Legal Insurrection reported Sunday on the havoc wreaked by Helene across the southeast Friday and Saturday, particularly the devastation that unfolded in western North Carolina and their neighbors in eastern Tennessee by what remained of the hurricane once she hit those areas.
Some mistakenly believe that once a weather event stops being a hurricane or tropical storm, the cities that are still in the path of what’s left are, for the most part, in the clear.
But that is most certainly not the case, as Helene had been downgraded to a tropical depression before she reached the mountains and foothills of North Carolina. By the time she moved on, rain totals for some areas reached as high as nearly 30″, leaving historic flooding in her wake.
The images and videos, of course, are staggering. Heartbreaking. This is an area where it’s not uncommon to hear about mudslides/landslides simply from having a few hours of rain from a random storm that rolled through, causing temporary road closures. Unlike the NC coast, it’s simply not built to endure that much rain and high winds.
While it is a fact of life that whenever there is a hurricane or tropical storm, there will usually be some flooding along with it, what happened in western North Carolina was unquestionably their Hurricane Katrina. 30 are dead and over 600 are not accounted for in Buncombe County alone. There is catastrophic damage everywhere you turn. Electricity, cellphone service, and wi-fi are out for hundreds of thousands, many of who are stranded in neighborhoods where there is only one way out.
It is a logistical nightmare.
Unless you are a first responder or someone affiliated with the rescue and relief efforts, state officials are urging people NOT to travel to western NC. It is inaccessible due to all the washed-out/flooded roads, collapsed parts of highways, downed trees and power lines, debris from homes and vehicles that floated away, etc.
With all of that in mind, let’s turn to the complaints on social media about national news coverage of the devastation in western NC, and the questions about where Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are:
For clarification purposes, the crown jewel city in western NC is Asheville, which is the North Carolina equivalent of Berkeley. Always votes blue and is always… out there.
Being born and raised (and still residing in) North Carolina, I can tell you from my vantage point that there is not a blackout in media coverage as far as local and statewide news outlets. It’s the dominant story and will likely remain that way for some time while we still await word on the missing and the rebuilding.
Plus, even here in Charlotte there was flooding from lakes, dams, etc., issues that persist as of this writing to the extent that Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools will be closed Monday.
As far as national news outlets go, they’re covering it but much of what I’ve seen has been frustrating, as they’re treating it like it was merely a bad storm and not something that quite literally has changed the topography of a large swath of the western part of this state.
Most of the websites I’ve visited, like CNN and the New York Times, have had it as a “below the fold” story. And unlike Katrina and some other notable hurricanes over the last couple of decades, cable news channels are not saturating the airwaves with live updates.
While some of their spotty coverage no doubt can be attributed to the limited access issues, there’s something to be said about story placement and prioritizing, and both have been poor as far as the national media goes from my perspective.
With that said, I do feel like there would be more of a sense of urgency in national media coverage if we had a Republican governor/president who they would try to blame. Just my .02.
As for Biden and Harris, the POTUS was indeed at the beach this past weekend and Harris indeed was participating in swanky fundraisers out west, the optics of which were horrible and which would have been slammed by the Usual Suspects had our president been a Republican. Their insensitivity absolutely should be called out. Their rules and all.
But beyond that, Biden has pretty much done what he needed to do in an official capacity to pave the way for federal assistance. And both he and Harris have issued statements about the situation:
During a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, Trump accused President Joe Biden of “sleeping” at his beach house in Delaware and dragged Vice President Kamala Harris for holding fundraising events in California over the weekend “when big parts of our country have been devastated by that massive hurricane.”[…]Harris has been briefed by Criswell, according to the White House, and Biden has approved disaster declarations for numerous states and major disaster declarations for certain counties that will help provide temporary housing assistance, as well as grants and low-interest loans to help people with home repairs. Both urged the public to take the storm seriously ahead of landfall.[…]Biden was at his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, over the weekend, where he received briefings about Helene’s devastation from Criswell and Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall, according to the White House pool report. He urged the agencies to speed up the deployment of search and rescue teams into North Carolina, where people are stranded without cell service or electricity.
Biden has reportedly told FEMA officials that he would visit the impacted areas later this week provided it didn’t hinder rescue/relief efforts.
While I stand second to no one in my criticisms of Biden and Harris, in my opinion, I don’t think there’s an effort to deliberately ignore this state. Harris wants to win it, and you can rest assured at some point very soon she’ll be here touring the areas hardest hit for photo ops if nothing else. Quite frankly I wish they’d both stay away but we all know that won’t happen.
Fortunately, the locals are stepping up. The National Guard here and from other states are doing what they can, as are first responders. Utility crews are also set up and in place, with some traveling to get here as we speak.
Meanwhile, please keep my state and neighboring states in your thoughts and prayers, and if you’d like to help, check this comprehensive thread (or click this link):
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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