Western NC Needs Big Investment in Relief, Climate and Jobs Now

“EMERGENCY! Does anybody have a boat?” On August 17th at 4pm, I got the scariest text of my life. This text, from a dear friend, went on to say that two of our other friends were trapped in their house by the Pigeon River and no one could get to them. I felt helpless and frozen. All I could do was try to call 911 and plead on Facebook for someone with a boat to get them out. I held my baby boy, Noble, close to my chest as I did what I could to help our resilient community in crisis, with little communication and support from our elected officials with the most power and resources.

Later that night, we finally received emergency evacuation alerts. As I checked the news it became clear that my entire county and the surrounding areas had been devastated by what was now being called a “Life-Threatening Flood Wave'' that took the lives of at least five people and left hundreds more without safe homes. I felt sick to my stomach, and it was impossible to sleep when all I could think about was my friends, still trapped by the deadly waters, whose phones had since died. It was 24 hours before we were able to get my friends on the Pigeon River out of their house and to safety.

I grew up in these mountains and have watched our deeply loving village, the one that raised me, come together time and time again. We keep each other fed, we raise each other’s kids, and we make sure that we are safe and dry and warm in all moments, but especially in the moments when we need each other the most -- moments like these. I have also seen the people of my community be let down time and time again by the folks that claim to be our voice in government, even in the moments when we need them the most.

At the time of writing this, it has been exactly one week since I received that group text. In that time, our local Haywood County government has launched into overdrive for a disaster that we were not prepared to address. Governor Cooper, Madison Cawthorn, and Thom Tillis all dropped in for photo-ops yet didn’t venture into the areas where the poorest folks were the hardest hit. Our neighbors in Buncombe County tell us that county commissioners haven’t even been on the ground in areas like Enka and Candler.

Meanwhile, when it comes to actual relief we have received radio silence. In fact, we haven’t even been declared a federal disaster zone yet. Our communities are still being denied critical resources from FEMA.

I have watched my whole life while we, the hard working folks of Western NC, get overlooked time and time again, working two or three jobs just to scrape by on crumbs. What’s happening right now in the wake of Storm Fred is a catastrophic example of a longer-lasting power dynamic that needs to change. The climate crisis is here and impacting us everyday. Our livelihoods are being washed away. The only homes we’ve ever known are continuing to be destroyed by devastating flooding, with people in power not listening to our cries for help. Western NC, Appalachia, deserves better.

There are real solutions to the struggles that our rural communities have been experiencing for too long -- solutions that are on the table right now for a once-in-a-lifetime federal investment in climate, jobs, and care for our community, that would be implemented locally. Appalachia has been historically under-represented, exploited, and, thus, left with the short end of the stick. We deserve strong investments in sustainable infrastructure. We deserve green jobs that give back to our community and give our folks a sense of job security. We deserve a union jobs program like the Civilian Climate Corps so we can rebuild from storms like Fred and earn a living doing so.

Rep. Cawthorn came to our county and claims to understand the devastation here, but he has done nothing. Meanwhile he is on the House Education and Labor Committee which will determine the scope of legislation like the CCC to bring good paying jobs and start the path to sustainable, community-centered recovery in NC-11. We need to hold people in power accountable and demand that they use THEIR power to lift up our voice, or we will use OUR power to vote them out of office.

Blog post written by Chelsea White-Hoglen, a Western NC local and community organizer. She graduated from WCU in 2018 with an MSW in social work with a focus on Appalachian community advocacy. Chelsea currently lives in Clyde with her husband, their one-year old son, and their three dogs.