Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Friday that FEMA has resolved 80 percent of Western North Carolina cases from the summer hurricanes, signaling another campaign promise kept by President Donald Trump and his administration.
Speaking to reporters in the state, Noem said that since Trump toured the region two weeks ago, 2,600 additional families have registered for assistance.
“FEMA can often be slow and confusing and a lot of paperwork. I heard that over and over and over again today. And we’re going to fix that,” she said. “I’ll promise you one thing—President Trump has committed, and I’m committed with him to bringing FEMA into the 21st century.”
🚨 HOLY CRAP: Kristi Noem has announced FEMA has resolved 80% of Western North Carolina cases in just FIVE DAYS
INCREDIBLE!
I know Helene victims are SUPER grateful for this. They were abandoned for MONTHS. pic.twitter.com/5nVI5fO8gs
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 8, 2025
KATC reported:
According to FEMA, 153,000 households have received FEMA assistance since September 2024 in North Carolina related to the storm. FEMA said the types of assistance families have received include “rental assistance, money for basic repairs to their homes, sheltering in hotels, temporary housing in FEMA-provided mobile homes and travel trailers, funds for replacement of essential personal property, money for serious needs, and other assistance.”
Thousands of households remain homeless. As of Friday, 2,596 households were in FEMA-paid hotels, and 150 households were in FEMA-provided temporary housing units. FEMA also said that 3,284 households have received rental assistance.
Noem has made noise since becoming the head of the DHS. Not long after she was sworn in, she delivered a daunting warning to mayors and other leaders of cities and communities that provide “sanctuary” to people in the country illegally: They could be subject to federal prosecution.
During an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle,” Noem was asked whether the administration is ready to take action against officials who declare they will obstruct federal authority.
“Nobody’s above the law. Of course, we will. But that’s up to President Trump. President Trump gives us a direction. I don’t sit here and make up a decision on what I do. I follow the law,” Noem said.
“We treat everybody the same in this country now that we have President Trump in the White House, and he’s going to give us direction on how we’re going to go after these individuals,” she added.
Noem emphasized the importance of transparency, stating that it is crucial to inform the public about how their leaders may protect wrongdoers under the pretense of local ordinances.
“The reality is, these sanctuary cities, their laws have caused us problems. They are limiting some of our tools that we want in our toolbox, but we’re going to continue to go in and use our operations and then show in other cities how it’s working and tell our story to the American people,” Noem said. “The people in their community need to hear how their mayors, their elected officials, are protecting the criminals.”
In January, the Senate confirmed Noem as DHS secretary. In her role, she is tasked with implementing Trump’s executive orders on border security and immigration, as well as overseeing operations at Customs and Border Protection, the Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other agencies.
During his campaign, Trump vowed to implement a mass deportation plan, which would begin with DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement first targeting violent illegal migrants and criminals.
The Trump administration has been moving forward with deporting illegal immigrants while also reducing deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans—protections that President Joe Biden had extended just days before leaving office.
According to a DHS memo obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, the department revoked an 18-month extension of Temporary Protected Status that had been granted to roughly 600,000 Venezuelan nationals earlier in January.
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