Photo: The aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Asheville, North Carolina. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Fueled by the hot Gulf waters — a direct result of climate change — Hurricane Helene moved rapidly inland, where it dumped enormous amounts of rain into Southern Appalachia, causing catastrophic flooding and unimaginable devastation. Over 200 people are confirmed dead as a result of the storm, and the death toll is expected to rise. Hundreds are still unaccounted for. Amid all this devastation, many people have not seen any government response from FEMA or any other relief agencies.
Hours after the storm hit, volunteers were on the ground in parts of Florida and Georgia, distributing water, food, diapers, cleaning supplies, and more.
In St. Petersburg, Florida, we were invited to tour flooded apartments, where community members shared their experience with the storm and aftermath. Joseph Canady, a lifelong resident, said he’d never seen flooding like this. “I lost everything I had, my trucks down, everything in my apartment was destroyed. I don’t know when I am going to be able to go back to work… and I believe something has to be done.” He added, “The only thing that’s going to change is when the government changes and does what they need to do and put the money in the right places.”
Members in Southern Appalachia responded rapidly to the conditions on the ground, from rescuing and housing a stranger who was caught in the floodwaters to organizing neighborhood meetings. As soon as a path opened into Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina, PSL members from neighboring branches began bringing in supplies and support to assist with relief efforts.
We put special focus on bringing in drinking water, even renting a flatbed truck to deliver more, because so many people were desperate and some had resorted to drinking hazardous water from nearby creeks.
Cody Cogdell, an organizer with PSL Asheville reflects on the relief work they have been carrying out:
“The community aid is something we need to continue to support, but it’s a drop in the bucket. What we need is more government assistance. We need FEMA assistance. We need the federal government to step up and do its job. You know, we have seen a level of response from both federal and state governments. But that response hasn’t been bringing in aid, it has been bringing in police. I have seen police from Charlotte, from Louisiana, from Atlanta. All this manpower wasn’t sent in to distribute supplies, or to clear the roads, or even direct traffic. It was sent in to make sure hungry people, thirsty people, desperate people couldn’t get the supplies they needed. Those police and the private security which we saw guarding grocery stores, could have helped with distributing supplies instead. But that’s not what they’re doing.”
While carrying out this relief work, we have heard from dozens of community members who all share a similar sentiment: the government has abandoned us. When a crisis hits, poor and working people are left to suffer.
The model for disaster preparedness in the United States is “every-man-for-himself.” Ahead of Helene, officials declared storm warnings and evacuation orders in parts of the region, but for many areas these orders came too late, if they came at all. Furthermore, there are no centralized and systemic plans to temporarily relocate people to safety. Instead, most people must rely on their own resources to evacuate — anybody without a reliable car, adequate gas money, or sufficient mobility is out of luck. From travel expenses to lost wages, the cost of evacuating can be enormous, especially at a time of heightened housing and food prices.
Federal, state, and local leaders have refused to take responsibility for disaster-preparedness. In addition to evacuation, they could offer programs to help the poor, elderly, and disabled sandbag and board up their homes. They could ensure every household has adequate supplies to ride out the storm. They could invest in better infrastructure to adjust for the threats of storm surges and flash floods; threats that will only grow as the climate continues to change. Common-sense initiatives like these are possible, and are already carried out in socialist Cuba. Instead, they abandon vulnerable people, insisting again upon an individual survival mindset: “the first 72 are on you!”
While the government has abandoned people to fend for themselves, working class people like us always come together to organize aid networks for each other. However, this aid is only a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the scale of what is needed. The government has the power and the resources to fully address this crisis, and must act now!
In fact, as Hurricane Helene approached, lawmakers allowed billions of dollars to be stripped from disaster funding, all while FEMA is facing a multi-billion dollar deficit and is unable to provide for rebuilding projects. These same lawmakers are able to build bipartisan support for sending billions of dollars to Israel to fund a genocidal war drive, but draw the line at disaster relief.
To add insult to injury, some officials are scapegoating immigrants seeking asylum for the budget shortfall. This tired and racist divide-and-conquer rhetoric will not work.
Instead of excuses and inaction, officials must fully fund FEMA to cover the costs for people’s needs without delay. We demand immediate assistance to ensure that people get clean water, food, medicine, shelter, and transportation now! This must be coupled with long term assistance to fully rebuild our communities, including the rural communities which are often forgotten. And we demand immediate and comprehensive action on climate change, which is fueling storms like these. Use our tax money to fund people’s needs, not the war machine!
