Rumor: Governments are discouraging and confiscating donations.
Facts: The state encourages financial donations to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund and to N.C. volunteer organizations responding to the disaster. The state is working with the organizations to collect and distribute physical donations coming in from across the state and country.
Coordinated volunteer disaster relief efforts are needed in Western North Carolina, according to the NC Department of Public Safety.
“We strongly encourage neighbors to continue helping neighbors in impacted areas,” department officials said. “Those wishing to volunteer should register at
www.nc.gov/volunteer,” and not “self-deploy” to the region.
But emergency officials are asking people not to show up on their own bringing supplies.
In Banner Elk, the fire and rescue department posted on Facebook that the outpouring of donations has met their needs for the next week, and that the wave of suppliers are creating a “bottleneck” that compromises their already strained infrastructure.
“Cash donations offer voluntary agencies and faith-based organizations the most flexibility to address urgently developing needs,” NC Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster President Kristy Kulberg said in a news release. “Although the need is great, and desire to help strong, it is important to avoid donating material goods or self-deploying to help until communities are safe and public officials and disaster relief organizations have had an opportunity to assess the damage to identify what the specific unmet needs are.”