[jyl]

This is the way it works in the US after a major disaster:
- The government (Fed, state) steps in with emergency and short-term help - food, shelter, clothes, medical, etc
- The government (state) repairs the infrastructure - roads, utilities, bridges, etc
- Rebuilding private structures and replacing private property, is on individuals/businesses. The government (Fed) will loan money for certain rebuilding purposes. But govt doesn’t replace your house or car or clothes or job.
- Figuring out how to pick up the pieces of one’s life, deciding where to stay or go, is on individuals. Entirely.
- Rebuilding the area’s economy - bringing jobs back etc - might be something the (State/local) govt tries to do. Not a Fed role. And it’ll take a decade or longer. People need to forget about what happened.

So, in NC, I’d expect to see the state working on the roads and utilities, and FEMA providing emergency shelter to displaced people for a limited time, and making rebuilding loans to property owners who have decided to rebuild. I wouldn’t really expect much more.

I realize there are a lot of poor people there, who need help. They needed help before Helene too. But the appetite for anti-poverty programs and spending is pretty low, and getting lower.

And that’s what some of you are talking about, the people who were living in vans and trailers in the woods with $40 to their name - they cannot be helped by disaster relief, they are simply impoverished.