As the criticism of FEMA's response to Hurricane Helene continues to grow, local and regional groups and citizens are banding together to provide relief. This image is from the Asheville North Carolina area.

   North Carolina aided by The "Redneck Air Force"

The New York Post reports several hundred volunteers, including many veterans, have banded together and using all types of equipment from trucks and 4-wheelers to even helicopters, they're running a relief operation out of a North Carolina Harley Davidson dealership.

They've called themselves the "Redneck Air Force," and according to the Post:

"The dealership teems with current and former soldiers decked out in camo pants and army boots with handguns strapped to their chests and hips. Crop duster pilots, helicopter tour guides and special operations pilots — most of them off-duty or retired military — have answered the call from Smith and others in North Carolina’s extensive military community."

    Other operations in the Carolinas are targeting rural areas, including the mountains to the east.  Several groups are targeting small communities, or individual homes scattered just east of Asheville, NC, including a mountain area called Little Switzerland. It's about 20 miles NE of Asheville.

According to this report:

"We are on the mountaintop in Little Switzerland collecting airlifted donations and distributing them to homes that have no power or are inaccessible. The community is self organizing incredibly well"

What has been the input from FEMA? Very little, if any.  These groups working the rural areas say the Feds almost never go up "this far" into the mountains, and the only FEMA relief in the Little Switzerland and the surrounding area has been 3 pallets of electric chainsaws, that require extension chords....in an area that is still without power and likely will be for some time.

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The rescue crews are bringing generators and gas to the people in the region.

LOOK: The most expensive weather and climate disasters in recent decades

Stacker ranked the most expensive climate disasters by the billions since 1980 by the total cost of all damages, adjusted for inflation, based on 2021 data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The list starts with Hurricane Sally, which caused $7.3 billion in damages in 2020, and ends with a devastating 2005 hurricane that caused $170 billion in damage and killed at least 1,833 people. Keep reading to discover the 50 of the most expensive climate disasters in recent decades in the U.S.

Gallery Credit: KATELYN LEBOFF

 

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