what happened in north carolina? is fema to blame?

Read it and weep is my summary of this looong article on how disaster events in North Carolina played out last fall, immediately after the storm that ravaged the mountain areas of the state. Pay particular attention to the misinformation that spread about what FEMA would cover in disaster relief, how President Biden “pushed a button” to have the storm hit the state, and on and on.

Trump undermined Biden’s FEMA in North Carolina. Now the cleanup is lagging on his watch.

Now put yourself in the position of being FEMA today, with all that bad information still floating around. You have reduced resources to help people and there are still administration leaders calling for the agency to be done away with. What is a person to do?

As for the title of the article, once again it proves that governing is a lot harder than winning an election. You can blame your predecessor all you want, but eventually you own the problems and the expected solution. Meanwhile, programs that could help with future disaster mitigation efforts have been discontinued. It has to be disheartening to be involved with the work that needs to be done.