Loss of FEMA aid hampers post-Helene recovery in North Carolina

Loss of FEMA aid hampers post-Helene recovery in North Carolina.

After jailbreak, Arkansas seeks former police chief convicted of murder, rape.

US-Israeli backed Gaza aid effort something between a sham and a shambles.

After Hurricane Helene caused devastation last fall, recovery across much of Western North Carolina has proven slower than many would have predicted at the time. Last week, the Trump administration once again denied North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein’s request to extend FEMA’s 100% reimbursement for debris removal. While the state has managed to clean up 12 million cubic yards of debris, Stein admitted they had only “scratched the surface”. Stein said the decrease in funds from FEMA “will cost North Carolina taxpayers potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up out west”.

He went on to say that the money the state will have to spend on debris removal “will mean less money towards supporting our small businesses, rebuilding downtown infrastructure, repairing our water and sewer systems, and other critical needs”.

Hard times and helping hands in Chimney Rock

This is particularly bad news for some of the devastated communities in the western part of the state, many of which are dependent on tourism. In Chimney Rock Village, NC, which saw immense flood damage, The tourist season usually kicks off after Memorial Day. This year, many of the picturesque town’s businesses and hotels remained shuttered as residents and business owners ponder what to do next.

Some are thinking of selling up and shutting down for good. Others are continuing to stubbornly work towards repairs on their businesses, hoping that tourists will soon return and that federal funds will come through. In the meantime, residents and businesses have had help from volunteers who came a long way to lend a “neighborly” hand.

Amish builders from Pennsylvania have been in town helping shore up foundations that have washed away, reframing damage buildings and putting up new rafters. They are there working with the Christian volunteer organization Spokes of Hope.

After jailbreak, Arkansas seeks former police chief, convicted rapist, murderer

On Sunday afternoon, Grant Hardin, 56, escaped custody at the North Central Unit prison in Calico Rock, AR. He has not yet been found.

Hardin once, briefly, served as police chief in Gateway, AR, near the Missouri border. However, he is more well-known for two infamous crimes. Hardin was convicted of the 2017 murder of James Appleton, a water department employee in Gateway. While serving time for that murder, Hardin’s DNA link him to the 1997 gunpoint rape of elementary school teacher Amy Harrison in Rogers, AR. These cases were featured in the 2023 made-for-TV documentary “Devil in the Ozarks”.

Because of his violent history, there was a great alarm about his escape, and the fact that authorities have not yet turned up a trace of him. Hardin escaped the prison through a sally port. He was wearing what authorities described as a “makeshift” outfit or disguise meant to resemble a law enforcement uniform. It is not clear how Hardin left the area, whether on foot or in a vehicle.

Residents in Northern Arkansas – where Appleton’s murder took place and where Hardin has family connections – are particularly on edge, fearing that Hardin may seek to return.

Hardin’s escape occurred just weeks after a well-publicized jailbreak in New Orleans in which 10 inmates escaped. In that case, 13 people have been charged with helping the escapees, both in their escape and while at large.

US-Israeli backed Gaza aid effort something between a sham and a shambles

The so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has begun setting up shop within Gaza. GHF, though headquartered in Switzerland, is actually a US-backed initiative to bring food into Gaza. Since March 2, Israel has been intentionally starving all 2.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. Famine is now rife and the inhabitants are increasingly desperate for any morsel of food.

Jake Wood, a retired US Marine who was to head the GHF effort in Gaza, resigned yesterday. In a letter, Wood wrote that the scheme would not work in a way that upheld the “humanitarian standards” of “humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence”.

Human rights groups and aid organizations on the ground have also warned that GHF’s was not intended to operate in a way consisted with international law governing aid to a civilian population. The UN, NGOs and various governments have also continued to criticize Israel’s woefully inadequate daily admission of aid into the Strip. Israel now controls all border crossings into Gaza, even the Rafah crossing which borders Egypt in the South.

The sham

What GHF offers is not a ray of hope for the Palestinians. Rather it is political cover for Israel, which has come under increasing international condemnation for its deliberate starvation of civilians. If anything, GHF appears to be set up to further Israel’s stated goal of ethnically cleansing large parts of the Gaza Strip by forcing starving civilians to leave their homes in the North to obtain meager rations in “sterile zones” controlled by Israel’s military.

GHF also offers Israel a way to achieve their long-standing goal of doing away with UNRWA. The UN agency has served Palestinian refugees ever since 1948 when 750,000 of them were expelled from their homes and villages by Zionist terrorists. UNRWA also keep track of refugee families in the region, which helps them to maintain their right of return to Israel, something Israel has long sought to thwart.

The GHF scheme has also apparently created a pretext for Israel to detain and “disappear” Palestinians seeking aid. DropSite News has heard from an aid worker in Gaza that a Palestinian man was abducted by the IDF when he came to a distribution point. He was detained because he could not supply information about a relative with whom he has had no communication since at least October 7, 2023. His family have not heard from him and he is now missing.

The shambles

Rather than distributing food throughout the strip. GHF has set up limited checkpoints, mostly in the south of the Strip. All of these distribution points are within militarily-controlled areas. Palestinians must journey for miles from wherever they are to these distribution points, queue up for hours, just to receive a box of food that will only last them and their families for 2 days, if they are lucky.

This has led to huge crowds being tightly corralled into fenced areas where they are left to wait hours in the sun. Today, there was a horrific incident at one distribution point where both US contractors and IDF fired warning shots to disperse starving civilians after they broke free from a fenced containment area. Reports indicate that this incident led to a deadly stampede, which killed at least three people and injured dozens.

Another ceasefire dead on arrival

Early reports on Monday indicated that Hamas had accepted a comprehensive ceasefire proposal, based on direct negotiations between the US and Hamas. The talks have been mediated in Doha by Bishara Bahbah (an Palestinian-American and an ally of Donald Trump) on behalf of Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.

According to Palestinian negotiators, the ceasefire, like the previous one signed in January, was to be executed in stages, ultimately leading to a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Strip.

Shortly after this news broke, however, Israeli officials leaked to the press that Israel would not be accepting this ceasefire. Later the same day, Axios quoted Steve Witkoff as saying that Hamas’s positions in the negotiations were “disappointing” and “unacceptable”, seeming to blame Hamas for the breakdown.

This conflicting reporting has led to a great deal of confusion as to what the deal in Doha was, who had accepted it, and who had rejected it. However, only Palestinian officials had claimed to have accepted the proposal as agreed.

In July of last year, after months of negotiation, Hamas had agreed to a framework for a sustainable ceasefire. This framework was essentially the same that was eventually signed in January of this year. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected it. Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken publicly put the blame on Hamas for the deal falling through. Blinken’s statement then brought any talks to an end for months.

Loss of FEMA aid hampers post-Helene recovery in North Carolina – National & International News – TUE 27May2025