Southern Appalachians: Day 48 and It Is Still Worse Than You Can Imagine

This should be the lead story on each network's

evening news for the foreseeable future. 

Here's the latest on the horror in far east Tennessee, far northwest South Carolina, and western North Carolina: the situation is unbelievably bad and the people we pay to mitigate the effects of natural disasters are, at best, failing at their mission. 

In the autumn of 2023, we had at least some reporting from the legacy media about the Maui "land grab" after the horrific fire that struck the City of Lahina. The historic city burned to the ground and the fire killed more than 100. 

Serious questions remain unanswered about the Maui Wildfire, which is yet another reason why the United States must create a National Disaster Review Board, see more below. But that is not the primary topic of this piece. 

FEMA and insurance companies -- or people claiming to represent them -- have brought out that same immoral playbook in the southern Appalachians. Here is the outline:

But there is one more horrible, awful twist: Because they now have 'substandard' living conditions, the North Carolina DHS takes their children away! And, they put the children and future court hearings regarding the children (with the potential for permanent loss of their children) in a location two hours distant. Believe me, I've watched the first-hand videos of frantic mothers telling their stories. Here's a summary of one family's situation from reporter Bree Dial. Please, please watch. 

From U.S. Representative James Comer:

Graphic by Mike Benz

Yesterday, November 19

And, report after report says FEMA is nowhere to be found. Where is the National Guard? Where is the Army? And many report that every homeowner and every businessperson who makes an aid application to FEMA gets rejected. FEMA has only placed one manufactured home in the field as of the 16th. 

Editorial Comment: This Un-American catastrophe is on the Biden-Harris Administration and on Democrat North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. Biden seems to have unlimited funds and missiles to send to Ukraine (and provoke Russia) but virtually none to help his fellow Americans even though the election is over. Yesterday, Vice President Harris left on a Hawaiian vacation. 

But it isn't just the Biden Administration. FEMA claims they don't have enough money. I don't know whether that is true. I do know that Congress should be taking this up now and providing the money needed or, if FEMA is sufficiently funded, stop its whining. Many Republican members of Congress have chosen this time to take a vacation and are AWOL. How would you feel if this were happening to you and your family?

Again, we desperately need a National Disaster Review Board (NDRB) to investigate:

• Everything that went wrong in the Maui Wildfire.
• Everything that continues to go wrong in the southern Appalachians.
• And, the unwarned tornadoes two weeks ago that damaged or destroyed 670 Oklahoma City homes in the middle of the night. Why does the quality of tornado warnings continue to deteriorate?

Until Congress makes this small, but vital, investment in an NDRB, corruption, rumors, immorality (breaking up families and land grabs) and continuing to repeat the same disaster mistakes will continue. I read an article yesterday that describes Congress as suffering from learned helplessness. That is an incredibly good description. It is time for Congress to get serious and fix these problems.