No shame. Even in a disaster.

Our thoughts are with the people of Western North Carolina as they work to recover from the devastation that Hurricane Helene wrought there. Despite rumors and votes to the contrary, we also want to thank President Biden and Vice President Harris and Governor Cooper for their forward thinking and successful efforts to bring an immediate and united approach to disaster relief and assistance to our hard-hit western neighbors.  

The NC Board of Elections has also been hard at work developing emergency measures to facilitate voting in the areas most affected by Hurricane Helene. And, our U.S. Congressional Delegation (both Senate and House) with the exception of Dan Bishop, has also done its part by voting on September 23, 2024, to keep the federal government, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funded. Congressman Bishop is running for NC Attorney General, and he voted to shut down the federal government, as did Senator J.D. Vance, who is running on the Trump-Vance ticket. 

Sadly, according to the New York Times, the Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly, like CM Bishop and Senator Vance, has also failed the public over the last 15 years by refusing to update building codes, opposing construction safety measures and eroding environmental protections that might have mitigated the catastrophic damage.  

Many in the same political party are also flooding social media with misinformation and lies about the emergency help that has been made available by Federal and State as well as local government, wasting the resources available to help those in distress and to recover and rebuild. In fact, the Republican rumor mill has gotten so bad that FEMA and the NC Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) have web pages to help fight this destructive disinformation campaign.  

The NCDPS site links to other sites where you can donate money, volunteer and to obtain additional information.

With Hurricane Milton about to hit Florida, it seems that the least voters should be able to expect is a united effort by our political leaders in both parties to mitigate the damage that has and will be done.

Post Script: Unfortunately the opposite has happened. In response to Donald Trump’s lies about FEMA, on Sunday members of the National Guard had encountered trucks of armed militia members who said they were out “hunting FEMA”. As a result, FEMA personnel are now operating at fixed locations and secure areas, which means they will no longer go "door to door" to check on residents and to help them register for assistance.