In Chimney Rock, Governor Roy Cooper and Mayor Peter O’Leary walk through Main Street to survey damage of the area caused from Hurricane Helene. (Pool photo/Paul Barker)
Government officials and average citizens of all guises and stripes have done a mostly remarkable job of carrying out relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Notwithstanding the understandable frustrations of those in devastated areas still waiting for aid and the calculated lies of some cynical politicians and shameless social media creeps, the truth is that government agencies and elected leaders of both major parties have been working tirelessly, and even heroically, in the storm’s aftermath.
As Bill Wilke, the Republican sheriff of hard-hit Haywood County said last Friday in response to the wild and false rumors and crazy conspiracy theories that continue to spread on social media: “turn that garbage off…get off Facebook and get out there and put on a pair of boots and pair of gloves and get to work.”
Meanwhile, average citizens and private organizations across the state are heeding Wilke’s call by contributing millions of dollars, tons of supplies, and where and when possible, large amounts of physical labor to the effort.
In some places, officials have been inundated by so many donations that figuring out a way to distribute them efficiently is one of the big current challenges.
And this latter fact helps illustrate an important good-news-bad-news truth about the current situation.
The good news, of course, is that notwithstanding the yawning political divides that plague us these days, the vast majority of North Carolinians still care about their neighbors and are anxious to do what they can to help people in need – whatever their politics or beliefs. We may be a tense and quarrelsome body politic these days, but thankfully for most people, basic human decency still prevails.
The bad — or at least maddening — news in all this, however, is how sadly familiar it all feels. As with the societal outpourings of shock, grief, and goodwill toward the victims that invariably follow in the aftermath of the mass shootings that so plague us, the hurricane response is wonderful and inspiring. But it’s also – as the old saying goes – a day late and a dollar short.
In other words, the overwhelming societal response to Helene and other similar disasters demonstrates the happy fact that Americans remain willing to sacrifice for the common good. But as with the shootings, what’s needed is not just post-disaster relief and sacrifice, but pre-disaster prevention.
Think about it: As climate change and population growth conspire to place millions and millions more people in harm’s way, disasters like Helene are certain to become increasingly common (see Hurricane Milton’s projected path) unless society comes together quickly to do two things that only government can spearhead.
First, is dramatically enhancing physical infrastructure and disaster planning, as well as the rules governing where and how buildings are constructed.
Simply put, we can and should have water and sewer systems and power and communication grids that are vastly more resilient, but it will take money – lots of it – to construct and maintain them.
The same is true for the kind of pre-positioned disaster relief and recovery equipment and personnel that could spring into action in huge numbers on a moment’s notice to the remotest mountain holler, and for stricter zoning and building codes that could make homes and businesses much tougher and storm resistant. We can have these things, but only if we’re willing to pay for them.
What’s lacking, sadly, are political leaders who have the courage to speak these hard truths, to say ‘no’ to greedy industry lobbyists who try to block every proposed regulation, and to ask voters to come together and sacrifice a little ahead of time so that a crazy patchwork of public and private relief efforts will be less necessary in the future.
And, of course, the same is true for climate change itself. As Helene made clear yet again, global warming and sea-level rise may appear to be steady, incremental processes when viewed from a distance, but up close, they are violent and episodic.
Happily, we have the knowledge and capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions rapidly so that climate change doesn’t spiral utterly out of control in the coming decades, but again, probably only if we’re willing to make some modest sacrifices. And that means – at least initially – things like slightly higher taxes and energy bills, and lifestyle changes like winding down the overwhelming societal reliance on internal combustion vehicles.
Will a majority of American politicians ever get to the point – as is already the case in some more enlightened countries – at which they’re willing to level with voters about these facts?
The current electoral cycle in which one side constantly repeats the virulent lie that climate change is a hoax, while the other mostly avoids the issue or implies that it can be addressed in a pain free manner inspires little confidence.
One prays that it won’t take several more Helene-like disasters to convince a majority of Americans and their leaders to grasp the wisdom of sacrificing a little now to save a lot later.