North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said Tuesday that false accusations around lawmakers not properly responding to Hurricane Helene’s devastation in the southeastern U.S. are “demoralizing.”
“This is demoralizing to all of the people who are working so hard,” Cooper said in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday morning. “Those first responders who went into people’s homes and pulled them out of windows in swirling waters, people who are working around the clock to get oxygen bottles and insulin to people in the remote, rugged areas of the mountains, the people who are working to get the power back on.”
He explained that North Carolina has already regained power for approximately 800,000 households across the state. Earlier in the interview, the governor noted that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Deanne Criswell had been on the ground with him.
Cooper also joined other local officials in calling out false accusations made against FEMA in recent days, including allegations that the agency is low on resources, is stealing cash donations from victims and turned away volunteers. The White House and agency have denied the claims.
The North Carolina governor went a step further, warning that misinformation is likely also preventing those who need help from reaching out.
“You are also making some people wary of applying for aid and relief because you have these crazy stories about FEMA coming in and taking people’s land and stopping donations from coming in,” he said in the interview. “And it’s very frustrating, when you’re on the ground working hard every day.”
In response to the claims, the agency launched a “rumor response” page, which asks the public to find and share information from trusted sources and discourages others from sharing information from unverified ones.
Despite what the governor called a “vortex of disinformation,” Cooper explained that there are around 1,800 National Guard soldiers, almost 1,500 military soldiers from military bases in addition to emergency personnel, FEMA personnel, local government and emergency response people who are involved in recovery efforts.
“I’ll tell you what, the people of western North Carolina are resilient and determined and courageous, and we are going to be with them every step of the way as we recover from this catastrophic storm,” Cooper said. “We have never seen anything like it.”
Hurricane Helene, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm in Florida’s Big Bend region late last month, left a 500-miles long path of destruction. The hurricane has also upended early voting in the battleground states of North Carolina and Georgia.