Picking up the pieces after disaster strikes — after one has lost property, possessions, and even loved ones — is an emotional and spiritual burden sufficient to bring even the strongest among us to our knees.  We implore Governor Roy Cooper and President Joe Biden to send emergency relief funds to Haywood and Transylvania Counties to assist as their residents recover from the other night’s deadly floods. We cannot stand by and merely watch as our fellow human beings sit amid the ruins of their lives: we have a duty of care to one another and must do what we can as a state and a nation to help the good people of Western North Carolina in this time of need.