a) Your 3-generation family home sits on 52 acres deep in the Appalachian mountains, it's not much but it's always been home.
b) Helene hits and trees fall through your living room, kitchen, and heavy rain destroys everything you own.
c) You and your kids set up a campsite outside the home your family has been in for generations and believe it's worth staying and rebuilding.
d) You submit an application to FEMA at a local library computer to get that $750 everyone has been talking about.
e) It's been a couple of weeks, you've been able to get some serious work done with the help of your neighbors and local church members, things are progressing.
e) One day, out of nowhere, FEMA shows up. They do that because you filled out on the application that you were "displaced from your home" and they are coming to check on you.
f) FEMA sees you are in a tent / makeshift shelter combo using the remnants of your home.
g) They declare that this living situation is unsafe and that you need to either move to a shelter or submit an application for a FEMA housing unit.
h) You obviously submit an application for a temporary home from FEMA.
i) Unfortunately, FEMA is so slow at their job, you've waited two weeks to receive any temporary housing unit and they are still doing paperwork.
j) Sadly, during this time period someone from FEMA during the application process pinged DHS that there is a family with 2 kids living in a "unsafe situation".
k) DHS workers are rightly concerned about whatever could be occurring and drive up into the mountains to check on the family and are horrified to see a family living in a tent.
l) They talk to the parents and declare that their kids cannot live like this, that they need to leave at once or be forced to deal with the legal process.
m) The parents are angry, scared, and confused. They try explaining to the DHS workers that FEMA said they could get a temporary housing structure on their land and they have just been waiting for it to arrive while they rebuild.
n) The discussions get heated and the parents who are scared that their kids are about to be taken away from them, get hostile and demand that DHS leave immediately.
m) DHS submits paperwork that the parents were hostile and keeping their kids in an unsafe living situation. That paperwork now lives in the legal system forever and is referred to the authorities.
The complexities of what is happening in #WNC cannot be overstated.
The story above, though paraphrased from things I've heard, illustrates how a family just wanting to live a quiet life can be become embroiled in the legal system, even by people who mean well and want to help.
And God only knows what will happen to the kids in DCFS custody. They are useless at “protecting” kids in their custody. They frequently fail to check on the foster homes, foster homes which often foster kids for money. Often foster homes physically, sexually and emotionally abuse and neglect the children. Sometimes often DCFS loses track of children and they more often are safer staying in the home, while not ideal, is safer than a foster home.