Of truth and trust: Lack of accountability haunts charitable hurricane relief efforts
Haywood County resident James Lunsford has been operating a distribution/donation hub and campground since shortly after Hurricane Helene. Cory Vaillancourt photo
After Hurricane Helene completed its devastating march from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Smoky Mountains, the struggles of disaster survivors — from environmental devastation and bureaucratic hurdles to inadequate recovery support — have exposed a broken cycle of aid and accountability, where truth and trust become enveloped in a murky ethical mist that consists, at least partially, of exploitative promises made worse by false premises and finger-pointing.
Such has been the case in Haywood County, a hotbed of storm-related misinformation that’s donned a veneer of legitimacy thanks to the misguided efforts of one embattled elected official.
When Gary Carr first heard about a housing opportunity in Haywood County, he thought it was heaven-sent. But once he arrived, he described it as being closer to hell.
On the day before Hurricane Helene struck the Southeast, Carr says he was living in a camper nestled along the banks of the Nolichucky River at the Kinser Park Campground in Greeneville, Tennessee, with his wife and two children. Their house had burned down two weeks prior so they were already in a bad situation, but when raging floodwaters began to inundate the campground, they left with little more than the clothes on their backs.
They were fortunate. The campground was destroyed. Upriver, the Nolichucky blasted through an industrial park in Erwin home to BWXT Nuclear Fuel Services, one of just two locations in the United States licensed to store and process highly enriched uranium used on Navy aircraft carriers and submarines. Company officials said the site incurred only minor impacts, but other businesses in the park weren’t as lucky. At Impact Plastics, 11 workers were swept away. Five were rescued.
“We couldn’t save anything even if we wanted to, because there was chemicals all over everything down the river,” Carr said.
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Carr and his wife are both partially disabled. Although he’d been working part-time, the flood took away that job. With what little money they had and no immediate assistance available, they posted up in hotels for a few days until Carr made contact with a friend who told him about a church that would bring a camper to Haywood County for him and his family.
By mid-November, Carr and his family made their first trip to a 131-acre parcel off Orion Davis Road in Balsam that used to be known as Weeping Cherry Stables but had subsequently undergone a rebrand to Haven on the Hill. They soon began to feel something wasn’t quite right.
“We were shocked, but we were hopeful because of the way they talk to you when you first get there. They give you stuff, so you’re thinking that everything’s going to be okay, and they promise things, and it definitely changes,” Carr said. “Two weeks later, it was way different.”
Haven on the Hill had most recently been a cow pasture, but at some point after the storm, the property’s longtime resident, James Lunsford, began allowing people to camp out there as it turned into an unofficial donation hub for those who wanted to deliver essentials like campers, food, generators, propane and water to storm-stricken residents of Haywood County.
Lunsford’s been lauded by television and print reporters who promoted his GoFundMe donation link without mentioning his history of run-ins with local and federal authorities.
Animal rescue groups in November 2019 alleged cruelty at Weeping Cherry Stables, presenting photographs and witnesses suggesting Lunsford had mistreated more than a dozen animals in his care. As reported by The Smoky Mountain News, Lunsford denied the allegations, but in April 2021 he pleaded no contest to one count of animal cruelty, a Class 1 misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of up to 120 days in jail. Because Lunsford entered a PJC (Prayer for Judgement Continued), he was allowed to remain free unless he violated another law — any law — within 12 months.
Lunsford apparently completed the supervisory period satisfactorily, but federal charges stemming from incidents right around that time call his compliance into question.
On June 4, 2024, Lunsford was indicted by a federal grand jury on six felony charges related to illegal firearms transactions. Allegedly, between April 2021 and Feb. 8, 2024, Lunsford knowingly made false statements to a now-closed gun store in Murphy, Smoky Mountain Shooters Supply, asserting that he was the actual buyer of several weapons when in reality he was “acquiring the firearm on behalf of another individual,” according to the indictment.
Lunsford, who is not a federally licensed firearms dealer, was also accused of engaging in the business of dealing in firearms and ammunition, and of selling and delivering a revolver to someone who was not a licensed firearms dealer. Lunsford was arrested and given a conditional release on $25,000 unsecured bond, although the specific conditions of his release are still under seal.
The indictment called for Lunsford to forfeit items alleged to be related to the violations, including 21 pistols, 15 shotguns, 13 rifles, 10 revolvers and a small amount of ammunition.
Four of the counts carry a maximum sentence of five years each, up to three years supervision and a $250,000 fine. Two of the counts call for a maximum sentence of 10 years, up to three years supervision and a $250,000 fine. Lunsford pleaded not guilty to all of them and has requested a jury trial.
The docket shows multiple continuances issued in the case since last June, with nothing of substance yet taking place but another hearing scheduled in Asheville for March 3.
According to Carr, promises made by Lunsford and his helpers, including basics like stabilizing the camper and providing water, went unfulfilled for weeks. His family’s donated camper turned out to be damaged, Carr said, forcing them to relocate to another.
Even then, Carr says he observed more troubling irregularities at the camp, which housed approximately 40 to 50 campers of varying size. Despite being marketed as a refuge for hurricane victims, only three or four residents, by Carr’s estimation, had actually suffered losses from the disaster. Some had shown up empty-handed. Others brought their own campers. All were living off donations meant for flood victims, which were being hoarded, misappropriated or sometimes sold, Carr claims.
“One of the ladies that lives with [Lunsford] said that they were going to chop off my hand if I ever if I ever touch their gas without giving him $15 to put in his pocket,” Carr said. “There are people donating gas and propane. They’re donating food. Everyone’s donating clothes. Everyone thinks they’re coming there to donate for flood victims, but they’re not.”
Lunsford says that’s not true. He estimates 80% of the 100 or so people at Haven on the Hill are flood victims and said he’s never charged anyone for anything.
“Not a dime,” said Lunsford, who claims Carr isn’t even a flood victim and had stolen donated items from the farm. “That was more of the lies he was spreading. Gary Carr is nothing but a liar, and anybody that wants to believe him — I ain’t being mean, but I ain’t gonna waste my time on him. I don’t ever want to see the man again, or his wife.”
An estimated 40 to 50 campers currently dot Lunsford’s property. Cory Vaillancourt photo
The GoFundMe set up for Haven on the Hill has raised more than $82,000 as of Jan. 25, but Lunsford’s also getting another piece of the action, per Carr. While occupants on the back pasture have to endure the din of gas-powered generators running day and night, those who were able to pay Lunsford $250 a month were moved to the front pasture, near his house, where they would be connected to electricity and water.
Haywood County Development Services Director Garron Bradish said that county employees initially visited Haven on the Hill but not the front parcel where Lunsford is allegedly running electric to campers. Any arrangement would require the work be performed by licensed professionals with appropriate county permits.
Residents of the farm also had problems with basic sanitation, says Carr. Garbage was left in open piles, attracting animals and creating a health hazard. Human waste disposal was equally unsanitary, with some residents allegedly digging holes for waste instead of using the limited facilities.
“I never saw one person moving their poop from the little container thing to the other big container that is supposed to be taken out all the time and switched out,” Carr said. “I never saw one person do it, and I was out there almost every day at the beginning because I was actually helping.”
Initially, Carr claims, there was only one portable toilet.
There were at least four more when The Smoky Mountain News visited Haven on the Hill on Dec. 26; however, Carr said they’re only emptied once every two weeks. Best practices dictate that for every 20 people using a portable toilet, it should be emptied at least every four days. Around 100 people on the property were likely using the five toilets multiple times per day.
A small rivulet that flows into Richland Creek, which runs straight through downtown Frog Level, bisects the farm.
Bradish said that Lunsford came to county offices the week of Jan. 6 and applied for a permit for a septic system, meaning that the farm had not previously been operating in compliance with public health guidelines.
“Yeah, when they started this, they should have got the permit to begin with,” said Bradish.
Lunsford also applied for a permit to build a community kitchen on the property; however, as he’d already started building it and it didn’t appear to meet code, it had to be torn down and can be rebuilt after permitting is complete.
On Jan. 24, Bradish said that Lunsford had been issued a septic permit for a bath house and the kitchen but has not yet been issued a building permit for the kitchen. Lunsford’s also been issued a temporary 180-day permit for pump-and-haul waste disposal services.
After a more recent visit, Bradish said Lunsford had begun grading portions of the property to clear out more room for more campers, but had again begun work without the required permit.
As Carr learned more, he began to speak out, especially to people showing up with donations. He says his attempts to expose issues at Haven on the Hill made him a target. He reported being threatened with violence by other residents and staff, including one individual Carr equated to the “superintendent” of the farm — “A guy from Georgia that walks around with a .357 and flaunts it and scares the crap out of people.” This made others reluctant to speak out on conditions at Haven on the Hill like he had, Carr said.
“When everyone was coming to donate, I said, ‘Hey, you know, not everyone here lost everything,’” he said.
Carr claims he even told a Haywood County commissioner that he believed substantial fraud was occurring at Haven on the Hill and should be investigated. That commissioner, Carr said, was Terry Ramey.
There are others who can back up his claims about conditions at Haven on the Hill, but they’re not talking, said Carr.
“They’re all afraid to come out because they have nowhere else to go,” he said.
Robert Stokely has operated a supply distribution hub in Waynesville since Oct. 3, 2024, just a few days after the hurricane.
Lunsford, Stokely said, began visiting his supply hub but attempted to hijack it by making contact with Stokley’s donors and encouraging them to donate to Haven on the Hill instead.
“He was going behind my back and getting phone numbers for the distributors and calling them up, telling them that he’s the one running the organization [Stokely’s hub] and that that’s his distribution hub,” Stokely said. “He told them all that we were shutting down.”
Stokely verified his claim by providing a text exchange between him and a relief organization called the United Cajun Navy, which had been helping Stokely but stopped at the behest of Lunsford.
“Once the Cajun Navy found out what was going on, they said, ‘Well, we’re going to quit sending things to him and just start sending it back to y’all,’” said Stokely. “So they confirmed what we thought was going on the whole time.”
Lunsford claims he’d brought the first load of supplies to Stokely and that Stokely had accused Lunsford of stealing donations when in reality Lunsford was bringing Stokely donations.
“Robert Stokely, I don’t understand his stories, but if people want to get out here and investigate for the papers, they need to get out here and investigate by helping the people instead of investigating these bullshit stories about this group accusing this and this group accusing that,” Lunsford said.
On the east side of Orion Davis Road, dozens of neighboring homes are doubtless impacted by the recent increase in population and traffic to and from Haven on the Hill. Records from the Haywood County Sheriff’s office indicate 73 calls for service on Orion Davis Road or Weeping Cherry Drive from Oct. 1, 2024 through Jan. 7, 2025.
They include civil and domestic disturbances, discharging a firearm, property damage, suspicious persons, trespassing, welfare checks and traffic stops resulting in at least one arrest. While not all of the calls can be directly attributed to residents of the farm, deputies had performed nearly three dozen extra patrols on Orion Davis Road beginning in early December and continuing through the new year.
For the same three-month period during the previous year, there were only 12 calls for service and no extra patrols.
“I feel bad for the people that have lived there for decades,” Carr said. “It’s an eyesore. I mean, it’s noisy because of all the generators going, there’s just mud and obviously everyone knows what the mud is. It’s not really just mud, because you’re in a cow pasture.”
Campers are currently situated in what used to be a cow pasture. Cory Vaillancourt photo
On Jan. 18, a 911 caller reported respiratory distress, but muddy conditions at the camp made extraction of the individual difficult and required substantial law enforcement resources to resolve.
After being at Haven on the Hill for about a month, Carr was concerned about the threats and began the process of leaving with his family. But he says he wasn’t allowed to take the camper.
“We thought we owned the camper,” Carr said. “They said that you have to wait three to six months for the title, because they didn’t want you to turn around and sell it.”
Lunsford denied allegations about camper titles being issued to him rather than to storm survivors.
“They can run a DMV check on me. I have a Lexus, a Toyota truck and a GMC Yukon and a lawnmower trailer,” Lunsford said.
Frustrated and with nowhere to go, Carr reached out to good Samaritans who were concerned about his safety. They helped get him into a room at Waynesville’s Oak Park Inn for a few days.
“When we left that campground, we just told people we’re gonna go house-sit. We didn’t tell anybody, not even my mom,” Carr said. “Nobody knew, because we knew we were in a dangerous situation.”
On Dec. 15, the first day Carr and his wife spent in the hotel, Ramey showed up to distribute gift cards donated by an outside organization.
“When we saw him, we got really scared because we knew that this wasn’t good,” said Carr, who supposed a volunteer had inadvertently revealed Carr’s location to Ramey, thinking she was being helpful.
“Terry asked me who needed a gift card,” said Lorelei Garnes, the volunteer Carr referenced. “I said, ‘Well, drop one off to Gary at his hotel,’ and Terry was like, ‘Oh, wasn’t he at James Lunsford’s spot?’ And I said, ‘Yes, he left. He’s having issues there.’ And I said, ‘as a matter of fact, I need you to go to the commissioners and have [Lunsford’s camp] investigated … because Gary says that they’re charging for propane, that they can only get so much of the distribution things — like one item or something per day — and that the conditions weren’t livable up there.”
Hours later, Carr heard pounding on his door, leading to what he says was a frightening confrontation.
“It was actually James Lunsford himself. He was the one knocking on the door, banging on it,” Carr said. “There was a whole white suburban filled to the brim with people parked like right in front of the door, but they were in the car. They had the windows down, telling me to stay inside for my safety. And James is yelling, threatening me.”
At 8:10 p.m. that night, a 911 call was placed by Carr’s wife from the Oak Park Inn and routed to the Waynesville Police Department, per WPD records. The comments on the call for service report simply state, “James Lunsford is there and is scaring her.”
Multiple officers quickly responded to the call, which was treated as civil disturbance/disorderly conduct. No arrests were made.
“Mr. Lunsford was advised to leave and not come back tonight,” the report reads.
“They just told me to leave so I wouldn’t choke him for stealing from people that was in need,” said Lunsford, who confirmed both Carr’s and Garnes’ account of Ramey’s involvement.
Garnes agrees that Ramey, rather than inform commissioners about Carr’s concerns at Haven on the Hill, created a dangerous situation for everyone involved by divulging Carr’s whereabouts to Lunsford.
“So [Ramey] puts Gary’s family in harm’s way and put us in harm’s way, because now we’ve got all these people like crazy James Lunsford and all these crazies know who we are, because [Ramey] went up there and exposed it,” Garnes said.
Carr believes this escalation was directly tied to his efforts to expose what he says are the camp’s mismanagement and the misuse of donations, and that Lunsford was there to silence him.
“Terry Ramey literally told [Lunsford] what hotel we were in and what room,” Carr said. “He put my family in a very dangerous situation. Luckily, my kids weren’t there, but my kids could have been there. My wife was so scared she had a seizure that night.”
The extent of Haywood County Commissioner Terry Ramey’s involvement in the Haven on the Hill community isn’t fully clear; however, his legacy of lies during his two years of service on the commission, as well as his participation in spreading lies about hurricane relief, is.
Haywood Commissioner Terry Ramey. File photo
Shortly before the 2022 General Election, SMN reported that Ramey hadn’t paid his property taxes for well over a decade. When confronted about his delinquencies, Ramey threatened this reporter and denied the taxes were valid. The county tax assessor attested to their validity. After being seated on the commission, the board’s other four commissioners — like Ramey, all Republicans — issued a joint statement, telling Ramey to pay his taxes and stop threatening the media. Shortly thereafter, during a Jan. 17, 2023 Haywood Commissioners meeting, Ramey made a number of verifiably false statements regarding his tax debts, including that he set up a payment plan for his overdue taxes the previous September. He simultaneously claimed he owed no taxes. According to the tax collector and tax assessor, both statements were false.
Ramey still owes roughly $2,000, according to figures provided by the Haywood County tax collector, but his tax delinquencies weren’t the end of behaviors that for an elected official some might consider questionable. Not long after Hurricane Helene hit — and with it scads of misinformation, false statements and more outright lies — Ramey appeared in a video produced by an out-of-state YouTube personality named John Ward.
Ward’s YouTube channel started off innocently enough about three years ago, documenting the eccentricities of Appalachia’s disappearing culture. Dozens of videos chronicle old mom-and-pop general stores, regional delicacies, octogenarian escapades of yore, antique tractors and the world’s longest yard sale.
That all changed nearly a month after Hurricane Helene, with a video shot in Saluda featuring Mayor Angie Morgan and discussing the toll the storm had taken on the town. Since then, Ward has shifted almost exclusively to producing storm-related videos, many of which tug at the heartstrings of generous donors by using emotional appeals centered around lies related to hurricane recovery efforts. He’s now racked up more than 3 million views on nearly 40 such videos, including the one featuring Ramey.
On Nov. 26, 2024, Ward posted a video filmed at the Smoky Mountain Events Center featuring Ramey. In the video, Ward claims that nonprofits had brought tiny homes and campers to Haywood County for victims of Hurricane Helene and that they wanted to set them up in a covered area at SMEC, but red tape — state building code — was getting in the way. In the video, Ward is heard to say that “… the biggest thing is, the county commissioners is going to have to vote to approve [bypassing state building codes],” which is not something commissioners have the authority to do.
“Well, it would have to be approved by the county commissioners,” Ramey incorrectly told Ward. “I’m just one of five, so it would be up to everybody to see what they wanted to do.”
During a contentious Dec. 2 commission meeting right after the Ramey video, at least one commissioner took Ramey to task for not challenging Ward’s exhortation that commissioners vote to override state law.
Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood), in a surprise appearance, told Ramey that if he couldn’t serve with the other four commissioners he should resign. Ramey denied all wrongdoing.
In a subsequent video that’s since been removed from YouTube, Ward, who needs your clicks and donations to continue his work, posted the names, phone numbers and email addresses of the other four commissioners and urged viewers to forward commissioners a threat sometimes used by so-called sovereign citizens, who believe certain laws do not apply to them.
“Call your local FBI field office and have the county officials involved arrested under citizens arrest … for felony conspiracy … felony deprivation or rights under color of law … insurrection and rebellion against the constitution of the United States, perjury and violating oath of office, crimes against humanity, and domestic terrorism for refusing to allow tiny homes …”
That threat, in turn, prompted some to make vulgar, violent late-night threats against the other four commissioners as well as workers at SMEC. Ramey was subsequently stripped of his position on SMEC’s board.
“Well, I do feel bad that somebody did talk ugly,” Ward said Jan. 13. “So I did pull the video down to try to give some relief from there and to keep the problems down on that for them. So I did back off. As of right now, I don’t have any particular issues with them going on that I want to cause any more problems for them at all.”
Ward said that going forward, he’s going to focus on the original mission of his YouTube channel and that he’s going to try to promote tourism to storm-impacted regions of Western North Carolina.
“That’s kind of what I want to do with Maggie Valley,” he said. “I don’t want to get no more fusses and arguments and having people hate on me.”
As with any good grift, the key is to get while the gettin’ is good before others, like gold miners, find out and show up looking for their own piece of the lode. The more skillful miners come in relatively early during the hurricane recovery process but others have only recently arrived to salvage the last shiny nuggets from that rich, golden vein.
Since Helene, there has been a substantial uptick in calls to the sheriff for service on Orion Davis Road. Cory Vaillancourt photo
Christopher Key drives a late model Ford Mustang emblazoned with the words “vaccine police” on the side, along with other patriotic imagery plastered thereabouts. A prolific social media user, Key usually sticks to spreading anti-vax conspiracy theories. He has called for the execution of pharmacists who offer vaccinations. He was arrested in 2022 for failure to comply with a mask mandate in court. He asserts that drinking one’s own urine cures COVID. He’s also been known to espouse a number of ridiculous theories on a variety of other topics — the earth is flat, governments control the weather and utilize chemtrails for some nefarious purpose.
Another constant for Key is his aggressive hawking of questionable nutritional supplements, like IGF-1, which is made from deer antler velvet.
In 2013, Key’s supplement company was found by an Alabama judge to have violated the Alabama Deceptive Trade Practices Act more than 260 times. He was prohibited from selling products — including IGF-1 — accompanied by what then-Attorney General Luther Strange called “unsupported and dangerous health claims” within Alabama or to Alabama consumers on the internet.
“The extreme and even absurd nature of health claims made by this company could be harmful to those who might rely on these products and believe their health needs were being met,” Strange said in a press release.
The first post on Key’s current X account is dated Nov. 4, 2024, but his first Helene-related post came not long after that. Soon, he would set his sights on Haywood County by invitation of Ramey.
On both Dec. 11 and Dec. 12, 2024, long after the dustup during the Dec. 2 commission meeting, Key posted videos to X claiming he’d “interviewed” Ramey and that commissioners were trying to “kick him off the board” and that Ramey’s brakes had been cut. SMN was unable to locate Key’s purported interview with Ramey.
“You won’t find that out of respect to him and me,” Key told SMN on Jan. 26. “Everything we did was in confidence. I told him that I would not release that information until he feels comfortable with that, and I haven’t had a chance to go back and talk to him about it, because he was the one that was calling me up, telling me what was going on over in Haywood.”
As with Ward, Ramey’s unfamiliarity with the law and his false assertions prompted Key to act.
“[Ramey’s] the one that called me up after they got SB 382 passed and said, ‘Christopher, they’re not going to honor this, and they’re telling people they don’t care, that they’re basically above the law, and they’re not going to let these people live in these trailers and whatnot, these houses,’” Key said.
On Dec. 20, Key visited town hall in Clyde and began haranguing a clerk, claiming the town wasn’t respecting provisions in SB 382 regarding the placement of campers. Key alleged incorrectly that the town had made a woman sleep in her car the previous night because she wasn’t allowed to sleep in a camper on someone else’s private property.
Key correctly stated that SB 382 would allow people to sleep in campers, which had previously been prohibited, so long as they produced an affidavit holding local governments harmless. However, Key was apparently unaware of one crucial detail — the camper has to be located on one’s own flood-damaged property where the primary residence is under repair.
“If that is true, I’ll have to go back and look at it,” Key told SMN. “That is just bullshit.”
The clerk politely provided Key with a copy of the policy but refused to take the bait when he accused her of acting “above the law” and alleged that she’d either been paid off or threatened.
At that point, the clerk asked Key to leave.
“I don’t need to leave,’ Key said. “This is my building. I pay for this … I own this building.”
Town Administrator Joy Garland was in the office but did not witness the confrontation. She said that when she heard voices getting elevated, someone called the sheriff’s office.
“The Town of Clyde Board and staff have worked diligently before, during and after the storm to provide flood-related communication and services to our community. In a time when we are already working tirelessly for our citizens’ benefit, the misinformation being circulated and the difficult people we’ve encountered doing so have only made our jobs more challenging,” Garland told SMN. “We encourage anyone that may have questions concerning temporary recreational vehicles or campers to come and talk with us prior to placement to ensure permits can be issued.”
Key eventually left the building, but he posted another video from the parking lot, where he encountered a sheriff’s deputy to whom he repeated claims of administrators and elected officials being paid off or threatened. The deputy politely explained that the town had to follow the law.
The two videos shot in Clyde only have a few hundred views, but one repost from another account garnered nearly 250,000 views. Key also maintains a GiveSendGo fundraiser with a goal of $5,000, purportedly to build 500 tiny homes. As of Jan. 26, that fundraiser had reached $6,850, including a recent donation for $1,000. Key says he hasn’t spent any of the money yet due to problems with land acquisition.
On Dec. 20, Key showed up at the Historic Haywood County Courthouse wanting to speak with Commission Chair Kevin Ensley or County Manager Bryant Morehead. Neither were available, so he took commissioners’ phone numbers from Board Clerk Amy Stevens, who described Key as “quite aggressive.”
Key did not identify himself, but instead provided Stevens with a coin listing his vaccine police website and his phone number. Key says he hasn’t released the video from that encounter yet, out of deference to Ramey.
Ramey’s connection to Lunsford, advocacy with Ward for illegal temporary dwellings and encouragement of Key’s visit to Clyde all make more sense in light of an anecdote shared by Clyde’s town administrator, Joy Garland.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, what appear to be two small sheds — provenance unknown — appeared on Ramey’s property, which lies just outside of Clyde but within the town’s extra-territorial jurisdiction.
According to Garland, Ramey approached her weeks ago, asking what he’d have to do to allow people to live in the sheds. Garland checked with the town planner and told Ramey that because of the same town policy he misunderstood and complained about to Key, his property was not eligible for such a scheme.
Rental assistance from FEMA can help people pay for accommodations until a permanent housing solution is identified; according to FEMA, the initial payment for rental assistance may be up to two months and additional funding can be requested.
Garnes remains concerned that without the truth about people trying to profit from the misfortune of others, many of the generous donors and selfless organizations — of which there are plenty — who supported recovery efforts may not trust Western North Carolina during future disasters.
“We can’t prevent people from being evil and scumbags, but we could create strong community leaders and a good, strong disaster recovery plan,” Garnes said, while pleading for oversight of charitable organizations to ensure they’re legitimate. “Those watchdogs can be put in place in communities so that they can be exposed, that they can monitor what donation platforms are being used to educate our donors who to donate to, how to know if it’s a trustworthy source, and educate the public and streamline who they give to.”
Commissioner Terry Ramey did not respond to a message seeking comment for this story.
