State, federal leaders survey catastrophic damage in WNC, vow to rebuild
WLOS
By Marc Liverman
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ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — State and federal leaders including House Speaker Mike Johnson shared their experience in a news conference on Wednesday, Oct. 9 after surveying the catastrophic damage in Western North Carolina.
They stood near some of the debris in the hard-hit area of Biltmore Village to talk about what they saw while touring some of the damage across a massive area.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senator Thom Tillis, Senator Ted Budd and Congressman Chuck Edwards were all in attendance. They told members of the media that the damage covers an area of more than 9,200 square miles, which is roughly the same size as the state of Massachusetts.
They also reinforced that even if it takes years, the Tar Heel state will rebuild.
Edwards, who is a Western North Carolina native, described seeing the horrific devastation since the storm hit nearly two weeks ago.
“As I’ve been out traveling the district, and looking at the devastation, I’ve taken many photos and then brought those back home and showed them to folks and those photos were not the pictures that I saw. Photos cannot depict accurately what took place,” Edwards said.
Leaders added that more than 600 roads and interstates across the state are still dealing with a lot of damage.
Ever since Hurricane Helene hit, misinformation has been circulating on social media, something that Congressman Edwards denounced on Wednesday.
“In terms of the rumors that are out there, I attribute that to good old-fashioned storytelling,” Edwards said.
Edwards, however, did not denounce a claim by former President Donald Trump that the only help available to those who have lost their home is $750.
“I have found that there’s a lot of confusion with the way that FEMA works and the benefits that they offer, how we get people back on their feet,” Edwards said. “Folks have said that FEMA turned something away, or refused to do this or confiscated that and I found every single one of those to be false. None of them have been corroborated at all.”
These leaders also talked about so many of the small towns in Western North Carolina that experienced some of the most severe destruction.
They explained that even though it will take years to rebuild for some of them, they will not be forgotten.
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