Six months after Hurricane Helen, Washington’s promises remain empty
On January 24, 2025, just five days after his presidency, Donald Trump traveled to the west of North Carolina, a region destroyed by Hurricane Helen. He stands in front of a desperate, but optimistic crowd, pledged, “I will take a strong action to make North Carolina the support you need to recover quickly and rebuild.”
This was more than two and a half months ago. Today, these words are hollow. Even with the approval of Congress on $ 110 billion in disaster relief in December, west of North Carolina has not yet received one dollar of federal aid.
Helen left amazing losses in its wake: more than 200 lost people, 150,000 homes were severely damaged, more than 2000 landslides and 12,000 people are still displaced. More than 8,000 roads and bridges were destroyed, and the entire societies have been eliminated. It is estimated that the recovery from a hurricane – the bloodiest storm to strike the mainland of the United States since Katrina – will require more than 60 billion dollars.
However, in the absence of federal funding, recovery is paralyzed. Thousands remain in unfamiliar tents, lovers and rvs. Dumper still covers the roofs of homes. The basic infrastructure needed for rebuilding has not been achieved.
Now, a new crisis threatens to deepen destruction. Forest fires, fueled by hundreds of thousands of trees that have been dropped, have not touched since the storm, recently burned more than 10,000 acres in the western state of North Carolina.
In Boncomb Province alone, Ashlafel’s home, 40 percent of all trees were fell by Helen. With the main roads and bridges are still impressive, firefighters are struggling to reach fires. The same negligence that stopped the recovery is now that the ongoing response to disasters is almost impossible. However, Washington is still silent.
Management promises to work quickly did not translate into relief. The people of the western state of North Carolina not only wait – they suffer. Every day without federal assistance is another day in which families live in tents or pens, people on another day cannot pay their mortgage. Every day without help is another day when someone loses his small works or is expelled. And every day is another day, the area remains deserted by those who pledged to help.
But this is not only Washington’s failure – it is America. While social media is swinging with themes around the new administration, an entire area is forgotten. The people of Apalashia deserve more empty promises. They deserve to work. They deserve the help they promised.
They deserve it now.
Lin Rousseau, contact and Hurricane Helen, a preacher who lives in the western state of North Carolina. Find it on Instagram lynnerusso.
