Gov. Roy Cooper says 81 people still missing in North Carolina, addresses threats

(This story was updated to include new information.)

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday afternoon that 81 people remain missing in the western part of the state in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

At a press conference earlier in the day, Cooper said a task force has been formed to find 92 people that were unaccounted for in Western North Carolina, cautioning that the number would fluctuate. During a 3:30 p.m. tour of Swannanoa, Cooper would revise that figure to 81.

"The task force, law enforcement and other partners will continue working to locate those who are unaccounted for and I am thankful for their efforts," Cooper said.

Cooper said that 77,000 individuals have applied for relief through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that FEMA has paid $99 million and is paying for temporary housing for 1,900 people.

Cooper addresses misinformation, threats against recovery

Cooper also addressed the continued misinformation campaigns and recent domestic threats against recovery efforts.

"If you're participating in spreading (misinformation), stop it," Cooper said. "Whatever your aim is, the people you are really hurting is the people in Western North Carolina who need help."

Cooper also said that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is the Republican nominee for governor, is participating in the spread of disinformation.

"Candidates (referring to Robinson) are using people's misery to sow chaos for their own political objectives, and it's wrong," Cooper said. "It's disappointing when candidates, knowing full well what they are doing, are continuing this kind of disinformation filled with lies."

Cooper said that he directed the North Carolina Department of Public Safety to provide more security for FEMA in the wake of threats against the agency's efforts.

Man arrested on terror charges in wake of misinformation

William Jacob Parsons was arrested on public terror charges Saturday. He threatened to “go mess up some FEMA personnel," according to Rutherford County Sheriff's Office Capt. Jamie Keever. Parsons was armed with an AR-style rifle and two handguns at the time of the arrest, according to authorities.

Parsons, 44, was arrested after Rutherford County Communications Center received a call reporting that an armed man made a comment threatening harm to FEMA workers. Parsons was charged with going armed to the terror of the public, an arrest warrant says. He has been released on $10,000 bail and is due in court Wednesday.

On the same day, the U.S. Forest Service received an email from FEMA, which said a National Guard unit working for the agency “came across some militia members who said they were out hunting FEMA,” according to Jason Nedlo, a spokesperson for the Forest Service’s Southern Area Blue Incident Management Team. The email was first reported by The Washington Post.

FEMA has advised all federal responders (in) Rutherford County, NC, to stand down and evacuate the county immediately," an official with the U.S. Forest Service wrote to other federal agencies, according to The Post. "The message stated that National Guard troops 'had come across x2 trucks of armed militia saying there were out hunting FEMA.'”

The threats have caused FEMA employees to temporarily stop accepting in-person applications for federal assistance in some of North Carolina's mountain communities, according to a statement posted Sunday on social media by the Ashe County Emergency Management Department, which said FEMA employees would not be staffed in the towns of Lansing or Riverview.

A senior FEMA official in Washington confirmed to USA TODAY Monday that workers have been pulled back from going door to door, as is their usual method of helping in disaster areas and are instead working out of Disaster Recovery Centers “as we work through this challenge.”

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity for security reasons, said FEMA staff were “not evacuated entirely,” but instead are working out of the centers, “which are fixed locations that have security at them.”

Cooper said in the press conference that he was not aware of any other threats but said that the swirl of disinformation had demoralized volunteers and prevented those who could apply for aid from doing so.

Some recovery efforts making progress

Cooper also noted that some areas hit by Helene are ready to welcome back visitors and said that visits would be, "critical for the revival of western North Carolina's recovery."

Over 13,000 people still remain without power in the state, according to the USA TODAY Power Outage tracker, and Cooper did not provide a timeline on when power would be restored. "These last-mile places are going to be tougher," Cooper said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gov. Cooper: 81 people in North Carolina still missing after Helene