Winds of about 30 miles an hour, I read, checking the weather the evening of September 26th. The next morning, after a calm hour of prayer, my wife and I watched something very different transpire: winds topping 70 miles an hour blowing over trees, sending debris flying and driving water through our chimney pipe and basement walls.
Our township of Green Creek, North Carolina, was spared the worst of Helene, far enough away from the nearby mountains to avoid catastrophic flooding and landslides. Yet, when the sun began to shine in the early afternoon of September 27th, we were left wondering what had happened as we surveyed the damage.
My last column reflected on how politics should aim for the common good, as families, local communities and nations cooperate in obtaining the essential goods for human flourishing. After writing it, I saw many of the principles in action on all those levels in the aftermath of Helene.
Peeping out the window to survey the damage, we realized two trees had blocked our driveway. My boys sprang into action and began cutting up the trees to haul them away in pieces. But they soon discovered that a large oak tree had taken out the power lines around the corner. Little did we know that countless others had done the same kind of damage throughout the entire region. Groups of local men began working up and down the roads, cutting passageways through the downed trees throughout the day, making us grateful to live in a place capable of addressing problems without simply waiting for help. And yet, there were limits to what we could do, with powerlines strewn across every road.
The next day, we were surprised to hear loud French commands broadcast on speakers down the road. Seven bucket trucks from Canada pulled up to cut the rest of the trees tangled up in the electrical wires and to reattach the power lines. It was a shocking moment of deliverance from a crew who drove across the continent to help us. Even after they repaired our lines, while receiving our hearty thanks, we still had to wait a week for the power to return because the restoration work had just begun. We watched those Canadian crews drive back and forth for days as they continued their work.
The week we spent without power and internet could have been much worse. Unlike others, we never lost water, but many neighbors with a well needed to fill up jugs at surrounding houses on city water. Thankfully, we had prepared for a disaster with a solar generator, non-perishable food provisions, and laundry equipment. We even joked, “Wow, Mom, all your gadgets are finally coming in handy!” The stressful week had its own blessings, with more time outside in the eerily beautiful weather that followed the storm, cooking over the fire without distracting technology. Neighbors banded together and swapped stories, and when the power came back on, we realized that others in the area, hit much harder than us by mudslides and flooding, needed our help as well.
Screaming subsidiarity as a rallying cry against outside intrusion is easy until you need solidarity. On the other hand, there is much more that families and local communities can do to become more self-sufficient, draw upon resources and talents from within and prepare for disasters. The Church teaches us to balance subsidiarity and solidarity by building a society that focuses on family first, encourages local solutions when possible, and cares for those in need.
Before the storm hit, I had just finished reading Localism: Coming Home to Catholic Social Teaching, edited by Dale Ahlquist and Michael Warren Davis (Sophia Institute Press, 2024). The book offers an impressive collection of essays on the importance of local community from leading thinkers, such as Anthony Esolen and Joseph Pearce, and those focused on practical implementation, such as Senator Marco Rubio.
Dale Ahlquist explains the concept of localism in his introduction: “It is a word that already has a meaning: the support of local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, the promotion of local history, local culture, and local identity, and the protection of local freedom. It obviously favors directness and decentralization, and it is even more obviously opposed to globalism and collectivism.”
Michael Dominic Taylor, in his chapter, points out something that hit home in the storm: “Community happens when people depend on one another, but in a world of social media, big-box stores, and one-day shipping, we must choose to make ourselves both dependent on and responsible for our communities and our landscapes.” Modern culture too often seeks radical independence, but we can only achieve the common good and find genuine happiness by depending on God and one another.
We moved to rural North Carolina for the local community, settling near some friends and other like-minded people. Many other families have been seeking the same things: a good environment to raise kids, a healthy lifestyle drawing on local food, some of which is produced at home, and the opportunity to live out our faith more fully. But community is not meant as an escape from reality or the needs of others. The Taffaro family just down the road recently opened a butcher shop, Melvin Hill Meats, processing humanely raised and properly fed livestock. Even as they seek to grow their new business, they have decided to host a charity pig roast for hurricane victims.
To me, this embodies the connection of subsidiarity and solidarity, drawing our local community together to rally in support of others.
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I apologize in advance to all the Catholics who jump in and get their hands dirty, but the following is simply my experience: It seem that when a disaster hits, our evangelical friends organize, load up their pickups and vans with tools, chainsaws, food, water and hit the road to the help. But on the other hand, we Catholics pass the basket to send a check. One could argue that major relief efforts should be left to experts like the Red Cross, and “amateurs” just get in the way. But I find the willingness to get hands on – telling.
K of C
A lot of Catholics are old as well
I’m not sure why you think loading up your pick up is so much more laudable than writing a check.
Apart from the need consider the direct and primary obligations to one’s own family, employment and community, While there’s certainly a place for direct personal action, running to the scene of an emergency not only presents the possibility of inefficiency and ineffectiveness; there is the distinct possibility that such actions can add to the afflicteds’ woes.
Example: Where power lines are down, I want trained utility electricians attending to the downed lines and trees, not somebody with good intent but limited or no knowledge of electricity perhaps worsening a situation or endangering themselves because they are short on safety training.
Analogously, I once knew some folks that went to Haiti with the best of intentions-but you have to ask about the wisdom of the expenditure for plane tickets for folks that had no knowledge of construction and yet undertook to build a school, all while consuming scarce resources in a place noted for its poverty.
It just depends on the situation. Sometimes showing up with a shovel is what’s needed. Sometimes mailing a cheque is best.
After the storm many roads were impassable anyway.
That has been my experience on the receiving end of such help. When our town was hit with a major flood, I don’t know if either of the two Catholic parishes (the buildings were not affected at all) did anything as a parish. (I’m guessing some individuals offered help.)
But the LDS temple did. The Evangelicals did. The Praise & Worship Crowd (not entirely sure if they are a denomination) did. This one cult-like (???) church did. We were given personal assistance by some secular friends of ours, and the local lesbian couple was very kind and offered the use of their unused car if we needed it (we managed to save our cars.)
I did have a catholic homeschooling family who offered us some help with laundry and tear down of dry wall.
Supposedly the Knights of Columbus did, but I did not see them. Our pastor did not visit us, but the pastor of the Praise & Worship Crowd did (wearing a mask–he’s high risk and it was Covid back then).
The Pitchfork Rebel does have a point. I suspect the Catholics in our town are all of the “professional types” with no useful “skills.” Knowall has a point as well. Catholics are old. Not useless, just old. No one in my parish (which is out of town by 20 miles) would have been able to help even if I had asked for them to do so, which I did not. Too frail. And the ones who are not, were dealing with elderly, frail family and probably would have declined. (Come to think of it, there was a able-bodied family in our town that also goes to the same parish, was not affected, but never reached out. That may be why were are not friends.)
Our pastor did eventually call us when it was over. He doesn’t check his email, so had no idea we were in danger and had asked for prayers.
A check from the parish to cover pizza would have been nice. If someone had brought up a truck load of beer or KFC, that would have been of great moral support. But, guess not.