Speaker 1: In our first White House Press Secretary briefing, Caroline Levitt
Speaker 1: made a point to talk about how President Trump wanted
Speaker 1: his first presidential visit to be to western North Carolina
Speaker 1: and to California. That this is why Americans know that
Speaker 1: he's a man of the people, that he doesn't want
Speaker 1: any American to feel forgotten. And we know that, especially
Speaker 1: the citizens of western North Carolina, four months after Hurricane Helene,
Speaker 1: have felt forgotten. That they have felt like they haven't
Speaker 1: been heard by the Biden administration, that FEMA was not
Speaker 1: there for them, that FEMA was actually causing more harm
Speaker 1: than good. They felt left behind. And if you remember,
Speaker 1: Hurricane Helene caused devastation in western North Carolina. There were
Speaker 1: at least one hundred and four reported deaths. The flooding
Speaker 1: was so severe, exceeding thirty inches in some places, resulting
Speaker 1: in historic widespread flooding. It was described with terms like
Speaker 1: biblical that's how bad it was, leaving neighborhoods destroyed, communities
Speaker 1: isolated with no access out. But those days are over
Speaker 1: or with President Trump, and he made a point to
Speaker 1: let them know that. And what I think was so
Speaker 1: cool about his visit to western North Carolina and to California.
Speaker 1: If you watched the press conferences, he handed the press
Speaker 1: conference over in both instances to the citizens, to the people.
Speaker 1: He wanted them to be heard. And in one instance,
Speaker 1: when one man was talking about the difficulties that he
Speaker 1: has had, the struggles that he has had, President Trump
Speaker 1: asked him to name the insurance company, to name and
Speaker 1: shame the insurance company that hadn't been helping him. And
Speaker 1: I think those Americans felt heard for the first time
Speaker 1: in a long time. And as much as President Trump
Speaker 1: gets criticized, this is someone who loves America, who wants
Speaker 1: to put citizens first. I mean we saw it during
Speaker 1: his first term when he visited Texas twice after Hurricane Harvey,
Speaker 1: or when he visited Florida after Hurricane Irmar, even as
Speaker 1: a candidate, when he visited East Palestine, Ohio after they
Speaker 1: were ignored by the Biden administration. So we're going to
Speaker 1: talk to one man today who's from Western North Carolina,
Speaker 1: who has been relentlessly fighting to try to bring the
Speaker 1: truth about the day image that was done to Western
Speaker 1: North Carolina, as well as just the fact that the
Speaker 1: community has been ignored by FEMA, bringing a lot of
Speaker 1: those issues to light as well. So he's been a
Speaker 1: truth teller for his community. His name is Matt Vincewell,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk to him about that, his experiences
Speaker 1: living through Hurricane Helene, and then also how this has
Speaker 1: shaped his personal opinions, his politics, his viewpoint on the government.
Speaker 1: What's it like to live through something like that. So
Speaker 1: stay tuned for Matt Vanswoll. So, Matke, you lived through
Speaker 1: Hurricane Heleen and western North Carolina where you reside, First
Speaker 1: of all, tell us what that was like to have
Speaker 1: gone through that, to experience it, you know, walk us
Speaker 1: through your story so we have an understanding of kind
Speaker 1: of where you were and what you've been through.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we live in a small town just outside
Speaker 2: of Asheville called Weaverville. We live along just a little
Speaker 2: ways from like this, this very small creek. And during
Speaker 2: Hurricane Helene, this little creek that was maybe five feet
Speaker 2: wide it its max went to essentially two football fields
Speaker 2: wide during the flooding and took out most of the
Speaker 2: homes along the creek, nearly all of the bridges, and
Speaker 2: we saw like eighteen wheelers like floating in the creek.
Speaker 2: It was just one of the wildest things you've ever
Speaker 2: seen in your life.
Speaker 3: I couldn't believe it was real. Like I still.
Speaker 2: Remember driving out of our neighborhood after a neighbor actually
Speaker 2: took his tractor and pushed all of the trees out
Speaker 2: of our road because we had probably one hundred trees.
Speaker 2: We lived on this little cul de sac, and we
Speaker 2: probably had one hundred trees down over over our road.
Speaker 2: We couldn't get out, so a guy with a tractor
Speaker 2: ended up chainsawing some trees and clearing the road for us,
Speaker 2: which was awesome that I'll never forget pulling out of
Speaker 2: our driveway and seeing what I thought looked like an ocean,
Speaker 2: but it was actually our little creek that had just
Speaker 2: risen and just smashed through everything in sight. It was
Speaker 2: one of the craziest things I've ever witnessed. But we
Speaker 2: were with that power for three weeks. We left and
Speaker 2: went to Charlotte, North Carolina, got starlink and a generator
Speaker 2: one night, and then came back and actually ended up
Speaker 2: running really long extension courts into our neighbors' homes so
Speaker 2: they could power some of their appliances for a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks, and then our home kind of became like
Speaker 2: the internet cafe for the neighborhood because we were the
Speaker 2: only ones with starlink. So it's crazy to just see
Speaker 2: people come in and like call loved ones and say
Speaker 2: like we're okay.
Speaker 3: It was just, I mean, this is the craziest experience.
Speaker 1: I guess living through. I mean, it's always crazy to me.
Speaker 1: You know, Thank God I've not had to live through
Speaker 1: something like that.
Speaker 3: I might.
Speaker 1: I do live in Florida, so you know, there's always
Speaker 1: the possibility.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine just having you know, resided someplace for
Speaker 1: you know, a while, it's your home, and then just
Speaker 1: wake up one day and everything you knew is gone
Speaker 1: and different and life has changed that substantially. I just
Speaker 1: I imagine that's a really hard thing to digest in life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been really hard on our kids the most.
Speaker 2: And how old are they They are thirteen, eleven and four,
Speaker 2: so man, it's so so hard. But they see, you know,
Speaker 2: all the parks that they normally play in are still
Speaker 2: just completely destroyed.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I've posted a couple of videos of the soccer field
Speaker 2: just right across from my home, and you can see
Speaker 2: like tractor trailers on the soccer field and campers and
Speaker 2: it's all still there, and so many of the parks,
Speaker 2: the playgrounds that we used to go to are gone.
Speaker 3: And I think my wife posted this the other day.
Speaker 2: But we were driving just a target to get some
Speaker 2: stuff and my son looks out the window of the
Speaker 2: four year old and he goes.
Speaker 3: Are there dead people there? And it's just something he
Speaker 3: thinks about constantly.
Speaker 2: When we drive by all this debris piled up everywhere,
Speaker 2: because he you know, he has just such a basic
Speaker 2: understanding of what happened, but he knows it was horrific
Speaker 2: and that you know, people died, and it's just, you know,
Speaker 2: it's one of those things you should never have to
Speaker 2: explain to your toddler that, like, yes, it was hard
Speaker 2: and we're getting through it, but they just feel the
Speaker 2: effects every single day, if.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's got to be hard as parents, because
Speaker 1: you know, with young kids, obviously you want to protect them.
Speaker 1: You want to shield them from pain and from you know,
Speaker 1: having to witness bad things. I guess how do you
Speaker 1: kind of balance that with also you know, they're they're
Speaker 1: probably wondering why their lives have been so disrupted as well.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I guess how do you balance that
Speaker 1: as a parent. I imagine that's got to be a
Speaker 1: really challenging thing to try to navigate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, as a parent, you just hate it.
Speaker 2: You know, your heart, you don't know what to say,
Speaker 2: But I have to say that kids are so resilient
Speaker 2: and one of the greatest things that's come out of
Speaker 2: this is seeing my kids volunteer and help other people
Speaker 2: like they volunteered at so many different places, sorting clothes,
Speaker 2: food items, putting you know, food in people's cars.
Speaker 3: My four year old got.
Speaker 2: To deliver an RV with us to a woman who's
Speaker 2: homeless after Hurricane Helena lost her home and got to put.
Speaker 3: Toys in it for a kid a year younger than him.
Speaker 2: And I think that's just such a good experience for
Speaker 2: kids to be able to give back in a way
Speaker 2: they never would have been able to if a natural
Speaker 2: disaster like this.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't have happened.
Speaker 2: But I'm truly, I'm really so proud of my kids
Speaker 2: for the way that they have they've handled it and
Speaker 2: being able to give them an experience of giving back.
Speaker 3: I think it's so important.
Speaker 1: What is living through through a natural disaster lake that
Speaker 1: teach you about humanity. I know you had talked about
Speaker 1: how you know your neighborhood. You set up sort of
Speaker 1: an Internet cafe for the rest of the neighborhood. I
Speaker 1: guess what does it show you? What does it tell
Speaker 1: you about humanity?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it brings out the best and the
Speaker 3: worst simultaneously, you know, and you find out very quickly
Speaker 3: that essentially nothing else matters except the friends that you've
Speaker 3: made in life, because those are the people that come
Speaker 3: and help you. And we always think that we have,
Speaker 3: you know, less in common with people than we actually do.
Speaker 3: Like the neighbor that cut us out of our driveway.
Speaker 2: I've only talked to him twice in my whole life,
Speaker 2: and he spent seven hours on my road, you know.
Speaker 3: Just trying to get us out. And I mean I've.
Speaker 2: Only talked to this many class and you know, he
Speaker 2: took time out of his day to help. And I
Speaker 2: truly think that that is what makes Americans Americans. You know,
Speaker 2: regardless of your political views, if something bad is going
Speaker 2: to happen, we're going to be there for you. And
Speaker 2: no one talked about politics at the beginning of the storm.
Speaker 2: Everyone was trying to help everyone, and you know, we
Speaker 2: had some bad actors that tried to do some looting
Speaker 2: and stuff, but our neighborhood set up like a little
Speaker 2: police force with people driving around with walkie talkies.
Speaker 3: And made sure everyone was safe.
Speaker 2: And that felt great, and I just really think that
Speaker 2: it brought out, you know, some of the best in people,
Speaker 2: and you know, we all worked to make sure everyone
Speaker 2: else was okay. And you know, our house barely had
Speaker 2: any damage at all, and other people's had, you know,
Speaker 2: terrible damage. I changed aw quite a few trees off
Speaker 2: of neighbors' houses during this first weeks of the storm,
Speaker 2: and then obviously we saw so much worse damage with
Speaker 2: the flooding later on that we just couldn't believe.
Speaker 3: And that's kind of phase two.
Speaker 1: We've got more after the commercial break, but first, after
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Speaker 1: Your gift today will help save lies by providing bomb shelters,
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Speaker 1: also call eight eight eight four a eight IFCJ. That's
Speaker 1: eight eight eight four a eight IFCJ eight eight eight
Speaker 1: four a eight four three two five. Yeah, it is
Speaker 1: so interesting how resilient humans are. You know, you're talking
Speaker 1: about just how you guys set up your own police
Speaker 1: for worse and you know kind of people just coming
Speaker 1: together to problem solve. So you've really been fighting for
Speaker 1: your community by bringing the truth on AX, by by
Speaker 1: posting about it, sort of forcing attention to the issue,
Speaker 1: making sure that it's not forgotten it.
Speaker 3: Take us through for.
Speaker 1: People who are unfamiliar. I mean, obviously we saw images
Speaker 1: after the hurricane hit, but take us through just the
Speaker 1: level of devastation and the damage that it did, and
Speaker 1: then also talk about how important X has been for
Speaker 1: you to get the word out about that devastation.
Speaker 2: Oh man, Yeah, I haven't even been to all of
Speaker 2: the places that have been devastated. There's just so many,
Speaker 2: especially like out in the Hallers, in some of the
Speaker 2: mountain areas like Spruce Pine and others that just got
Speaker 2: absolutely walloped. And I feel like East Tennessee, you know, had.
Speaker 3: Had some really rough stuff happen as well.
Speaker 2: But down I've lived very close to downtown Ashville, and
Speaker 2: like I said, I live next to Creek and all
Speaker 2: of those homes and bridges you know, got flooded pretty
Speaker 2: pretty badly, and it was just beyond comprehension, Like the
Speaker 2: mind really couldn't comprehend what you were seeing because it
Speaker 2: didn't look familiar in any sense. Like I remember getting
Speaker 2: to the French Broad River maybe day two or three,
Speaker 2: I mean, when the flooding had subsided, subsided substantially, and
Speaker 2: I still didn't recognize that. I could not believe how
Speaker 2: bad it was, Like the river was so wide, it
Speaker 2: just didn't even look the same. Especially River Arts District
Speaker 2: in downtown Asheville just completely underwater, completely leveled. It was
Speaker 2: just so crazy, and I remember I was at a
Speaker 2: restaurant called White Duck Taco when I first heard about
Speaker 2: that the assassination of or the attempted assassination of Trump,
Speaker 2: And we were all out there like looking at our phones,
Speaker 2: and I was staring at it from a bridge and
Speaker 2: it was gone.
Speaker 3: I mean, it was not there anymore.
Speaker 2: And I just thought, Wow, these are going to be
Speaker 2: so many memories that are just going to be wiped
Speaker 2: off the face of the earth. And that's just in
Speaker 2: the little little portion where we were.
Speaker 3: Towns like Marshall, we have a lot of friends.
Speaker 2: I mean, those places are completely you know, wiped off
Speaker 2: the face of the earth.
Speaker 3: Like it surprises me that they're.
Speaker 2: Able to even pull out from the experience of the
Speaker 2: flooding that they got.
Speaker 3: It's it's just insane.
Speaker 2: But X you know, was really a lifeline, I think
Speaker 2: for getting the word out about what was happening in
Speaker 2: western North Carolina because very few mainstream media outlets were
Speaker 2: covering it, especially you know, at the beginning of the storm,
Speaker 2: like maybe the first two to seven days, we did
Speaker 2: have a lot of coverage, and then, just like any
Speaker 2: national disaster, people just lose interest. They don't really want
Speaker 2: to hear that things aren't going well, and I'm guilty
Speaker 2: of that myself, just as a consumer of media, you know,
Speaker 2: forgetting about places like Lehina in Mali and East pastein
Speaker 2: So I just didn't want that to happen to us.
Speaker 2: So I kind of made it my mission to stay
Speaker 2: on top of it no matter what until things started
Speaker 2: to turn around. And it was just so surprising to
Speaker 2: me how long it has taken for that mission to
Speaker 2: finally be accomplished. I mean, I would have never thought
Speaker 2: in a million years that I would still be posting
Speaker 2: about FEMA and people needing electricity and food and propane
Speaker 2: four months after the storm, Like, no.
Speaker 3: Chance would I have ever thought I'd be doing something
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 2: But it was necessary because people were hurting and they
Speaker 2: just didn't have a voice. And I've truly felt like,
Speaker 2: you know, perhaps we were screaming into the void for
Speaker 2: four months straight, and it was just truly amazing when
Speaker 2: Trump came and gave a voice to some of the people.
Speaker 2: I think it was one of the most beautiful things
Speaker 2: I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: We've got a quick commercial break war with Matt on
Speaker 1: the other side. What has the experience been like trying
Speaker 1: to work with FEMA trying to work with you know,
Speaker 1: your state, with your governor. What has an experience been
Speaker 1: like for people?
Speaker 3: Super frustrating? Oh so frustrating. You know.
Speaker 2: For me, we actually, you know, we didn't have any
Speaker 2: damage to our home, so we applied immediately for the
Speaker 2: seven hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 3: We got it within a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: It took a lot longer, in a couple of denials
Speaker 2: to get a generator I bought, and I'm still waiting
Speaker 2: for my chainslaw to be reimbursed. That's okay, but so
Speaker 2: many people have had, I mean so many frustrating stories.
Speaker 2: And those are the people we talked to with our
Speaker 2: little nonprofit operation Shelter. Oh, you just hear some horror
Speaker 2: stories of people getting denied from FEMA or FEMA just
Speaker 2: really slow rolling.
Speaker 3: The ball to help them.
Speaker 2: We talked to a woman just this weekend who miraculously
Speaker 2: got approved for the forty two thousand dollars a couple
Speaker 2: of months ago, but still hasn't gotten it, so she's
Speaker 2: not been able to rebuild or even start the process
Speaker 2: of rebuilding, and is just waiting on FEMA to hand
Speaker 2: that max amount of money. But I mean some others
Speaker 2: we it is a crazy story. FEMA put a lot
Speaker 2: of people in these transitional housing assistance programs, which are
Speaker 2: essentially just hotel stays extended hotel stays, and one of
Speaker 2: the people we were working with, she reached out to
Speaker 2: us because FEMA was going to kick her out of
Speaker 2: her hotel, but they had not yet inspected her home
Speaker 2: to see if it was habitable.
Speaker 3: So we actually got on the phone with Ted Budd's office.
Speaker 2: And they were able to confirm that FEMA dropped the
Speaker 2: ball in her case and get her hotel stay extended
Speaker 2: from FEMA.
Speaker 3: But that's just one of like so many stories.
Speaker 2: And I was just talking to a guy at the
Speaker 2: gym yesterday morning who says he's given up. He's not
Speaker 2: going to even continue trying to get some of the
Speaker 2: money from FEMA. And I do feel like that's where
Speaker 2: most people are at at this point.
Speaker 3: They're just they're just sick and tired of it.
Speaker 1: You had mentioned in the beginning how politics originally wasn't
Speaker 1: really part of the conversation.
Speaker 3: Imagine it is now.
Speaker 1: You know, I guess how has this reshaped maybe political
Speaker 1: views in the area or yours, or you know, talk
Speaker 1: about sort of the evolution of politics being you know,
Speaker 1: now being more part of the equation here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it has completely reshaped my opinion of
Speaker 2: politics having really impact on people's lives. I mean, I
Speaker 2: I lean pretty center or left on most political issues,
Speaker 2: or did before the.
Speaker 3: Storm, and I find myself leaning very far right now.
Speaker 2: And I think once you realize the government's ineptitude, especially
Speaker 2: in this particular response, it's hard to unsee something like that,
Speaker 2: and it was especially frustrating.
Speaker 3: I think for everyone here to.
Speaker 2: Like, For example, my wife knows people at CNN personally.
Speaker 2: She was going to do a documentary for them, and
Speaker 2: when the storm hit, she reached out to them and said,
Speaker 2: you know, hey, you know me, I'm on the ground.
Speaker 2: I would love to like get in contact with you.
Speaker 2: And they ghosted us for four months straight. They would
Speaker 2: not talk to us. And the only networks that would
Speaker 2: have us on at all to talk about anything were
Speaker 2: you know, right wing networks. You know people I never
Speaker 2: thought i'd talk to, my in my life, news maps,
Speaker 2: Fox News.
Speaker 3: News Nation places I never thought I'd be talking on.
Speaker 3: I was talking on.
Speaker 2: Because they were the only ones that would give us
Speaker 2: a voice. And then to go through the press, conference
Speaker 2: after press conference of FEMA just talking down to people
Speaker 2: in western North Carolina, making excuses for why they couldn't
Speaker 2: get homes into the mountains because it was mountainous, saying
Speaker 2: that no one was living intents, and then renaming the
Speaker 2: word tent to be lightweight tent or heavyweight tent to
Speaker 2: make sure that you know, and then call us out
Speaker 2: on misinformation, you know, constantly. It was just it was
Speaker 2: such an eye opening experience for me to realize that
Speaker 2: just because it's not on CNN doesn't mean it's not happening,
Speaker 2: and you can't unsee it once it happens to you personally,
Speaker 2: and it happened to us.
Speaker 3: We got left behind and the media.
Speaker 2: Just kind of left us there, and FEMA TREA is
Speaker 2: just terribly you know, some of the press conferences, you know,
Speaker 2: went viral, not because press conferences they're so boring, They
Speaker 2: went viral because FEMA was just talking down to mountain
Speaker 2: folk out here and it was jarring to watch.
Speaker 3: Why do you think that happened?
Speaker 1: Why do you think some of the media ignored the
Speaker 1: story or the the Bide administration, you know, sort of
Speaker 1: ignored your area.
Speaker 2: Is an election. I'm fully convinced it was an election issue.
Speaker 2: You know, it happened right right before the election. I mean,
Speaker 2: I am personally convinced that's that's what it is. It
Speaker 2: certainly wasn't a business decision. You can see that immediately
Speaker 2: if you go look at my tweets, which have millions
Speaker 2: of years like they could have absolutely had a lot
Speaker 2: of clicks and very interesting stories had they chosen to
Speaker 2: pursue it.
Speaker 3: They just chose not to. And my guess is because
Speaker 3: it just didn't fit the agenda they were trying to push.
Speaker 1: What did that mean for your community to have asident,
Speaker 1: Trump make Western North Carolina and then California his first
Speaker 1: domestic trips of the president of his presidency to make
Speaker 1: sure it happened in his first week.
Speaker 2: Oh man, it was, like I said, I think it
Speaker 2: was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen
Speaker 2: in my whole life.
Speaker 1: I have.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've watched Trump a lot on the news,
Speaker 3: I have.
Speaker 2: It's been pretty rare that he steps out of the limelight,
Speaker 2: hands his microphone to someone and says, tell me your story.
Speaker 2: And that's exactly what he did in Western North Carolina.
Speaker 2: And I was crying the whole time. I really was.
Speaker 2: I was like, I feel like I've been telling these
Speaker 2: victims stories for months and months and months, and you know,
Speaker 2: the Biden administration to just ignored us for those months.
Speaker 3: You know, we have been screaming we need more help.
Speaker 3: You know, the help isn't coming fast enough. It's too slow.
Speaker 2: Really bad things are happening, and it was just silence
Speaker 2: on the other end of that line. And then Trump
Speaker 2: comes in and he's like, you know, allowing a guy
Speaker 2: on national TV to go after his insurance.
Speaker 3: Company always like name them name. I know it was wild,
Speaker 3: but I mean these that that's what we need. We
Speaker 3: needed that.
Speaker 2: We needed that so bad because that's the reality of
Speaker 2: what we were hearing from people constantly, like all day,
Speaker 2: every day, from people we are trying to help. And
Speaker 2: it was just mind blowing to me that the stories
Speaker 2: were not getting out in the way that they that
Speaker 2: they should. And I just have to say, like, it
Speaker 2: was so beautiful to see Trump come in and you know,
Speaker 2: make those promises and then to see the executive actions
Speaker 2: actually roll out, and I feel like we're already seeing
Speaker 2: some change at least in my area that is positive.
Speaker 3: It's just man, it just felt so good.
Speaker 1: You know, President Trump gets attacked a lot, but he's
Speaker 1: he's always had a heart for people, and when we
Speaker 1: saw it with these policy you know, he's always like
Speaker 1: he's always you know, even when he was president during
Speaker 1: his first term, he always tried to get our hostages back.
Speaker 1: He's always been very protective of his people. You know,
Speaker 1: you said that you're a center left before. I guess
Speaker 1: has this changed your position or your viewpoint? Your viewpoint
Speaker 1: of President Trump?
Speaker 2: One hundred percent? It has completely turned it around. I
Speaker 2: cannot emphasize that enough. Like even if it was a
Speaker 2: political move, I'm already seeing action. So you know, to me,
Speaker 2: actions matter much more than words. And he came here first,
Speaker 2: and the you know, Biden administration ignored us and said that,
Speaker 2: you know, we were being dramatic or spreading misinformation.
Speaker 3: And that was just not the case. You know, we
Speaker 3: were we were trying to help.
Speaker 2: People were getting let down left and right by FEMA,
Speaker 2: and we were like, hey, I even wrote like an
Speaker 2: open letter to FEMA at you know, a couple of
Speaker 2: months ago, like this is how you can turn it around,
Speaker 2: please help us, and none of it actually got done.
Speaker 2: And it's just wild to me to see true action.
Speaker 2: Like their motto of promises made, promises kept is so good.
Speaker 2: I love that motto because it invites transparency into what
Speaker 2: the government is doing, and people go, aha, yes he
Speaker 2: did make that promise, and yes he has kept that promise.
Speaker 2: And the promises he made to visit western North Carolina
Speaker 2: he kept Jadie Vance visiting Virginia and seeing the Hurricane
Speaker 2: Elene devastation there, he made that promise, He kept that promise.
Speaker 3: The executive actions that have.
Speaker 2: Come in, it's just like one thing after another and
Speaker 2: you're like, wow, like, man, I really should have gotten
Speaker 2: out of my echo chamber and seeing some different news
Speaker 2: years ago, because now I feel so stupid.
Speaker 1: Well, I really don't think it's political because you know,
Speaker 1: he already won, right so, and he can't run. He
Speaker 1: can't run for reelection, so he really doesn't, you know,
Speaker 1: gain anything that politically outside of just I really just
Speaker 1: do believe that he like genuine only cares about the
Speaker 1: American people and you know, feels like it's his job
Speaker 1: to protect them. I imagine you like, going through something
Speaker 1: like this just changes your whole like perspective. Like you know,
Speaker 1: we talked about the changing perspective on like politics and
Speaker 1: things like that, but just of like government and like
Speaker 1: its role and you know its effectiveness, and you know,
Speaker 1: I guess, so how does that?
Speaker 3: How do you view government? After this?
Speaker 2: I viewed government as having as getting in the way
Speaker 2: of what's happening and what needs to be done, especially
Speaker 2: during disasters.
Speaker 3: And I feel like I repeated myself so much saying,
Speaker 3: you know, if if FEMA is really good at his job,
Speaker 3: why is it so slow? Like why isn't the.
Speaker 2: United States Premier Emergency Management Agency moving as slow as
Speaker 2: it has been?
Speaker 3: It should not exist if it's going to be this
Speaker 3: slow and bureaucratic.
Speaker 2: And it's just completely changed the way of thought about
Speaker 2: the role of in things like disasters. When I saw
Speaker 2: Samaritan's purse absolutely everywhere in western North Carolina, and I
Speaker 2: have yet to see someone in a FEMA.
Speaker 3: Outfit anywhere, it's just, you know, it's kind of crazy.
Speaker 2: And you know, I know there's a lot of calls
Speaker 2: to abolish FEMA or dramatically reform it, and I think
Speaker 2: that's exactly right, because one of the mottos we've been
Speaker 2: saying here on the ground is hey, if the rules
Speaker 2: are hurting people in a disaster, change the rules, you know,
Speaker 2: and it just felt like every rule was sacred with
Speaker 2: FEMA and nothing could be changed to actually help people
Speaker 2: when they really needed it. You know, they were they
Speaker 2: were blocking people from putting temporary homes in what FEMA
Speaker 2: designated as a floodplain. I mean, these are mountains thousands
Speaker 2: of feet out fished, and you know, flooding doesn't happen.
Speaker 3: Here very often, that's why it's in the news.
Speaker 2: And you know, they were they were locking people from
Speaker 2: trying to get just you know, RVs on their land
Speaker 2: because FEMA designated that area of flood zone and just
Speaker 2: stupid stuff like that happened over and over with FEMA,
Speaker 2: and it just felt like, you know, maybe agencies like
Speaker 2: this do more harm than good, you know, and maybe
Speaker 2: these these agencies need to be overhauled so that they're
Speaker 2: actually working for the people instead of just existing to
Speaker 2: hand out money to the people they employ.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, or you know, I mean even I was
Speaker 1: just thinking with the seven hundred and fifty dollars, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like that doesn't you know if you've got a
Speaker 1: family that doesn't really go that far, you know, particularly
Speaker 1: when they lost everything.
Speaker 3: So it's like and even the forty two thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: That guess the MAXI amount?
Speaker 1: Have you?
Speaker 3: Can you buy a house for forty two thousand? Yes,
Speaker 3: they're not going to be able to.
Speaker 2: And nobody here had had fled insurance because it's the mountains,
Speaker 2: you know, Like, so insurance.
Speaker 3: Didn't cover anything up here.
Speaker 2: And I think that's like one of the things people
Speaker 2: forget is like, well, where was the role of insurance?
Speaker 2: And nobody had flood insurance, so their lives are completely
Speaker 2: upended and insurance is paying them nothing. If your home
Speaker 2: was flooded and you didn't have flood insurance, it's tough
Speaker 2: luck for.
Speaker 1: You, Yeah, because I mean you wouldn't think to have it,
Speaker 1: of course, not if.
Speaker 2: You live on a tiny little creek up in the mountains.
Speaker 2: You're not you know, you're not going to think to
Speaker 2: have you know, your home float away hundreds of feet
Speaker 2: that that would have never crossed your mind.
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine where can people follow your content?
Speaker 1: As you know, we hope that your community gets the
Speaker 1: hope that it needs and hopefully gets some of these
Speaker 1: regulations and red tape slashed so that the response is
Speaker 1: more efficient.
Speaker 3: Yeah, follow me on X Matt Underscore van Swell.
Speaker 1: Matt, thank you so much. I'm so sorry to your
Speaker 1: family and to everyone in your community. I really I
Speaker 1: can't imagine just how scary and devastating and just eruptive
Speaker 1: that's got to be, and just how hard it's got
Speaker 1: to be. And I know it's been a long time
Speaker 1: and it's probably just been really exhausting and you know,
Speaker 1: probably felt like given up hope. So I'm glad that
Speaker 1: glad you didn't, and you know, really respect the fact
Speaker 1: that you continue to fight for your community.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you, Lisa. It means a time that you're
Speaker 3: covering the story.
Speaker 2: I mean, it just feels like we've been, you know,
Speaker 2: screaming to the void for months, you know, and it
Speaker 2: just it means so much that anyone would actually touch
Speaker 2: the story.
Speaker 3: For all the people here, it was Matt van Swell.
Speaker 1: We appreciate him for taking the time. Just can't imagine
Speaker 1: living through that. Or Hark goes out to him. I
Speaker 1: want to thank you guys at home for listening every
Speaker 1: Monday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week
Speaker 1: until next time.