GREENSBORO, N.C. — What does FEMA do? You might think they tell state and local leaders what kind of help they're going to get. But it's actually the other way around.
FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Administration. Management is the key here. To over-simplify it, FEMA is not the one calling the shots, it's the middle man.
"State emergency management and the Governor are in charge of the response in NC. So, as counties request things of the state if the state can't provide they reach out to FEMA and help with some of those requests," said John Mills, FEMA Incident Response Team.
If the counties tell the state that the shelters are running out of supplies, then the state tells FEMA, and FEMA coordinates with organizations businesses, and suppliers to get what's needed.
FEMA is also out there working with troops who are figuring out how to navigate the terrain to get supplies in hard-to-reach places. These pictures in the video story are from a FEMA group working with a state team from New Jersey getting supplies to folks in western North Carolina.
WFMY News 2 also visited a kitchen set up by FEMA in the Asheville Civic Center to feed the first responders and all the workers sent to the area. You don't see anyone wearing a FEMA shirt, but I talked to the chef, who told me FEMA was the entity getting all the donations of food to feed the first responders.
FEMA is also assessing damage and helping folks make claims.
"We have deployed FEMA teams in shelters. They're staying in shelters and our teams are there to coordinate and help people apply for assistance on the spot," said Mills.
He says there have been tens of thousands of calls made to FEMA to make a claim.