THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN
Sitting here in Arizona writing this, it’s hard to fathom the catastrophe the folks in the southeastern part of the country are suffering from Hurricane Helene. Watching the news of the agony people are experiencing is heart-wrenching.
It’s estimated the costs from the destruction with surpass $30 billion, which will bankrupt people and insurance companies. Helene’s death count, as of Saturday the 5th, is more than 200, and expected to climb. More than 1,000 people just in Buncombe County NC remain unaccounted for. A man in Tennessee is missing after his home was flooded. The home was in the Appalachians Mountains, an incredible 1,700 feet above sea level!
The Biltmore mansion in Asheville has sustained damage. I’ve been there and can tell you that it sits on top of a mountain, accessed by a winding road through a forest to get there. It seems incomprehensible that Helene could have brought havoc to what is seemingly a fortress on the top of a mountain. If it could get there, imagine what it did to the beautiful city of Asheville.
For the past week, people in the Southeast have been living without life necessities such as water, gas, power, and phones. Can you possibly imagine not being able to flush your toilet for a week? There are those that don’t even have a toilet to use because their homes have been destroyed and/or washed away in floods. In some cases, entire towns have been destroyed!
People can’t leave as their cars have been destroyed too. Stores are closed because there is no power. Jobs will be lost as businesses are destroyed. The police are not available because they have the same issues at home. There are food donation locations set up, but residents do not know where to find them unless they heard by word of mouth. Roads are closed by fallen trees or washed out altogether. Locals have reported seeing corpses in the water, buried beneath debris and trapped in cars crushed by trees. There are thousands of people without life-saving medical necessities, such as insulin. The suffering on such a large scale is unfathomable.
Of course, politicians from both sides of the aisle are using the catastrophe to blame each other. Trump, Harris, and Biden are pointing fingers at each other. Mainstream media is blasting anything Trump has had to say, even though he was the first to visit the destroyed areas. Alternatively, the media began reporting glowingly of the wonderful job Biden and Harris are doing.
It should be noted while Trump was in Valdosta GA surveying the problems over the weekend, Harris was at fund raisers in California. She flew from there to Washington DC, instead of the impacted areas. She finally went to Georgia on Wednesday.
Digging through facts, I learned the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is under the direction of Homeland Security, which is overseen by Alejandro Mayorkas. This is the same clown that claimed our southern border is under control. (Apologies to actual clowns for calling Mayorkas a clown.) His involvement does not give one confidence that FEMA money is being properly managed. Last Wednesday Mayorkas told reporters that FEMA does not have the funds for Americans through the rest of the hurricane season – an obvious ploy for more taxpayer money. Why did he say that now during the heart of the Helene catastrophe?
Trump and Texas Governor Gregg Abbott both claim FEMA has spent $1.4 billion since 2022 on the illegal immigrant crises. Mainstream media ran to discredit these reports. The Shelter and Services program, which is under the direction of FEMA, has spent at least $650 million on illegal immigrants issues. Trump and Abbott may have overstated the amount of money spent, but they are vindicated regardless of what the media and “fact checkers” profess.
The South will rise again. Americans are doing what we Americans do – donating time, money and efforts to help. Many people have generously written checks to help with relief. Then there are those people who get actively involved, like my son-in-law Matt Schore. He spearheaded an effort, along with many others from our Illinois community, to help collect and pack a truckload of supplies on a trailer bound for a relief center. Matt even used the services of two of my grandchildren in the process, 7 y/o London and 6 y/o Lincoln, staying up far past their bedtime to lend their little hands to help too – lessons that will last them a lifetime.
President Trump set up a Go Fund Me page which has raised over $6.4 million to date. You can access the site to donate on my Face Book site:
