Not that I trust any media network tied to MSNBC, but I have not been able to find reliable confirmation that Chimney Rock is being seized, nor that FEMA has been confiscating donations -- only information contrary to it. I do not take this to mean that no such evidence exists, but I cannot ignore the potential that these claims are misinformation attempting to provoke a violent response from traumatized and now homeless people who, legally speaking, still own property in these locations where rich lithium deposits exist.

A violent response could provide federal officials the pretext to seize such land and to otherwise clamp down on rescue, recovery, volunteering, and donations in the areas hit hardest by the storm. The benefit of doing so is deadly simple -- it would allow them to impede the identification of bodies and the relief of trapped, but otherwise alive people prior to the early voting deadline -- opening a window for fraudulent ballots to be submitted under the identities of tens of thousands of missing persons, just as the damage from Helene will likely disenfranchise the voting rights of those who have survived and are displaced from their voting districts. North Carolina is very much a critical battleground state. Never forget that.