In this episode, Lisa discusses the aftermath of Hurricane Helene with Matt Van Swol, a resident of Western North Carolina. Matt shares his harrowing experiences during the hurricane, describing the severe flooding and destruction in his community. He highlights the slow and inadequate response from FEMA and the perceived neglect by the Biden administration, contrasting it with President Trump's visit, which he felt brought much-needed attention and support. The Truth with Lisa Boothe is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
In our first White House Press Secretary briefing, Caroline Levitt
made a point to talk about how President Trump wanted
his first presidential visit to be to western North Carolina
and to California. That this is why Americans know that
he's a man of the people, that he doesn't want
any American to feel forgotten. And we know that, especially
the citizens of western North Carolina, four months after Hurricane Helene,
(00:24):
have felt forgotten. That they have felt like they haven't
been heard by the Biden administration, that FEMA was not
there for them, that FEMA was actually causing more harm
than good. They felt left behind. And if you remember,
Hurricane Helene caused devastation in western North Carolina. There were
at least one hundred and four reported deaths. The flooding
was so severe, exceeding thirty inches in some places, resulting
(00:47):
in historic widespread flooding. It was described with terms like
biblical that's how bad it was, leaving neighborhoods destroyed, communities
isolated with no access out. But those days are over
or with President Trump, and he made a point to
let them know that. And what I think was so
cool about his visit to western North Carolina and to California.
If you watched the press conferences, he handed the press
(01:11):
conference over in both instances to the citizens, to the people.
He wanted them to be heard. And in one instance,
when one man was talking about the difficulties that he
has had, the struggles that he has had, President Trump
asked him to name the insurance company, to name and
shame the insurance company that hadn't been helping him. And
I think those Americans felt heard for the first time
(01:31):
in a long time. And as much as President Trump
gets criticized, this is someone who loves America, who wants
to put citizens first. I mean we saw it during
his first term when he visited Texas twice after Hurricane Harvey,
or when he visited Florida after Hurricane Irmar, even as
a candidate, when he visited East Palestine, Ohio after they
were ignored by the Biden administration. So we're going to
(01:53):
talk to one man today who's from Western North Carolina,
who has been relentlessly fighting to try to bring the
truth about the day image that was done to Western
North Carolina, as well as just the fact that the
community has been ignored by FEMA, bringing a lot of
those issues to light as well. So he's been a
truth teller for his community. His name is Matt Vincewell,
(02:13):
we're going to talk to him about that, his experiences
living through Hurricane Helene, and then also how this has
shaped his personal opinions, his politics, his viewpoint on the government.
What's it like to live through something like that. So
stay tuned for Matt Vanswoll. So, Matke, you lived through
(02:35):
Hurricane Heleen and western North Carolina where you reside, First
of all, tell us what that was like to have
gone through that, to experience it, you know, walk us
through your story so we have an understanding of kind
of where you were and what you've been through.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, So we live in a small town just outside
of Asheville called Weaverville. We live along just a little
ways from like this, this very small creek. And during
Hurricane Helene, this little creek that was maybe five feet
wide it its max went to essentially two football fields
(03:09):
wide during the flooding and took out most of the
homes along the creek, nearly all of the bridges, and
we saw like eighteen wheelers like floating in the creek.
It was just one of the wildest things you've ever
seen in your life.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I couldn't believe it was real. Like I still.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Remember driving out of our neighborhood after a neighbor actually
took his tractor and pushed all of the trees out
of our road because we had probably one hundred trees.
We lived on this little cul de sac, and we
probably had one hundred trees down over over our road.
We couldn't get out, so a guy with a tractor
(03:50):
ended up chainsawing some trees and clearing the road for us,
which was awesome that I'll never forget pulling out of
our driveway and seeing what I thought looked like an ocean,
but it was actually our little creek that had just
risen and just smashed through everything in sight. It was
one of the craziest things I've ever witnessed. But we
(04:10):
were with that power for three weeks. We left and
went to Charlotte, North Carolina, got starlink and a generator
one night, and then came back and actually ended up
running really long extension courts into our neighbors' homes so
they could power some of their appliances for a couple
of weeks, and then our home kind of became like
(04:32):
the internet cafe for the neighborhood because we were the
only ones with starlink. So it's crazy to just see
people come in and like call loved ones and say
like we're okay.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
It was just, I mean, this is the craziest experience.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I guess living through. I mean, it's always crazy to me.
You know, Thank God I've not had to live through
something like that.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
I might.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I do live in Florida, so you know, there's always
the possibility.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I can't imagine just having you know, resided someplace for
you know, a while, it's your home, and then just
wake up one day and everything you knew is gone
and different and life has changed that substantially. I just
I imagine that's a really hard thing to digest in life.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, it's been really hard on our kids the most.
And how old are they They are thirteen, eleven and four,
so man, it's so so hard. But they see, you know,
all the parks that they normally play in are still
(05:35):
just completely destroyed.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I've posted a couple of videos of the soccer field
just right across from my home, and you can see
like tractor trailers on the soccer field and campers and
it's all still there, and so many of the parks,
the playgrounds that we used to go to are gone.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
And I think my wife posted this the other day.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
But we were driving just a target to get some
stuff and my son looks out the window of the
four year old and he goes.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Are there dead people there? And it's just something he
thinks about constantly.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
When we drive by all this debris piled up everywhere,
because he you know, he has just such a basic
understanding of what happened, but he knows it was horrific
and that you know, people died, and it's just, you know,
it's one of those things you should never have to
explain to your toddler that, like, yes, it was hard
and we're getting through it, but they just feel the
effects every single day, if.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
I mean, that's got to be hard as parents, because
you know, with young kids, obviously you want to protect them.
You want to shield them from pain and from you know,
having to witness bad things. I guess how do you
kind of balance that with also you know, they're they're
probably wondering why their lives have been so disrupted as well.
So I mean, I guess how do you balance that
as a parent. I imagine that's got to be a
(06:54):
really challenging thing to try to navigate.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, as a parent, you just hate it.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
You know, your heart, you don't know what to say,
But I have to say that kids are so resilient
and one of the greatest things that's come out of
this is seeing my kids volunteer and help other people
like they volunteered at so many different places, sorting clothes,
(07:20):
food items, putting you know, food in people's cars.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
My four year old got.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
To deliver an RV with us to a woman who's
homeless after Hurricane Helena lost her home and got to put.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Toys in it for a kid a year younger than him.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And I think that's just such a good experience for
kids to be able to give back in a way
they never would have been able to if a natural
disaster like this.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Wouldn't have happened.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
But I'm truly, I'm really so proud of my kids
for the way that they have they've handled it and
being able to give them an experience of giving back.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I think it's so important.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
What is living through through a natural disaster lake that
teach you about humanity. I know you had talked about
how you know your neighborhood. You set up sort of
an Internet cafe for the rest of the neighborhood. I
guess what does it show you? What does it tell
you about humanity?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, I mean it brings out the best and the
worst simultaneously, you know, and you find out very quickly
that essentially nothing else matters except the friends that you've
made in life, because those are the people that come
and help you. And we always think that we have,
you know, less in common with people than we actually do.
(08:35):
Like the neighbor that cut us out of our driveway.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I've only talked to him twice in my whole life,
and he spent seven hours on my road, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Just trying to get us out. And I mean I've.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Only talked to this many class and you know, he
took time out of his day to help. And I
truly think that that is what makes Americans Americans. You know,
regardless of your political views, if something bad is going
to happen, we're going to be there for you. And
no one talked about politics at the beginning of the storm.
Everyone was trying to help everyone, and you know, we
(09:10):
had some bad actors that tried to do some looting
and stuff, but our neighborhood set up like a little
police force with people driving around with walkie talkies.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
And made sure everyone was safe.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
And that felt great, and I just really think that
it brought out, you know, some of the best in people,
and you know, we all worked to make sure everyone
else was okay. And you know, our house barely had
any damage at all, and other people's had, you know,
terrible damage. I changed aw quite a few trees off
of neighbors' houses during this first weeks of the storm,
(09:44):
and then obviously we saw so much worse damage with
the flooding later on that we just couldn't believe.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
And that's kind of phase two.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
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(10:55):
so interesting how resilient humans are. You know, you're talking
about just how you guys set up your own police
for worse and you know kind of people just coming
together to problem solve. So you've really been fighting for
your community by bringing the truth on AX, by by
posting about it, sort of forcing attention to the issue,
making sure that it's not forgotten it.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Take us through for.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
People who are unfamiliar. I mean, obviously we saw images
after the hurricane hit, but take us through just the
level of devastation and the damage that it did, and
then also talk about how important X has been for
you to get the word out about that devastation.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Oh man, Yeah, I haven't even been to all of
the places that have been devastated. There's just so many,
especially like out in the Hallers, in some of the
mountain areas like Spruce Pine and others that just got
absolutely walloped. And I feel like East Tennessee, you know, had.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Had some really rough stuff happen as well.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
But down I've lived very close to downtown Ashville, and
like I said, I live next to Creek and all
of those homes and bridges you know, got flooded pretty
pretty badly, and it was just beyond comprehension, Like the
mind really couldn't comprehend what you were seeing because it
didn't look familiar in any sense. Like I remember getting
(12:16):
to the French Broad River maybe day two or three,
I mean, when the flooding had subsided, subsided substantially, and
I still didn't recognize that. I could not believe how
bad it was, Like the river was so wide, it
just didn't even look the same. Especially River Arts District
in downtown Asheville just completely underwater, completely leveled. It was
(12:41):
just so crazy, and I remember I was at a
restaurant called White Duck Taco when I first heard about
that the assassination of or the attempted assassination of Trump,
And we were all out there like looking at our phones,
and I was staring at it from a bridge and
(13:01):
it was gone.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I mean, it was not there anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
And I just thought, Wow, these are going to be
so many memories that are just going to be wiped
off the face of the earth. And that's just in
the little little portion where we were.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Towns like Marshall, we have a lot of friends.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I mean, those places are completely you know, wiped off
the face of the earth.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Like it surprises me that they're.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Able to even pull out from the experience of the
flooding that they got.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
It's it's just insane.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
But X you know, was really a lifeline, I think
for getting the word out about what was happening in
western North Carolina because very few mainstream media outlets were
covering it, especially you know, at the beginning of the storm,
like maybe the first two to seven days, we did
have a lot of coverage, and then, just like any
(13:56):
national disaster, people just lose interest. They don't really want
to hear that things aren't going well, and I'm guilty
of that myself, just as a consumer of media, you know,
forgetting about places like Lehina in Mali and East pastein
So I just didn't want that to happen to us.
(14:16):
So I kind of made it my mission to stay
on top of it no matter what until things started
to turn around. And it was just so surprising to
me how long it has taken for that mission to
finally be accomplished. I mean, I would have never thought
in a million years that I would still be posting
(14:39):
about FEMA and people needing electricity and food and propane
four months after the storm, Like, no.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Chance would I have ever thought I'd be doing something
like that.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
But it was necessary because people were hurting and they
just didn't have a voice. And I've truly felt like,
you know, perhaps we were screaming into the void for
four months straight, and it was just truly amazing when
Trump came and gave a voice to some of the people.
I think it was one of the most beautiful things
I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
We've got a quick commercial break war with Matt on
the other side. What has the experience been like trying
to work with FEMA trying to work with you know,
your state, with your governor. What has an experience been
like for people?
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Super frustrating? Oh so frustrating. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
For me, we actually, you know, we didn't have any
damage to our home, so we applied immediately for the
seven hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
We got it within a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
It took a lot longer, in a couple of denials
to get a generator I bought, and I'm still waiting
for my chainslaw to be reimbursed. That's okay, but so
many people have had, I mean so many frustrating stories.
And those are the people we talked to with our
little nonprofit operation Shelter. Oh, you just hear some horror
(16:04):
stories of people getting denied from FEMA or FEMA just
really slow rolling.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
The ball to help them.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We talked to a woman just this weekend who miraculously
got approved for the forty two thousand dollars a couple
of months ago, but still hasn't gotten it, so she's
not been able to rebuild or even start the process
of rebuilding, and is just waiting on FEMA to hand
that max amount of money. But I mean some others
(16:35):
we it is a crazy story. FEMA put a lot
of people in these transitional housing assistance programs, which are
essentially just hotel stays extended hotel stays, and one of
the people we were working with, she reached out to
us because FEMA was going to kick her out of
her hotel, but they had not yet inspected her home
(16:56):
to see if it was habitable.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
So we actually got on the phone with Ted Budd's office.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
And they were able to confirm that FEMA dropped the
ball in her case and get her hotel stay extended
from FEMA.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
But that's just one of like so many stories.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
And I was just talking to a guy at the
gym yesterday morning who says he's given up. He's not
going to even continue trying to get some of the
money from FEMA. And I do feel like that's where
most people are at at this point.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
They're just they're just sick and tired of it.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
You had mentioned in the beginning how politics originally wasn't
really part of the conversation.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Imagine it is now.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
You know, I guess how has this reshaped maybe political
views in the area or yours, or you know, talk
about sort of the evolution of politics being you know,
now being more part of the equation here.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, I mean it has completely reshaped my opinion of
politics having really impact on people's lives. I mean, I
I lean pretty center or left on most political issues,
or did before the.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Storm, and I find myself leaning very far right now.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
And I think once you realize the government's ineptitude, especially
in this particular response, it's hard to unsee something like that,
and it was especially frustrating.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I think for everyone here to.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Like, For example, my wife knows people at CNN personally.
She was going to do a documentary for them, and
when the storm hit, she reached out to them and said,
you know, hey, you know me, I'm on the ground.
I would love to like get in contact with you.
And they ghosted us for four months straight. They would
not talk to us. And the only networks that would
(18:44):
have us on at all to talk about anything were
you know, right wing networks. You know people I never
thought i'd talk to, my in my life, news maps,
Fox News.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
News Nation places I never thought I'd be talking on.
I was talking on.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Because they were the only ones that would give us
a voice. And then to go through the press, conference
after press conference of FEMA just talking down to people
in western North Carolina, making excuses for why they couldn't
get homes into the mountains because it was mountainous, saying
(19:25):
that no one was living intents, and then renaming the
word tent to be lightweight tent or heavyweight tent to
make sure that you know, and then call us out
on misinformation, you know, constantly. It was just it was
such an eye opening experience for me to realize that
just because it's not on CNN doesn't mean it's not happening,
(19:46):
and you can't unsee it once it happens to you personally,
and it happened to us.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
We got left behind and the media.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Just kind of left us there, and FEMA TREA is
just terribly you know, some of the press conferences, you know,
went viral, not because press conferences they're so boring, They
went viral because FEMA was just talking down to mountain
folk out here and it was jarring to watch.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Why do you think that happened?
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Why do you think some of the media ignored the
story or the the Bide administration, you know, sort of
ignored your area.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Is an election. I'm fully convinced it was an election issue.
You know, it happened right right before the election. I mean,
I am personally convinced that's that's what it is. It
certainly wasn't a business decision. You can see that immediately
if you go look at my tweets, which have millions
of years like they could have absolutely had a lot
(20:45):
of clicks and very interesting stories had they chosen to
pursue it.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
They just chose not to. And my guess is because
it just didn't fit the agenda they were trying to push.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
What did that mean for your community to have asident,
Trump make Western North Carolina and then California his first
domestic trips of the president of his presidency to make
sure it happened in his first week.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Oh man, it was, like I said, I think it
was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen
in my whole life.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I have.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
I mean, I've watched Trump a lot on the news,
I have.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
It's been pretty rare that he steps out of the limelight,
hands his microphone to someone and says, tell me your story.
And that's exactly what he did in Western North Carolina.
And I was crying the whole time. I really was.
I was like, I feel like I've been telling these
victims stories for months and months and months, and you know,
(21:42):
the Biden administration to just ignored us for those months.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
You know, we have been screaming we need more help.
You know, the help isn't coming fast enough. It's too slow.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Really bad things are happening, and it was just silence
on the other end of that line. And then Trump
comes in and he's like, you know, allowing a guy
on national TV to go after his insurance.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Company always like name them name. I know it was wild,
but I mean these that that's what we need. We
needed that.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
We needed that so bad because that's the reality of
what we were hearing from people constantly, like all day,
every day, from people we are trying to help. And
it was just mind blowing to me that the stories
were not getting out in the way that they that
they should. And I just have to say, like, it
was so beautiful to see Trump come in and you know,
(22:34):
make those promises and then to see the executive actions
actually roll out, and I feel like we're already seeing
some change at least in my area that is positive.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
It's just man, it just felt so good.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
You know, President Trump gets attacked a lot, but he's
he's always had a heart for people, and when we
saw it with these policy you know, he's always like
he's always you know, even when he was president during
his first term, he always tried to get our hostages back.
He's always been very protective of his people. You know,
you said that you're a center left before. I guess
has this changed your position or your viewpoint? Your viewpoint
(23:12):
of President Trump?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
One hundred percent? It has completely turned it around. I
cannot emphasize that enough. Like even if it was a
political move, I'm already seeing action. So you know, to me,
actions matter much more than words. And he came here first,
and the you know, Biden administration ignored us and said that,
(23:38):
you know, we were being dramatic or spreading misinformation.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
And that was just not the case. You know, we
were we were trying to help.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
People were getting let down left and right by FEMA,
and we were like, hey, I even wrote like an
open letter to FEMA at you know, a couple of
months ago, like this is how you can turn it around,
please help us, and none of it actually got done.
And it's just wild to me to see true action.
(24:06):
Like their motto of promises made, promises kept is so good.
I love that motto because it invites transparency into what
the government is doing, and people go, aha, yes he
did make that promise, and yes he has kept that promise.
And the promises he made to visit western North Carolina
he kept Jadie Vance visiting Virginia and seeing the Hurricane
(24:30):
Elene devastation there, he made that promise, He kept that promise.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
The executive actions that have.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Come in, it's just like one thing after another and
you're like, wow, like, man, I really should have gotten
out of my echo chamber and seeing some different news
years ago, because now I feel so stupid.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Well, I really don't think it's political because you know,
he already won, right so, and he can't run. He
can't run for reelection, so he really doesn't, you know,
gain anything that politically outside of just I really just
do believe that he like genuine only cares about the
American people and you know, feels like it's his job
to protect them. I imagine you like, going through something
(25:09):
like this just changes your whole like perspective. Like you know,
we talked about the changing perspective on like politics and
things like that, but just of like government and like
its role and you know its effectiveness, and you know,
I guess, so how does that?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
How do you view government? After this?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I viewed government as having as getting in the way
of what's happening and what needs to be done, especially
during disasters.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
And I feel like I repeated myself so much saying,
you know, if if FEMA is really good at his job,
why is it so slow? Like why isn't the.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
United States Premier Emergency Management Agency moving as slow as
it has been?
Speaker 3 (25:50):
It should not exist if it's going to be this
slow and bureaucratic.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And it's just completely changed the way of thought about
the role of in things like disasters. When I saw
Samaritan's purse absolutely everywhere in western North Carolina, and I
have yet to see someone in a FEMA.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Outfit anywhere, it's just, you know, it's kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
And you know, I know there's a lot of calls
to abolish FEMA or dramatically reform it, and I think
that's exactly right, because one of the mottos we've been
saying here on the ground is hey, if the rules
are hurting people in a disaster, change the rules, you know,
and it just felt like every rule was sacred with
(26:38):
FEMA and nothing could be changed to actually help people
when they really needed it. You know, they were they
were blocking people from putting temporary homes in what FEMA
designated as a floodplain. I mean, these are mountains thousands
of feet out fished, and you know, flooding doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Here very often, that's why it's in the news.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
And you know, they were they were locking people from
trying to get just you know, RVs on their land
because FEMA designated that area of flood zone and just
stupid stuff like that happened over and over with FEMA,
and it just felt like, you know, maybe agencies like
this do more harm than good, you know, and maybe
(27:18):
these these agencies need to be overhauled so that they're
actually working for the people instead of just existing to
hand out money to the people they employ.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Well, yeah, or you know, I mean even I was
just thinking with the seven hundred and fifty dollars, I mean,
it's like that doesn't you know if you've got a
family that doesn't really go that far, you know, particularly
when they lost everything.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
So it's like and even the forty two thousand dollars.
That guess the MAXI amount?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Have you?
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Can you buy a house for forty two thousand? Yes,
they're not going to be able to.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
And nobody here had had fled insurance because it's the mountains,
you know, Like, so insurance.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Didn't cover anything up here.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
And I think that's like one of the things people
forget is like, well, where was the role of insurance?
And nobody had flood insurance, so their lives are completely
upended and insurance is paying them nothing. If your home
was flooded and you didn't have flood insurance, it's tough
luck for.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
You, Yeah, because I mean you wouldn't think to have it,
of course, not if.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
You live on a tiny little creek up in the mountains.
You're not you know, you're not going to think to
have you know, your home float away hundreds of feet
that that would have never crossed your mind.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I can't even imagine where can people follow your content?
As you know, we hope that your community gets the
hope that it needs and hopefully gets some of these
regulations and red tape slashed so that the response is
more efficient.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah, follow me on X Matt Underscore van Swell.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Matt, thank you so much. I'm so sorry to your
family and to everyone in your community. I really I
can't imagine just how scary and devastating and just eruptive
that's got to be, and just how hard it's got
to be. And I know it's been a long time
and it's probably just been really exhausting and you know,
probably felt like given up hope. So I'm glad that
(29:12):
glad you didn't, and you know, really respect the fact
that you continue to fight for your community.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Yeah, thank you, Lisa. It means a time that you're
covering the story.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
I mean, it just feels like we've been, you know,
screaming to the void for months, you know, and it
just it means so much that anyone would actually touch
the story.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
For all the people here, it was Matt van Swell.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
We appreciate him for taking the time. Just can't imagine
living through that. Or Hark goes out to him. I
want to thank you guys at home for listening every
Monday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week
until next time.
In our first White House Press Secretary briefing, Caroline Levitt
made a point to talk about how President Trump wanted
his first presidential visit to be to western North Carolina
and to California. That this is why Americans know that
he's a man of the people, that he doesn't want
any American to feel forgotten. And we know that, especially
the citizens of western North Carolina, four months after Hurricane Helene,
(00:24):
have felt forgotten. That they have felt like they haven't
been heard by the Biden administration, that FEMA was not
there for them, that FEMA was actually causing more harm
than good. They felt left behind. And if you remember,
Hurricane Helene caused devastation in western North Carolina. There were
at least one hundred and four reported deaths. The flooding
was so severe, exceeding thirty inches in some places, resulting
(00:47):
in historic widespread flooding. It was described with terms like
biblical that's how bad it was, leaving neighborhoods destroyed, communities
isolated with no access out. But those days are over
or with President Trump, and he made a point to
let them know that. And what I think was so
cool about his visit to western North Carolina and to California.
If you watched the press conferences, he handed the press
(01:11):
conference over in both instances to the citizens, to the people.
He wanted them to be heard. And in one instance,
when one man was talking about the difficulties that he
has had, the struggles that he has had, President Trump
asked him to name the insurance company, to name and
shame the insurance company that hadn't been helping him. And
I think those Americans felt heard for the first time
(01:31):
in a long time. And as much as President Trump
gets criticized, this is someone who loves America, who wants
to put citizens first. I mean we saw it during
his first term when he visited Texas twice after Hurricane Harvey,
or when he visited Florida after Hurricane Irmar, even as
a candidate, when he visited East Palestine, Ohio after they
were ignored by the Biden administration. So we're going to
(01:53):
talk to one man today who's from Western North Carolina,
who has been relentlessly fighting to try to bring the
truth about the day image that was done to Western
North Carolina, as well as just the fact that the
community has been ignored by FEMA, bringing a lot of
those issues to light as well. So he's been a
truth teller for his community. His name is Matt Vincewell,
(02:13):
we're going to talk to him about that, his experiences
living through Hurricane Helene, and then also how this has
shaped his personal opinions, his politics, his viewpoint on the government.
What's it like to live through something like that. So
stay tuned for Matt Vanswoll. So, Matke, you lived through
(02:35):
Hurricane Heleen and western North Carolina where you reside, First
of all, tell us what that was like to have
gone through that, to experience it, you know, walk us
through your story so we have an understanding of kind
of where you were and what you've been through.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, So we live in a small town just outside
of Asheville called Weaverville. We live along just a little
ways from like this, this very small creek. And during
Hurricane Helene, this little creek that was maybe five feet
wide it its max went to essentially two football fields
(03:09):
wide during the flooding and took out most of the
homes along the creek, nearly all of the bridges, and
we saw like eighteen wheelers like floating in the creek.
It was just one of the wildest things you've ever
seen in your life.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I couldn't believe it was real. Like I still.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Remember driving out of our neighborhood after a neighbor actually
took his tractor and pushed all of the trees out
of our road because we had probably one hundred trees.
We lived on this little cul de sac, and we
probably had one hundred trees down over over our road.
We couldn't get out, so a guy with a tractor
(03:50):
ended up chainsawing some trees and clearing the road for us,
which was awesome that I'll never forget pulling out of
our driveway and seeing what I thought looked like an ocean,
but it was actually our little creek that had just
risen and just smashed through everything in sight. It was
one of the craziest things I've ever witnessed. But we
(04:10):
were with that power for three weeks. We left and
went to Charlotte, North Carolina, got starlink and a generator
one night, and then came back and actually ended up
running really long extension courts into our neighbors' homes so
they could power some of their appliances for a couple
of weeks, and then our home kind of became like
(04:32):
the internet cafe for the neighborhood because we were the
only ones with starlink. So it's crazy to just see
people come in and like call loved ones and say
like we're okay.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
It was just, I mean, this is the craziest experience.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I guess living through. I mean, it's always crazy to me.
You know, Thank God I've not had to live through
something like that.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
I might.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I do live in Florida, so you know, there's always
the possibility.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I can't imagine just having you know, resided someplace for
you know, a while, it's your home, and then just
wake up one day and everything you knew is gone
and different and life has changed that substantially. I just
I imagine that's a really hard thing to digest in life.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, it's been really hard on our kids the most.
And how old are they They are thirteen, eleven and four,
so man, it's so so hard. But they see, you know,
all the parks that they normally play in are still
(05:35):
just completely destroyed.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I've posted a couple of videos of the soccer field
just right across from my home, and you can see
like tractor trailers on the soccer field and campers and
it's all still there, and so many of the parks,
the playgrounds that we used to go to are gone.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
And I think my wife posted this the other day.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
But we were driving just a target to get some
stuff and my son looks out the window of the
four year old and he goes.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Are there dead people there? And it's just something he
thinks about constantly.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
When we drive by all this debris piled up everywhere,
because he you know, he has just such a basic
understanding of what happened, but he knows it was horrific
and that you know, people died, and it's just, you know,
it's one of those things you should never have to
explain to your toddler that, like, yes, it was hard
and we're getting through it, but they just feel the
effects every single day, if.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
I mean, that's got to be hard as parents, because
you know, with young kids, obviously you want to protect them.
You want to shield them from pain and from you know,
having to witness bad things. I guess how do you
kind of balance that with also you know, they're they're
probably wondering why their lives have been so disrupted as well.
So I mean, I guess how do you balance that
as a parent. I imagine that's got to be a
(06:54):
really challenging thing to try to navigate.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, as a parent, you just hate it.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
You know, your heart, you don't know what to say,
But I have to say that kids are so resilient
and one of the greatest things that's come out of
this is seeing my kids volunteer and help other people
like they volunteered at so many different places, sorting clothes,
(07:20):
food items, putting you know, food in people's cars.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
My four year old got.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
To deliver an RV with us to a woman who's
homeless after Hurricane Helena lost her home and got to put.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Toys in it for a kid a year younger than him.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And I think that's just such a good experience for
kids to be able to give back in a way
they never would have been able to if a natural
disaster like this.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Wouldn't have happened.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
But I'm truly, I'm really so proud of my kids
for the way that they have they've handled it and
being able to give them an experience of giving back.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I think it's so important.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
What is living through through a natural disaster lake that
teach you about humanity. I know you had talked about
how you know your neighborhood. You set up sort of
an Internet cafe for the rest of the neighborhood. I
guess what does it show you? What does it tell
you about humanity?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, I mean it brings out the best and the
worst simultaneously, you know, and you find out very quickly
that essentially nothing else matters except the friends that you've
made in life, because those are the people that come
and help you. And we always think that we have,
you know, less in common with people than we actually do.
(08:35):
Like the neighbor that cut us out of our driveway.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I've only talked to him twice in my whole life,
and he spent seven hours on my road, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Just trying to get us out. And I mean I've.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Only talked to this many class and you know, he
took time out of his day to help. And I
truly think that that is what makes Americans Americans. You know,
regardless of your political views, if something bad is going
to happen, we're going to be there for you. And
no one talked about politics at the beginning of the storm.
Everyone was trying to help everyone, and you know, we
(09:10):
had some bad actors that tried to do some looting
and stuff, but our neighborhood set up like a little
police force with people driving around with walkie talkies.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
And made sure everyone was safe.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
And that felt great, and I just really think that
it brought out, you know, some of the best in people,
and you know, we all worked to make sure everyone
else was okay. And you know, our house barely had
any damage at all, and other people's had, you know,
terrible damage. I changed aw quite a few trees off
of neighbors' houses during this first weeks of the storm,
(09:44):
and then obviously we saw so much worse damage with
the flooding later on that we just couldn't believe.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
And that's kind of phase two.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
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(10:13):
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Israel and her people by visiting support IFCJ dot org.
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four a eight four three two five. Yeah, it is
(10:55):
so interesting how resilient humans are. You know, you're talking
about just how you guys set up your own police
for worse and you know kind of people just coming
together to problem solve. So you've really been fighting for
your community by bringing the truth on AX, by by
posting about it, sort of forcing attention to the issue,
making sure that it's not forgotten it.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Take us through for.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
People who are unfamiliar. I mean, obviously we saw images
after the hurricane hit, but take us through just the
level of devastation and the damage that it did, and
then also talk about how important X has been for
you to get the word out about that devastation.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Oh man, Yeah, I haven't even been to all of
the places that have been devastated. There's just so many,
especially like out in the Hallers, in some of the
mountain areas like Spruce Pine and others that just got
absolutely walloped. And I feel like East Tennessee, you know, had.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Had some really rough stuff happen as well.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
But down I've lived very close to downtown Ashville, and
like I said, I live next to Creek and all
of those homes and bridges you know, got flooded pretty
pretty badly, and it was just beyond comprehension, Like the
mind really couldn't comprehend what you were seeing because it
didn't look familiar in any sense. Like I remember getting
(12:16):
to the French Broad River maybe day two or three,
I mean, when the flooding had subsided, subsided substantially, and
I still didn't recognize that. I could not believe how
bad it was, Like the river was so wide, it
just didn't even look the same. Especially River Arts District
in downtown Asheville just completely underwater, completely leveled. It was
(12:41):
just so crazy, and I remember I was at a
restaurant called White Duck Taco when I first heard about
that the assassination of or the attempted assassination of Trump,
And we were all out there like looking at our phones,
and I was staring at it from a bridge and
(13:01):
it was gone.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I mean, it was not there anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
And I just thought, Wow, these are going to be
so many memories that are just going to be wiped
off the face of the earth. And that's just in
the little little portion where we were.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Towns like Marshall, we have a lot of friends.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I mean, those places are completely you know, wiped off
the face of the earth.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Like it surprises me that they're.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Able to even pull out from the experience of the
flooding that they got.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
It's it's just insane.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
But X you know, was really a lifeline, I think
for getting the word out about what was happening in
western North Carolina because very few mainstream media outlets were
covering it, especially you know, at the beginning of the storm,
like maybe the first two to seven days, we did
have a lot of coverage, and then, just like any
(13:56):
national disaster, people just lose interest. They don't really want
to hear that things aren't going well, and I'm guilty
of that myself, just as a consumer of media, you know,
forgetting about places like Lehina in Mali and East pastein
So I just didn't want that to happen to us.
(14:16):
So I kind of made it my mission to stay
on top of it no matter what until things started
to turn around. And it was just so surprising to
me how long it has taken for that mission to
finally be accomplished. I mean, I would have never thought
in a million years that I would still be posting
(14:39):
about FEMA and people needing electricity and food and propane
four months after the storm, Like, no.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Chance would I have ever thought I'd be doing something
like that.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
But it was necessary because people were hurting and they
just didn't have a voice. And I've truly felt like,
you know, perhaps we were screaming into the void for
four months straight, and it was just truly amazing when
Trump came and gave a voice to some of the people.
I think it was one of the most beautiful things
I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
We've got a quick commercial break war with Matt on
the other side. What has the experience been like trying
to work with FEMA trying to work with you know,
your state, with your governor. What has an experience been
like for people?
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Super frustrating? Oh so frustrating. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
For me, we actually, you know, we didn't have any
damage to our home, so we applied immediately for the
seven hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
We got it within a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
It took a lot longer, in a couple of denials
to get a generator I bought, and I'm still waiting
for my chainslaw to be reimbursed. That's okay, but so
many people have had, I mean so many frustrating stories.
And those are the people we talked to with our
little nonprofit operation Shelter. Oh, you just hear some horror
(16:04):
stories of people getting denied from FEMA or FEMA just
really slow rolling.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
The ball to help them.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We talked to a woman just this weekend who miraculously
got approved for the forty two thousand dollars a couple
of months ago, but still hasn't gotten it, so she's
not been able to rebuild or even start the process
of rebuilding, and is just waiting on FEMA to hand
that max amount of money. But I mean some others
(16:35):
we it is a crazy story. FEMA put a lot
of people in these transitional housing assistance programs, which are
essentially just hotel stays extended hotel stays, and one of
the people we were working with, she reached out to
us because FEMA was going to kick her out of
her hotel, but they had not yet inspected her home
(16:56):
to see if it was habitable.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
So we actually got on the phone with Ted Budd's office.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
And they were able to confirm that FEMA dropped the
ball in her case and get her hotel stay extended
from FEMA.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
But that's just one of like so many stories.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
And I was just talking to a guy at the
gym yesterday morning who says he's given up. He's not
going to even continue trying to get some of the
money from FEMA. And I do feel like that's where
most people are at at this point.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
They're just they're just sick and tired of it.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
You had mentioned in the beginning how politics originally wasn't
really part of the conversation.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Imagine it is now.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
You know, I guess how has this reshaped maybe political
views in the area or yours, or you know, talk
about sort of the evolution of politics being you know,
now being more part of the equation here.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, I mean it has completely reshaped my opinion of
politics having really impact on people's lives. I mean, I
I lean pretty center or left on most political issues,
or did before the.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Storm, and I find myself leaning very far right now.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
And I think once you realize the government's ineptitude, especially
in this particular response, it's hard to unsee something like that,
and it was especially frustrating.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I think for everyone here to.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Like, For example, my wife knows people at CNN personally.
She was going to do a documentary for them, and
when the storm hit, she reached out to them and said,
you know, hey, you know me, I'm on the ground.
I would love to like get in contact with you.
And they ghosted us for four months straight. They would
not talk to us. And the only networks that would
(18:44):
have us on at all to talk about anything were
you know, right wing networks. You know people I never
thought i'd talk to, my in my life, news maps,
Fox News.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
News Nation places I never thought I'd be talking on.
I was talking on.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Because they were the only ones that would give us
a voice. And then to go through the press, conference
after press conference of FEMA just talking down to people
in western North Carolina, making excuses for why they couldn't
get homes into the mountains because it was mountainous, saying
(19:25):
that no one was living intents, and then renaming the
word tent to be lightweight tent or heavyweight tent to
make sure that you know, and then call us out
on misinformation, you know, constantly. It was just it was
such an eye opening experience for me to realize that
just because it's not on CNN doesn't mean it's not happening,
(19:46):
and you can't unsee it once it happens to you personally,
and it happened to us.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
We got left behind and the media.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Just kind of left us there, and FEMA TREA is
just terribly you know, some of the press conferences, you know,
went viral, not because press conferences they're so boring, They
went viral because FEMA was just talking down to mountain
folk out here and it was jarring to watch.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Why do you think that happened?
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Why do you think some of the media ignored the
story or the the Bide administration, you know, sort of
ignored your area.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Is an election. I'm fully convinced it was an election issue.
You know, it happened right right before the election. I mean,
I am personally convinced that's that's what it is. It
certainly wasn't a business decision. You can see that immediately
if you go look at my tweets, which have millions
of years like they could have absolutely had a lot
(20:45):
of clicks and very interesting stories had they chosen to
pursue it.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
They just chose not to. And my guess is because
it just didn't fit the agenda they were trying to push.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
What did that mean for your community to have asident,
Trump make Western North Carolina and then California his first
domestic trips of the president of his presidency to make
sure it happened in his first week.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Oh man, it was, like I said, I think it
was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen
in my whole life.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I have.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
I mean, I've watched Trump a lot on the news,
I have.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
It's been pretty rare that he steps out of the limelight,
hands his microphone to someone and says, tell me your story.
And that's exactly what he did in Western North Carolina.
And I was crying the whole time. I really was.
I was like, I feel like I've been telling these
victims stories for months and months and months, and you know,
(21:42):
the Biden administration to just ignored us for those months.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
You know, we have been screaming we need more help.
You know, the help isn't coming fast enough. It's too slow.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Really bad things are happening, and it was just silence
on the other end of that line. And then Trump
comes in and he's like, you know, allowing a guy
on national TV to go after his insurance.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Company always like name them name. I know it was wild,
but I mean these that that's what we need. We
needed that.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
We needed that so bad because that's the reality of
what we were hearing from people constantly, like all day,
every day, from people we are trying to help. And
it was just mind blowing to me that the stories
were not getting out in the way that they that
they should. And I just have to say, like, it
was so beautiful to see Trump come in and you know,
(22:34):
make those promises and then to see the executive actions
actually roll out, and I feel like we're already seeing
some change at least in my area that is positive.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
It's just man, it just felt so good.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
You know, President Trump gets attacked a lot, but he's
he's always had a heart for people, and when we
saw it with these policy you know, he's always like
he's always you know, even when he was president during
his first term, he always tried to get our hostages back.
He's always been very protective of his people. You know,
you said that you're a center left before. I guess
has this changed your position or your viewpoint? Your viewpoint
(23:12):
of President Trump?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
One hundred percent? It has completely turned it around. I
cannot emphasize that enough. Like even if it was a
political move, I'm already seeing action. So you know, to me,
actions matter much more than words. And he came here first,
and the you know, Biden administration ignored us and said that,
(23:38):
you know, we were being dramatic or spreading misinformation.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
And that was just not the case. You know, we
were we were trying to help.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
People were getting let down left and right by FEMA,
and we were like, hey, I even wrote like an
open letter to FEMA at you know, a couple of
months ago, like this is how you can turn it around,
please help us, and none of it actually got done.
And it's just wild to me to see true action.
(24:06):
Like their motto of promises made, promises kept is so good.
I love that motto because it invites transparency into what
the government is doing, and people go, aha, yes he
did make that promise, and yes he has kept that promise.
And the promises he made to visit western North Carolina
he kept Jadie Vance visiting Virginia and seeing the Hurricane
(24:30):
Elene devastation there, he made that promise, He kept that promise.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
The executive actions that have.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Come in, it's just like one thing after another and
you're like, wow, like, man, I really should have gotten
out of my echo chamber and seeing some different news
years ago, because now I feel so stupid.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Well, I really don't think it's political because you know,
he already won, right so, and he can't run. He
can't run for reelection, so he really doesn't, you know,
gain anything that politically outside of just I really just
do believe that he like genuine only cares about the
American people and you know, feels like it's his job
to protect them. I imagine you like, going through something
(25:09):
like this just changes your whole like perspective. Like you know,
we talked about the changing perspective on like politics and
things like that, but just of like government and like
its role and you know its effectiveness, and you know,
I guess, so how does that?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
How do you view government? After this?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I viewed government as having as getting in the way
of what's happening and what needs to be done, especially
during disasters.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
And I feel like I repeated myself so much saying,
you know, if if FEMA is really good at his job,
why is it so slow? Like why isn't the.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
United States Premier Emergency Management Agency moving as slow as
it has been?
Speaker 3 (25:50):
It should not exist if it's going to be this
slow and bureaucratic.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And it's just completely changed the way of thought about
the role of in things like disasters. When I saw
Samaritan's purse absolutely everywhere in western North Carolina, and I
have yet to see someone in a FEMA.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Outfit anywhere, it's just, you know, it's kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
And you know, I know there's a lot of calls
to abolish FEMA or dramatically reform it, and I think
that's exactly right, because one of the mottos we've been
saying here on the ground is hey, if the rules
are hurting people in a disaster, change the rules, you know,
and it just felt like every rule was sacred with
(26:38):
FEMA and nothing could be changed to actually help people
when they really needed it. You know, they were they
were blocking people from putting temporary homes in what FEMA
designated as a floodplain. I mean, these are mountains thousands
of feet out fished, and you know, flooding doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Here very often, that's why it's in the news.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
And you know, they were they were locking people from
trying to get just you know, RVs on their land
because FEMA designated that area of flood zone and just
stupid stuff like that happened over and over with FEMA,
and it just felt like, you know, maybe agencies like
this do more harm than good, you know, and maybe
(27:18):
these these agencies need to be overhauled so that they're
actually working for the people instead of just existing to
hand out money to the people they employ.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Well, yeah, or you know, I mean even I was
just thinking with the seven hundred and fifty dollars, I mean,
it's like that doesn't you know if you've got a
family that doesn't really go that far, you know, particularly
when they lost everything.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
So it's like and even the forty two thousand dollars.
That guess the MAXI amount?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Have you?
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Can you buy a house for forty two thousand? Yes,
they're not going to be able to.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
And nobody here had had fled insurance because it's the mountains,
you know, Like, so insurance.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Didn't cover anything up here.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
And I think that's like one of the things people
forget is like, well, where was the role of insurance?
And nobody had flood insurance, so their lives are completely
upended and insurance is paying them nothing. If your home
was flooded and you didn't have flood insurance, it's tough
luck for.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
You, Yeah, because I mean you wouldn't think to have it,
of course, not if.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
You live on a tiny little creek up in the mountains.
You're not you know, you're not going to think to
have you know, your home float away hundreds of feet
that that would have never crossed your mind.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I can't even imagine where can people follow your content?
As you know, we hope that your community gets the
hope that it needs and hopefully gets some of these
regulations and red tape slashed so that the response is
more efficient.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah, follow me on X Matt Underscore van Swell.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Matt, thank you so much. I'm so sorry to your
family and to everyone in your community. I really I
can't imagine just how scary and devastating and just eruptive
that's got to be, and just how hard it's got
to be. And I know it's been a long time
and it's probably just been really exhausting and you know,
probably felt like given up hope. So I'm glad that
(29:12):
glad you didn't, and you know, really respect the fact
that you continue to fight for your community.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Yeah, thank you, Lisa. It means a time that you're
covering the story.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
I mean, it just feels like we've been, you know,
screaming to the void for months, you know, and it
just it means so much that anyone would actually touch
the story.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
For all the people here, it was Matt van Swell.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
We appreciate him for taking the time. Just can't imagine
living through that. Or Hark goes out to him. I
want to thank you guys at home for listening every
Monday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week
until next time.
Host
Lisa Boothe
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