After months of delays under FEMA, the Trump administration has rapidly addressed the disaster relief backlog in North Carolina. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that 80% of the cases left unresolved by Biden’s FEMA were handled within five days, a pace that far outstripped the agency’s prior response.
Trump, who visited the impacted areas, criticized FEMA’s inability to meet the needs of storm victims. “At one point, half of the emergency calls to FEMA went unanswered,” he said. He pointed out that more than three months after the storm, some residents still lacked basic necessities like clean water and electricity.
In an effort to get assistance where it was needed, Trump’s administration secured $54 million in aid for those affected. Noem noted that 2,600 families had been newly registered for help after being overlooked by FEMA. She also acknowledged frustrations from residents over the agency’s complex and slow-moving processes. “We’re going to fix that,” she said.
FEMA’s past failures have also drawn attention, with Trump pointing to its mishandling of previous disasters like Hurricane Katrina and its slow response to wildfires in California. Trump has suggested that the agency may no longer be necessary, instead advocating for a system that allows states to handle disaster relief with direct federal funding.
Noem stated that a shift in responsibility may be the best solution. “President Trump has committed, and I’m committed with him, to bringing FEMA into the 21st century,” she said. One proposed reform would allow states to distribute funds directly, cutting out FEMA’s bureaucracy.
While FEMA has reported that 153,000 households have received aid since Hurricane Helene, Trump’s administration has continued pushing for reforms to ensure future disasters do not face the same bureaucratic delays.
