DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: WNC – 1,000s of missing loved ones, locals/rescuers sick from toxic water and children taken from parents, when is it enough?

This week, we’re going back to Western North Carolina where it seems I often get the news from friends on the ground before mainstream media reports it. 

I’m also including photographs sent to me by a “now” friend, who lost his aunt in the raging waters from the hurricane in September.

She was driving to the local Walmart and swept away without warning. 

He, like other brave men and women doing their part with not much help from FEMA (the local’s words) are also concerned about what’s going on now with children taken from families, false dead body counts and toxic water/mud. 

We know the FEMA $750 was a pathetic slap in the face to those that lost everything and was a “loan” if you could even get it.

Not many seem interested anyway since the land dates back for generations – even if it does sit on the coveted lithium mines the government is drooling over. 

Here’s an interesting look at why the federal money is a no go with these families who are not interested in 15-minute cities and government intervention: www.politico.com/news/2024/10/16/north-carolina-helene-federal-money-00183503.

Regarding a statement in the Politico article, “They don’t believe in climate change, don’t believe in environmental justice, believe that DEI is from the pits of hell,” said Paula Swepson, executive director of West Marion Community Forum” that is a bureaucratic stretch from what I have been uncovering. 

It’s not so much the locals don’t believe in climate change – think Earth’s cycles. What is appalling though is the government’s manipulating weather and admitting it.

Have you looked up lately at your own sky?

And we already know that game from Hawaii and Chile and we know the Department of Defense signed a contract with Albemarle Mining Company in September 2023 to begin mining lithium in the mountains of North Carolina between 2025 and 2030. 

The suits in charge said it would require moving people out of houses and rezoning among other complexities. 

We also know Black Rock’s stakes in Albemarle then rose to over 12 million shares and back on Sept. 12, the DOD signed with Albemarle, approving $90-million for lithium mining. Then Albemarle got another $250-million in grant money even with residents protesting the mines. 

Remember good ‘ol NC Governor Cooper told constituents it was best not to rebuild – best to let the government have it.

Another local asked why are these areas in NC condemned and not able to rebuild – when in coastal cities where hurricanes make landfall those residents ARE allowed to rebuild?

My friend who sent me the photos also got caught up in the toxic water/mud mess, and the rumors of it melting boots is true because he showed me his melted boot after his search and rescue mission. 

He also has a sore on the bottom of his foot still infected after a month.

The aftermath of Hurricane Helene has left the area severely contaminated, with residents reporting nosebleeds and burning skin when coming in contact with the water – likely from exposure to the hazardous materials in the air and soil. 

There was a plastic fabrication company near Asheville that likely contributed to the toxicity as did the wastewater plant near Marshall. 

The EPA website has information about the Chemtronic Superfund site with chemicals in an area near Swannanoa, they had been practicing how to contain chemicals. 

Said chemicals apparently released in the rivers after the hurricane (www.wral.com/story/state-investigates-concerns-about-toxic-mud-after-helene/21667467).

As for the body count, locals and search and rescue teams (who I STILL believe over mainstream media) are saying it is in the 3000s now, and there was that incident of the 10,000 body bags delivered.

One explanation is the bodies are not counted as dead until identified. 

In many areas there were large populations (like the homeless) where bodies will never be identified. 

My friend, who was in military combat also reminded me of all the miscellaneous body parts found, possibly all that is left of the body.

Since many locals are having to bury their own dead if they can find them, burials are taking place on the land itself rendering that land by law unavailable for eminent domain. 

Most states prohibit eminent domain for land use in cemeteries, and if the government takes property without following regular channels landowners can file an inverse condemnation action.

There have been stories of government recovery workers going in at night to recover bodies, many say the stench of death is still in the air. 

One lady interviewed said she is part of the volunteers taking care of survivors, but there are hundreds of orange, pink, and green flags with dates, and numbers up and down the riverbeds and in debris. 

This is where cadaver dogs (also getting sick from the toxicity) got a hit on the deceased and no one has had time to dig for the bodies yet. 

And finally, the children.

Not sure mainstream media has been reminding viewers of the 350,000 missing children around the country, some in WNC are worried their children will end up missing too.

Red Cross pulled out of WNC this past Friday and the message was if parents did not have anywhere to go their children could be removed and placed in foster homes. 

Reminder, foster homes get money for taking children – apparently the families were told no when asked if they could send the children to relatives. 

That brought up the big stink about the FEMA camp there destroying the look of the landscape already battered after Hurricane Helene and basically doing nothing (according to the locals).

The camp has armed guards and trailers for contractors (with electricity and running water) and no movement inside. 

Why could it not have housed the locals still sleeping in tents and in cars and now having their children taken away?

The Department of Health and Human Services would not have had any children to take had the Red Cross and FEMA assisted families – which is the entire reason both agencies are even there.

One woman wrote Paul Polinski, director of DHHS, North Carolina concerned with the fact these removals “violate policy and legal standards.” 

This includes the violation of Due Process Rights (14th Amendment) with CPS said to be preying on people who do not know their rights and can’t afford an attorney, Child Welfare policies, Emergency Disaster Response Laws, Family Laws on Family Preservation, a violation of State Specific Child Protective Services Policies and a violation of the parent’s civil rights (42 U.S.C. section 1983). 

I was then reminded of former Georgia Senator Nancy Schaefer who spoke on “Child Protective Service” (CPS) corruption in 2008, and some say it cost her and her husband’s lives (medicalkidnap.com/2015/04/27/senator-nancy-schaefer-did-her-fight-against-cps-corruption-cost-her-life). 

Many believe she was murdered versus the decided upon double suicide when she was found shot in the back and her husband shot in the chest.

Western North Carolina is a look at what can happen anywhere in this country when it comes to greed on so many levels – the only way to stop it is to say NO now!

Rita Cook is a freelance writer for The Ellis County Press. She can be reached at rcook13@earthlink.net.