Tillis, Cooper spar over military response to Helene
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis (left) speaks to soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division at the International Paper Sports Complex in Canton on Oct. 8.
Cory Vaillancourt photo
Despite criticizing ridiculous conspiracy theories that came in the wake of Hurricane Helene — and supporting state Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Macon) for calling them out — North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis made clear today that in his opinion, not everything has gone smoothly during the state’s recovery from the storm. Gov. Roy Cooper pushed back on at least one aspect of Tillis’ claim.
“I think that FEMA, a lot of the usual suspects for disaster response, were pre-positioned about as well as they could be,” Tillis told The Smoky Mountain News at the International Paper Sports Complex in Canton Oct. 8. “We're in a parking lot right now with some soldiers that had come in from the 101st Airborne. My main concern is that we had 1,000 soldiers at Fort Liberty last Monday that could have been deployed. They didn't really start moving until Friday.”
Tillis said that although the federal government had made the resources available, it was Cooper’s decision on when to deploy them.
“We started really pressing the issue of, ‘get as many resources out there as possible,’ particularly people like these,” said Tillis.
The soldiers, Tillis said, are very low impact on the communities they serve. They bring their own food and their own shelter along with tremendous capabilities. Other resources, however, will soon be redirected to Florida, where Hurricane Milton is projected to make landfall as a major hurricane on Oct. 9.
Tillis believes that the FEMA people on the ground in Western North Carolina are “doing great work,” and that while he does have an issue with some decisions that were made, he has no issue with the first responders charged with carrying out those decisions.
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Jordan Monaghan, deputy communications director for Cooper, said that Cooper asked President Joe Biden Sept. 30 to make all necessary federal resources available to respond to this catastrophic storm and requested that the Department of Defense approve Brigadier General Charles W. Morrison, North Carolina Army National Guard, as the Dual Status Commander for any active-duty military assigned duty in North Carolina under Title X.
“The Department of Defense approved this request on Wednesday, Oct. 2, and the National Guard and active-duty forces began a coordinated deployment into impacted counties.” Monaghan said. “Title X aviation assets including helicopters and pilots deployed almost immediately on Oct. 2 and 3 and 1,500 active-duty military personnel have deployed to Western North Carolina since Oct. 3, with more on the way.”
The massive response involving equipment personnel from the National Guard, Army, state and local first responders and emergency managers, FEMA and others must be closely coordinated to meet immediate emergency needs and establish a long-term recovery, Monaghan said, adding that every effort is being made to the maximize speed, coordination and impact of resources and personnel at every level. Cooper, said Monaghan, appreciates the significant additional capabilities brought to this effort by our active-duty forces.
“A significant hurdle in this response has been a relentless campaign of disinformation both online and from prominent politicians including Donald Trump and Mark Robinson,” Monaghan said. “We encourage Sen. Tillis to stick to the facts and refuse to turn a blind eye to all those who are trying to spread confusion and slow this recovery."
A frequent visitor to Canton in the wake of tragedies, Tillis recently secured a $5.8 million in federal funding for Canton’s fire station, which was damaged during flooding in 2021 and again last month during Helene.
“This storm was another 8 or 10 feet higher than what we were recovering from,” he said. “I'm back in Canton to tell those folks that I'm going to be with them on this one, just like I was the last one and any future ones.”
