FEMA told residents of a North Carolina town devastated by Hurricane Helene that they could not access them due to a “road closed” sign.
Chelsea Atkins, a local of the town, called Bat Cave, told The New York Post, “FEMA called me and told me they wanted to inspect my house, then called me back to say they couldn’t drive around the ‘Road Closed’ sign. They weren’t allowed.”
She explained, “You can drive it by car for sure, it’s not that bad, you just have to drive around the ‘Road Closed’ sign.” She noted that while she “explained that to them,” FEMA still asserted “they couldn’t.”
Bat Cave residents then came together to open and clean the roads themselves.
The Post described the road as “treacherous but navigable.”
“FEMA hasn’t been here,” Atkins said. “The DOT’s been here, and random fire departments, like Kannapolis. They were great. But nobody’s been bringing in supplies except civilians.”
“We’re handling it,” she added. “Leave it to us and we’ll get it covered.”
Some residents expressed concerns that if FEMA appeared, the agency would do more harm than good.
“At this point, I don’t care if FEMA comes by. I don’t want somebody to pull me out of here, saying I’m working in an unsafe spot,” Atkins’ neighbor, retired Los Angeles fire captain and paramedic Curtis McCart, said. “I’m wondering if Big Brother is going to allow us to rebuild.”
The Post said town was “ripped in half” by Hurricane Helene, explaining that a “15-foot segment of bridge connecting the two halves of the town was destroyed.”
Before the hurricane, the Broad River was only “10 yards wide in front of McCart’s home.” It is now a “100-yard-wide morass strewn with trees, concrete slabs, twisted tin and powerlines with their transformers still connected.”
