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Moved Earlier

Did a North Carolina hurricane survivor seen admiring her new apartment in a widely shared video move in after President Donald Trump's return to the White House? No, that's not true: The woman moved in on January 9, 2025, two weeks before Trump took office on January 20, 2025, according to information with the video. The Federal Emergency Management Agency began seeking suitable apartments for Helene survivors in October 2024.

The claim appeared in a post on X (archived here) on January 22, 2025. It read:

🚨#BREAKING: Western North Carolina residents who have been sitting in FEMA hotels for months, are now being moved rapidly into long-term, fully furnished apartments. THE TRUMP EFFECT IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:

(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Jan 28 17:54:39 2025 UTC)

Hurricane Helene blew through western North Carolina on September 27, 2024, causing an estimated $59.6 billion in damages (archived here).

The post on X included a video produced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and originally posted on its YouTube page. It centered on a woman named Kendall who lost her "forever home" in Bat Cave, North Carolina, and showed her admiring her new apartment.

A FEMA spokesperson told Lead Stories in a January 28, 2025, email that Kendall moved in January 9, 2025.

The video was posted to YouTube on January 17, 2025, and its caption specified that Kendall had moved in "last week." She was already in her new apartment two weeks before Trump became president on January 20, 2025.

Here is a screenshot of the FEMA video as it appeared at the time of writing:

(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Tue Jan 28 15:20:59 2025 UTC)

According to a FEMA news release dated October 24, 2024 (archived here), Helene survivors qualified for several types of housing help, including direct lease. That program provided "ready-to-occupy residential properties" to be used as temporary housing for applicants "whose housing needs cannot be met with other direct temporary housing assistance options."

According to an Apartment Association of Western North Carolina news release (archived here), requests for suitable apartments for the program went out to landlords and property owners on October 15, 2024, about two weeks after the hurricane hit.

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For more Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving FEMA, click here.

For more Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving Hurricane Helene, click here.