First came cataclysmic floods. Then came the cascade of lies.

The lies – and the lying liars who tell them – compound the suffering in Western North Carolina and complicate the recovery.

Like supercharged hurricanes fueled by superheated ocean waters, the lies explode in today’s social-media ecosystem.

Elon Musk has turned X/Twitter into a breeding ground for misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories.

Then the lies are spread by reckless politicians like Trump and Mark Robinson.

(Can you imagine “Governor Robinson” in charge of managing this crisis? That would be disaster on top of disaster.)

To their credit, Republican leaders like North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis have pushed back against the lies. He wrote last Sunday:

“The last thing that the victims of Helene need right now is political posturing, finger-pointing, or conspiracy theories that only hurt the response effort.”

He and his colleagues will need to keep pushing back as time goes on, frustrations grow and patience grows thin.

They need to help the helpers – and adequately fund them.

Not play politics, play the blame game and play to the MAGA mob.

They need to stay committed for the long term. It will take years for Western North Carolina to recover.

For too long, since Ronald Reagan in 1980, Republicans have preached the Big Lie that government is the problem.

For too long, they’ve peddled the biggest lie of all: that there’s no such thing as climate change, no need for climate action.

Helene and Milton beg to differ.