By Steve Woodward
So-called celebrity Paris Hilton lost her Malibu, California, home amid a series of recent wildfires around greater Los Angeles. I read about it while visiting The Hollywood Reporter web site. Others enduring a similar fate, the site reports, include comedian Billy Crystal, and actors Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Ricki Lake and Mandy Moore, to name a few. Various talent agents, producers and directors also saw their homes reduced to ashes.
The Wall Street Journal reports that billionaires such as Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and shopping mall mogul Herb Simon are among owners of more than 12,000 structures incinerated by various wildfires.
Breathlessly, the Journal reminds its readers that many of southern California’s wealthy elite “are scrambling to find both short- and long-term housing.” A luxury real estate agent says the aftermath of the fires is “really frightening for these people.” Another says open houses for leased properties are “drawing 50 to 60 people at once, many in tears.”
Recently, I read the names of other Americans who’ve lost their homes and need temporary shelter. Vickie Revis. Kathy Varvel. Kristen Hicks. Richard Neeb. Jody Henderson.
I found their names in news stories posted at the Asheville Citizen Times website. They are not celebrities. They are not famous. They reside in western North Carolina. Their residences after flood waters raged through on September 27 are motel rooms, campers and mobile homes. They don’t have talent agents. They are not contacting luxury real estate agents.
“The need is so great,” says Jason Ward in Swannanoa, nearly four months after a hurricane that came ashore along Florida’s west coast roared into North Carolina’s high country. “We have people in campers. It’s a nightmare situation.” (WarRoom.org, January 15, 2025)
Between 121,000 and 132,000 homes in western NC were estimated to have been damaged by the storm. At least 104 fatalities have been confirmed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, more widely known as a four-letter word, FEMA, long ago abandoned the region. FEMA checks have allowed many in need to live in motel rooms but those funds gradually are being cut off. With severe cold and winter conditions settling, a FEMA spokesperson matter of factly told a Citizen Times reporter that 3,500 people would lose temporary housing in motels as of January 9. With a storm in the forecast, FEMA showed its compassion by extending the deadline — by ONE DAY.
Paris Hilton’s foundation raised more than $800,000 soon after the wildfires. That’s great. Not everyone who lost a home around L.A. is wealthy and self-sufficient. In the Carolina mountains, a wealth of tireless compassion is all the folks can count on.
“It’s neighbors helping neighbors,” said Jason Seidel in Marion. “The only thing we get is what we provide for ourselves.” (WarRoom.org, January 15, 2025)
Josh Stein, yet another Democrat occupying the North Carolina Governor’s mansion, actually said this during his inaugural remarks: “We must overcome the unprecedented storm that ravaged our state and everyday struggles that impact our neighbors. And we will.”
He did not say why efforts to overcome were not pursued by his predecessor, Governor Roy Cooper. On January 2, Stein announced an executive order to expedite the construction of 1,000 temporary housing units. He did not say why Cooper failed to enact a similar executive order in October, November or December.
The Hollywood Reporter describes victims of recent wildfires as “climate refugees”, an absurd attempt to blame “climate change” while ignoring the root cause of the fires — Gov. Gavin Newsom and other elected officials bowing to rigid environmentalism.
Out in California, Pacific Palisades and Malibu are bathed in brilliant sunshine that illuminates utter devastation. Celebrities and tycoons who lost homes have sought lodging in famous places like the Beverly Hills Hotel, paying thousands of dollars a night, and consoling themselves over glasses of wine in the iconic Polo Lounge.
Back in North Carolina, in Waynesville, temperatures are dropping and snow is falling. People displaced from homes by the floods are living in 50 donated campers in an a community they call their Haven on a Hill. To make a cup of coffee every morning, gas is pumped by hand out of canisters and transferred to generators that power appliances and provide modest heating.
We’ll never forget the early days after the floods. We’ll never forget the many citizens who donated emergency supplies and the pilots who formed a volunteer Air Force to deliver them into North Carolina’s western counties. But in January 2025 we must heed the call of duty again. The crisis has not ended. In fact, it has barely subsided. What to do?
Start here:
Haven On The Hill (Waynesville, NC)
Facebook account Click here
Appalachian United Initiative Click here
Valley Strong Disaster Relief Click here
Project Your Home Click here