The washed-out, mud-caked roads and bridges of Madison County, N.C., the river-ravaged homes and businesses in county seat Marshall, and the desperation of the Appalachian inhabitants are all testament to the merciless destruction of Hurricane Helene.
That so many remain lost, trapped, hungry, and hopeless a week after the hurricane unleashed historic rains and horrific flooding is testament, some residents and family members say, to the abject incompetence of the Biden-Harris administration and its ill-prepared Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Sarah Parkhurst, of Montgomery, Ala., born and raised in the small-town shadows of Asheville, N.C., tells The Federalist that she thanks God for the private citizens that have lent a helping hand because the federal government hasn’t.
“The government is not there,” she told me in a phone interview Thursday afternoon in between taking and making calls to bring relief to the mud-buried communities in Madison, Buncombe and Yancy counties.
‘We Need Rescue’
Parkhurst said her mother, who runs the nonprofit Hot Springs Health Program in Hot Springs, has been literally begging FEMA officials for critical supplies. They desperately need oxygen for stranded home-bound seniors. They need food, clean water, and shelter.
Sadly, they also need bodybags.
The heart-breaking work of collecting the dead is far from over, Parkhurst and others on the ground say.
“My mom said so many people are still stuck. They’re asking for bodybags,” Parkhurst said.
“This is not a recovery effort yet in a lot of these places. We need rescue,” Parkhurst added. “We
