Yesterday I went to Canton, NC, with Cassie Clark of Where the Dogwood Blooms fame, to drop off some supplies and try to help victims of Hurricane Helene. I got a first-hand look at what is going on, at least in the area just beyond Asheville, and I wanted to share that.

Things are both better and worse than everyone thinks. In Canton, some people were hurting, and there was damage, but they had running water and power. Once you got past Canton, people didn’t have water or power yet, but they did have roads to travel to aid sites.

The good news is, people, including local officials and cops, were all working together to get needed food, water, and other supplies to those in need. The supply center where we brought our contribution was humming, with people coming in to drop things off and pick up what was needed, and it was well staffed and well stocked.

The bad news is that there are still a ton of people who are out of reach with no communication. Roads completely washed out – and you could see some of them and just how utterly impossible transportation is in some areas – and the people on the other side of those roads are trapped, sometimes without power, water, medical supplies, and other things they need to live.

As far as the government helping, I saw no evidence. I asked several people, and only one had seen FEMA anywhere. Apparently, there was a station set up where bottled water was distributed, but only for people in cars, meaning if you couldn’t get gas or your car was flooded out, you couldn’t get water.

I did hear rumors of FEMA and other officials preventing people from carrying out rescue and support operation, but nothing I could substantiate as true or false. The people in Western NC are angry – and understandably – which, to be fair, creates a fertile environment for rumors to spread.

One thing that seemed to really irk people was Biden surveying the damage, as all rescue flights were grounded while he was in the air (and he then forgot that he had taken the flight a few hours later).

The LPNC is working to help provide some aid as well, if you would like to donate, please give here: Libertarian Mutual Aid.