Aus_Schwaben
First to know - Last to care!
Funny how FEMA is short of funds and action for disaster relief but staff for this - Big Brother would be proud...The most charitable read I can make of the whole thing is that they are trying to minimize the chaos in a disaster zone. Lots of people want to help (which is a good thing) but if we just let in anyone who drove up with a case of Great Value 8 oz bottles of water then the place would be a circus and it could hamper efforts of professional responders to rescue people. Then you also have the possibility of bad actors using the cover of Good Samaritans to get in the area as well to loot. Given government's one size fit's all approach they then also block highly capable (i.e. helicopter pilots hired by SpaceX) at the same time. Then of course they don't want to stop the flow of resources as they control access of people so they say, "leave the supplies with us and we'll distribute them." All of that is plausible. Often times even residents aren't allowed into disaster zones until the initial emergency response is complete and everything is deemed safe, we're not talking hours here, we're talking days and weeks.
Also plausible, government bureaucrats are just incompetent and messing this all up.
Much less likely but possible, they're evil and actively blocking access purely so they don't get politically embarrassed by "the other side" (shouldn't be an "other side" when we're helping disaster victims of course).
Batshit crazy and people who think this way need meds: they want people who live in areas that vote a certain way to die.
Hurricane Helene: Rumor Response
Help keep yourself, your family and your community safe after Hurricane Helene by being aware of rumors and scams and sharing official information from trusted sources.
www.fema.gov