This IS Deliberate By the Biden-Harris Administration

Earlier this week, I defended the Biden-Harris Administration from some of the charges being leveled agains them in the wake of Hurricane Helene. You can read it here. 

However, the situation has changed. There has been more than sufficient time to move adequate federal resources into the devastated region. And, there is sufficient reporting from people I trust to conclude things are very wrong. 

What is being done to prevent help from getting to those desperately in need is unbelievable incompetence or deliberate malfeasance by the Administration. Let's begin with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg talking about innocuous sounding "flight restrictions" over the devastated area (I can't seem to post the video without interference but I've watched it twice). 

His "temporary flight restrictions" are being used to stop people from launching private helicopter relief flights and private sector drones to carry Starlinks and survey the area. 

If there is a genuine concern about aviation traffic conflicts the FAA can simply bring in one of its mobile centers as they do for the Oshkosh EAA (below) every summer. 

The extra controllers issue landing and take-off instructions (sometimes three abreast!) to every type of aircraft in the world. A few extra helicopters and drones would be a piece of cake compared to Oshkosh. 

On the the scene, people I trust (Glenn Beck as well as Elon's engineer) are confirming what dozens of others have said: FEMA is actively stopping relief efforts. 

Mr. Temporary Flight Restrictions denied to Musk there was a problem. He offered to take a call from Musk. You can read what happened below.

Buttigieg never replied. 

This is backed up by a congressional letter to Secretary Mayorkas which says FEMA representatives on in the area's hotels on taxpayer funding and -- doing nothing. 

Glenn Beck interviewed a FEMA employee on the ground in Asheville (video at link) and it wasn't pretty. The link will take you to video. The FEMA rep was clueless at best and disingenuous at worse. The FEMA truck was hidden away where few could see it. FEMA says it expects residents of the region to learn of its presence via "the news media" -- which is impossible without electricity or internet! They also expect people to make their way to Asheville over no longer existing roads. Mr. Beck asked the FEMA rep when they were going to start the "door-to-door" outreach and FEMA replied, "that's way above my pay grade"!

The new federal fiscal yer began on October 1, so FEMA and the other agencies have plenty of money.

I've read, twice, the article from Grist that attempts to defend FEMA and it is not credible. 

There was only one interview with someone in the affected who confirmed there is inadequate response. All of the others were individuals like college professors from hundreds of miles away. It makes out as preposterous the stories of FEMA confiscating supplies but we know FEMA has done exactly that in past disasters. 

During Hurricane Sandy's aftermath, amid overwhelming complaints that FEMA was nowhere to be found, the agency brought in a FEMA truck and a van filled with models hired from NYC. The models stood in line at a makeshift table with a FEMA banner. As locals approached, thinking they were finally going to get some relief, security guards kept them away! When the photographer had taken all the pictures they needed, they packed up and left!

As to President Biden, when asked -- after returning from touring the area devastated by Helen --  what storm victims needed, he replied, "what storm?" He also said that people in the catastrophe area are "very happy." You can see for yourself, here. Of course, Kamala Harris is nowhere to be found [update: she is/will tour the area today for the first time].

Addition:

This type of lie (they want to eliminate NOAA, not the NWS -- severing NWS from NOAA would be wonderful) and politicking during a major catastrophe is, at best, unseemly.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has always been bad at what it does but the federal government's response to Helene is beyond the pale! We have an election coming up: ask your candidates what they are going to do to fix this. 

Most of all we need a National Disaster Review Board to look into disasters of this nature and fix the festering sore which is forecasting and recovering from disasters that strike our nation. 

Addition 3:10pm: This Associated Press story which seeks to rebut "conspiracy" stories doesn't. The closest to the damage official interviewed is the mayor Knoxville which is not in the hard hit area. It seeks to rebut charges that North Carolina officials where not sufficiently prepared with:

After Robinson, the GOP candidate for North Carolina governor, posted that state officials had not prepared for the storm, a spokesman for the governor accused Robinson of mounting “an online disinformation campaign.” North Carolina officials say the response to Helene is the largest in state history, including thousands of members of the National Guard and other recovery workers, millions of meals, dozens of aircraft and more than 1,000 chainsaws.

Notice that none of that verbiage refutes the charge they were not sufficiently prepared?

Update Saturday evening: