Politicians Are Hindering Rescue Efforts in North Carolina, and One Rescuer Has Had Enough

[Geee]

PJ Media

The devastation that Tropical Storm Helene inflicted on western North Carolina is still heartbreaking several days after the storm has passed. Countless North Carolinians are stranded in the mountains and valleys of that part of the state, many of them without medications or other things that they need to survive

 

Towns and cities like Asheville are dealing with widespread damage and power outages. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has several road and trail closures, even as U.S. 441, the main highway between Cherokee and Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge/Sevierville, remains open and passable.

It's hard to describe how difficult people in North Carolina have it, but this Facebook post explains some if it:

[[[ ⚠️ ]]] This post contains traumatic content. Stop reading if you need to.

I am not even close to being able to tell the story of the last 5 days in Swannanoa.

What I will say to people who are not in the hardest hit areas of WNC is that there are still huge gaps in communication and many of the worst things that happened have probably not been reported or even understood yet. People are sharing first hand accounts in person or by text that make it clear to me that there ...See more

 

The terrain and the damage have made rescue efforts difficult, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying. However, bureaucrats are hindering these efforts, and they’re often passing the blame between local, state, and federal entities.

One Florida entrepreneur who has been trying to rescue people for several days vented his frustrations in an Instagram video on Tuesday. Jonathan Howard has been working on rescue efforts since over the weekend, and he didn’t hold back in explaining what’s going on. You can watch the video here, but I didn’t embed it because of the profanity.

“I try not to cuss but I am just so mad at the lack of Government support and I need people to hear how desperate this situation is,” Howard wrote in his caption. “I don’t have time to be nice or gentle right now. People are literally dying by the day here and it can all be fixed with Helicopters. It’s like our Government wants these people to die. They’re so incompetent, disorganized, and dishonest it’s disgusting.”

 

[Geee]

Joe Biden's Dawdling Ordering Federal Troops for Disaster Relief Is Incompetent, Malicious, or Both

It has been nearly a week since Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, and Joe Biden has finally announced on behalf of whoever is running the country that he has authorized 1,000 federal troops from Fort Bragg (I will never call it anything else), North Carolina, to assist in disaster relief operations a mere 250 miles away in Western North Carolina.

 

Today, the President is announcing he has directed the Department of Defense to deploy up to 1,000 active-duty soldiers to support response efforts. These soldiers are part of an Infantry Battalion Task Force, based out of Fort Liberty, North Carolina, which includes a Forward Support Company with the necessary support structure (fuel, water, mechanics, etc.) to conduct operations.

These 1,000 troops will constitute the overwhelming federal military disaster response in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.

According to the Department of Defense, the federal military involvement in this five-state catastrophe is minimal:

• A joint enabling team (I won't make jokes; I'm sure what they do is vital).
• A liaison to the federal search and rescue coordination group in Orlando, Florida. (I'm not sure if this is a liaison team or a liaison officer.)
• A "mission assignment support team" was created to embed with the National Response Coordination Center in Washington, D.C.
• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is providing emergency power planning and response teams to Georgia, as well as dam, levee and bridge inspection to Tennessee and Kentucky, and temporary power to North Carolina. (More staff, and many of these will be civilians. I'm unclear what role the Corps of Engineers would have in providing "temporary power to North Carolina," given utilities own the transmission and distribution lines.)
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