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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBeen following the disaster in NC. Lots of complaints
One is the $750 from the government to survivors. They say it isn't enough, and I agree, it isn't enough. But damn, it's just the start of much money coming down the pike.
Another is, of course, that government isn't doing enough. Hell it's only been a week! It takes a lot of work to go somewhere new and get set up. Oh, yeah, they could just roll in and throw money around, but they would waste tons of it on scammers and bad decisions without knowing who is who and what's what.
Most of the complaints are coming from MAGA types using this situation to score political points.
MAGAs, sorry to say, sound like a bunch of ill-mannered socialists wanting the government to fix everything and solve everyone's problems, yesterday.
But, at least they are sounding like socialists asking for more and better socialism, which is what we all want, right?
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Claustrum
(5,052 posts)But they don’t believe others do. Like Florida has no problem requesting federal help when disaster happened but they had no problem voting against aids in NY when NY got hit.
RandySF
(71,097 posts)everyone should drop everything and help only you.
duncang
(3,722 posts)It’s a pretty much across the board payment. Just to bid people by for awhile. It’s not the aid that will come later after people apply for aid. It doesn’t count the food and supplies being handed out right now from the government.
ClimateHawk
(344 posts)They may qualify for more. FEMA has a page correcting misinformation. https://www.fema.gov/disaster/current/hurricane-helene/rumor-response?
Silent Type
(7,297 posts)Most will feel better about situation soon. Hopefully by next week, financial help will be flowing along with housing, food, etc.
It is ironic many complaining probably criticized the help for people who lost everything in Katrina.
soandso
(1,631 posts)and that's so true for FEMA but for the people waiting, it probably feels like ages. Such a fucked up mess and the truth is, there are situations where help can never come fast enough. So many of these people have lost or are still missing loved ones, too, on top of whatever misery they're enduring.
We are a topographically vast and spread-out nation that doesn’t have the resources to put the cumbersome, and often probably ugly, immense protections in place that would protect every dwelling in every area of every state from every imaginable natural disaster. Nor do we have the ability to locate, reach, help, shelter, feed, and clothe everyone who needs it after such a calamity strikes.
The best we can hope for is a benevolent-minded federal government willing to go all out, with whatever efficiency it can muster, and help as best it can, and with all resources it can come up with. State governors using political or religious reasons to hinder such efforts must be bypassed and, in extreme cases, temporarily sidelined. Legally dicey, obviously, but ask the cold, wet, starving family in rural Tennessee if that is a major concern of theirs right now. I’d rather have Joe Biden on my side now than Dick Cheney after Katrina.
soandso
(1,631 posts)that everyone can't be helped everywhere, in a timely fashion. There is a massive effort, by government and private parties to help but in the mountains, with washed out roads, it's slow going, even with road crews working their asses off. This is so different from parts of Florida, also a disaster, but is flat.
I had not heard of any governors hindering aid, anywhere. Have you? Why would they? I've only heard of one verified instance of aid being being hindered. That involved a private helicopter rescuing people in some hard to get into, mountainous area of NC, and it was a local fire chief, protecting his turf. Other that that, nothing.
Couldn't agree more about Katrina.
DFW
(56,796 posts)Republican Texas governors have a very hands-off attitude about helping Texans in distress if it means they get shown up by presidents—even Republican presidents.
In NC, I have heard nothing but good things about Roy Cooper, incidentally.
usedtobedemgurl
(1,441 posts)When Biden visited a couple of days ago. There are small politicians who ignore their constituents.
BoRaGard
(3,117 posts)As yet another huge Climate Chaos raistorm is going to flood his fief again, starting this weekend.
usedtobedemgurl
(1,441 posts)I had not heard.
BoRaGard
(3,117 posts)repubes refuse to face the fact of climate chaos. Everyone pays for their willful ignorance.
Is a hurricane headed for Florida? Forecasters say brace for torrential rain.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/other/is-a-hurricane-headed-for-florida-forecasters-say-brace-for-torrential-rain/ar-AA1rHRPm
usedtobedemgurl
(1,441 posts)I know someone down there. I will make sure they will be ok.
yardwork
(64,686 posts)Unfortunately, NC also has a Republican-controlled state legislature that has systemically weakened building codes. I don't know that that would have made a difference, though. How does one prepare for a mountain turning to mud and burying a village.
mucholderthandirt
(1,198 posts)It's quite another when a hurricane comes through and takes down half that mountain.
Our Republican state legislature is a mess, and hopefully their actions will get a lot of them gone after November. But we have to deal with right now, not next time. Roy Cooper is the best. If we could have him another eight years, I'd happily vote for him.
cally
(21,715 posts)Or make a spectacle of threatening to do so and propose emergency relief. Sometimes the show is necessary!
DFW
(56,796 posts)We have lived with all sorts of socialism next door. Stalinist in East Germany and Bulgaria, nut case in Albania, “my way” in Romania*, “goulash” in Hungary, “kinda-sorta” in Yugoslavia, even the short-lived “elitist-light” version that existed in France during Mitterand’s first term. There was always the Soviet elephant in the room, pissed that he let Tito get away, and determined never to let it happen again. East Berlin 1953, Budapest 1956, Prague 1968, it was made clear where the line was drawn.
*“My way” equality in Ceausescu’s Romania consisted of “As your fearless leader, I get half, and the rest of you can all have thirds.”
Except for Yugoslavia, all those places had a common theme: a tiny privileged government elite, a subjugated everyone else, no permission to dissent or protest or even leave, and tests of ideological purity if you wanted to get anywhere (or being a sports star, watched by special secret police during trips abroad so you don’t decide to stay).
It wasn’t the theory, it wasn’t the ideal, but it was the reality. I visited those places when they existed, or soon after the socialist regimes fell. I speak English, Russian, German, Italian and French, which was enough to communicate with 90% of the people I met.
Most of them didn’t want the system they were living under. Official East German propaganda called their regime “the true existing socialism on German soil.” People were shot in the back trying to flee it. Their privileged elite thought it was great. For most of the people, more and “better” versions of that was definitely not what they all wanted. It certainly cured me of ever wanting it. I’m all for the “social” part. I’m perfectly willing to leave the “ism” on the end to Kim Jong Un.
Cha
(305,812 posts)She says North Carolinians have a website for Disaster Relief Assistance and can ask for what kind of Assistance they need.
Also said.. North Carlina knows what's going on.. Gov Cooper set that up.
My son was on his job site today and there were those complaining about the "Only $750"... he told them more was coming and What happened to the "Boot Straps.., did Htay float down the River?"
mucholderthandirt
(1,198 posts)Not for anyone else, especially black, brown or other nonwhite folks. They didn't earn it, see? They are just being given everything because of the libruls.
BoRaGard
(3,117 posts)Meanwhile, maga republicons have their hands out, demanding socialist handouts for themselves.
I do support our government supporting people, all people. But the maga hypocrites? Stop whining, or Pull yourselves up by your own damn bootstraps.
GoCubsGo
(33,135 posts)Like they expect everyone else to do. Fuck them. (The MAGAts, not the storm victims.)
Emile
(30,661 posts)are complaining about hurricane victims not getting enough socialist dollars, they need to get the attention of republicans in Congress.
Only one president took money away from FEMA and directed it to go to immigration and that was DonOLD Trump.
malaise
(278,668 posts)yardwork
(64,686 posts)Deliberate lies are being told and amplified by bots online.
The newspapers and local news stations are fighting back.
cadoman
(963 posts)Which was a disaster of similar scale. And with Biden successfully bringing drug costs down this money goes much further.
JCMach1
(28,128 posts)Trying to suppress/depress votes...
As of yesterday only 750K were still without power. From my Florida and TX experiences in the past, that is SUPER FAST.
The infrastructure that was wiped took generations to build. Unfortunately, it will take some time.
DeepWinter
(578 posts)feeds are FULL of posts about Biden/Harris giving Ukraine 8 Billion and Americans $750. And the comments are pure hate against Biden/Harris for it.
Turning that around will be a challenge because it's dragging on Harris everywhere I read online.
dpibel
(3,438 posts)about the places you read online...
DeepWinter
(578 posts)"Know thy enemy"
The last thing I do is limit myself to like minded individuals with like minded opinions. I read everything everywhere. I learned that decades ago and it has served me well.
JCMach1
(28,128 posts)Unfortunately, MSM is mostly serving as an uncritical echo chamber.
Natural disaster stores tend to be inherently negative, which glosses.over power be restored to many areas in record time and extremely quick response give the disaster magnitude and the logistics of just getting in immediate survival aid to some places.
MSM doesn't want positive stories about disasters.
-misanthroptimist
(1,225 posts)...just wait until Trump and the Republicans get rid of FEMA.
moose65
(3,325 posts)My county was hit hard, but not as hard as counties to the southwest. Those counties are disaster areas and look post-apocalyptic.
People in all counties have been working and pulling together and donations have come in from all over. My power is still off after a week, although my house wasn’t damaged. People are volunteering and helping each other, which is good. For a couple of days the misinformation was limited, since most people didn’t have the ability to get online. That was nice, I’ll have to say.
The area hit the hardest, with the exception of Asheville, is a very, VERY conservative area. They are already predisposed to believe every conspiracy theory about the very government that is helping them right now. I can’t imagine how this would have been handled under Trump. UGH.
The craziest conspiracy theory is that this was all planned. The government “sent” the hurricane there so that people would be forced to sell their land, and then the government could get its hands on some imagined lithium mine. It’s so crazy that it defies logic. They don’t really seem concerned about a real threat: the mines in Spruce Pine produce most of the quartz that is used in chips for computers, phones, etc. But that apparently isn’t crazy enough for them!
Think. Again.
(18,930 posts)That's weird.
Anyway, it seems the rightwing bots are getting a lot of help here spreading that particular $750 rightwing talking point.
JanMichael
(25,295 posts)I think people forget that while the area around Asheville was devastated so was southern Avery County and Boone was also hit hard. That's a 100 miles northeast. Then we have 10ft or whatever storm surges in the areas around Tampa flooding and high winds in South Carolina and parts of Tennessee and Georgia and Virginia. Sugar Mountain NC is an example of the Two Americas concept. The ski areas are surrounded by condos and fairly nice houses. The low areas have old houses and mobile homes. Almost all of the mobile homes in the Town of Sugar Mountain were flooded. There are hundreds of newly homeless in that tiny town. They had to use a Chinook helicopter to bring food to Banner Elk and evacuate Lees McCrae students because the two roads out were blocked by collapsed bridges and washed out road.
The Appalachian mountains are crisscrossed by rivers and streams. The roads are carved into the mountain sides. The towns are along side the rivers where the land is flatter.
They are still looking for bodies.
I forgot to add nice way to slam the left in the OP complaining about the Reich. Totally lame.
moonscape
(5,400 posts)texting they and their home were okay. Neighbors and lots of chainsaws pulled together to free small private dirt roads. Said they would not have power or water for another month or more.
JanMichael
(25,295 posts)Are they way up in the hills? I was also told that gas stations in Avery were low and restaurants were mostly closed. That's a lot of lost or temporarily lost jobs. I think that North Avery was spared the massive damage that hit Linville and Newland.
A month without water and electric would be pretty mentally challenging in 2024. Hope they get it sooner
moonscape
(5,400 posts)up a longish private dirt road. They built their log home on acreage, the front is stilt, the back butts right up against a forested mountain. Before hearing from her I was sleepless, then so relieved no trees came down on their house.
Because of power, have had but limited texts and no voice to get more detailed info.
Edit to add: she texted me as soon as she could, but they were so isolated all she knew was that it was bad in Asheville. The innocence of the text was heartbreaking, all she would be learning. We’re native to the area, she and hubs active hikers, very locally involved, know the mountains blindfolded. Last year this time I was there for a month and we were hiking together.
moonscape
(5,400 posts)JanMichael
(25,295 posts)
Nimble_Idea
(2,476 posts)kommies beggin' fer them gubment cheese
[/sarcasm]
mcar
(43,619 posts)that should not be amplified here, IMO.
quaker bill
(8,240 posts)It is never enough or fast enough. People react in various ways, some are happy, others are angry. It really has nothing to do with the actual services delivered it is just trauma response.
peggysue2
(11,510 posts)The trauma of an event like this is massive. We know outside MAGA-types are trying to rev up the discontent but the discontent would be there anyway. The death toll is around 200 and counting. Residents have lost their sense of security and safety, many losing everything, a lifetime of work and effort. No water, no electricity, no cell service. The feeling of isolation must be terrible for many regardless of how many rescuers and service people are on the ground.
I read an article yesterday about how the death toll will expand as time goes on, a ripple effect over years from the gargantuan stress of the event and loss.
So, I think we need to cut the residents slack and support the rescue efforts.
For the agitators?
They can burn in hell for their cruelty.
gulliver
(13,332 posts)I'm proud of us. We're saying nothing and doing nothing that isn't helpful to the victims of the disaster. Just getting on with helping. Independents and even many of the MAGAs will see through Trump on this, I predict. He's indecently lying about a catastrophe.