A claim from a sheriff’s office in western North Carolina about threats against Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) workers prompted workers in the area to pause their hurricane relief efforts.
The Facebook post came from the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office, saying there had been “threats” against FEMA workers “in the mountain region.” But, the sheriff added, “This has not happened in Ashe County or the surrounding counties.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, they have paused their process as they are assessing the threats,” the sheriff’s office added.
An official with the U.S. Forest Service sent an email to multiple federal agencies warning that National Guard troops “had come across x2 trucks of armed militia saying they were out hunting FEMA.”
Media outlets like The Washington Post and ABC News jumped on the story, with ABC claiming federal authorities told them FEMA employees have been receiving consistent threats since Hurricane Helene.
The original version of the Post’s story stated in the fourth paragraph that “it was unclear whether the quoted threat was seen as credible.” In the next paragraph, the outlet acknowledged that relief personnel were back to work the next day.
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The Post has now updated its original article to include information about a man being charged with a misdemeanor after someone overheard him allegedly making threats against FEMA workers at a gas station the next county over from where relief workers were. His name and face were plastered across media outlets on Monday.
Legacy media outlets refused to cover or look into allegations that citizens trying to help those in areas affected by the hurricane were threatened with arrest. One of the claims came from pilot Jordan Seidhom, who told several local and non-mainstream outlets that a fire official near Lake Lure, North Carolina, threatened to arrest him if he continued to use his own helicopter to rescue people stranded in the mountains, The Daily Wire previously reported.
Seidhom said he had coordinated his flights with local authorities but was threatened with arrest and returned home – a decision he soon regretted.
“I’m sorry, if I had to do it over again, I would have stopped and I would have rescued as many people until they decided they were going to arrest me,” Seidhom said at the time.
Major outlets ignored Seidhom’s story and others who gave similar accounts.
