(NewsNation) — Losing everything to a hurricane is bad enough. Refusing to accept help that is readily available is something else, as Dan Abrams discovered during his radio show on the SiriusXM POTUS channel earlier this week.
“My father-in-law lives just outside Asheville, North Carolina, and he was badly damaged by Hurricane Helene,” the caller began. “And he has refused all FEMA help because he’s a hard core Trumper. And he literally believes that if he accepts anything from FEMA, they’re going to take his house,” he continued.
“That’s a crying damn shame that (some) are going along with this,” said retired Army Gen. Russell Honoré, who added that he also dealt with false, harmful rumors while leading the relief effort around New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Honoré noted that he had to go on television to dispel the rumor that there were snipers on the streets of New Orleans, and that crews were blowing up levees in poor neighborhoods in order to save wealthy neighborhoods.
“That thing went on for about three hours until I go on television, myself, and said, ‘Hell, no, we’re not blowing the levees,’” he said.
For the man worried about his father-in-law in North Carolina, Honoré said the best possible solution is to get that man in front of FEMA officials.
“They will go face-to-face with people. And I hope that’s what this gentleman does. Go sit and talk with them, and they’ll lay it out for him.”
“He’s going to have his family suffer if he doesn’t have insurance and he doesn’t have the money to rebuild his home. FEMA is the way to help them get back into a place to live,” Honoré said.