Government matters in disasters

Competent disaster relief takes qualified leaders.

The images coming out of Western North Carolina are devastating. The entire business district of Chimney Rock was swept away. The River Arts District in Asheville was submerged. Only roof tops were visible in parts of Swannanoa . Roads, including sections of I-40, were washed out, completely impassable.

To make matters worse, communications has been out. Cell service was essentially nonexistent for the first 24 hours. Media outlets couldn’t relay public information. Thousands of people are still unreachable in the remote areas of the mountains. The situation was, and is, very scary. We won’t know the full extent of the damage in the more rural areas for weeks.

Personally, I have deep ties to Western North Carolina. My brother is the fourth generation of my family to live in Asheville and I have a slew of close friends and family who are there. As a young man, I became enamored with the remote vistas, rock faces, and waterfalls between Brevard and Franklin. I’ve been wandering around those hills and hollers ever since.

Most of my people are safe, but several have harrowing tales. One friend described devastation from Mills River to Highlands, calling it “unbelievable.” While most of the images are coming out of Asheville, Boone, and more populated areas, there are hundreds of small communities off narrow, winding roads that are difficult to reach in good times. I fear for those people and wonder how long it will take to reach them.

I’ve seen several people on social media say that now is not the time to talk about politics. We need to tend to the suffering and set aside our differences. I agree that we need to do what we can to help. Here’s a link to a list compiled by WRAL that offers ways to help. Send aid, but don’t go out to western NC. Let the emergency responders do their jobs without clogging up the limited access that’s available.

While it’s not time to score cheap political points, I think that now is exactly the time we should be thinking about politics. We’re just five weeks away from an election and the disaster in western North Carolina highlights why we need competent leaders who take governing seriously. Disaster recovery is one of the government’s primary functions. Incompetent operations can make matters worse, costing valuable resources and even lives. What’s happening now should make us think about who we want to oversee vital services in the state and federal governments.

We’re lucky to have Roy Cooper as governor. He declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm and activated national guard and deployed swift water rescue teams before Helene hit the region. While nothing could have mitigated the impact of the tropical storm that came on the heels of record rainfall, Cooper did what he could ahead of time to prepare for the aftermath of the event. He’s been on the job, working with the federal government to secure more resources for more disaster relief. He understands the task at hand and has capable people with him.

Can you imagine Mark Robinson leading a disaster recovery of this magnitude? He’s barely been at work since he became lieutenant governor, skipping council of state meetings, state school board meetings, and ignoring his role in the state senate. Senate President Pro-tem Phil Berger said of Mark Robinson, “I think he’s the right person at the right time,” knowing that he hasn’t managed so much as an adult video store, much less a state of more than 10 million people. Virtually every elected Republican in the state endorsed him and they knew better.

We’ve already seen how Donald Trump handles disasters when he botched the response to COVID, promoting quack cures while obscuring the scope of the pandemic. Recently, he’s threatened to withhold aid for disasters in California where wildfires have burned entire towns to the ground. His Project 2025 calls for gutting much the Federal Emergency Management Agency and replacing professional personnel with political appointees. If he was president right now, we couldn’t count on his support. We don’t need that level of chaos overseeing our country.

We saw what happened when Republicans put political appointees in charge of FEMA when Katrina hit. Bush appointee Micheal Brown, who was the Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association before being appointed head of FEMA, botched the recovery effort so badly that he became a sarcastic meme after George Bush praised the debacle. “Heckuva job, Brownie.”

This year in North Carolina, Republicans have offered a slate of candidates that most elected officials know are unqualified to lead the state and certainly aren’t up for the task of rebuilding western North Carolina. In addition to Robinson, their candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction, Michele Morrow, may never have stepped into a public school classroom before she became a candidate. Other candidates like GOP Labor Commissioner nominee Luke Farley have no serious managerial or government experience. Their lieutenant governor candidate, Hal Weathermen, is a political hack. Republicans seem to believe the only qualification for serving in government is winning a primary. The recovery from Helene will happen under the next administration. We don’t need these incompetent culture warriors botching an already difficult task.

Addressing the disaster in western North Carolina is going to take all of state government. The recovery is going to take years, not months. As we head into this election season, be thankful that we have a qualified, experienced leader helming state government and be thankful Josh Stein will likely succeed him.

And remember that Republicans want us to vote for candidates who they know are neither qualified nor competent and would leave us stranded in the worst of times. They’ve recommended them purely for political gain, which shows a cynical disrespect for the state of North Carolina and the people who live here.