Will Hurricane Helene Aftermath Prove the Difference in N.C.?

HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — Just 21 days before the start of early voting, Hurricane Helene delivered biblical-level destruction to the hills, hollows, and mountains of North Carolina. The massive storm brought devastating floods that killed 232 people – half of them in this state – and buried entire riverside communities in rivers of mud.

Hurricane Helene challenged western North Carolina as nothing had before

Now, residents struggle for basic supplies. More than 2,500 families are homeless. Crowded shelters are well above capacity. Hundreds of road and bridge closures are disrupting transportation and the delivery of crucial aid.

Two days after the storm, Gov. Roy Cooper requested a Major Disaster Declaration from the federal government in order to surge assistance to state and local agencies and provide immediate relief to suffering North Carolinians. FEMA claimed in a news release that it sent 25 trailer loads of food and 60 trailer loads of water to North Carolina. But Hendersonville resident Andrea Corn says she has not seen a state or federal worker yet.

After the storm, Corn – a 55-year-old accountant who is more accustomed to preparing tax forms for local businesses than organizing relief missions – formed an ATV group to rescue elderly victims in Henderson County. Most roads and bridges had crumbled or washed away, and many folks could be reached only by going off-road.

Andrea and her husband, a volunteer fireman, brought supplies to victims stranded in remote “hollers.” Many residents were without power for more than a month following Helene’s visit. Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian charity, distributed solar-powered lights to light the dark nights.

The government abandoned those people

Well before the storm hit, these western North Carolina mountain towns were imbued with a culture of self-reliance. Residents call it “WNC Strong.” But in the wake of Helene, residents needed critical help that only government can supply: large-scale search and rescue operations, power and water restoration, and infrastructure repair.

Today, many of these residents feel abandoned by state and federal government officials. One question looming over the recovery efforts is whether it will impact voting behavior in Tuesday’s elections. “They are supposed to stand up for us, and we feel forgotten,” Corn said. “We’re going to need lots of money to recover, and our government is sending it to Ukraine.”

Chuck Edwards, Republican congressman representing western North Carolina, said state emergency officials cannot account for the whereabouts of 400 pallets of FEMA-supplied food and water meant for hurricane relief. He has requested 1,180 FEMA trailers to house thousands of displaced people.

In Buncombe County, local artist and photographer Anna Hitrova said that volunteers – not government workers – brought her necessary supplies after the storm. “The only people I’ve seen on the ground in Buncombe,” she said, “are churches and Samaritan’s Purse.”

The government waited too long after Hurricane Helene

Hitrova said she had a “blackpilled moment” when she drove through neighboring Swannanoa. She saw families camping on the lots where their homes once stood. They were without generators, phones, or anything else. “It was a shock; I was crying,” she explained. “It hit me how bad it was to be cut off from the world. The government waited to respond while people were dying.”

North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has reported that most of the state’s deaths were in Buncombe County, home of Asheville and Swannanoa. “When I found out that FEMA had used money for housing illegal migrants and saw our government giving billions to Ukraine while families were getting $750, I was furious,” said Hitrova.

Some assistance came from unlikely sources. Billionaire Elon Musk, for instance, stepped up to help. The Space X CEO donated 500 Starlink internet receivers to groups across the devastated area. Musk’s donation came after the urging of local state representative Danny Britt and former President Donald Trump.

“Here, people had lost their homes and had nothing, but they had painted signs that read ‘God Bless Elon,’” Hitrova said. “I realized that Elon gave these people a lifeline that the government could not.”

Election Day Implications

North Carolina is a key battleground state with 16 electoral votes. Trump won the state narrowly in 2016 and by an even smaller margin in 2020. The current RCP average has the former president leading by only 1.5 points. Both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have visited the storm-ravaged region while campaigning.

During her Oct. 5 visit, Harris met with Asheville’s mayor and leaders of progressive groups such as NC Counts. After attending a local FEMA briefing, the vice president praised state and federal workers for the “nobility of their work and their calling.”

Two weeks later, Trump appeared at an Asheville recovery site flanked by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, an area native, and numerous North Carolina politicians and local business owners.

The former president said the American people were the real heroes of the recovery efforts and that the state and local governments had let storm victims down. Trump said he had come to express a simple message to the region: “I’m with you, and the American people are with you all the way.”

One-fifth of the state’s 7.3 million registered voters reside in the disaster area. Are the visits and pledges of support resonating with voters? In Henderson, a predominantly red county, it appears so. “I was shocked to see the level of highly motivated people out here voting this year despite their difficulties,” said Henderson County GOP Chair Brett Calloway.

They wanted to know where they could go to vote!

Andrea Corn said that access to voting was the number one concern for Helene victims. “Some folks needed food, others had lost their home, and the first thing they were asking about was voting,” she said. “It was truly all that mattered for them.” Some residents told her they hadn’t voted in two decades.

Corn recently closed her accounting office so her employees could help staff election sites. Calloway also says people are eager to help in the election campaign. A week after the storm, a man came into the GOP office to ask about volunteering. “I’ll have to do it around my wife’s funeral,” the teary-eyed man said. “My country needs me.”

Inactive voters reactivating themselves

As of Friday, nearly 58% of registered voters in the county had cast their vote. Turnout this year is 19% higher than in 2020. “Many of the voters we’re seeing are on the inactive voter rolls,” says Calloway. “Only 7% of our voters are Election Day voters, so there is no danger of Election-Day votes being cannibalized,” he said.

By Friday morning, 3.7 million North Carolinians had voted, surpassing the 2020 early voting total. Later, the State Board of Elections reported over 4 million votes cast in 2024, with over half of registered voters participating.

“This year, voting is a symbolic act for me,” declared Anna Hitrova. A onetime Democrat who now publicly identifies as a conservative activist, she says she has “given up” on the current government. “I am going to vote, I am going to vote for Trump, and I am going to do it on the first day of early voting in the progressive city of Asheville.”

Editor’s Note: this article appeared one day before the election.