It’s time now for a fact-check of North Carolina politics. This week we’re looking at a claim related to Hurricane Helene relief for North Carolina. In a post on X viewed more than 6.5 million times, liberal political commentator and podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen wrote: “Trump just denied North Carolina’s request for FEMA relief from Hurricane Helene, calling it ‘unwarranted.’” WFAE’s Marshall Terry spoke with Paul Specht, of WRAL, for more.
Marshall Terry: OK, it's now been about seven months since Helene hit North Carolina causing billions of dollars in damage and killing more than 100 people. FEMA said it would pay for 100% of debris removal and emergency measures through late March. What happened after that?
Paul Specht: As the 180 days of 100% coverage was set to expire, Gov. Josh Stein sent a letter to FEMA asking for them to continue that level of coverage. He received a response on April 11 from a top FEMA administrator who denied North Carolina's request for continued 100% coverage. However, FEMA said that it would pay for 90% of debris removal in those other services. So that's where we are now.
Terry: Did they say why they weren't going to be providing 100% anymore?
Specht: It says it's not warranted. That's an exact quote from the letter. We reached out to FEMA with follow-up questions asking — Is it because the agency doesn't have the money or it doesn't think that North Carolina's damage is extensive enough? They didn't really answer that question for us. What FEMA did say is that they normally, after 180 days of covering 100%, they usually revert back to 75% of the cost. And so, according to the FEMA spokespeople, the 90% that they will continue to pay for is still above what they normally grant.
Terry: How much of a difference in cost is it for North Carolina with only 90% covered versus 100%?
Specht: We had that same question. So we reached out to Gov. Stein's office — they estimate it at $200 million. Now, to put that in perspective, North Carolina sustained $60 billion worth of damage. Now they're getting about $15 billion from a package passed by Congress. Local lawmakers have passed about $1.5 to $2 billion. So, if you're doing the math at home, at least $40 billion short of what [the] state needs. And Stein's office pointed out that every cent from the federal government that they can get, they're going to pursue and try to use just because they're still in such a hole.
Terry: What happens with FEMA coverage going forward? And could there be further changes to how much of the tab the federal government could pick up?
Specht: There could be. Of course, the Stein administration and Republicans and Democrats alike — and our congressional delegation — are seeking even more funding from the federal government. But in the meantime, when it comes to debris removal and the difference in the 100% coverage and the 90% coverage, the Stein administration is appealing. So it's possible that if FEMA and the Trump administration see fit, they can bump the coverage back up from 90% to 100%. We don't have an update on that just yet.
Terry: So how did you rate this claim by Brian Tyler Cohen?
Specht: We rated this claim "half true." Cohen said that Trump denied North Carolina's request for FEMA relief from Hurricane Helene — and the "half true" part is there was a request made and it was denied. But there's some very important context being left out there.
And the context being that if you just read that and you don't know the situation, you might think, 'Oh, well FEMA's leaving North Carolina high and dry. They're not giving them any more money.' That's not the case.
FEMA is still providing 90% coverage of these costs. He left out specifics here, and I should note Cohen is not the only one who did this. There were many, many posts on social media that left out this context. Cohen's is one of the ones that got the most attention, which is why we fact-checked him.
