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In the wake of biblical-level devastation left by Hurricane Helene this last week, fatalities have soared over 200, more than 1000 people are unaccounted for, and severe flooding has washed out towns, roads and bridges from Florida to North Carolina, the hardest-hit state. Whole communities have been without necessities like water, power, cell phone service, and food for nearly a week. Some residents are trapped in mountainside homes with no way to communicate with emergency personnel. This is an ongoing disaster of epic proportions.

One resident of Fairview, a suburb of Asheville NC, said “the heavens came down” with the hurricane. “It was incomprehensible, what we witnessed, as it relates to the magnitude it was,” reported a Charlotte City councilman. “[I]t was truly something that you really can’t even visualize unless you see it.”

In true American style, civilian volunteers, many from out of state, have leapt into action to locate and assist survivors. Their heroic efforts stand in sharp contrast to an absent federal government that has no clear leadership. Decrepit, deposed President Joe Biden belatedly issued a statement about sending in a too-little, too-late force of a thousand Army servicemembers. Kamala Harris, who is worthless under the best of circumstances, has been busy salvaging her campaign after running mate Tim “Not Ready for Prime Time” Walz’s catastrophic performance in Tuesday’s vice presidential debate. So no one in the White House is available, or cares enough, to help Americans in dire need.

One Fairview resident said, “I’ve seen lots of out-of-state rescue, lots of county ambulances. I’ve seen lots of state resources, wildlife resources… But I haven’t seen any federal government. I guess when you have a disaster like this, you imagine the federal government would swoop in, but that hasn’t been the case here.”

Unfortunately, the federal government now is swooping in; to paraphrase Ronald Reagan’s famous statement, “We’re from the government and we’re here to make a terrible situation immeasurably worse.” Department of Transportation diversity hire Pete Buttigieg took a break from complaining that highways are racist to announce that civilian helicopter pilots and drones used for locating victims would no longer be allowed in the airspace of the devastation. Indeed, volunteer chopper pilots trying to assist survivors in need are being threatened with arrest. The purported reason for this policy is that civilian volunteers might hinder government efforts or create “safety issues.” The real reason is that the government is a jealous god and resents civilians swooping in and doing a better job.

A “cynical” person might even believe that the Biden-Harris (Harris-Biden? Obama-Rice?) regime doesn’t want civilians helping because it doesn’t care about the lives of rural whites. After all, Kamala said back in 2022 that the Biden regime would distribute disaster relief “based on equity” by directing funds to “communities of color.”

In any case, there are no disaster funds for anybody. Homeland Security Secretary and open-borders enthusiast Alejandro Mayorkas broke the news to reporters on Air Force One that FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has no more money to address the crisis: “We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the [storm] season and what — what is imminent.”

That deficit is a result of Homeland Security allocating $640.9 million this year alone in FEMA funds to aid state and local governments in processing and resettling illegal migrants swarming over the southern border which the Biden-Harris regime purposely left open. “Mayorkas and FEMA — immediately stop spending money on illegal immigration resettlement and redirect those funds to areas hit by the hurricane. Put Americans first,” Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted Wednesday.

Fat chance. America First is not a Democrat principle.

Four million dollars have been paid directly to hurricane-ravaged families and individuals in the last week, according to White House press propagandist Karine Jean-Pierre. Those funds are from a $10 million FEMA allocation that allows storm victims pathetic grants of $750 for groceries – $750. In a joke that would be hilarious if it didn’t contain so much painful truth, the Babylon Bee satire site posted this mock headline: “North Carolina Asks [Ukraine President] Zelensky For $100 Billion In U.S. Funding.”

“FEMA spending over a billion dollars on illegals while they leave Americans stranded and without help is treasonous. U.S. citizens are dying. Pray for our country folks,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) tweeted.

Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) wrote: “‘The Biden-Harris FEMA spent over $1 BILLION on funding illegal aliens. America LAST.”

“Connect the dots, if you can,” wrote Tim Murtaugh, an adviser to former President Donald Trump’s campaign. “DHS says FEMA might not have enough cash to help people through hurricane season. But in 2 years of a new Biden-Harris program, they’ve spent $1 BILLION on housing and other services for migrants.”

Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany from Wisconsin tweeted, “$750 for Hurricane Helene victims. $700 for Maui fire victims. $175 BILLION to Ukraine. FREE flights, health care, housing, and food for illegal aliens. Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, American citizens come last.”

Indeed they do. This East Coast apocalypse is the direct consequence of the Democrat obsession with flooding Ukraine with billions in taxpayer funds (remember them enthusiastically waving Ukrainian flags in Congress? Can you imagine them doing the same with the Stars and Stripes?) and flooding the entire country with illegal migrants they are counting on to vote blue. Every death, every missing resident, every washed-away community in the wake of Hurricane Helene can be laid at the doorstep of the Biden/Harris/Obama White House and a Democrat Party that always prioritizes the needs of illegals, Ukrainian kleptocrats, and Palestinian Jew-haters, with American citizens always a distant and dead last – and white rural Americans bottom-most.

Also culpable, it must be said, is a feckless Republican Party that willfully refuses to get its act together to defend American citizens from Democrat destructiveness.

In less than five weeks Americans get to decide whether this nation proceeds with the havoc wreaked by a far-Left, America-hating Democrat Party, or changes horses to an America First, Make America Great Again Party that embraces American exceptionalism. When voters enter the booths on Election Day, let them remember who is responsible for, among other disasters, the devastated communities of North Carolina.

Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior