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Jonathan Howard and Charlie Keebaugh are members of Aerial Recovery, a nonprofit organization focused on disaster response and humanitarian aid, particularly in areas affected by natural disasters and crises. They specialize in using aerial technology, such as drones and helicopters, to assess damage, deliver supplies, and support recovery efforts. The organization often collaborates with local communities, governments, and other NGOs to provide assistance and facilitate recovery. Their work includes search and rescue operations, medical supply deliveries, and providing essential resources like food and clean water. By leveraging innovative technologies and a network of trained veteran volunteers, Aerial Recovery Group aims...

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas spent less than six hours visiting hurricane-hit areas of North Carolina on Thursday — before retreating to Washington to grab an early takeout dinner at Nobu. Mayorkas touched down in the Tar Heel State around 10 a.m. before jetting back to the nation’s capital, where he was spotted by The Post at 5:15 p.m. carrying bags of food from the posh international Japanese restaurant chain — where sushi and sashimi selections are priced at $60 a plate and the highest-grade Wagyu steaks go for $40 per ounce. ...

All Hurricane Helene-damaged counties will be ready to accept in-person voters when early voting starts statewide on Oct. 17. Nearly all the early voting sites that elections officials in those western North Carolina counties had planned to open can still be used, state Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell told reporters Thursday. Of the 80 locations originally planned in those counties, 75 will open. “This is absolutely outstanding that our county boards of elections have pulled this off in western North Carolina given the devastation and destruction left by Helene,” she said. State elections officials talked to reporters the day after...

Baseless conspiracy theories about weather modification and false claims about disaster relief efforts have continued to spread on X in recent days, with misinformation about Hurricane Milton adding to a mountain of false rumors about Hurricane Helene and its aftermath.The spread has sparked a push from local and federal officials, along with some politicians, who have decried the spread of misinformation and outlandish claims about the origins of the storms.But that has done little to quell some of the loudest voices. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who claimed on X last week that “they can control the weather,” has continued...

JACKSON COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — When Helene hit the mountains of WNC, it was evident many would need relief supplies quickly. However, as many roads were destroyed, a fleet of volunteer pilots took to the skies, flying them into the Jackson County Airport. The airport sits atop the mountains at over 2,800 feet; of late, there's been heightened activity. "In 11 days, we've had 33% of what we would have in a whole year," said airport manager Jim Rowell. Shortly after Helene hit, he and organizer Crystal Cochran coordinated the arrival of hundreds of private volunteer pilots, who flew in...

ATLANTA -- A federal judge said Thursday that she won't order the presidential battleground state of Georgia to reopen voter registration for November’s elections despite recent disruptions to registration caused by Hurricane Helene. U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross rejected arguments that the state should reopen registration through next Monday. The registration deadline was last Monday and she said in her ruling from the bench Thursday afternoon that there would be no extension. A lawsuit filed by the Georgia conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda and the New Georgia Project had argued that damage and disruptions...

"No one can deny the impact of climate crisis anymore. At least I hope they don't. They must be brain dead if they do. Scientists report that with warming oceans powering more intense rains, storms like Helene are getting stronger and stronger. They're not going to get less; they're going to get stronger." -- President Joe Biden, Oct. 2, 2024 Three years ago, Science News published an article with the following headline: "Hurricanes may not be becoming more frequent, but they're still more dangerous -- There aren't more of the storms now than there were roughly 150 years ago, a...

A North Carolina man says he lost 11 members of his family to Hurricane Helene. Jesse Craig's mother, father, aunt, uncle, great-aunt, great-uncle, cousins and second cousins were among the more than 230 people so far who died after Helene brought devastating rain, unprecedented flooding, mudslides and extensive damage to six southern states, including Craig's home state of North Carolina. [MORE}

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – The North Carolina National Guard says a Black Hawk helicopter crew was grounded after an incident in which they flew low over a Hurricane Helene donation and supply area, blowing over three tents and scattering items in the air.

The South and East Coasts were well-ravaged thanks to Hurricane Helene over the last few weeks. Countless lives have been lost, property destroyed, homes swept away, and livelihoods all but decimated for a large portion of the public. Worse yet, there's another Hurricane brewing in the Gulf of Mexico as I type these words. The outpouring of help from both the local communities, as well as those in the nation at large has been awesome to see, though. Especially in a time when the media wants to cast a blanket around the populace saying we're at each other's throats. See,...

American has been crying for 20 minutes after FEMA visited him, “sorry for the emotions”“There is a FEMA man who came and explained something very serious about the $750 that you guys don't know and that they're not going to tell you. And unless you have a magnifying glass in the contract that they're going to sign during your inspection, you'll never see it.So you're going to hear it from me and hopefully from everybody else who is going to share this shit around. The $750 is a loan.It's not free. They're not giving it to you. It's a loan...

I have been watching polymarket for a month. Until 3 days ago. Kams had been leading by one point --- For the 20 previous days. Starting 3 days ago DJT's polymarket score started rising. NOW Trump is leading by about 7 percentage points. The Biden-Kamala FEMA disaster in NC and other states must be a factor. Showing how DEI incompetent and stupid they are. President Trump would have been cracking the whip on FEMA and other Federal agencies. Some of this incompetence is due to these Federal "workers" being working from home scammers. Caution is that with polymarket, you can...

We are on the mountaintop in Little Switzerland collecting airlifted donations and distributing them to homes that have no power or are inaccessible. The community is self organizing incredibly well Image This is the only federal government response I've seen so far. Almost all the pallets we have received are donations coming in from citizens and orgs. Feds usually don't come this far up into the mountains This has been the government donation: pallets of electric chainsaws to communities that have no power

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Fox News' Brooke Singman reports the latest on scrutiny facing the Biden administration over its response to Hurricane Helene. ...

A message from the Sheriff Wright and Sheriff Ellenburg in North Carolina regarding FEMA and the aftermath Hurricane Helen- we spent the day in Chimney Rock and Lake Lure and the devastation is unbelievable- but the people of NC have pulled together - truly amazing mountain people.

It's been about a week-and-a-half since Hurricane Helene hit. At least 231 people have been killed. Homes and communities have been wiped out. More than 300,000 are without power in Georgia and the Carolinas. Private volunteers and organizations have been doing all they can to help out, and we've covered a lot of their efforts. But there have been a lot of questions raised about the government response. Joe Biden spoke at a White House briefing on Friday in a very unusual move given that they normally keep him under wraps. But what he spoke about was the jobs numbers....

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is not taking calls from Vice President Kamala Harris about storm recovery just over a week after Hurricane Helene hammered parts of his state. A source familiar with the situation said he was dodging the Democratic presidential nominee’s calls because they “seemed political,” according to a DeSantis aide. “Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn’t answer,” the DeSantis aide told NBC News. The same person said “not to my knowledge” when asked if DeSantis had spoken to President Joe Biden. Last week, DeSantis said Biden had called him, but he was flying at the...

Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Donald Trump on Monday over false claims he has made talking about disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Helene. Harris told reporters that there's a lot of "disinformation being pushed out there by the former president about what is available, in particular to the survivors of Helene," from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Trump last week amplified a false claim about FEMA's disaster funds, saying they were being distributed to migrants who entered the U.S. illegally. “They stole the FEMA money, just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give...

President Biden warned that the money for a disaster aid loan program used by survivors of Hurricane Helene and other calamities will soon dry up without intervention from Congress. In a letter to the four congressional leaders on Friday, Mr. Biden said the Small Business Administration’s program is on the verge of going broke before Congress is slated to return after the Nov. 5 election. The loans are a “critical lifeline” that act as the “largest source of Federal disaster recovery funds,” he said, adding that $1.2 billion is needed to refill the program’s coffers. Lawmakers are out of town...