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.

The wildfire strikes an inland region of North Carolina that is still recovering from the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene in September.