Cut off by Helene in Western NC, Rep. Foxx calls for more aid for her district
Rep. Virginia Foxx’s husband used his last match on Monday morning to light a candle in their Banner Elk house.
Tropical Storm Helene had ripped through Western North Carolina, sending flash floods, mudslides and devastation throughout the region.
The storm didn’t spare the Foxx family.
“My own husband is trapped because our driveway washed away,” the Republican congresswoman said Monday in a phone interview with McClatchy. “He has no power, and he didn’t have cell reception for a long time.”
But if you thought a washed-out driveway was enough to stop the feisty 81-year-old congresswoman, you don’t know her very well.
Foxx said she walked from her property until she could get into a car and drive around her district Saturday to assess the damage.
“The roads were closed everywhere,” Foxx said. “I had to keep taking detours and detours. I drove under power lines, barely getting around fallen trees, over fallen trees and power lines down everywhere. And then, DOT trying to clear the roads, but being stuck in traffic, in what should have taken 10 minutes, for an hour and a half. It’s a really bad situation.”
For three days, Foxx worked from her office making calls to anyone she thought could help, from the White House to the National Guard to the Governor’s Mansion.
News coverage has largely focused on areas in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District to the west. There, photos and videos show two tourist destinations — Chimney Rock and Asheville — damaged by the storm.
“We know it’s bad in Asheville, we know it’s bad west of us, but it’s very bad here in the High Country: Ashe, Avery, Watauga,” Foxx said. “Watauga, particularly has been hit very, very hard.”
For 19 years, Foxx has represented in Congress the counties around her Banner Elk home. Her 5th Congressional District currently encompasses Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Caldwell, Davie, Forsyth, Mitchell, Stokes, Surry, Watauga, Wilkes, and Yadkin counties.
Hurricane Helene reached the U.S. Thursday, near Perry, Florida, as a Category 4 hurricane. When it reached North Carolina, on Friday, it had been downgraded to a tropical storm, but dumped tens of inches of rain on the mountains.
As of Monday, at least 120 people had died from the storm throughout the Southeast. And many others remain unaccounted for. It is unclear if that’s because they’re isolated, have no means of communication or are dead.
Over Foxx’s house, 2 feet of rain fell, she said. Banner Elk is home to Lees-McRae College, and has a population of just over 1,000 people.
The most rainfall was measured at Busick Raws in nearby Yancey County, where 29.5 inches fell, The News & Observer reported.
That’s close to Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi River in the continental United States.
Helene’s devastation
Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican representing the 11th Congressional District, also spoke with McClatchy on Monday about the devastation Helene left in its path through the state.
“It begins with the fact that so many roads are closed and impassable,” Edwards said.
Edwards said traffic has to be routed around the region. Smaller roads and bridges have been washed out.
“We’ve got communities here in the mountains that are severed from civilization, and they also have no power, and they have no cell service. They literally are cut off from the rest of the world.”
People who can get out lined up for more than three hours to get gas, and he worries that the region will run out. A few grocery stores can run on generators but their food supplies are low.
And then there are those who can’t be reached.
“There’s several we have not heard from yet,” Edwards said. “We don’t know their condition. Cell service is sporadic at best.”
Cellphone outage
Foxx’s cell phone cut in and out, and then cut off, as she spoke about the devastation.
She called back, sounding exasperated.
“One of the biggest problems that we have here is phone service,” Foxx said. “We have people isolated, all over, who don’t have phone access.”
Foxx said she’s been begging federal and state agencies to get her counties access to Starlink, a satellite internet company owned by SpaceX, that offers mobile broadband. On Monday, the White House announced that every emergency operations center in North Carolina would be sent Starlink satellite systems. On Monday afternoon, FEMA announced they delivered 40 Starlink systems to the state.
Foxx said lack of working cellphones was one of the biggest frustrations among lawmakers, first responders and residents. They aren’t able to communicate about problems throughout the area.
In the 11th District, Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers posted on social media his “frustration and anger” with cellphone providers, saying they failed his community when they needed them the most.
“It is unacceptable and disgusting that in our time of need, cellular service for the entire region is blocked out,” Smathers told The Charlotte Observer. “There’s no excuse for that. I mean, we knew the storm was coming.”
Canton, a town with fewer than 4,500 people, is located 17 miles west of Asheville.
In Foxx’s district, she said, an information technology employee in Ashe County was able to connect to Starlink. But other counties had not.
And that concerns Foxx, where she says there there are places with no access to the outside world — like Beech Mountain, home to around 700 people.
“The only way to get to Beech Mountain is by helicopter,” Foxx said. “We’ve got communications with the manager up there, but it is a big issue, being able to talk to people and getting supplies to them.”
Missing people
Mid-conversation, Foxx’s other phone rang.
“I don’t need to take that one,” she said. “That is somebody calling to tell me they’re worried about me and praying for me.”
That’s a constant for people living in Western North Carolina.
And something Foxx says she really appreciates right now.
When Foxx isn’t assessing the damage, she’s been in her office making calls.
Foxx and other members of Congress were among those who wrote to Biden asking for him to declare a major disaster. On Saturday, Biden announced he had approved the declaration, which offers grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property loses and programs to help individuals and business owners.
On Monday, Biden announced in a news conference that FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell would be staying in the Asheville area for the foreseeable future. He said he, too, plans to travel to North Carolina on Wednesday.
There’s been some criticism that Congress left town Wednesday after passing a temporary funding measure but not the 12 appropriation bills needed to fund the federal government. Edwards noted how close Congress came to another government shutdown and where his district would be today, had that happened. Congress plans to be out until after the November election.
On Monday, Biden said he is considering calling Congress back into session. But Foxx said there’s more Biden can do without Congress, like spending unused COVID-19 relief money on storm relief efforts.
Foxx said she wanted to see more from Gov. Roy Cooper’s office.
In Avery County, only six members of the National Guard were on the ground, she said Monday.
“We don’t have enough National Guard,” Foxx said. “Last night, they had sent out 400 National Guard for 25 counties. That’s a very small number.”
She urged Cooper, a Democrat, to do more.
On Sunday, the North Carolina National Guard said more than 500 soldiers and airmen had been deployed. The U.S. National Guard said over 5,500 had been deployed from 11 states.
Edwards was also frustrated by the response.
”The people in this district are hurting, and they’re really disappointed with the response from the federal government, and our state government,” Edwards said.
He said he was only seeing federal and state resources brought into the region beginning Monday.
Baptists on Mission among helpers at work in Western NC after Helene devastation
Volunteering
But Edwards added that Western North Carolina communities are resilient.
One of his own businesses was devastated in the storm, and it will take months to get it back up and running, but he said that it’s nothing compared to what some of his neighbors are dealing with, with homes and businesses lost for good.
“I certainly see the community coming together,” Edwards said. “Folks in the mountains are prideful and resilient. Our law enforcement and first responders are coming together in a big way. We’re seeing more and more neighbors helping one another, checking on neighbors, seeing that they’ve got some of the basic things they need, sawing trees out of the way, so that their neighbors’ cars can get by.”
That uplifted Edwards, despite his frustration with state and federal leaders.
Next on Foxx’s schedule was to go to Samaritan’s Purse, a humanitarian aid organization based in Boone. There volunteers had come from across the country to help with relief efforts and she wanted to thank them for their work.
“We’ve very grateful to Samaritan’s Purse,” Foxx said. “It’s one of the most effective relief organizations anywhere in the world, maybe the most effective. When Samaritan’s Purse in on the ground, then we all feel better.”
And Foxx said people looking to come to Western North Carolina to help should find an organization to volunteer with like Samaritan’s Purse. She warned that people should not try to help on their own.
“We don’t need people just going out on their own and trying to help because they don’t know the situation here, and it’s really dangerous for people to be trying to do things,” Foxx said. “Roads are still caving in everywhere, and so it would be better for them to work through an established organization.”
She suggested contacting the local emergency management agency where a person wanting to volunteer lives, to ask that county what is needed.
And she urged those wanting to help to donate to a reputable organization, and call their legislators or members of Congress to encourage the White House and Cooper’s office to do everything needed.
