AccuWeather spoke live with FEMA to hear how the agency is coordinating their resources to respond to Hurricane Helene's widespread destruction.
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00:00Marty by Monday is senior spokesperson with FEMA. He joins us with the latest
00:04on the federal response to this disaster. Thanks for being with us.
00:12We appreciate your time, sir, so much. And how do you allocate FEMA resources to such a large
00:19area of impact? Well, we we put all resources that we have into this effort. We have more than
00:263,000 FEMA assets throughout the six states. And then we have thousands of others, federal
00:33agencies, search and rescue teams, volunteers. And so we look at those areas where there's
00:41the need. All six states have that great need. And so we are funneling all of those assets
00:47into those areas. And then a lot of local organizations are very helpful in this
00:56response as well. And we work closely with them. But some areas have a lot more
01:02capabilities than others. And so we gauge that. And that's where we surge our resources.
01:08Have you been able to reach communities that are still cut off?
01:11There are areas that we are dealing with that are still cut off because of all the damaged roads.
01:18And so in those cases, we have a large helicopter mission, particularly in North Carolina, where we
01:25are flying in supplies via helicopter on a daily basis to those areas that are cut off so that they
01:31can get those needed commodities in. And how are you coordinating resources
01:38And how are you coordinating resources as you see what is happening on the ground?
01:45Yeah, based on what we're seeing every single day and where we're hearing the specific needs are,
01:52that's where we're targeting those resources. And in those areas, particularly like in North
01:57Carolina, where communications is very difficult, we are flying people into those locations every
02:04single day to scour those communities, meet with those folks that do not have any communication,
02:12finding out what their needs are, and then getting that assistance to them. So it's a
02:16really challenging effort that is not normal in disaster times. But this is what we're presented
02:23with. And we've countered that with helicopter assets and other means to get into these hard
02:30to reach locations. And this is a once in a generation storm. You just mentioned some
02:35challenges. So what other challenges are you facing with residents who need help
02:40and are unable to contact loved ones? Yeah, that's one of the things that, you know,
02:46the American Red Cross is working with these communities and folks in those hard hit areas to
02:55help them reach out to loved ones and creating a database of those people that are missing and
03:01trying to find them in other means. So there's a very strong effort to identify and locate folks
03:07that may just not have been able to reach family because of communications. And they're helping
03:13with that certainly every day to try to make sure that those people are not missing. And if we can't
03:21find them, that's why we are continuing to do search and rescue efforts in those hard impacted
03:26areas. And sir, how do residents seek FEMA assistance? Yeah, there's a number of ways.
03:35If you have communication and you can by telephone, you can call 1-800-621-3362
03:42or go to a disasterassistance.gov. But one of the things that we're having to do in this disaster
03:47is go door to door. So we have thousands of people across all six states going door to door
03:54in these hard hit communities, registering people where they are on the spot in their homes,
04:00because we understand that a lot of them can't get the communications out to make those
04:05applications. So we're going door to door in all of these hard hit communities to make that happen.
04:12Marty Bomondi, senior spokesperson with FEMA. Thanks again for joining us.