OAN Staff James Meyers
11:59 AM – Monday, February 10, 2025
President Donald Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, took a trip to North Carolina and Tennessee in order to examine the aftermath damage left by “Hurricane Helene,” which occurred in late September 2024 — when President Joe Biden was still in office.
“Our hearts broke last year watching Hurricane Helene ravage the communities in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee,” Duffy announced. “When one part of our country hurts, our entire nation hurts and that is why it is my priority to help the people of North Carolina and Tennessee rebuild this critical highway, ensuring their communities stay connected to the rest of both states.”
“When you live in small town America, like many of the communities here in western North Carolina, they feel forgotten,” Duffy told Harris Faulkner on Monday. “They feel like the federal government doesn’t care. Their state governments haven’t cared about them. And I think with this administration, they understand that they might be from a small town, they might not be the richest people. But you know what? We have not forgotten about them because they’re Americans, and they deserve our help and our aid, and we’re going to provide it to them.”
Duffy noted that the new administration would soon be rebuilding a highway in the area that had collapsed during the hurricane, explaining that it would be a billion-dollar project requiring a long stretch of time until its completion.
“This is going to be the most expensive emergency relief project that the Department of Transportation has done in its 50-year history,” Duffy said. “That’s how big this project is and how important it is to get the rebuild right.”
“Donald Trump, he doesn’t move at the speed of prior administrations. He moves lightning quick, so we want to go fast,” he continued. “We want to go cheap, and we want to go safe.”
Trump is reportedly debating shutting down the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a whole, and instead, giving federal recovery money directly to states affected following natural disasters. FEMA has faced immense criticism in recent years due to its purported bias and inefficiency.
Trump signed an executive order last month establishing the FEMA Review Council, which will consist of less than 20 members — while being co-chaired by the secretaries of Homeland Security and Defense.
“Despite obligating nearly $30 billion in disaster aid each of the past three years, FEMA has managed to leave vulnerable Americans without the resources or support they need when they need it most,” the executive order reads.
Additionally, Duffy said that smaller infrastructure projects within local communities will also be looked at, emphasizing the need for community connectivity as developers and residents continue to rebuild.
“This is a major artery like we talked about, but there are so many small roads and bridges that connect the communities up in the mountains,” Duffy said. “Many of them have been partially washed away there. The mudslides and the rockslides that have devastated their homes, their churches, their stores, their coffee shops. And so it’s… that infrastructure as well that we’re going to look at and figure out how we can help them rebuild.”
“Again, sometimes people don’t think about this part of our government as being so critical, but if it doesn’t work, if you don’t have the infrastructure that connects people, again, it affects people’s lives in profound ways,” he continued.
Hurricane Helene left over 100 people dead in North Carolina alone, along with thousands of homes, businesses, and other structures being destroyed or severely damaged.
“This is their home. This is where their families have been for generations. They want to stay here,” Duffy continued. “And that’s why our work is so important, to help them continue to stay in the places that they love and the communities that they’ve enjoyed for so long.”
“We’re going to do our work to make sure that dream can continue to live on,” he concluded.
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