The Federal Emergency Management Agency has notified thousands of residents in western North Carolina that their temporary housing has expired even as a snowstorm batters the region, but FEMA’s director has advised those affected on what next steps they can take.
Newsweek reached out to FEMA, the White House and the Trump transition team for comment by email on Sunday morning.
The Context
Families who lost their homes due to Hurricane Helene in late September 2024 received housing assistance from FEMA in the form of vouchers that allowed them to stay at local hotels, funded by the agency.
Helene hit the state harder than expected; even areas such as Asheville, a city located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, experienced unexpected high levels of flooding. The storm destroyed over 9,000 homes in Asheville, just a fraction of the over-100,000 homes destroyed across the state, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Deanne Criswell speaks during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on November 20, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Committee members discussed appropriation funding for disaster relief.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
What To Know
Local North Carolina outlets last week reported that as many as 3,500 households across western region of the state had received notifications that their temporary housing status would lapse by the weekend.
WBTV reported that the program was meant to lapse on January 11. FEMA told the outlet that there were no plans to extend the program, even as a snowstorm was predicted to hit the area on Friday, January 10.
FEMA also told the outlet that families had been notified approximately seven days before the checkout date and cited one of three reasons for the change in status: An inspection of the applicant’s home has deemed their home now “habitable”; the applicant declined to allow FEMA to inspect the home; or that the agency could not make contact with the applicant.
FEMA Director Deanne Criswell addressed this report during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, telling anchor Shannon Bream that the agency makes every best effort to make contact with the applicants before sending out these notices.
“There’s a number of reasons somebody might have received that notification,” Criswell said. “What we do is we call everybody. We call them every two weeks to check in on where they’re at, what their status is, and is their home able to be occupied again.
“But one of the biggest things is, when we call them, if we don’t hear from them, the only thing we can do is assume that they’ve been back in their home,” Criswell added.
The director said, however: “If somebody has received that notification, but they haven’t talked to somebody at FEMA, and their situation is still in need, they are still eligible.
“We just need them to get in touch with us so we can talk to them,” Criswell said.