Press Releases

Asheville, NC — Today, Speaker Johnson joined Representative Chuck Edwards (NC-11) and Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Ted Budd (R-NC) in Western North Carolina to meet with first responders and families impacted by Hurricane Helene, which devastated communities in the Southeast last week. The delegation received multiple on-the-ground tours of the hurricane damage, and afterwards gave remarks to assembled local media.

“I think it's important for the Speaker of the House to come,” Speaker Johnson said to reporters. “It's symbolic to show that it's the whole of Congress that has our eyes and our attention, our prayers on the community here and those who are affected. We want them to know they will not be forgotten and that we will get recovery dollars to these communities as is needed.”

“Before we left Congress two Wednesdays ago — we're on day 13 post-storm here — but the day before Helene made landfall, Congress passed an appropriations, a continuing resolution to fund the government, and we included $20 billion to go to FEMA so that they would have what was necessary for the emergent needs, the urgent needs that followed the hurricane,” Speaker Johnson continued.

“We supplied FEMA with the resources that it needed to respond directly,” Speaker Johnson concluded. “As of Monday, only 1% of those funds had actually been distributed. There's concern that the federal response was too slow, and that needs to be addressed. But FEMA and the administration have the resources necessary right now to address the immediate needs.”

“What happens next after a storm like this is that the states then do their individual assessments and calculations of the damages and then they submit that need to the federal government. Then Congress acts. So as soon as those calculations are prepared, Congress will act in a bipartisan fashion to supply what is needed to help these communities recover, the appropriate amount that the federal government should do.”

Below are Speaker Johnson’s full remarks: 

Well, we want to thank you all for being here. We took what really was a heart-breaking tour of the disaster area here. Helene did real damage across six states. Of course, over the last week or so, I've been in Georgia to see some of the devastation there. I went to Florida on the coast where the hurricane made landfall and devastated communities there. 

But I think some of the worst devastation is probably right here in North Carolina, and that may be surprising to people. We don't think of North Carolina and the mountains here in terms of hurricanes and floods normally, but this probably has been what they refer to as a thousand-year event. It's devastating, and it's heartbreaking to see the families, the small business owners, just the communities that are quite literally digging out from debris and all the terrible things that have been left behind the floods. 

We went to Swannanoa and to Biltmore Village, and we've seen some of the most disaster I've seen in my life, and that's saying a lot. 

I'm from Louisiana where we know hurricanes, we know disasters of this magnitude. Katrina was almost 20 years ago. We're still recovering in some ways from that in South Louisiana. So, we know these situations well, but it's hard to see. What is encouraging is the spirit of the people. And we were at the First Baptist Church in Swannanoa there, and it's become sort of a hub of a community activity where people and organizations and volunteers from all over the nation have come in to lend supplies and support and diapers and baby formula and medicine. 

They set up what is effectively a makeshift hospital in the parking lot, and they have done such extraordinary work of serving and reaching people up into the hills and the mountains who were unreachable because bridges and roadways have been washed out. Some of the estimates we heard today that there may be as many as 615 roads and major thoroughfares in the state in western North Carolina that are severely damaged, and many will need to be rebuilt and replaced.

You have bridges out all over the place. You've seen the devastation here in Biltmore Village where we are today. Historic levels of flooding and up to 20 feet in some places in these buildings and it will take a long, long time to recover. But the people are very resilient, and they remind us of what is best about America. And that's the encouraging thing. 

I came here, we wanted to be here to let them know that not only do they have extraordinary leadership in Congress, Congressman Chuck Edwards here and the Senators Ted Budd and Thom Tillis, also you have Virginia Foxx and Richard Hudson and Patrick McHenry, everyone who has anything to do with Western North Carolina has had all hands on deck working to serve the needs of their constituents and to be on the ground and deeply involved in what's happening here. 

But I think it's important for the Speaker of the House to come as well. It's symbolic to show that it's the whole of Congress that has our eyes and our attention, our prayers on the community here and those who are affected. We want them to know they will not be forgotten and that we will get recovery dollars to these communities as is needed. 

I want to point out that before we left Congress two Wednesdays ago, we're on day 13 post-storm here, but the day before Helene made landfall, Congress passed an appropriations, a continuing resolution to fund the government, and we included $20 billion to go to FEMA so that they would have what was necessary for the emergent needs, the urgent needs that followed the hurricane. We knew that it would be a large one. Of course, we saw it. We had more than a week's notice that that would happen. 

And so, we supplied FEMA with the resources that it needed to respond directly. When I last checked, as of Monday, only 1% of those funds had actually been distributed. There's concern that the federal response was a little too slow, and that needs to be addressed. But FEMA and the administration have the resources necessary right now to address the immediate needs. 

What happens next after a storm like this is that the states then do their individual assessments and calculations of the damages and then they submit that need to the federal government. Then Congress acts. So as soon as those calculations are prepared, Congress will act in a bipartisan fashion to supply what is needed to help these communities recover, the appropriate amount that the federal government should do. 

But it will take some time, sadly and unfortunately, for those calculations to be made. In the meantime, again, literally billions of dollars are sitting in accounts at FEMA with the administration to address the immediate needs. So, we're hopeful that that can be done. I'll just say this, and I want to yield to my colleagues here to say a word here to give the local perspective. 

I want to tell you that one of the encouraging things is to see these valiant, heroic first responders, to see volunteers from churches and private organizations. Samaritan's Purse has been on the ground, of course. Mercury One, there's all these outside organizations. We saw the Red Cross here. There's a lot of really good people, a lot of great Americans doing a lot of important work here. We saw people hugging one another and just leaning on one another and that's what reminds you about what's great about our country. We do this better than anybody. The private sector, neighbors, communities are the best in sticking together at a time like this. I was heartened to see state police troopers from Louisiana, my home state, who are here and those friends, they know hurricanes and disaster recovery really well. But there's law enforcement from all around the country. There's over a thousand troops deployed right now out of Fort Liberty and out of Kentucky that are out here in the mountains and doing what they do, recovery and rescue and removal of debris and anything that's needed. So, we've seen the best of America. That's what's encouraging. We will rebuild, and better days are ahead.