Briar

FEMA seems to be very confused why the people of #WNC are choosing to NOT use the hotel vouchers they are handing out... Let me explain: a) You're living in Swannanoa NC when the river rises 22 feet and sweeps away your home and 2 vehicles. b) You have a family of 4 depending on you to make ends meet and work starts back in a few days. c) FEMA hands you a hotel voucher an hour's drive from your now-destroyed home. d) You tell the FEMA rep, "Look, I don't have a car and I can't live in a hotel 40 miles away from work and the home I need to start fixing" e) FEMA says, "Ok, well your temporary home is 3 months away, sorry, so go live in the hotel." f) You say, "If I go live in that hotel, I'll lose my job, I won't be able to repair my home, and everything we've worked so hard for will be gone." g) FEMA says, "We still don't understand why you won't go live in a free hotel." h) You decide to it's actually LESS RISKY to live in a makeshift tent outside of your home and pray a volunteer will deliver you an RV than go live in a hotel an hour away and lose everything. This is what FEMA cannot seem to understand. People are generally very logical, they don't WANT to sleep in tents. Government policies tend to be broadly applied to all situations and the hotel vouchers are just not gonna cut it for a lot of people in #WNC, for the reason I mentioned above.