Hurricane Helene

The aftermath of the effects of Hurricane Helene on the Appalachian regions of North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina are gut wrenching.

Even worse seems to be the response of federal authorities for assistance to those in so much need.

I well remember the media condemnation of the George W. Bush administration response after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

We are seeing relatively sparse coverage of the Helene disaster compared to what we saw with Katrina in 2005.

We are also seeing very little criticism of the federal response to Helene or of the Biden/Harris administration in comparison to Bush and Katrina.

It could be the coverage is diminished because we are dealing with largely rural areas that are spread out compared with Helene to the relative ease to cover New Orleans with Katrina.

It could also be that the media does not want to shine a light on the failures going on with Helene to harm the chances of Kamala and the Democrats next month.

What is most disturbing is the confession by Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas that more disaster relief funding will not be forthcoming because FEMA  does not have the funding to do so.

Keep in mind that FEMA has an annual budget of over $30 billion and has almost 15,000 full-time equivalent employees.

What is the problem?

It seems that Biden and Harris have been using FEMA money to house and shelter the illegal immigrants who took advantage of the Biden/ Harris open border policy over the last several years.

Credit: https://x.com/BreannaMorello/status/1841811723507880393

In total, almost $1 billion of FEMA funds were siphoned away to take care of illegals which has left little for the U.S. citizens affected by Helene to help them recover from the disaster.

$641 million was spent on illegals from FEMA just this year and another $350 million was spent last year.

What makes all of this so unfathomable is that Biden and Harris created a man-made disaster at the border and then raided the FEMA funds meant for natural disasters like Helene to pay the costs associated with the border invasion they caused.

It is beyond me how in any sane world the people responsible for any of this could in any way have any prayer to continue in office. 

I have written several times in these pages before about the compounding effects of illegal immigration.

There is no better example of that in what we are seeing transpire in the aftermath with Helene.

That $1 billion in FEMA funds should be readily available to deploy to help Helene's victims recover.

The fact that it is not available is a direct result of the illegal immigration that has taken place over the last four years.

Illegals have been given a higher priority than U.S. citizens.

It is unconscionable.

Even more disturbing is the suggestion from some that Biden/Harris are slow walking the relief to the affected area in North Carolina since it is largely made up of counties that voted heavily for Trump in 2020.

Buncombe county (Asheville) is one of the outliers here in that Biden won 60%-39% with a 34,000 vote margin.

We are also hearing the familiar refrain from Democrats in the aftermath of Helene that all of this was due to climate change.

The scale of this disaster from the hurricane and flooding this far inland is something few of us have seen in our lifetimes.

However, this area of the country has seen similar flooding in the past.

For example, Asheville, NC saw similar flooding in 1916 and 1940.

This is a picture from the 1916 flood which many state was worse for the city than what we have seen with Helene.

Credit: https://x.com/JunkScience/status/1841882646294724973

Note that the picture above is from an article written last year.

Here is the front page of the local paper reporting on the flood in 1916.

Credit: https://x.com/TonyClimate/status/1840806236616273943

What were the carbon emissions in 1916?

You may recall Al Gore telling us right after Hurricane Katrina that powerful hurricanes would become the norm rather than the exception.

Can you find the climate change in this table or evidence that hurricanes have gotten more prevalent or stronger compared to what we saw before 1950 when man-made carbon emissions really started to increase? 

In fact, the trend has actually been the opposite since the 1930's based on this analysis by climatologist and former NASA scientist Dr. Roy Spencer .

Unfortunately, we have had to deal with hurricanes and floods since the beginning of time on earth.

Natural disasters are a part of life. Man is not capable of controlling the forces of nature.

However, man-made disasters such as the border invasion under Biden/Harris should never have occurred.

And the victims of Helene are paying an even greater price because of it.

May they be in everyone's thoughts and prayers as they attempt to rebuild their lives.