It has been nearly a week since Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, and Joe Biden has finally announced on behalf of whoever is running the country that he has authorized 1,000 federal troops from Fort Bragg (I will never call it anything else), North Carolina, to assist in disaster relief operations a mere 250 miles away in Western North Carolina.
Today, the President is announcing he has directed the Department of Defense to deploy up to 1,000 active-duty soldiers to support response efforts. These soldiers are part of an Infantry Battalion Task Force, based out of Fort Liberty, North Carolina, which includes a Forward Support Company with the necessary support structure (fuel, water, mechanics, etc.) to conduct operations.
These 1,000 troops will constitute the overwhelming federal military disaster response in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.
According to the Department of Defense, the federal military involvement in this five-state catastrophe is minimal:
- A joint enabling team (I won’t make jokes; I’m sure what they do is vital).
- A liaison to the federal search and rescue coordination group in Orlando, Florida. (I’m not sure if this is a liaison team or a liaison officer.)
- A “mission assignment support team” was created to embed with the National Response Coordination Center in Washington, D.C.
- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is providing emergency power planning and response teams to Georgia, as well as dam, levee and bridge inspection to Tennessee and Kentucky, and temporary power to North Carolina. (More staff, and many of these will be civilians. I’m unclear what role the Corps of Engineers would have in providing “temporary power to North Carolina,” given utilities own the transmission and distribution lines.)
- A command and control team for “high water vehicles and air operations support for rotary wing aircraft” was created at Fort Bragg.
- Four helicopters with para-rescue teams are at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tennessee.
- Eight Army helicopters and ten Navy helicopters were available at Fort Bragg on Monday.
- Thirty high-water vehicles are at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, for reasons that are unclear.
The critical resources needed in the hardest hit areas of Western North Carolina are helicopters for getting stranded people out of danger and bringing supplies to areas cut off by flooding. As of this afternoon, the only military aircraft available are 11 from Florida, two from South Carolina, seven from Tennessee, and one from Virginia. Some of those may be in use in North Carolina as both Florida and South Carolina have sent National Guard contingents to North Carolina.
A lot of hard questions are being asked. (WARNING: Language in this video is NSFW.)
Are Rescue Efforts Purposely Stalled in Western North Carolina?
“Literally allowing these people to f**king die in the mountains”
HELICOPTERS ARE NEEDED,
Why are TITLE 10 Orders NOT Approved?Jonathan Howard with the Florida State Guard Special Mission Unit, assisting… pic.twitter.com/kozqzGPxBb
— 𝓝𝓲𝓴𝓴𝓲 (@PFKHealth) October 2, 2024
[00:00:00] My name is Jonathan Howard. I’m a member of the Florida State Guard Special Missions Unit and also up here with Aerial Recovery, a non-profit. I came up here on Sunday with Aerial Recovery before we even got activated. We flew up here, and then we got activated, which is great. I have my team up here working as well.
Note: this is NOT the National Guard; it is the organization Ron DeSantis formed that caused some to befoul themselves over the thought that he may be going full Mussolini or something.
Back to the video.
Here’s the problem, I’m going to tell you everything that is happening from the ground, what I’m seeing because what they’re telling you is complete bullsh** on the news and these politicians There is a significant issue with the information being reported by the news and politicians don’t have a f***ing clue and they’re lying. The status now is stated in the video. The only thing I need from this video is helicopters. If I have helicopters I can save lives. Without helicopters, I can’t reach these people. It doesn’t matter how many chainsaws or trucks I got, I can’t get to them. They are 10 miles in, 20 miles, or even 40 miles away in the mountains. There is no way to get to them or even communicate with them.
I am literally flying around in a civilian helicopter, looking for SOS messages carved in the mud or painted on the ground and we’re dropping down and saving them. What got me fired up about this was yesterday, me and my team did that rescue of an 11-day-old baby and all these government officials and social media are showing that, pictures and video of that rescue and claiming like they had some government help with that.
This is the article Howard refers to:
National Guard troops airlifted families out of flooded communities in North Carolina as federal authorities raced Monday to assist those hardest hit by Helene, surging thousands of aid workers to Southeastern states.
Personnel rescued 324 residents in air evacuations by Monday morning following the devasting floods in the western part of the state, according to North Carolina National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Ellis Parks.
Among those helicoptered to safety: an infant, a patient with dementia and others in need of hospital care.
Returning to the video.
Even USA Today, I think it was USA Today, wrote an article about it saying it was Florida National Guard that went and got it with a helicopter. No! It was me, my buddy Charlie, and a civilian named Zeb with his own personal helicopter out of Wilmington, North Carolina. Without that civilian, that baby would be dead. The old lady we went and rescued after that, she’d be dead, too, because she had one day left of oxygen.
No one was to go and get them. I will tell you that when we go up in the air I probably see 40 civilian helicopters and I might see two Blackhawks, National Guard, military, whatever they are. That’s it. No one’s out there doing rescues. I have my entire team from Florida up here right now and they have no ability to go and rescue these people other than what they can drive to. The people who are in dire need, they are out in the mountains.
One of our friends yesterday, they were actually escorting CNN down at Lake Lure and they wouldn’t even let CNN…the Sheriff’s Department wouldn’t let CNN videotape the bad areas, how destructive it is. I don’t know why they don’t want to show y’all that but it is bad. I should also say, when I flew here on Sunday, they actually stopped us from going in. The sheriff’s department, and it was because of a bunch of politics. They were claiming the Speaker of the House of North Carolina was preventing us from even going in, and was trying to kick us out, which I have clarified today with North Carolina politicians, that reached out to me, good on them, and they were like, “That’s complete bullsh**. The Speaker of the House has nothing… he wants you guys there.”
As an aside, Howard’s story of petty bickering among local officials seems to be spot on; see Pilot flying Helene rescue missions in NC ordered out, threatened with arrest.
People are flying their own helicopters in and actively rescuing people in NC and local government officials are threatening them with arrest. You don’t hate your government enough. pic.twitter.com/V4wUtNuLob
— The Civil Rights Lawyer (@johnbryanesq) October 1, 2024
We return to the video narrative.
This is the kind of political BS that is happening here right now. Everyone is trying to be in charge without taking any type of action. Nobody wants to coordinate with anybody. Everybody wants to pretend like they’re being the hero while these people are really f***ing dying in mountains. These people have limited medication, they’re running out of oxygen, and there’s no one going to get them.
The most effective way that I have found to go get these people is by getting in a helicopter and flying down the rivers and roads and looking for SOS messages or people waving us down and we drop down and get them.
We have all these people here. We have law enforcement, State Guard, National Guard, they have no way to go get these people. Yesterday, when I was at the Asheville Airport refueling — which, by the way, the civilian is paying all of this out of his own pocket; he’s not looking for reimbursement. I think we did four refuelings yesterday. That was just in half a day’s work.
We’re in Asheville and I saw two Air Force helicopters, [UH-]60s. and I knew they were PJs just looking at them. And I went up to them like, “Hey, guys, what are y’all doing? This is what you need to be doing, and this is how I’m finding people.” And they’re like, “We can’t go; we’re waiting on Title X orders.” And I’m like, “What?” They can’t get any authority. There’s military helicopters all over here sitting on the ground and they can’t do nothing. Even my JSOC boys in Fayetteville, they can’t get orders to come out here. It is just the most disgusting thing and they’re killing these people. And I don’t know why they’re doing it or what kind of conspiracy, I’ve heard so many things, whatever you want to come up with, but they are literally allowing these people to f***ing die in the mountains right now because we can’t get helicopters.
They got money for everything else in the f***ing world right now, but if they could just get us helicopters we could fly out there and rescue these people.
So, I hope this video goes viral. I hope these politicians get fired. I hope people get pissed off. They’ll probably kick me out of the state of North Carolina for doing this but, you know what, I don’t care. If I can save one more life, it’s f***ing worth it to me.
To qualify for federal military assistance after a disaster, the Stafford Act must be invoked. This requires a governor to request assistance under that law. Biden declared a state of emergency in North Carolina on September 26 which released some federal aid. Governor Roy Cooper made a Stafford Act request on September 27), but Biden delayed invoking the Stafford Act until today, Wednesday.
Even after granting the request, Biden’s Defense Department inexplicably gave the job to a brigade combat team of paratroopers (I’m told the 504th received the task but I can’t confirm that). Note the tasking includes a single Forward Support Company. This is rather astounding as that unit has extremely limited capabilities. It has an aid station, a field kitchen, about a half-dozen trucks, and vehicle repair section. What is needed in Western North Carolina is emergency generators, communications, heavy engineering equipment, medical support, cargo haul capability, and helicopters. Even though Fort Bragg has well over 100 helicopters, only eight have been tasked to assist in recovery and relief operations.
Why has the tap been turned off to military assistance for North Carolina and other battered states? One can’t help but remember this statement by Biden.
Reporter: “Do you have any words to the victims of the hurricane?”
Biden: “We’ve given everything that we have.”
Reporter “Are there any more resources the federal government could be giving them?”
Biden: “No.”pic.twitter.com/AETCVjcZM1
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 30, 2024
As many as two hundred Americans are dead and the death toll is sure to surge because nearly a thousand are missing in North Carolina alone.
A week after Helene and a million households still don’t have electricity. pic.twitter.com/jvpZZlVdPa
— streiff (@streiffredstate) October 3, 2024
And private helicopters flying rescue missions still outnumber military ones in the storm-blasted areas.
