A storm normally muddies the waters over which it passes. In important ways, Hurricane Helene has proven an exception to that rule by clarifying so many things.

From 1984 until 2016, I lived in Western North Carolina, first in Waynesville and then in Asheville. My wife and I raised and homeschooled our children there, operated four businesses, took an active part in the community, and have many friends there.

After Helene wreaked its devastation across this mountain region, for about a week I obsessed over the news. Biltmore Village, where I’d shopped now and then, was wrecked. The River Arts District which I’d passed countless times was under water. Some of the small towns I’d known—Burnsville, Banner Elk, Chimney Rock, and more—were destroyed or heavily damaged.

From my friends in these places came story after story of good deeds done, large and small, that would renew the faith in humanity of any misanthrope on the planet. There was the man who spent almost 24 hours mucking out the Weaverville water treatment plant. There were the people working day and night to bring their communities back to life: the fireman who had once sat in my classroom, the attorney who organized and shipped out a truckload of supplies to hard-hit Swannanoa, the woman who operated a food and water giveaway station in downtown Asheville, my in-laws with a generator who cooked meals and boiled water for their neighbors. Gone were any animosities of politics or race. Hurricane Helene and its aftermath were the only enemies that mattered.

All of these contacts noted the absence of the federal government in this calamity. It wasn’t until day nine after the hurricane, for instance, that a woman working in Asheville saw her first Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employee, a man with papers and a clipboard taking information from residents seeking help. Another acquaintance west of Asheville wrote to me saying, “I know the Gov is doing literally nothing to assist. As an American, I’ve never felt more abandoned—I knew they didn’t have our back, but it’s just enraging. I’m thankful for community, people with grit and determination, citizens flying their own helicopters in from all over America to assist in rescue for people that still have had no assistance.” 

Journalist Casey Blake of USA Today was in Asheville for the flood. She too praised this “neighbor helping neighbor” volunteerism, yet noted, “It took six days for the county to announce a plan to distribute food or water. It took seven before state or federal supplies arrived.”

Under the header “Mass Care and Emergency Assistance” on FEMA’s own website we find this mission statement:

Mass Care and Emergency Assistance services are provided immediately before a potential incident and during the immediate response to an incident. Staff and resources are deployed to local response centers, and Mass Care and Emergency Assistance services are provided immediately before a potential incident and during the immediate response to an incident. Staff and resources are deployed to response centers located in affected areas.

A list of emergency services, including sheltering, feeding, and distributing supplies to victims, follows.

So, where were these rescuers?

Some conservative commentators have conjectured that this federal foot-dragging was deliberate, an attempt to squash voting in this predominantly pro-Trump region. Others believed it a simpler matter of hating on MAGA supporters. Here I aim to be more charitable and chalk up the government’s feeble response to sheer ineptitude.

This shouldn’t surprise us. For decades, the federal government has damaged whatever it touches. The Department of Education has contributed to the deterioration of our schools, leaving graduates more ignorant than ever. Federal regulations and paperwork are strangling our health services. Our much-vaunted military can’t meet recruiting goals, in part because their DEI policies have left white males saying “Thanks, but no thanks.” Perhaps worst of all, government waste and our ever-increasing debt are killing America’s future.

Here’s just one specific example of federal amateur hour. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act set aside $7.5 billion for building electric vehicle charging stations, 500,000 of them across the country, to be exact. So far, that funding has given the American people just eight of these stations. This same act also provided $42.5 billion for an “Internet for All” program. Lots of money has gone into lots of pockets, but so far not one new customer has been hooked up to the internet.

Ordinary citizens are often unaware of these failures, but the horrible wreckage left by Hurricane Helene has clarified that muddy water. Our government is an extravaganza of incompetence and waste. 

So, contrast FEMA’s assistance with that of the “Redneck Air Force,” the hundreds of special operations personnel operating in Western North Carolina, most of them retired from the military, who have flown hundreds of sorties, delivering supplies and effecting rescues for those in need. From the New York Post:

‘Who’s FEMA?’ ex-Green Beret Adam Smith derisively responded when asked about the agency’s presence on the ground since the deadly storm ravaged the rural western part of the state.

‘This disaster has definitively proven without a shadow of a doubt FEMA’s incompetence and incapability,’ he said, noting that the agency didn’t even show up until Thursday—almost a week after the storm that has killed at least 232, nearly half of them in the mountainous west of the Tar Heel State.

The government has proven its ineptitude. With the aid of volunteers and donors from around the nation, Western North Carolinians are proving the truth of the axiom, “If you want something done, do it yourself.”

Take note, everyone.