Just a day after Helene passed in late September, I found myself restless to do something to help.
An event with that scale of destruction often highlights the skills we lack. But I knew that folks were without water, and bringing them water was something I could do. I threw on my Town Council name tag.
I knew I didn’t yet have the answers to pressing questions, but I wanted to show that someone from the often maligned “government” did care and wanted to take action.
In the days after, I spent a lot of time getting the answers to the questions I heard. I worked with federal, state and local officials to plot our recovery.
At this point, few, if anyone, in our town had reliable access to the internet or news. Unknown to me was what was being said about Hurricane Helene or its aftermath, about my town, about my state, about the FEMA response.
I spent hours in meetings with federal employees, parents living out of a hotel room, thousands of miles away from home, here to help. They were dedicated and experienced. Beyond them, the National Guard, state emergency officials, local government employees, and our state House representative, were actively looking to solve problems and help those they shared these mountains with.
We were all so focused on the work and tired that I don’t remember one of us mentioning or even considering the rumors that were swirling all around us.
I didn’t yet know that there was already a rumor taking hold of an active plot to deny people relief, that the government generally didn’t care or had given all the money away to undocumented immigrants.
I thought back to what I had seen in the hours after the storm, when I was just out there to help with water.
After several conversations and supply drops, I came across an older man standing in his truck door outside his mobile home, using his seat as a table.
I asked if he needed anything, knowing it was almost a bad joke to ask. As the man turned to me, I was struck by how familiar he seemed. We’d not met, but the lines on his face, a permanent grin in his eyes – even in the face of this disaster – he reminded me of my own long line of wiry and weary folks; rode-hard and put-up wet, as the old saying goes.
He offered me a slice of pizza, promising it was fresh. In spite of everything – the nauseating scene of destruction all around us, the sheer scale of the loss – he provided hospitality to me.
He spoke of how he felt let down– a hard worker and a taxpayer, now uncertain if he’d get any help. He told me he thought he’d be deemed unworthy, ineligible for help.
He expects nothing because his life had been a history of stumbles with no safety nets. He had bumper stickers all over his truck, expressing the popular political enthusiasm for “Making America Great Again.”
When I finally had the means to view news, my head spun.
Candidates who feed into this hatred of FEMA, spread or fail to correct the rumor that only $750 will be offered to victims, or, even worse, claim that Helene was an artificial storm, manufactured by liberal political operatives to disable rural Republicans and take their land — the damage from those lies transcends political party and rural/urban identity. If that narrative sticks it will only hurt people.
If even one person in need refuses help because of what he’s heard, the harm becomes unforgivable.
I worry regularly for that man who offered me pizza in the trailer park, his neighbors, and their community. And I hope that in spite of the rumors online, they’ve applied for the assistance they need to begin to rebuild.
I believe we have a long way to go and that the response hasn’t been perfect, but the only thing any person holding office, as I currently do, or seeking office regardless of party should be saying:
Apply for all the aid you need to rebuild and to care for you and your family. I will fight like hell to make sure you get it.

Editor's note: Dalton George, 25, serves as the Mayor Pro-Tem of the Town of Boone and is one of the youngest officeholders in the state. He has spent the better part of the past decade organizing in rural North Carolina around housing, environmental issues, and voting rights. This column is syndicated by Beacon Media, please contact info@beaconmedianc.org with thoughts or feedback.