AILSA CHANG, HOST:
When Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida last Thursday, it was just the beginning of the storm's wrath. As it moved north and west up through Georgia and into the Carolinas, Helene left a path of destruction, death and flooding in its wake. And the storm was still strong enough to do damage in Tennessee and Virginia, too. Now, all of these states are under federal emergency declarations, giving them access to FEMA assistance. The devastation is especially dire in Asheville, in western North Carolina. Dan Rattigan owns French Broad Chocolate store and factory there.
DAN RATTIGAN: I was on the front steps of my factory as the floodwaters were rising, like, nearly a foot per 15 minutes. And I was standing there with my boy, watching vehicles float down the river and watching the firemen looking for a missing person in the river. Yeah. I think that's the one that'll stick with me.
CHANG: Rattigan was prepared for the water. Stacked sandbags had kept the worst of it out. But he says many neighbors were not so lucky, and communications remain a major concern.
RATTIGAN: People are just having a difficult time making sure each other are OK. I went out with my partner, who's a physician, to do wellness checks. Fortunately, everything was good with those contacts. But I think that remains the biggest challenge here is just communication.
CHANG: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency and joins us now. Welcome, Secretary.
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Good afternoon, Ailsa.
CHANG: So where are you seeing the most acute needs at this moment?
MAYORKAS: Well, you identified Asheville as a community that has been particularly devastated by what is, frankly, a hurricane of historic devastation. The breadth of its catastrophic reach is unprecedented. Asheville is one, but we are seeing six states, all of which have received emergency - and are receiving emergency relief from FEMA, from the federal government. We're seeing six states that all have suffered significant consequences from the hurricane.
CHANG: Well, if I may just focus on Asheville for a moment because the flooding there is pretty astonishing. We're talking about a mountainous area, not a coastal lowland, where this kind of flooding is usually more routine. What are the particular challenges when FEMA is called to help out an area where disasters like this just aren't as common?
MAYORKAS: So one of the acute challenges that FEMA faces is actually accessing a community that has been impacted so severely. You know, there is not only the terrain itself, Ailsa, as you identify, but there's also the challenge of debris that has to be removed to be...
CHANG: Right.
MAYORKAS: ...Able to access certain areas of the impacted community.
CHANG: Well, was access an issue when it came to supplying water there? Because Buncombe County, where Asheville is, says they put in a request for water before the storm, but they hadn't received anything until this morning. Here's County Manager Avril Pinder today.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AVRIL PINDER: We've been asking for water, and we're just getting water, and it's still in low quantities. There's a large need in our community, and we would like to see a better response from our state partners.
CHANG: Now, I understand that you represent the federal government. But what I want to know is the forecasts were quite accurate for Helene for quite some time, so why did it take this long to get water out there?
MAYORKAS: Well, Ailsa, if I may, the estimates of what Helene was going to bring and the reach it was going to have were actually underestimates. This has been unprecedented, and it has exceeded the estimates in terms of the communities reached. I do know that, you know, FEMA has shipped more than 1 million liters of water to devastated communities. It has shipped more than 1.9 ready-to-eat meals. So we are very well versed in dealing with emergency response. We are still in search-and-rescue mode in certain communities. There are local communities that are better equipped and, you know, better...
CHANG: Well...
MAYORKAS: ...Managed because of...
CHANG: ...The county manager...
MAYORKAS: ...Experience.
CHANG: ...The county manager for the Asheville area called the storm her county's own Katrina. Those are her words. What do you say to people who are remembering that terrible hurricane and its horrible aftermath? How do you reassure them that this response, this time around, will be different, that FEMA has learned from Katrina?
MAYORKAS: Well, that is most certainly the case. And, you know, this is not the first event since Katrina. My gosh, you know, the severity and frequency of extreme weather events has only grown - have only grown over the years. FEMA is very well equipped to respond in collaboration, in close partnership with our state and local authorities. We have responded to a multitude of hurricanes, tornadoes, fires.
CHANG: But what about the communications challenges that we heard raised by that small business owner, Dan Rattigan? Is that making the response more difficult in Asheville's case? And how can you shore up the system so that communications can be more efficient at this time?
MAYORKAS: The communication infrastructure is not what it needs to be. It is not resilient to the gravity of the extreme weather events that we are experiencing. There have been improvements made. Not only that, FEMA already has delivered 40 Starlink satellite systems to help with responder communications, and additional satellites are being shipped. The reality is that the country's infrastructure is not built to withstand the severity of the extreme weather events that we are experiencing.
CHANG: Right.
MAYORKAS: That is why the infrastructure resources that the president...
CHANG: OK.
MAYORKAS: ...Has delivered through legislation are so critical.
CHANG: That is Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Thank you very much.
MAYORKAS: Thank you, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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