Government has done a lot to help those in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. It will continue to provide vital assistance as our mountain counties face a long road to recovery. The same will undoubtedly be the case in central North Carolina, especially in Orange and Alamance counties, where I spend most my time, which received record flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal on Sunday.
Mebane, which sits directly on the border between these two counties, saw a visit from the governor this week in the aftermath. That’s never a good sign after a storm, since it indicates you likely got the worst of it. My children’s daycare is in Mebane, as are my wife’s parents. On Sunday, as the storm passed through, we immediately began receiving texts that power was out, the main roads were washed out, and the downtown was flooded. The daycare remains shut due to flooding and lack of running water.
Ten miles down the road in Hillsborough, where we live, we were still on a boil notice for water until Wednesday night. The Eno River, which passes through town, reached a record level, flooding out many homes, roads, and businesses. The Expedition School, a lottery school down the road that we had applied to for our daughter’s kindergarten this year, was badly flooded. According to a WRAL report, the first floor suffered a “98% loss.”
There are many other similar stories of devastation in Mebane, Hillsborough, Saxapahaw, Chapel Hill, and other communities in the Orange and Alamance area.
After Hurricane Helene, a common refrain was that, while government help was appreciated, the most immediate relief often came from private actors — whether friends, families, churches, or charities. This was my observation from the devastating flooding in our area too.
Group chats that typically organize play dates for young children or neighborhood logistics turned into places to share needs and, for those who fared better, to offer assistance.
Friends reached out to ask if they could warm up their dinner.
People offered spare bedrooms for those who did not have air conditioning.
A GoFundMe was set up for someone whose home was particularly flood damaged.
Technology can be isolating and distracting, pulling us apart at times. But I witnessed it being a great tool for immediately finding ways to help and be helped among those in my community.
The government can assist in so many ways, but private actors can respond in a moment’s notice, utilizing existing social capital and relationships to immediately provide relief. FEMA may be able to give a warm meal, a cool bedroom, and some emergency cash, eventually, but they are not always equipped to be there in the way families and communities are.
On the left, you’ll sometimes see cliches like, private charity is a band aid on a broken system, that it is evidence that something has gone wrong in society. But it can also be seen as a sign that something is very right.
It means there are individuals generous enough to open up their homes and bank accounts to those around them in need. It means there are family bonds tight enough to prompt concern and phone calls. It means churches and charities are embedded enough within their communities that they can quickly identify need and meet it.
Government simply isn’t positioned to fill these gaps, and we should hope it is never big and intrusive enough to do so. It also becomes a bit too easy of an excuse not to help one’s neighbors when the government is assumed to be the only proper actor in disaster situations.
This storm was a hard one for our community, even if it does not quite compare with the tragedy people had to deal with in the mountains from Helene. But in both storms, it was clear that families, neighbors, churches, and charities were key to providing immediate assistance.
People will now clean up, rebuild, and try to get back to normal. And all of these actors will continue to play their part, partnering with all the government actors (NC National Guard, FEMA, local police and fire departments, etc), which we are also very fortunate to have.
