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North Carolina Sheriffs Arrest Man For Allegedly Making Threats Against FEMA Workers

Threats against federal emergency response personnel have hampered relief work in parts of western North Carolina hard hit by Hurricane Helene, prompting disaster workers to relocate because of safety concerns and feeding a cycle of fear and anxiety.

On Monday, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that it had arrested William Jacob Parsons, 44, of Bostic, N.C., on charges of making threats against Federal Emergency Management Agency employees.

FEMA and U.S. Forest Service personnel, who had been working on recovery, relocated, and at least some work in the county was paused. While officials had warned about the threat of truckloads of militia potentially targeting relief workers, the sheriff’s office did not find evidence for those claims.

The incident is one of the latest examples of growing concerns about safety and security in western North Carolina, where many towns were almost wiped off the map after the historic hurricane made landfall more than two weeks ago.
Gov. Roy Cooper (D) sought to counter false claims about the federal government’s Helene response, saying in a statement Monday that “we know that significant misinformation online contributes to threats against response workers on the ground.”
FEMA said it made operational changes over the weekend “out of an abundance of caution” based on threat information.
In an email obtained by The Washington Post, a Forest Service official assisting in Helene recovery response operations said that FEMA had advised agencies on the ground to relocate workers, noting that U.S. military personnel “had come across … trucks of armed militia saying they were out hunting FEMA.”