Residents Western North Carolina are confused about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s role in helping local communities recover from the disaster after Hurricane Helena.
Locals are especially confused because FEMA plans to end temporary housing help for about 2,000 North Carolinians Saturday – during the snowstorm, when temperatures across the Appalachian Mountain region are expected to dip below 20 degrees.
The housing program was originally scheduled to end on Friday, but FEMA pushed the deadline to Saturday.
“I’m actually talking to a few people who are losing FEMA vouchers,” Ryan McClymonds, founder of the volunteer group Operation Boots on the Ground in WNC and East Tennessee, told Fox News Digital on Friday. “They’re terrified that after today they won’t have a place for their families to stay. But we found out pretty late last night … that FEMA is extending it for an incredible 24 hours.”
Couple Victoria and Jeff stay on the street with their dog with a sign reading “I need help, we lost everything in the flood,” after Hurricane Helene destroyed their mobile home about a month earlier in Asheville, North Carolina, on October 29, 2024. (Photo by YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)
FEMA told Fox News Digital that their Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program is providing hotel rooms to thousands of Hurricane Helena survivors in WNC.
On January 3, FEMA began notifying some families who checked into hotel or motel rooms that they were no longer eligible for the program because one of the following reasons: an inspection showed their home was now habitable, they refused the inspection, or FEMA could not contact them to update their housing needs.
About 3,600 households will still be eligible to continue staying in FEMA-sponsored hotel or motel rooms last Saturday — up from 2,100 households that were eligible, according to the report local news outlet WLOS on Thursday.
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Part of Swannanoa, North Carolina, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene, is covered in snow on January 10, 2025. (Steve Antle)
Around 2,000 households are expected to move out of their hotel rooms on Saturday. Further eligibility is determined on a case-by-case basis. When eligibility expires, FEMA notifies survivors approximately seven days prior to the check-out date.
The agency is also closing disaster recovery centers in the area until Monday — “due to winter weather.”
“This is unfair and possibly criminal.”
“Biden and Mayorkas bankrupted FEMA to pay for housing for illegal immigrants, and now American citizens who lost their homes in Hurricane Helena are basically being told to screw up,” Trump spokeswoman and incoming White House secretary Caroline Leavitt told the Fox News Digital. “This is unfair and possibly criminal. The good news is: President Trump will be back very soon to put Americans first again.”
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FEMA said it has sheltered 13,000 families displaced by Helene since the storm made landfall in late September 2024. Currently, 5,600 households are currently registered in hotels, the agency told Fox News Digital.
“We’ve been told to expect power outages and possibly water outages. Yeah, I’m not thrilled about that.”
“We got this notification on our phone, I think it was yesterday … which was a severe weather notification,” Swannanoa area resident Asha Wild told Fox News Digital. “We’ve been told to expect power outages and possibly water outages. Yeah, I’m not thrilled about that. And in the cold.”
Swannanoa residents walk through the devastating flood damage of the Swannanoa River in western North Carolina on Sunday, September 29, 2024. (Travis Long/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Wild lost her home in a nine-foot flood when Helene destroyed areas of her hometown and dozens of others in the mountains, leaving 104 dead in North Carolina alone.
Power grids and other critical infrastructure remain very fragile in some areas after Helena, and residents are worried they could once again be without electricity, water, gas and even food. Volunteers in western North Carolina and across the state have been volunteering in affected areas for months. Generous donors across the country have paid for and delivered RVs to those in need of housing and storage.
A store in Swannanoa, North Carolina, which was destroyed by Hurricane Helene, is covered in snow on January 10, 2025. (Steve Antle)
Long lines of vehicles can be seen queuing up to receive propane and other supplies from various donation drives in the area.
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WATCH: Volunteers in North Carolina donate propane to those affected by Helena
Zach Bumgarner, vice president of Bumgarner Oil, told Fox News Digital that his company “provided 22,000 gallons of product from the storm.” They’ve hosted six propane plants since late September, allowing people to bring empty propane bottles to designated locations, where his company refills them for free.
“You’ve got people in tents and you’ve got temporary shelters and things like that. And then you throw really cold temperatures on top of that, and it creates a dangerous situation,” Bumgarner said. “So, hopefully what we’re doing helps bridge some of those gaps and maybe warm someone up. That’s really what we’re trying to do.”
WATCH: Drivers line up for propane
Wild said she asked her friend, who works at a local grocery store she’s been visiting for 18 years, how things were going.
“He said, ‘Yeah, people are losing their minds a little bit.’ And I could tell it was cleaned,” Wild said.
Mekenzie Craig wipes mud from her wedding photo that survived the landslide that killed her in-laws on Sept. 27. (Adam Eugene Willis for Fox News Digital)
Steve Antle, a retired Asheville police officer who has been in contact with Fox News Digital since the day after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of WNC, said some areas are recovering well while others remain “frozen in time.” Even wealthy neighborhoods still have piles of debris and downed trees, he said.
Antle partnered with others in his community and beyond to purchase and deliver thousands of dollars worth of critical supplies in his hometown of Fairview and surrounding towns in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane.
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An aerial view of destroyed and damaged buildings after the flooding of Hurricane Helena on October 8 in Bat Cave, NC (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Some locals still live in tents or campers, mostly because they don’t want to leave their property. Others are still without heat and electricity, he said.
“I’ve given up trying to understand anything about how this administration and FEMA work.”
“I don’t know what they’re thinking,” Antle said of the agency. “You know, I want to think it’s government incompetence because it’s a better alternative. … And I hate to think that.”
McClymonds of Operation Boots on the Ground became emotional as he described the people he has been helping since September.
A drone view shows the damage after the passage of Hurricane Helena, in Asheville, NC, on September 29. (Reuters/Marco Bello)
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“Don’t forget about them,” he said. “I saw a lot when I was in the military. And to come here and see the lack of response and the lack of help is so heartbreaking. I’ve prayed with I don’t know how many people. I’ve heard and They’ve lost a lot of family members and they’re working hand in hand with family members who lost loved ones to the storm.
FEMA said it is important for storm survivors to stay in touch with FEMA and provide regular status updates. Those with questions about eligibility should contact the FEMA Helpline at 1-800-621-3362.
