As a lifelong Tar Heel, save for my time on active duty in the Navy, and as a resident of the Charlotte Metropolitan area for over 30 years, I stand united with my fellow North Carolinians in a deep outpouring of prayer, grief, and profound concern for our brothers and sisters in the western part of our state.
Had Hurricane Helene, with its immense force, veered just another two or three degrees eastward, the city of Charlotte and its surrounding counties — home to over 2.5 million people — would have borne the storm’s full fury. Instead, North Carolina’s mountain counties have suffered in epicenter of Helene’s furious rage.
Western North Carolina, with its breathtaking Blue Ridge Mountains and rugged terrain, presents unique challenges in times of disaster. The very features that define its natural beauty also leave the region vulnerable. The narrow rivers and streams that meander through the mountains, with little room for overflow, have inundated nearby residential areas nestled in these valleys.
Mudslides and rockslides have crushed homes and killed people. The mountainous landscape hampers both escape and rescue efforts, leaving the good people of this region to grapple with a disaster of near-biblical proportions, largely on their own.
Let us pause to reflect on the geography and politics of the great Tar Heel state.
North Carolina, a proud land of one hundred counties, finds twenty-five of its westernmost regions situated in the rugged beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains and their foothills. These residents, salt-of-the-earth, Christian souls — many Baptists and Methodists — are known for their self-reliance, faith, and generosity. They are people who will offer you the shirt off their backs, yet they now stand abandoned.
Over a week has passed since western North Carolinians were struck by the raw devastation of Hurricane Helene, an event more catastrophic than any military attack.
And what response have they received? A stunning admission from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that FEMA “does not have the funds” to assist Americans through the remainder of the Atlantic hurricane season. This, despite spending more than $1.4 billion to support illegal immigrants since late 2022.
It sparked outrage: Where is the support for the citizens of North Carolina in their hour of dire need?
Even more troubling, as of October 2024, the United States has spent a staggering $175 billion on aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, covering military, economic, and humanitarian assistance.
Meanwhile, in January 2016, the Obama administration shipped $400 million in cash to Iran as part of a $1.7 billion settlement over a decades-old arms deal. These figures highlight a pattern of vast financial commitments overseas, while Americans at home — like those in North Carolina — are left waiting for critical federal aid.
More than a week after Hurricane Helene’s devastating strike, the Biden administration continues boasting of its so-called response with press releases and empty rhetoric, while millions of North Carolinians remain stranded — homeless, powerless, and without access to necessities like food and water.
Tonight, I received a heart-wrenching text from a friend in Haywood County: “The government is worthless that we have right now. If I could say one good thing, I would. God help us get them out!”
This raises the critical question of politics. North Carolina, often labeled a swing state, has historically leaned red. In the last fourteen presidential elections, Republicans have won twelve times, carried by the deep-red western counties — twenty-one of the twenty-five counties have voted Republican in every election since 1968. These counties are, by far, the reddest region of the state.
But here is the alarming reality: if the voting power of these counties, now suffering in Helene’s aftermath, is diminished or neutralized, North Carolina could swing blue. The stakes have never been higher.
At least in theory, Joe Biden is the commander-in-chief of the United States military, with the full might of the armed forces at his disposal to protect Americans in times of crisis. Kamala Harris is supposed to be his trusted number two, whispering in his ear in times of crisis in the White House Situation Room.
Yet, when Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina, where were Biden and Harris?
In 1957, President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock to enforce the integration of Central High School. In 1962, President Kennedy deployed troops to the University of Mississippi, to ensure the enrollment of James Meredith, the first African American student to attend the university. In 1948, President Harry Truman ordered the Berlin airlift, a massive U.S.-led operation to supply West Berlin with food, fuel, and other essentials after the Soviet Union blocked all ground access to the city.
Biden, likewise, could have mobilized the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions the morning after Helene to deliver food, medical supplies, and evacuate stranded citizens by helicopter.
Instead, crickets.
Why has Biden not acted? The United States government has the power and the money, and the military might to save these North Carolinians from dying.
Are dying North Carolinians not as important as Germans in West Berlin?
And why hasn’t the theoretical acting President, Kamala Harris, urged Biden to mobilize the military to save American lives?
Are American lives not as important to the Democrats as the lives of illegal aliens?
Apparently not, in the eyes of the Democrats. Make no mistake about it, siege and starvation are tools of warfare. And the Democrats are, by calculation, waging war against the dying citizens of western North Carolina.
With a national election just weeks away, the Biden-Harris failure to quickly to save lives in the state’s most significant Republican stronghold, could deliver a political advantage to swing the state to Kamala. At the same time, billions flow to illegal aliens and Ukraine, while Americans suffer. Is this a coincidence, or calculated inaction for political gain?
The Democrats neither act, nor fail to act, without a determined political calculus. This time, Americans are paying the price of that political calculus with their lives.
Don Brown, a former U.S. Navy JAG officer, is the author of the books “Travesty of Justice: The Shocking Prosecution of Lieutenant Clint Lorance,” The Last Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II , and “CALL SIGN EXTORTION 17: The Shootdown of SEAL Team Six,” and the author of 15 books on the United States Military, including three national bestsellers, and is a Publisher’s Weekly National Bestseller . He is one of four former JAG officers serving on the Lorance legal team. President Trump pardoned Lorance in November 2019. Brown is also a former military prosecutor, a former Republican Congressional Candidate, and a former Special Assistant United States Attorney. He can be reached at donbrownbooks@gmail.com and on Twitter @donbrownbooks.
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