In North Carolina, mudslides benefit Trumpism

Photo: Melissa Sue Gerrits Agence France-Presse The river bursting its banks on September 28 after Hurricane Helene

Fabien Deglise at Lake Lure

Posted at 12:00 am

• United States

Standing outside the door of the Lake Lure Inn, Peter Mellington had a coffee and a cigarette in his hand, and still a lot of sadness in the back of his eyes. “I try to see the positive, but I can't,” the 67-year-old says, his voice trembling, in the middle of this small North Carolina village devastated on September 27 by Hurricane Helene.

The torrential rain and strong winds, combined with the accumulated precipitation of the previous days, caused historic landslides that leveled a large part of this rural and mountainous community. In the western part of the state, more than 100 people died from the effects of this storm, according to the latest toll from local health authorities. A dozen have still not been found.

“I lost everything: my house, my belongings, my mother's ashes, the collar of my dog ​​who died recently,” he adds. “It was my life that was swept away by the rivers of mud. There was $400,000 worth of belongings and none of it is covered. All I have left is the clothes on my person and my car, which doesn't even work anymore.” »

At Lake Lure, the passage ofHelenehas affected lives. But not only that. The hurricane is now part of the ongoing presidential campaign in the United States, in this strongly Republican region where cleanup and reconstruction have also been in tune with the divisions, resentments and conspiracy theories that have animated the country's political scene for years.

“Luckily we have the neighbors to help each other,” says Richard Beaver, who came with his wife, Twana, this week to pick up free bottles of drinking water in the parking lot of the local grocery store. The water system has not yet been restored. He says he is “blessed” to have been able to keep his house intact, but he must now respect a boil water advisory. “The government has never come to see us to see how things are going. To take care of others, immigrants, illegals, it is there, but to help Americans, there is no one left. »

Photo: Fabien Deglise Le Devoir Richard Beaver and Twana knew they were going to vote Republican, hurricane “Helene” simply reinforced their convictions, they say.

Politics was not swept away by the mudslide in and around Lake Lure. It even became a major part of the story in the days following the tragedy, with statements by Donald Trump, who, faced with the devastation unfolding before his eyes, took advantage of the crisis to attack his Democratic opponents. At several political rallies, the populist claimed—without ever providing proof—that millions of dollars in aid had been diverted from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to bring illegal immigrants into the country.

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He maintained that the government had not sent anyone to North Carolina to help the victims, a claim that contradicted the facts. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the agency sent 1,700 people to the field. By mid-October, $100 million had been paid out in individual aid to victims.

Conspiracy and Manipulation

The extremism was further expressed when one of his close ally, Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, suggested that the Biden administration had manipulated the hurricane’s trajectory to hit areas with high concentrations of Republican voters. “Yes, they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous to lie and say it’s impossible,” she wrote on the X network. A message seen by 43.8 million people to date and not lost on Peter Mellington, now convinced, in all his distress, that he was the victim of a “plan” organized by a “deep state” to carry out bigger projects.

“It’s because of the lithium in the area,” the man adds seriously, pointing in the distance to the mountains of Chimney Rock, the small neighboring village, placed at the heart of a conspiracy by theorists and vectors of disinformation like Alex Jones. The latter has amplified rumors on social networks that the government is using the tragedy to expropriate people in the area and seize their land to extract the precious mineral. “There's a lot going on that people don't see,” Mellington said.

Photo: Fabien Deglise Le Devoir Peter Mellington will go to vote thinking that the hurricane “Helene” that cost him everything was orchestrated by the federal government.

Faced with the proliferation of these numerous statements earlier this month, North Carolina Republican Representative in Washington, Chuck Edwards, felt compelled to remind local residents that “no one can control the weather” and that hurricane Helene, which hit his state, “was not designed by the government.” “No one has the geoengineering technology or capability to create a hurricane,” he wrote in a statement, contrasting science with beliefs, no matter how outlandish. “Current geoengineering technology can be used to intervene on a large scale to mitigate the negative impacts of natural weather events, but it cannot be used to create or manipulate hurricanes.”

This week, signs of dispossession were far from visible in the Chimney Rock area, where volunteer crews continued to converge to support cleanup and rebuilding efforts still underway a month after the hurricane struck.

“Our priority is to get people back to normal as quickly as possible,” said a smiling Connie Humenik of the faith-based disaster relief organization Spokes of Hopes. “All the agencies, all the groups, are doing their best to help victims in the face of a disaster that was of enormous magnitude. And in this context, it’s best not to get distracted by politics.”

Photo: Fabien Deglise Le Devoir On the Lake Lure Bridge, shoes without owners call out that 100 people are still missing, one month after the hurricane.

Distracted, Richard Beaver says he wasn’t distracted a few days ago when he went to cast his ballot for Donald Trump. “I knew I was going to vote for him. Helene just reinforced my belief,” he said. He, too, insists the hurricane was “directed at [him] by the government — or a government, let’s call it that.”

On Tuesday, local authorities opened three new polling places to serve Lake Lure residents, as well as the many people evacuated to area hotels and to Hendersonville, a little further south.

It’s at one of these polls that Peter Mellington will vote next Tuesday—“if I can get my car fixed by then,” he says. “There are a lot of rich people here who seem to be the government’s priority. They’re more concerned about their cottages, their boats, their coffee roastery than they are about us. I know who I’m going to vote for. And I hope that will help me find some peace in my heart.”

This report was funded with support from the Transat International Journalism Fund- Le Devoir.