Hurricane Helene cut a path of destruction through six states in the southeast.
But the federal government has been out to lunch in its response.
And now one awful reality about the FEMA response to the hurricane was exposed by this rescuer on the ground.
Media complains about misinformation about the government’s hurricane response
Hurricane Helene became the second deadliest storm to hit the country in the last 50 years.
Western North Carolina was devastated by historic flooding after the storm dumped record rainfall into the region.
That area of the state is nestled in the Appalachian Mountains and its rugged terrain resulted in entire communities being cut off from the outside world during the flooding.
Complaints about the lack of a response from the federal government came in early as private citizens and charities sprang into action to conduct disaster relief.
Democrats and their media allies began complaining that reports of a failure of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in responding to Helene were misinformation.
Journalists who were eager to report from the ground in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina were nowhere to be found in North Carolina.
They wanted to hurt former President George W. Bush politically then but now they want to protect Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the election.
Florida State Guardsman drops a truth bomb
Florida State Guardsman Jonathan Howard was on the ground in Western North Carolina helping in the aftermath of Helene.
He was part of Operation Blue Ridge, a relief mission launched by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to help in the hard-hit region.
Howard accused the media of hiding the failures of FEMA and the federal government in Western North Carolina during an interview on Fox News.
Private citizens were leading the charge to help storm victims there.
“I knew where my governor was before the hurricane, during the hurricane and after,” Howard said. “Then he actually sent me up here to help them fix their problems, but these people have no clue. There’s just there’s no command here at all. Everything we’re getting all of our information off Facebook and private citizen groups.”
Howard said that members of the military were waiting for orders to begin taking part in search and rescue operations.
“I saw some Air Force Blackhawks there with a pair of rescue men,” Howard recalled. “These guys are all rescue specialist paramedics. I went up to them, start talking to them, exchanging Intel, and they’re like, ‘We want to go fly, but we can’t. We’re waiting on Title X orders,’ and I was like, ‘What?’”
President Joe Biden waited nearly a week to activate the military to add much-needed helicopters for search and rescue efforts.
Howard said that many members of the military he talked to were being kept on the sidelines by the Biden-Harris administration.
“And then I have so many military friends of mine saying… they can’t even get authorization to come here,” Howard said. “And there’s so many military here. I have Guardsmen, I have active duty. They’re all messaging me. Pilot commanders of pilot divisions, helicopter pilots. And they’re like, ‘We cannot get authorization to go there.”
The Biden-Harris administration failed in its response to the hurricane and had its allies in the media try to cover for them.
Stay tuned to Unmuzzled News for any updates to this ongoing story.