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The Trump administration's deep, sudden cuts at federal health agencies last week slammed the brakes on various projects. One of them was a recovery effort in western North Carolina hard hit by Hurricane Helene last September. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports.
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: In and around Asheville, North Carolina, visible signs of the hurricane six months ago remain - rusted debris in yards of ruined homes. But Helene, a federal disaster worker who coincidentally goes by the same name as the storm, also worries about the community's invisible problems, like mold and the financial and mental health aftereffects.
HELENE: That six-month mark is a really critical time.
NOGUCHI: Until April 1, Helene worked at the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her team parachutes in after storms, wildfires or toxic spills to assess where to put emergency resources. The Tuesday she was terminated, Helene and some 55 others, including county and state workers, were set to go door-to-door in Asheville's Buncombe County, surveying 210 households about enduring challenges, from food insecurity to unsafe drinking water. She and others were en route or already on site when she had to let them all know they had to abort mission.
HELENE: It was really one of the hardest phone calls I've ever had to do in my career.
NOGUCHI: Helene did not want to use her full name because she's on administrative leave and fears retaliation. She says she feels heartbroken.
HELENE: I feel like I just let down the community, I let down the health department, I let down North Carolina itself. I lost my job, but people have lost so much to these disasters, and we're not out there trying to help them. We were really these boots on the ground, finding out what the community itself needed.
NOGUCHI: Ellis Matheson was on the other end of one of Helene's calls that morning.
ELLIS MATHESON: I was really, really disappointed.
NOGUCHI: Matheson is Buncombe County's public health director.
MATHESON: We had publicized this to the community. They knew that we were going to be coming, so we had to notify the public that we would not be coming.
NOGUCHI: Matheson thought about the missed opportunity.
MATHESON: There would have been human-to-human interaction, and people could ask questions, say what resources they need, and right there in the moment, we could connect them with those resources.
NOGUCHI: Matheson says they plan to regroup. But without the CDC's help, her county team could not do the door-to-door survey as planned.
MATHESON: That expertise to help us with the analysis and develop a report was really vital. That subject matter expertise - we really rely on that.
ZACK MOORE: But that's one reason why CDC exists.
NOGUCHI: That's Zack Moore, an epidemiologist with North Carolina's Department of Health. He says state departments like his lack both resources and experience that a federal team develops by dealing with various disasters across the country.
MOORE: The subject matter expertise that exists at CDC, we can't and really shouldn't replicate in every state across the country.
NOGUCHI: Moore says he has a lot of public health concerns across his state right now.
MOORE: Oh, gosh - measles, hurricanes, flu. There's a lot of things.
NOGUCHI: He worries that hollowing out the CDC's environmental health division, along with other deep cuts to staff and funding, will leave them less prepared to face it all.
MOORE: So having them instantly disbanded is going to leave a big gap.
NOGUCHI: The CDC did not respond to requests seeking comment.
Yuki Noguchi, NPR News.
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