Hurricane Helene victims in NC are fending for themselves as response from Biden-Harris FEMA underwhelms

Desperate residents of Hurricane Helene-ravaged Western North Carolina are relying on home-grown rescue efforts instead of waiting for the Biden-Harris administration’s financially depleted FEMA to get its act together.Not content to hold out hope for help some fear might not arrive in time, a handful of grassroots rescue operations have sprung up to render assistance by air, land and even on four legs.With hundreds more missing in the remote, unforgiving terrain and communication services damaged or nonexistent, the search for survivors grows more dire with each passing hour.Local airports like City of Statesville Regional Airport and Hickory Regional Airport have transformed themselves into donation drop-off and delivery zones, courtesy of a few dozen volunteers lending their time, critical supplies and in some cases, their planes to the rescue effort.Roadways near the airports this week were jammed with donors and volunteers, who brought car and truckloads of everything from food and medicine to fuel and camping supplies.The donations were then collected and loaded into small, privately owned airplanes for delivery to the hardest-hit regions of the state.“The amount of pilots coming in and out of Statesville today is amazing.

Because of their generosity, our community is saving lives.We were able to get supplies to a remote area today for at least 100 people who had no contact with anyone until yesterday,” a volunteer posted Thursday on the Facebook page of what’s been dubbed the Hurricane Helene Airlift Relief.In the days following the historic storm, the skies above Western North Carolina echoed with the whirring of helicopters, many of them captained by private pilots looking to lend a hand to their fellow Tar Heels.Garrett Mitchell, a pilot and YouTuber known as Cleetus McFarland, choppered out to a remote area after seeing a desperate mother’s cry for help on Facebook.“We are in a serious situation right now … My child is almost out of formul...