Bruce Noll and Linda Ilsemann were stuck in their remote mountain home for five days. Around thirty trees uprooted by Hurricane Helene, which devastated the southeast of the United States, have been blocking any exit since Friday September 27. “We were without water, without electricity, without Internet”confides the couple in their seventies, living in the Asheville region, in North Carolina. They know they are lucky, as the flooded river and landslides have caused more than forty deaths in the county.
Finally released, they surrendered for the first time on Tuesday 1is October, in Asheville. All dressed up in their Sunday best, with one goal: to get married that day. As they had planned, exactly fifty-six years after meeting and then losing touch. The county officer cannot do this in the city at the stop, but suggests they find a sworn officer through the Internet. This is how rural Americans go, valiant in the face of adversity, and always determined. “The local government is trying to help people, that’s good”confides Bruce Noll, who doubts that the management of the hurricane will have an electoral impact, like all the people interviewed, busy rebuilding their community.
Alas, in electoral campaigns, there is the reality on the ground and the political battlefield, which needs emblematic staging. Donald Trump quickly understood the benefit of seizing the effects of this deadly hurricane which left more than one hundred and fifty dead and ravaged, to everyone’s surprise, three decisive states for the presidential election with its torrential rains: Florida, traditionally Republican, but especially Georgia and North Carolina whose destiny will be decided by a few tens of thousands of votes.
Modified timetables
The Republican candidate went to Georgia on Monday, September 30, to the small town of Valdosta, falsely claiming that the Biden administration could not be reached by the local governor. Regardless of the untruth, the offensive had to be launched. “President Trump met with victims of Hurricane Helene, delivered relief supplies and offered his full support for a recovery, as Kamala [Harris] disappeared”, accused the Trump camp. « Missing in action »like a missing soldier. The conservative channel Fox News relayed this message all the more effectively because, during this deadly weekend, the Democratic candidate was on the West Coast. Mme Harris attended a donor dinner in California and held a meeting in Las Vegas, the city of gaming and partying, far from the Appalachian mountains that too often feel forgotten.
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