Photo: AFP
When Hurricane Helene plowed through Tennessee and North Carolina last September, few people expected the staggering devastation the storm would create so far away from the Gulf Coast- but absolutely nobody expected FEMA’s response would be so slow that, four months later, the residents of Asheville, North Carolina would feel completely abandoned by the Biden administration. An outraged President Trump visited the town over the weekend and vowed sweeping changes would come to the process.
Mark Starling is the host of “First News on 570” on WWNC in Asheville. At the time Helene passed through town, he was one of the people on the air delivering people the information they would need to get through the harrowing storm. He appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to describe what happened when the storm passed through, and when FEMA seemingly forgot to pass through.
“Essentially, we tried to cover it like every other hurricane that I’ve done in my career,” Starling told host Larry Mendte. “(However), we quickly realized we were in a very dire situation, and by the time Friday afternoon had rolled around, we were trapped at the radio station. Most electricity was off in most places around western North Carolina. There was very little cell coverage. There was almost no internet, and so we kind of became the lifeline for the community. We turned our broadcast into from storm coverage and really trying to get people the information they needed to survive through the storm. It then became a relief, recovery and rescue operation.”
Starling said Trump was well-received in Asheville, especially after the cold-shoulder the region received from Biden. “There were people who did not vote for him who were certainly glad to see him, and glad to see that our area was getting the attention and getting the focus, and more importantly, getting some relief, because that’s what they really need… I think people were grateful to see that. They were grateful to see the attention… and I think anything he can do to make FEMA more streamlined and make it work like it’s supposed to to get people the resources they need- I don’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat, I think that’s a good thing.”
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