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Hurricane Helene survivor endorses Trump admin's plan to nix FEMA after storm devastated Southeast
Hurricane Helene survivor Mona Roper is calling for FEMA to be eliminated six months after the storm brought landslides and historic flooding to the Appalachian communities of western North Carolina.
Her calls came in response to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem revealing her plan to reshape how disaster relief is handled, which involves eliminating the disaster resource agency that came under fire from many Republicans last year.
“She sounds very promising. It would be great to see changes,” Roper said of Noem on “Fox & Friends.”
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Homes are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
“Samaritan’s Purse has been great here in the community, but FEMA has not. There’s still a lot of people lacking FEMA’s support. I’m lacking FEMA support myself, and it’s just something that I think to do away with… is absolutely the correct way they should proceed. I don’t think the system is capable of being revamped.”
Roper lamented that the agency designed for people “desperately in need of help” has caused them to “suffer even more.”
The massive category four storm struck the Florida coast last year and barreled through the southeast, hitting states like Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia along with the Tar Heel State.
FEMA ADMINISTRATOR URGES HURRICANE HELENE VICTIMS TO TAKE ACTION AMID LOSING TEMPORARY HOUSING
Members of communities like Roper’s are still working to recover six months later.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell opened up about the agency’s recovery efforts on “Special Report” last year, telling Fox News, “We have been on the ground since before Hurricane Helene hit Florida and before it crossed over North Carolina, and what I would say is just because somebody doesn’t see a person in a FEMA shirt doesn’t mean that we’re not in the area.”
The agency has consistently defended its work in the region.
Roper told co-host Lawrence Jones that money “is not flowing at the speed and at the volume that it needs to be.”
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“The North Carolina damage for the storm is severe. It’s different to have a hurricane in the mountains than it is to have one in Florida,” she said.
“I’ve been trying for six months now to receive money, and our road and our bridge got washed away. FEMA says, ‘You need to fix it. Fix it and send in receipts and we’ll send you money.’ The road bridge is $500,000 to $800,000 to fix it, so that’s not feasible.
She continued, “I’m just sort of in a loophole… that I’m getting no assistance from.”
Fox News’ Diana Stancy and Maria Lencki contributed to this report.
Tennessee’s redistricting special session Day 1 recap
State lawmakers returned to the capitol for a special session May 5 to consider carving Memphis into Republican-safe districts.
Tennessee House District 93 officially has someone in its briefly vacant seat.
Willis Lincoln TJ Hardaway III will hold the seat until the next general election in November. He has not made a decision as to if he will run officially for the seat yet, but will listen to the will of his constituents.
The house seat was formerly held by his father, State Rep. G.A. Hardaway, a Democrat from Memphis. Hardaway died on April 24. His death left the Tennessee House District 93 seat, which encompasses South Memphis and Orange Mound and stretches to Shelby Farms, open.
Hardaway was nominated by acclamation by the board. After he was nominated to the position, he spoke to commissioners and thanked all of them by name. He said he spent the last year spending a lot of time with his father, wanted to get to know him.
“This could not have been better timing. Last year, I spent various moments one on one with my father, for no other reason other than wanting to know more about the man…turns out I already knew the man because I already know myself,” Hardaway said.
He will travel to Nashville the evening of May 6 and be sworn in to office.
The Shelby County Commission moved swiftly to appoint someone to the seat due to the state legislature being called into a special session. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly to review the state’s congressional map on May 1, with the session beginning on May 5.
The push for redistricting Tennessee’s Congressional districts came from President Donald Trump, after the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back protections of the Voting Rights Act. The General Assembly was gaveled into the special session on May 5, which was also election day for many counties in Tennessee.
A map revealed the morning of May 6 splits the state’s 9th Congressional District and carves up Tennessee’s only majority-Black congressional seat, in Memphis. The new map shows three districts in Memphis, two of which stretch all the way to Williamson County outside Nashville.
Brooke Muckerman is the education and children’s issues and politics reporter for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at brooke.muckerman@commercialappeal.com.
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — Virginia Sen. L. Louise Lucas has carved out a reputation as a fierce and outspoken advocate during her political career. One issue, in particular, has been at the forefront of her agenda: legalization of marijuana, which she says disproportionately affects members of the African American community.
She felt so strongly about the issue, she sponsored a legalization bill and opened her own cannabis shop. Now, she’s under the microscope as federal law enforcement appears to have raided that business. It wasn’t immediately clear what they were looking for but it’s drawn attention to Lucas and her 34-year career in politics.
In 2019, she became the state’s first Black woman to hold the leadership post of Senate president pro tempore after Democrats seized the majority.
The next year, she appeared at a protest of a Confederate monument that led to felony charges against her. A judge later dismissed the charges.
Lucas was born in Portsmouth and worked at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard earlier in her life, where she was the first female ship fitter, according to a biography in the state library.
She has been the CEO of a Portsmouth business that runs residences, day programs and transportation for intellectually disabled adults. And in 2021, Lucas opened a store in her hometown of Portsmouth, The Cannabis Outlet, that sells legal hemp and CBD products.
“Let’s talk about pot,” Lucas said in a social media post on X in 2022. “Yes, we legalized it and I even opened the Cannabis Outlet after we did! But the job isn’t done. People are still in jail for something that is legal today.”
An armored FBI vehicle and several agents were seen outside Lucas’ cannabis store on Wednesday. The FBI would say only that it was conducting a court-authorized search warrant in Portsmouth.
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