Helene and Rumors of Helene Pt. 2

Last week we talked about the more immediate and practical elements of a storm like Helene. This week, we're going to build out beyond prepping and talk about how Helene demonstrated the validity of mutual aid as a method of survival (and beyond) and as another point of failure for the federal government. Tacked onto the failure of our government is the rapid spread of disinformation that followed Helene–some of it even pushed by Russian propagandists–that came to a head with real, physical, militia members hunting FEMA agents.

Helene as Proof of Concept

The very day after Helene struck Asheville, a community member posted a note to the door of Firestorm Books suggesting a meeting the next day. As legend would have it–because it's bound to become legendary–forty people showed up for that first meeting. Four hundred showed up to the next. People began bringing supplies to the store, sharing what they had materially and sharing their skills and labor. This happened spontaneously, and without any direction from the government.

Across the state–and across disasters, as ever–neighbors checked in on neighbors, helped those in need without any financial motivation*. This crossed political lines, racial lines. People helped people. Owners of stores handed out goods–food, building materials, equipment, to those in need. While this has occurred throughout history, and recentish history at that (see Katrina and the Common Ground Collective) Asheville is a wonderfully well-documented instance of people uniting in a community that is already known as, well, eclectic, and with a strong anarchist background so a strong backbone in mutual aid.

Folks, this works. Liberals and libertarians will tell you otherwise, and some socialists might, too, but it works. People help people in disaster. People help people against the encroachment of police and racists–see, again, Common Ground Collective and scott crow post-Katrina, see the leftists in Seattle and Portland after the George Floyd uprisings, see Portland, again, kicking Nazis out of the local skinhead scene in the 80s. And we'll help each other if the government turns against us. For those who think that doesn't seem like enough, I present to you the people of Asheville, who fed each other, sheltered each other, saved each other, in the face of the wrath of nature–and despite what some MAGA-enthusiasts may believe, that is something that beats the strength of the government. Every time.

*You'll note there's no mention of anarchism or leftism in this NPR article. Weird, huh.

Helene as Government Failure and Far Right Casus Belli

So, FEMA did arrive in Asheville, and elsewhere in North Carolina. But they weren't there immediately, and they weren't there with the sort of means necessary to do what needed to be done. Rather famously, I think, at the same time that FEMA reported a budget shortfall, roughly that same amount of funding was announced for Israel's genocide. FEMA doesn't get to decide what the federal government does with money, so I'm not trying to point fingers at them–but while they have done a lot of good they are also notoriously bad at their job (see, for the third time, Katrina). Now, there are rumors out there that aren't true: FEMA didn't give its money away "helping people cross the border," nor are they only giving victims of the hurricane $750 in aid. However, they did about break their arms patting themselves on the back refuting that rumor: they're beating the $750 figure, but by about $600–that's a paycheck, total. It's not nothing, but it's not keeping anyone who lost their home from sweating. Anecdotally, my place of work is giving up to $2600 to employees impacted by the storm.

To attack a federal agency for not arriving immediately on the scene of a disaster that destroyed transportation infrastructure is a bit harsh, I will admit. But the storm hit on September 27th, and I was trying to get ahold of a civilian helicopter pilot to check on a family friend on the 30th–not checking FEMA logs. Local workers and mutual aid were the people on the ground providing assistance, and the people in the know. For a storm that we saw coming, some resources, one would think, could have been scrambled. But, again, there's not that much of a reason to kick FEMA when it's the Federal part of their name that's largely to blame.

Then there are the rumors, of which there are so many that they had to stand up a page on their website to refute them. These range from funding issues, to lack of funding issues, to the ever-present right-wing boogeyman that the federal government is rounding people up into FEMA camps. All of this, of course, has been exacerbated by Trump, who while campaigning has drummed up antipathy for the agency by connecting their sparse funding for survivors to supposed funding for migrants. This isn't the end of the rumors.

About as quickly as the storm hit, some media outlets and internet figures discovered that one of the sole sources of crucible-purity quartz–used in making semiconductors–had been isolated by the storm and we may be out of computer chips, or something. Likely tacked onto that came the right-wing spin that the federal government was going to take the opportunity of Helene to kick people off of their land so they could further exploit the mountains for resources. This is an ecosystem of distrust, inefficiency, and anger. Enter, just in time, our old friends.

It came out that short while after FEMA got their rescue and assistance efforts underway in North Carolina that a militia was hunting them. This was found by the media via an email chain within the federal government, and it seems that perhaps the information was inaccurate, but ultimately a man was arrested for threatening FEMA workers. Then there's the confirmed group of armed Tennesseans troubling workers in that state. Finally, there is Veterans On Patrol, a far-right group that came to Lake Lure, North Carolina and took over aid operations.

Veterans On Patrol is the real thing you want to monitor out of all of the above. This has happened before, in East Palestine, Ohio, when a train derailed and spewed toxins through smoke and the local water supply. First on the aid scene were right-wing groups like Patriot Front and, notably, Trump himself. But the kind of aid they offered in East Palestine is not the kind of aid people need. I drew the distinction here. While Veterans On Patrol did not drop pallets of water and run, they appear to be running a similarly parasitic operation. After a week of organizing and distributing aid (some of which, perhaps, never reaching its intended destination), the community asked the founder of VOP to leave. He didn't take kindly to that, moving his operation down the street, and saying that he had no intentions of leaving. Besides distributing aid and taking advantage of the social media amplification, VOP has said that they intended on staying in Lake Lure for three years, in order to bring the community back from the disaster. I don't imagine they actually will stay that long, but that's a disturbing operation trying to insinuate itself into a small town.

We'll see more of this, to be sure. I think that the thing to focus on as best we can is the proof that mutual aid works, that people can and will come together, and that we must if we're going to make it in an increasingly dangerous world.