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:27.680 made in life, because those are the people that come 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:31.120 and help you. And we always think that we have, 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:34.800 you know, less in common with people than we actually do. 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.480 Like the neighbor that cut us out of our driveway. 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:40.360 I've only talked to him twice in my whole life, 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.839 and he spent seven hours on my road, you know. 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:47.640 Just trying to get us out. And I mean I've. 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.400 Only talked to this many class and you know, he 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.600 took time out of his day to help. And I 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:57.160 truly think that that is what makes Americans Americans. You know, 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:01.160 regardless of your political views, if something bad is going 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:03.839 to happen, we're going to be there for you. And 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.600 no one talked about politics at the beginning of the storm. 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.200 Everyone was trying to help everyone, and you know, we 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:14.200 had some bad actors that tried to do some looting 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.000 and stuff, but our neighborhood set up like a little 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.520 police force with people driving around with walkie talkies. 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:21.640 And made sure everyone was safe. 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.200 And that felt great, and I just really think that 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:27.680 it brought out, you know, some of the best in people, 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.360 and you know, we all worked to make sure everyone 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.800 else was okay. And you know, our house barely had 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:38.120 any damage at all, and other people's had, you know, 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.800 terrible damage. I changed aw quite a few trees off 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.200 of neighbors' houses during this first weeks of the storm, 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.080 and then obviously we saw so much worse damage with 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.720 the flooding later on that we just couldn't believe. 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:52.000 And that's kind of phase two. 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.960 We've got more after the commercial break, but first, after 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:57.520 more than a year of war, terror and pain in Israel, 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.840 the need for security essentials and support for for responders 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.079 is still critical. Even in times of ceasefire. Israel must 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.040 be prepared for the next attack, wherever it may come from. 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.520 Is Israel surrounded by enemies and all sides. 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That's 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:49.360 eight eight eight four a eight IFCJ eight eight eight 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:55.160 four a eight four three two five. Yeah, it is 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:58.120 so interesting how resilient humans are. You know, you're talking 0:10:58.120 --> 0:10:59.800 about just how you guys set up your own police 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:02.280 for worse and you know kind of people just coming 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:06.880 together to problem solve. So you've really been fighting for 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.959 your community by bringing the truth on AX, by by 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.480 posting about it, sort of forcing attention to the issue, 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.120 making sure that it's not forgotten it. 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:15.960 Take us through for. 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:19.320 People who are unfamiliar. I mean, obviously we saw images 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:23.080 after the hurricane hit, but take us through just the 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.400 level of devastation and the damage that it did, and 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.800 then also talk about how important X has been for 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:31.800 you to get the word out about that devastation. 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.480 Oh man, Yeah, I haven't even been to all of 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.160 the places that have been devastated. There's just so many, 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.040 especially like out in the Hallers, in some of the 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:46.040 mountain areas like Spruce Pine and others that just got 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:51.320 absolutely walloped. And I feel like East Tennessee, you know, had. 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.079 Had some really rough stuff happen as well. 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:58.959 But down I've lived very close to downtown Ashville, and 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:00.679 like I said, I live next to Creek and all 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.800 of those homes and bridges you know, got flooded pretty 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.920 pretty badly, and it was just beyond comprehension, Like the 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.280 mind really couldn't comprehend what you were seeing because it 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:16.320 didn't look familiar in any sense. Like I remember getting 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:19.680 to the French Broad River maybe day two or three, 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.920 I mean, when the flooding had subsided, subsided substantially, and 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:27.280 I still didn't recognize that. I could not believe how 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:31.520 bad it was, Like the river was so wide, it 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.200 just didn't even look the same. Especially River Arts District 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:41.360 in downtown Asheville just completely underwater, completely leveled. It was 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:47.599 just so crazy, and I remember I was at a 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:53.400 restaurant called White Duck Taco when I first heard about 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:57.080 that the assassination of or the attempted assassination of Trump, 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:59.319 And we were all out there like looking at our phones, 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:01.840 and I was staring at it from a bridge and 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:02.720 it was gone. 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:04.640 I mean, it was not there anymore. 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.160 And I just thought, Wow, these are going to be 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:09.240 so many memories that are just going to be wiped 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.720 off the face of the earth. And that's just in 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.320 the little little portion where we were. 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:20.000 Towns like Marshall, we have a lot of friends. 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:24.120 I mean, those places are completely you know, wiped off 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:24.920 the face of the earth. 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:26.800 Like it surprises me that they're. 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:30.040 Able to even pull out from the experience of the 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:31.440 flooding that they got. 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:32.760 It's it's just insane. 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:37.600 But X you know, was really a lifeline, I think 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:41.240 for getting the word out about what was happening in 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:46.080 western North Carolina because very few mainstream media outlets were 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:50.320 covering it, especially you know, at the beginning of the storm, 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.920 like maybe the first two to seven days, we did 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:56.480 have a lot of coverage, and then, just like any 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:00.640 national disaster, people just lose interest. They don't really want 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.800 to hear that things aren't going well, and I'm guilty 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.440 of that myself, just as a consumer of media, you know, 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:12.560 forgetting about places like Lehina in Mali and East pastein 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:16.560 So I just didn't want that to happen to us. 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.560 So I kind of made it my mission to stay 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.880 on top of it no matter what until things started 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:26.200 to turn around. And it was just so surprising to 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:31.000 me how long it has taken for that mission to 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:35.920 finally be accomplished. I mean, I would have never thought 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.000 in a million years that I would still be posting 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:43.640 about FEMA and people needing electricity and food and propane 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:46.720 four months after the storm, Like, no. 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:48.760 Chance would I have ever thought I'd be doing something 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:49.160 like that. 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:55.160 But it was necessary because people were hurting and they 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.360 just didn't have a voice. And I've truly felt like, 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:01.760 you know, perhaps we were screaming into the void for 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:05.800 four months straight, and it was just truly amazing when 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.120 Trump came and gave a voice to some of the people. 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:09.480 I think it was one of the most beautiful things 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:10.040 I've ever seen. 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:12.400 We've got a quick commercial break war with Matt on 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:19.600 the other side. What has the experience been like trying 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.360 to work with FEMA trying to work with you know, 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:27.080 your state, with your governor. What has an experience been 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:27.920 like for people? 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:33.240 Super frustrating? Oh so frustrating. You know. 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:35.400 For me, we actually, you know, we didn't have any 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.840 damage to our home, so we applied immediately for the 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:39.960 seven hundred and fifty dollars. 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:41.880 We got it within a couple of weeks. 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.080 It took a lot longer, in a couple of denials 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:48.520 to get a generator I bought, and I'm still waiting 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:53.160 for my chainslaw to be reimbursed. That's okay, but so 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:56.920 many people have had, I mean so many frustrating stories. 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:59.000 And those are the people we talked to with our 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:04.440 little nonprofit operation Shelter. Oh, you just hear some horror 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:08.560 stories of people getting denied from FEMA or FEMA just 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:10.680 really slow rolling. 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:11.560 The ball to help them. 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:18.440 We talked to a woman just this weekend who miraculously 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.400 got approved for the forty two thousand dollars a couple 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:24.680 of months ago, but still hasn't gotten it, so she's 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.360 not been able to rebuild or even start the process 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.560 of rebuilding, and is just waiting on FEMA to hand 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:34.080 that max amount of money. But I mean some others 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.880 we it is a crazy story. FEMA put a lot 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.080 of people in these transitional housing assistance programs, which are 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:46.320 essentially just hotel stays extended hotel stays, and one of 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.720 the people we were working with, she reached out to 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:52.240 us because FEMA was going to kick her out of 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:56.360 her hotel, but they had not yet inspected her home 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:58.200 to see if it was habitable. 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:03.080 So we actually got on the phone with Ted Budd's office. 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:05.080 And they were able to confirm that FEMA dropped the 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.160 ball in her case and get her hotel stay extended 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:08.800 from FEMA. 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.199 But that's just one of like so many stories. 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:13.520 And I was just talking to a guy at the 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.760 gym yesterday morning who says he's given up. He's not 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:19.320 going to even continue trying to get some of the 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:21.440 money from FEMA. And I do feel like that's where 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:23.360 most people are at at this point. 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:25.600 They're just they're just sick and tired of it. 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:30.240 You had mentioned in the beginning how politics originally wasn't 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:31.399 really part of the conversation. 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:33.520 Imagine it is now. 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:38.880 You know, I guess how has this reshaped maybe political 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.880 views in the area or yours, or you know, talk 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.439 about sort of the evolution of politics being you know, 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:46.360 now being more part of the equation here. 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:51.520 Yeah, I mean it has completely reshaped my opinion of 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:57.560 politics having really impact on people's lives. I mean, I 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:03.520 I lean pretty center or left on most political issues, 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:04.440 or did before the. 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:07.359 Storm, and I find myself leaning very far right now. 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:13.919 And I think once you realize the government's ineptitude, especially 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:18.200 in this particular response, it's hard to unsee something like that, 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:20.679 and it was especially frustrating. 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:21.439 I think for everyone here to. 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:26.440 Like, For example, my wife knows people at CNN personally. 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.720 She was going to do a documentary for them, and 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.000 when the storm hit, she reached out to them and said, 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:33.879 you know, hey, you know me, I'm on the ground. 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:35.920 I would love to like get in contact with you. 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:41.080 And they ghosted us for four months straight. They would 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.400 not talk to us. And the only networks that would 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:48.000 have us on at all to talk about anything were 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:52.440 you know, right wing networks. You know people I never 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.600 thought i'd talk to, my in my life, news maps, 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:56.760 Fox News. 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:01.840 News Nation places I never thought I'd be talking on. 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:04.240 I was talking on. 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:06.439 Because they were the only ones that would give us 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:11.720 a voice. And then to go through the press, conference 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:16.000 after press conference of FEMA just talking down to people 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:20.879 in western North Carolina, making excuses for why they couldn't 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:25.760 get homes into the mountains because it was mountainous, saying 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:29.080 that no one was living intents, and then renaming the 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:33.000 word tent to be lightweight tent or heavyweight tent to 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.399 make sure that you know, and then call us out 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:39.600 on misinformation, you know, constantly. It was just it was 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:42.119 such an eye opening experience for me to realize that 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:45.520 just because it's not on CNN doesn't mean it's not happening, 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.720 and you can't unsee it once it happens to you personally, 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:51.000 and it happened to us. 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:54.200 We got left behind and the media. 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.800 Just kind of left us there, and FEMA TREA is 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:01.760 just terribly you know, some of the press conferences, you know, 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:06.320 went viral, not because press conferences they're so boring, They 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:10.439 went viral because FEMA was just talking down to mountain 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:13.320 folk out here and it was jarring to watch. 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:15.800 Why do you think that happened? 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:18.600 Why do you think some of the media ignored the 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:21.920 story or the the Bide administration, you know, sort of 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:23.040 ignored your area. 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.639 Is an election. I'm fully convinced it was an election issue. 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:33.600 You know, it happened right right before the election. I mean, 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.159 I am personally convinced that's that's what it is. It 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.840 certainly wasn't a business decision. You can see that immediately 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:43.199 if you go look at my tweets, which have millions 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:45.920 of years like they could have absolutely had a lot 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:49.359 of clicks and very interesting stories had they chosen to 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:49.920 pursue it. 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:53.639 They just chose not to. And my guess is because 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.080 it just didn't fit the agenda they were trying to push. 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:00.280 What did that mean for your community to have asident, 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:04.200 Trump make Western North Carolina and then California his first 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.399 domestic trips of the president of his presidency to make 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:08.840 sure it happened in his first week. 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:12.359 Oh man, it was, like I said, I think it 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:14.320 was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:15.640 in my whole life. 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:15.920 I have. 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:18.840 I mean, I've watched Trump a lot on the news, 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:19.800 I have. 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.760 It's been pretty rare that he steps out of the limelight, 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:27.720