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Floor Speech

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Mr. BUDD. Madam President, I rise today to talk about the road ahead for Western North Carolina after the devastation of Hurricane Helene. And I acknowledge and appreciate my colleague from one of the Mountain States, Georgia--particularly Northern Georgia--and am reminded that we are rebuilding together.

For us here in North Carolina, Hurricane Helene represented one of the worst natural disasters to ever strike my home State--and I have seen a lot of natural disasters in North Carolina.

From Hurricane Helene, at last count, more than 100 people just in our State have been killed; hundreds more were injured; and some are still missing. Thousands of North Carolinians lost their homes. They lost their businesses.

And for small mountain communities in Western North Carolina, this horrific ordeal began Friday morning of September 27. When the storm hit an already rain-soaked area, the situation escalated into life and death within moments.

In the small town of what is the now-famous Bat Cave, NC--population 180--the town's fire chief, Steve Freeman, was at home with his wife. In advance of the storm, Steve parked his first car, a 1967 Mustang. He put it up on higher ground on a ridge above the family's shed. At around 8:45 a.m., he and his wife heard their house shake. He ran to the back of the house; he looked out the window, and he found that the car had already been swept downhill into the shed. Seconds later, he watched their Ford pickup get flipped upside down by the torrential flooding. Then he heard more rumbling noises, followed by shaking; and outside, he saw a mudslide barreling down towards the rest of the holler.

He ran for cover, but the collapsing shed took his feet out from under him and washed him several yards into a backhoe, where his head was pinned between the loader and what was left of the shed. His wife, who was watching in horror, thought that he was dead. But, in a moment he credits to the grace of Almighty God, Steve had just enough room to get his head out, and he went back inside to his wife. They escaped the area.

Steve later said:

I had my near-death experience, and that's when I knew God was here for me.

What is even more extraordinary is that, after this harrowing experience, the chief, Steve, began working for the safety of his community. Others might have called it quits, but he went to work. He and his firefighters--they mapped out the area, and they started digging people out.

Chief Freeman is one of hundreds of heroic North Carolinians who leapt into harm's way to help others. That is the thing about the people of Western North Carolina: They are not just tough; they are mountain tough.

I had the pleasure of going to undergrad at Appalachian State in Boone years ago, and I have got lifelong friends who still call the region home. But if you spend any amount of time up there, you learn just how strong these people are in the mountains: These are proud and self-sufficient people. They are generous people.

For instance, take the story of Ethan Fowler of Slick Rock. He lives in Henderson County, and he volunteered to help rescue folks who were trapped. When he saw the storm debris that needed clearing in his neighborhood, he jumped on his own heavy machinery, and he did the job. Locals went up to him, and they offered to pay him; they offered him compensation for his work.

And Ethan replied:

It's just fuel.

He went on to personally help direct the National Guard and Federal officials as they arrived to clean up Gerton, Bat Cave, Lake Lure, and Chimney Rock.

This story and countless others like it are a perfect testament to the people of North Carolina. They are some of the most resilient people around. They don't look for handouts; they don't complain. The truth is they need us right now. Our government must be there to help them.

That is why it is incredibly disturbing to hear reports on the ground that they are still struggling to get in touch with representatives from FEMA. Now, of course, I don't want to denigrate the hard work of many of these hard-working officials who are trying to do the right thing, but when you hear the same story of a scattershot response and when you hear that same story over and over again, you know that something is dreadfully wrong.

You also know that something is wrong when we hear from a whistleblower at FEMA who claims that Federal officials directed a colossal event of avoidance against households with flags or yard signs supporting President Trump. This sort of weaponization of the government against people in their time of need is disgusting, and it is wrong, and there is going to be accountability for it.

As we hold these Agencies accountable, we in Congress have work to do, and no time to waste. So I am again calling on this body to quickly approve a supplemental bill to help fund the long-term recovery for the citizens of North Carolina. Congress should take up this bill without any further delay. Those of us from the region, regardless of party, I believe, support this.

Now, I realize that coming from someone like me--a dedicated fiscal conservative asking for this--it might sound, to some, out of place, but disaster relief is one of the essential functions of this government. Times like these are precisely why we shouldn't overspend or waste taxpayer dollars in more prosperous times. Like any family or small business, we ought to be saving for a rainy day.

Ladies and gentlemen, that rainy day is today. In Western North Carolina, the temperatures are falling fast. Many people in my State are in real danger of facing a winter without heat because the storm destroyed the area's only kerosene station. We have people living in shelters with only the clothes on their backs because the hurricane wiped out their homes.

We have small shops, hotels, and restaurants that rely on tourism to operate, and some of those folks will be forced to shutter their businesses forever.

We have large sections of a major U.S. interstate highway that are still impassable and small mountain roads that are damaged beyond repair.

We have communities that are mourning the unimaginable loss of members of first responders and law enforcement.

We have some towns that I visited in the last month, like Hot Springs, Marshall, Burnsville, and Swannanoa, that are buried by flooding and mudslides, and there are towns like Chimney Rock that are mostly gone. Every day that I was present in the region, I was stunned by the enormity of the damage. It was unlike anything that I had ever seen.

This is not a situation where our government has the luxury of hand- wringing or deferring action for another few weeks or after another long recess. The citizens in my State--they need help and they need it now. This is why these men and women pay their taxes. This is their right as Americans, and we can't leave them behind. I believe, after having many conversations around the State, that that is their greatest fear: of being forgotten.

I will make my promise not to ever forget them, and my promise to the people of Western North Carolina is this: I will do everything in my power to see that you have the Federal resources you need to recover and to rebuild. I stand ready to work with my Senate colleagues and President-elect Trump to cut through the delays and provide the people of Western North Carolina with the resources they need as quickly as possible. We owe it to these fellow Americans to help them and help them now.

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