My little sister, Denise Stanley, made it through one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States. Although she lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina — almost 250 miles from the ocean — hurricane Helene plummeted her home with high winds and over 23 inches of rain.
She and her husband were lucky. They live on high ground in Boone, so although they lost two trees to the wind and saw their basement flood, their home is intact.
I am sure many of the readers of this column have family and friends who were not as fortunate.
Helene made landfall on Sept. 26 in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, leaving a path of destruction for 500 miles with over 200 people confirmed dead, making Helene the deadliest hurricane in the U.S. since Katina in 2005.
In 2005, George W. Bush was President of the United States. Democrats and the liberal media complained bitterly about Bush’s response to the Katrina hurricane.
Let’s compare Bush’s disaster responses to those of the Biden/Harris administration.
Two days before Katrina made landfall, Bush issued an emergency declaration at the request of Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Two days after landfall, Bush viewed the devastation from a helicopter, which he was criticized for. Two days after Helene, Biden was on a beach in Delaware, and Vice President Kamala Harris was at a fundraiser on the West Coast.
Biden ordered 1,000 active-duty troops and 22 helicopters from Fort Liberty to provide assistance five days after the storm.
According to the U.S. Army, almost 10,000 National Guard troops were on the ground in Louisiana and Mississippi, ready for an emergency response, when Katrina made landfall.
A week after Helene, a reporter asked Biden about the storm zone. After being confused by the question, Biden responded, “They are getting what they need, and they are very happy across the board.”
Florida State Guard member Jonathan Howard took issue with Biden’s answer. On Foxnews.com, Howard said on Sunday, “[it’s a] complete failure of leadership. Everything comes down to leadership, and there is no leadership here. There is no command and control. No one has a clue what’s going on.”
Explaining his frustration, Howard went on, “I saw some Air Force Blackhawks there with a pair of rescue men. These guys are all rescue specialist paramedics. I went up to them, start talking to them, exchanging Intel, and they’re like, ‘We want to go fly, but we can’t. We’re waiting on Title X orders.”
“That’s what I want people to realize – why would the government not want to send these helicopters? Yes, I will see guard and a couple of active duty birds. I might see three National Guard helicopters, and I’ll see 40 civilian helicopters doing rescues.”
Last Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas reported that “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane to hit. We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.”
This announcement comes after the Biden/Harris administration spent over $1 billion from a FEMA program on illegal immigrants.
On Thursday, Harris announced that “the United States will provide nearly $157 million in additional assistance to the people of Lebanon for essential needs such as food, shelter, water, protection, and sanitation,” bringing the “total U.S. assistance to Lebanon over the last year to over $385 million.” In case you don’t know, Lebanon is home to the terrorist organization Hezbollah, which has been launching rockets into Israel almost continually for the last year. Let Iran assist them.
Trump’s policy was America first. The Biden/Harris administration seems to have the opposite policy.
Meanwhile a headline from Politico shows how some Democrats have found a silver lining to the disaster: “Helene hit Trump strongholds in Georgia and North Carolina. It could swing the election.”
If you want to make a donation to help victims of Helene, on Sept. 30 Donald Trump launched a GoFund Me campaign which as of Friday raised over $5 million.
The Red Cross is another way to help those affected by Hurricane Helene: RedCross.org/FoxForward.
