A recent X post has gone viral and spawned even more upset over the federal government’s failure in Western North Carolina, as well as a host of conspiracy theories.
Advertisement
On the evening of Sunday, October 6, a helicopter “rotor washed” a POD center where the United Cajun Navy was distributing supplies and giving relief to the people impacted by Hurricane Helene. This area was no-fly territory, so the appearance of a helicopter flying 500 feet from the ground was extremely frightening, as the UCN documented on its X page.
We’ve officially found our first free swamp tour customer! So whoever the douche nozzle was that deliberately rotor washed the Burnsville POD, this was a hostile act that broke a $hitload of really good @FAANews laws! You can clearly see our logo on the supplies! Good luck trying to remain anonymous, we’ll be in touch soon!
For commenters and people who immediately scoffed, “fake news,” Brian Trascher, Vice President and Public Information Officer for the United Cajun Navy, confirmed these facts with screenshots of a text from one of his volunteers.
In a phone interview with Trascher, he said that text was only one of many. Trascher said from studying the videos and hearing the eyewitness accounts of the volunteers and staff at the location, UCN ascertained that the helicopter was probably a UH60 standard Blackhawk, and the pilots were wearing military headgear.
Advertisement
Yeah, it takes two pilots to fly. One of those things, and both were wearing standard DOD gear, the headgear.
Video taken by another bystander on the site was also leaked, with lots of commentary and speculation that the government was involved — that it was a deliberate attack, along with the usual full-on conspiracies about Hurricane Helene and its causations.
Trascher and his team are doing an investigation, but at this point, who it might have been and what their motives were is purely speculative.
It could have been a hot shot. I mean, I just don’t know if it was military. I mean, honestly, as an organization, leadership’s been kind of hardline about this today and, you know, we think that instead of going down the rabbit hole trying to figure out what happened and why, we’re about to deploy to Florida, which is a whole different animal than North Carolina.
Advertisement
Trascher affirmed UCN’s mission to “show up and never back down” in providing first response in the aftermath of a disaster.
With Hurricane Milton, a Category 5 monster surging toward Florida, UCN is now gearing up to support that state while winding down their operations in Western North Carolina.
You know, we’re about to deploy to Florida, which is a whole different animal than North Carolina. If we don’t run into the same roadblocks and threats and, you know, hostile actions from a helicopter, then we’ll just assume that it has something to do with North Carolina. It’s the state.
And de facto, the state’s leadership. Comparing North Carolina Democrat Governor Roy Cooper with Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on leadership, preparation, and response to disaster is like comparing Imane Khelif, the Olympic boxer who competed as a female, with the late, great Muhammed Ali.
Trascher mentioned FEMA in passing and that their glacial response is a feature, not a bug.
Advertisement
We try to do our best to explain to people that FEMA and the National Guard, they’re not first responders or second responders. The 800 pound gorilla takes a long time to wake up and get moving, but people can’t wait, right? So, we’re the first three things on the ground.
In light of the threat of Hurricane Milton, Trascher mentioned DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ claim that FEMA funding for hurricane response was running short and made this observation: “He said he didn’t have enough money for another major storm, and God heard him.”