In Asheville, they still don’t have drinkable water. In towns like Swannanoa, where we are, it’s just still a total mess. A hundred thousand people, that’s just the estimate, either had very badly damaged or destroyed homes. And we found coming here that many of them still have nowhere to go. Driving around the outskirts of Asheville, it’s hard to decide where to even begin. There’s just so much hurricane damage literally everywhere you look. I got a message on X from a woman named Sarah. I want to show you. It says, Hi, I’m in Swannanoa, North Carolina, one of the hardest hit towns.

We lost our home due to the hurricane. We’re getting barely any help. I met Sarah outside the trailer. She’s living in with her husband, two kids, two cats and two dogs. Like almost everyone here, their home was destroyed and condemned. And they also lost their cars and their jobs. Everybody that I’ve talked to says they’re getting no help. Their trailer was donated by a volunteer, not FEMA, and they have to pay for their own port-a-potty. I had to rent this so that we would even be able to use the bathroom. So you had to pay for that yourself? Yes.

It’s $130 a month to rent one. Sarah’s one hope was U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loan. But then she got this voicemail. This is a call from the U.S. Small Business Administration about your SBA disaster loan application. Due to a lapse in Congressional funds, new loan offers will be delayed until Congress provides additional funding for the disaster loan program. We understand how frustrating this delay is. What did you think when you heard that? Um, you know, it’s been, we already have it so rough. And to not be able to get the financial and, you know, help that we need is, it’s really awful.

Some just down the road have it even more awful, living in tents and small RVs with no power as winter approaches and temperatures now dip into the 30s. There’s times we don’t get fresh meat because there’s no way to keep it cold. Because you’ve got to choose between heat and the house with the generator, especially the ones who have kids, and keeping the food cold. Winter time’s coming. These folks cannot be forgot about this because you don’t see this on TV. It don’t just go away. This is not going to go away for a long time.

We’ve got to get those folks out of those tents and then those FEMA campers. How’s it going to happen? A lot of the locals I’ve spoken to are particularly upset about a FEMA compound. They say it’s much nicer than the donated trailers that they are staying in. It’s hard to see, but this right here, I’m going to slow down, is the entrance to the compound. There’s a lot of security. The public can’t go in. We drove up onto a hill behind the compound for a better view and you see how massive it is.

A sea of government trailers. It’s so organized and secure. So different from how the people we met are living here. FEMA’s not connecting with the county. The county’s not connecting with the state. And you’ve got this big rat race. Volunteers like combat veteran Robbie Ammons say housing is the biggest issue. And red tape. Families left in tents and RVs because of the permitting process, he says. Next week, temperatures are going to start getting in the 30s at night. We’re afraid of more hypothermia. Folks are living in the mountains. And there’s probably going to be more bodies laying around if we don’t start getting these people in some level of temporary housing.

The cold really is the big concern here, Elizabeth. That woman in the piece who played the voicemail, we reached out, she was trying to get that disaster loan. We reached out to the SBA. They said they did run out of money on October 15th. They’re trying to work with Congress to get more funding. Her situation is desperate. She has to bundle her little kids up to take them out to that porta potty when they have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. And she was offered some rental assistance from FEMA, but she says there’s nowhere to rent.

Everything is destroyed or the few places are too expensive or they won’t take a bunch of kids and dogs and cats and the animals she has. And she doesn’t want to move two hours away. So it’s a real mess out here, Elizabeth. [tr:trw].

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