Months of neglect from federal officials threatened to combine the worst elements of two recent major disasters. Fortunately, residents in western North Carolina, a region ravaged by Hurricane Helene in September and then largely ignored by former President Joe Biden's Federal Emergency Management Agency for months thereafter,

Two fires are now burning in western North Carolina's McDowell County, just four months after it was hard-hit by Hurricane Helene.

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein began his first term earlier this month with a behemoth task in front of him: Helping western North Carolina recover from close to $60 billion in damage from Hurricane Helene,