Appalachian Self-Reliance

By Alaric

On the ground in North Carolina: How local networks have mobilized in the absence of government

A strange scene unfolds on I-26 to Asheville. Heading south, away from the city, the highway is bumper-to-bumper traffic. Lawnmowers and grills are lashed to trailers, with other household supplies packed tightly in the backseat, pressed against the windows.

Heading north, towards the city, are far fewer cars. As the road twists through idyllic mountains, the type of the vehicles changes. With every exit, the population of sedans and SUVs thins out until the traffic is a silent march of F-150s and Ram 1500s, somberly heading towards areas hit hard by Hurricane Helene. Their beds are packed to the brim with supplies, while others haul equipment on trailers.

There are no police or FEMA to be seen, and National Guard Humvees are absent. From the highway alone, one might not notice that there had been a crippling disaster a week ago. Downtown Asheville appears almost untouched, due to its higher elevation. Except for a few signs for food aid, it’s business as usual. But just five minutes downhill is a different story. The Biltmore Village neighborhood looks like a warzone: buildings leveled, semi-trucks flipped, mangled power lines. A thick mud carpets the streets, drying in some places. Passing cars kick it up to a haze.

Unevenness defines the region. In contrast to Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the worst damage from Helene has been due to flooding, not wind; the result is a jarring discrepancy between relative normalcy and wanton destruction. Areas in the path of the floodwaters were just washed away.

In Asheville, construction crews have already gotten to work with the cleanup and recovery effort, with a large part of residents evacuated. But just outside of the city, the aid effort vanishes. There are no signs of FEMA, and police cars are sporadic. Here again, the highways are dominated by pickup trucks, the defining materiel of the white American working class – implementing private initiatives to do the work expected of the government.

At a half-damaged gas station in Maggie Valley, around 30 miles west of Asheville, I spoke with a few people who were running supplies. They said there were still people trapped on the mountainside, cut off by broken bridges and blocked roads. I asked if they had gotten any help from FEMA or the National Guard. One of the gas station workers, a gruff woman, chimed in: “Why, so the government can come in and fuck it all up?”

This same attitude was everywhere I went. The people of Appalachia are a hardy, self-reliant type. They don’t trust the government, and why would they? Dozens of communities here have received no help whatsoever, their only contact with government in the form of reports that FEMA in some places was seizing supplies.

I drove back to Asheville that night. As darkness fell, the picturesque mountain roads took on a different character. The hostility of the natural environment and the fragility of the civilizational infrastructure became clearer in darkness. Arterial roads carved out of nearly-sheer rock faces wind through rugged highlands that would take days to traverse. In contrast to the plains of my own local region in South Carolina, a road closure here cuts off thousands of people – and in the northern parts of the impacted area, many of these roads remain closed.

Later that night, just outside of Asheville, I spoke with a group of contractors brought in to work on the disaster relief effort. Westley, a heavy equipment operator from Kentucky, began heading to Western North Carolina before the initial flood waters had subsided. Subcontracted by a local company for state-level aid efforts, he spent thousands on fuel to bring bulldozers and skid-steers into the region to start clearing roads. Some of the other men with him had come from even further afield; two were from Florida.

On their arrival in Asheville, they encountered a scene of dysfunction. “Every day it’s been the same story. They tell us to be ready at 7 AM, and then… nothing. We sit around all day. They won’t send us out.” Between them, five crews of five – and roughly $2.5m in critically-needed heavy equipment – had remained on standby for a week.

“We could be helping people, but they won’t let us work. There are people trapped without food or water, and we can clear a path to get to them. But it’s been nothing, ever since we got here.” As well as losing time, the contractors were losing money: “It ain’t cheap to get equipment here, or even just to run it. This business runs with tight margins. If we don’t get to work soon, if they don’t honor our contracts… some of these guys are going to be driving back to find their house seized.”

They had only been sent out once, to clear a path to what they were told was a group of trapped people near Black Mountain, and then recalled before finishing the job. “The worst thing has been the [lack of] communication,” Westley says. “There’s just no way to get a hold of anyone… even when I finally got someone to pick up a call, I got cursed out.”

All of the men had worked hurricane relief jobs before, and none had ever encountered comparable government disorganization. “Normally you show up and they put you right to work. You immediately know where you have to go… here, we’re just sitting.”

Adding to the general confusion, rumors passed between contractors and government employees painted a nightmarish picture. Shootings over five gallons of gas, bank runs with lines stretched for blocks, thousands of dead on Black Mountain alone… all impossible to verify due to the lack of official information, but given the scale of destruction and disorganization, believable. Estimates of the casualty figures were stated with confidence: “Two hundred deaths is ridiculous. It’s more like two thousand, probably more.” Almost everyone I encountered said the same thing. Videos of bodies in trees or half-buried in mud, quickly scrubbed from TikTok and other social media platforms, suggest they’re right.

Perhaps nowhere is the extent of destruction more visible than in Swannanoa, a small town near Black Mountain fifteen minutes outside of Asheville. Pulverized houses and businesses, flanked by twisted stacks of cars and trucks, collapsed bridges, and buildings swept hundreds of yards from sites mark the scene. Buildings on the edge of the flood path looked as though they had bites taken out of them, and loomed dangerously over the wide ditch carved by the rushing water.

Nonetheless, the town was far from empty. In fact, it was bustling with activity. Just off the highway, outside a Harley-Davidson dealership, a massive aid effort was in motion: cars delivering and picking up supplies and a constant loop of helicopters taking off and landing in the field nearby. Trucks and UTVs resupplied for voyages up the mountain, on rough roads inaccessible by regular cars. All the way down Highway 70, heavy trucks and other equipment with the logos of local contracting companies – their own businesses, and likely their homes, in shambles – hauled lumber away from closed roads. Battered churches offered food and hygiene supplies on folding tables. Restaurants prepared whatever they had on hand.

In the corner of a gravel lot, a lone man worked a grill. I stopped to talk to him. “The grill still works, and I had a freezer full of meat, so I might as well try and help.” He had been handing out plates all day. I asked him if he had seen any FEMA or government presence, and he just laughed. “Why would they come here?”

FEMA, for its part, claims they are there. For example, in an October 2nd press release, FEMA shows a picture of “volunteers distributing food” in Swannanoa. But no further information is given, and their claims do not line up with the testimony of people I’ve met on the ground. Perhaps with one eye on these testimonies, FEMA’s recent press releases have addressed “conspiracy theories” and “rumors” as potent problems. But Swannanoa, Black Mountain, Old Fort, Ridgecrest – towns home to thousands, which have been devastated, yet persevere – have bigger problems. With limited assistance from the government, local efforts and private donations have led their recovery efforts. But where has the government been?

Hanlon’s Razor stipulates to “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” But the story of this administration’s response to Hurricane Helene shows aspects of both incompetence and malice.

The federal government has abandoned the people of Western North Carolina. Officials claim a lack of information and red tape, but these are obstacles that melt away when they truly want something done – a fact of which the locals are acutely aware. FEMA is worse than unhelpful, and in some cases has hindered relief efforts. The National Guard is only present at the margins, lacking authorization to do anything critical. Even state-level efforts have been hindered into uselessness by budget misallocation and organizational failure: millions of dollars of life-saving equipment today sit in parking lots as people die in the mountains. Entire counties remain without rule of law, and as the desperation mounts, violence rears its head. Not since Katrina has a government relief effort been this disastrous.

Yet there is a relief effort. Appalachian self-reliance remains its defining ethos, one that has saved countless lives in the wake of this disaster. Road clearing, rescue, and resupply efforts are being undertaken by small groups of locals and other volunteers who have banded together to do what they can. Contracting companies jumped into action with heavy equipment; individuals, and communities created caravans of UTVs and 4-wheelers to deliver supplies. Organizations in surrounding states have entered the area to offer services at their own expense. Private donations have flooded churches and collection points. Even in the most devastated areas, the working roads are busy with activity: vehicles loaded with supplies, still-standing restaurants distributing food, and open fields commandeered by veterans’ groups as helicopter landing pads.

Media coverage remains sparse for the direness of the situation. Most of the news has reached the public through online platforms X and TikTok: some of this has been branded by official media sources as “right-wing disinformation.” To be sure, no information source is ever totally accurate, but many of the most sensational stories have turned out to be true. The death toll is clearly much higher than the claimed 230. Contractors with heavy equipment have been put on perpetual standby. Volunteer helicopter pilots have been sandbagged by bureaucratic harassment. FEMA has confiscated supplies to “inventory” them. Violence is rampant surrounding Asheville, and in some remote areas, rescuers are patrolling with rifles and plate carriers. There is potent venom in locals’ voices whenever FEMA or the government is brought up.

At the same time, some national-level initiatives have helped in Western North Carolina. In particular, Elon Musk has made Starlink free for the entire region and dispatched helicopter crews to drop off nodes and restore communications after forcing his way through government interference. Social media campaigns have rallied hundreds of volunteers and hundreds of thousands in direct donations. A decentralized aid network has emerged, branching off from local Facebook groups, viral xeets and news aggregation accounts.

Spearheading some of these efforts is John Hill, known on X as @johnnyreb1989. Through his own work and effective social media fundraising, Hill has created and run a private relief caravan through Yancey and Mitchell counties, the town of Bakersville, and more, delivering generators, supplies, and cash to remote communities in a nonstop aid effort-based out of a single box truck. Due to FEMA confiscating items at drop-off points to be inventoried, Hill has focussed his efforts around getting directly to those impacted: “That’s exactly why I have been taking supplies and generators directly to people in the backwoods [who] were hit the hardest. There are so many families with kids, elderly, etc… not receiving anything from the government.”

When Hill shared his relief work on X, he was inundated with over $170,000 in donations. This support has allowed him to expand his project to heavy equipment, including renting a trackhoe for the Bakersville Fire Department and bringing truckloads of generators to devastated mountain towns. “I will continue to do whatever it takes for these people, until I run out of donations. It’s become my life’s mission. I am just doing my duty to the South and her amazing people.”

This sense of commitment to helping one’s neighbors and frustration (or even contempt) towards the government is the ethos behind the relief efforts. What we are seeing is the development and deployment of a parallel network – in some senses, a parallel government – for Red America, in real-time.

The people of Western North Carolina are not among the groups favored by our current regime. They are working class, Republicans, and mostly white. MAGA signs and Confederate flags are a common sight in the area. While Kamala Harris has posed for some photoshoots with favored minorities in Charlotte (a city barely touched by the storm), local and online networks – often with a conservative tilt – have brought relief to those who need it most. These networks have slowly been organized over years, if not decades; now they’ve mobilized to make up for the failures of the federal government. In the end, the question of incompetence or malice makes no difference.

There’s no question that FEMA, supposedly the leading disaster relief organization in the country, has failed. The reason it has failed is because the priorities of the organization have changed. FEMA has spent over a billion dollars on illegal immigrants over the past two years, and their messaging over this same period has shifted to an emphasis on “disadvantaged” groups. In a recent webinar, Tyler Atkins, a training manager for the agency, stated that “FEMA relief is no longer about doing the greatest good for the greatest amount of people… it’s about disaster equity.”

The welfare of hundreds of thousands of American citizens in desperate need is simply not a Federal priority. Since Helene made landfall on September 26th and caused its first power outages in Florida, the Biden-Harris administration has announced a $2.6 billion military aid package for Ukraine, and an $8.7 billion package for Israel. On October 4th, a $157 million package was announced for Lebanon. The next day, Helene-related federal aid reached $110 million; since then it has risen to $210 million, against damage estimates of up to $250 billion.

When billions of dollars are allocated to illegal immigrants and foreign military aid, and pennies are set aside for the American people, a jumbled, underfunded, and ineffective federal response is not surprising. It comes from the same motivations that have defined this administration from the beginning: corruption, indifference, and hostility. Still, the story in Western North Carolina also has rays of hope. In the absence of government, and even in response to government obstruction, parallel networks have mobilized to carry out their functions, spearheading lifesaving rescue efforts and delivering critical aid.

American self-reliance – and defiance – is still alive in Appalachia. Local communities, inspired by the ethos that built America, have pulled together to rebuild their devastated counties, with the support of a broader national movement that recognizes these people as their own. So long as government agencies and officials continue to serve different priorities, this dynamic of parallel networks and parallel structures of leadership will only continue to intensify.

Alaric is a writer and the founder of The Dissident Review. He can be followed @0xAlaric.
Help us produce more long-form investigations by becoming a member or making a donation today.



And this from my local area...

How has FEMA failed North Carolina? Let me count the ways!

For some reason, the mainstream media has seemed to "move on" from Helene. Well, we haven't.



Onward and upward,
airforce

Local media and gov. officials have become brown .noseing cheerleaders for fema. Every day they're on tv saying not to believe the lies and misinformation put out on the internet. To hear them tell it, fema has been on the ground from day one rescuing people and delivering supplies. FACT, they didn't do crap. The relief effort has been spearheaded by local people, church groups, private organizations and YouTube preppers from all over the country. People from hundreds of miles away brought in truck loads of supplies, heavy equipment and worked their ass off to help. All free of charge. Many of these groups are manned by veterans and they know how to get things done. They don't waste time filling out paperwork and doing damage assessments. When fema finally showed up they spent their time with local officials doing photo ops. They even took credit for work done by the private groups. To hear local media tell it, fema has done it all and the private groups are never mentioned. Yesterday, fema began going door to door in the affected area to interview victims and they are accompanied by a heavy police escort everywhere they go.

The 3 biggest lies: I love you, the check is in the mail, and we are from FEMA and we are here to help the victims of the geo-engineered flooding that the criminal federal government perpetrated on patriots in the Appalachians to keep them voting for Trump and to wipe them out to steal their lithium deposits to waste on batteries that only last a few years then are not practical to recycle for damn retarded electric vehicles idiots are purchasing when because of all the coal and all of the nuclear fired power plants that the government shut down there is already a worsening shortage of electricity. FEMA already gave most of our money to the damned illegal aliens to keep them here to destroy the USA. Even Alex Jones has been brain washed calling the wetback scum undocumented immigrants instead of law breaking communist funded illegal aliens. We all need to get mad as hell and decide we are not going to take it anymore. Train with a militia while you still can!

I'm Mad As Hell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RujOFCHsxo