On Sunday, September 29, I decided to pack up my truck, stop by Walmart in Richmond, Virginia, gather needed supplies, and drive down to western North Carolina. 

At this point, I had not heard from my family in over four days, and the images coming out of our hometown were devastating.  

Helene dropped nearly three feet of rain on mountain communities with wind gusts more than 80 miles per hour in some places. A historic storm, Helene broke records dating back nearly 110 years. 

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The last thing on my mind when driving eight hours home on a different route than usual because I-40 was shut down was the November 5 election. But as time has passed, I’ve become worried that the voices of southern Appalachia will not be heard. 

My family was fortunate not to be harmed, and in many ways, this is the inspiration behind this piece. While I cannot be home to help with extended clean-up efforts and do not have to worry about my family’s safety, I think it is vital to raise awareness of the electoral impacts in these communities so they can focus on rebuilding their lives. 

For the families who lost everything, this is the last thing they should have to worry about. Friends I went to school with are still missing. Families I grew up with watched their homes swept hundreds of yards downriver. For these families, they are worried about their next meal and whether or not they will see their loved ones. 

In the days since the storm ravaged our communities, our neighbors have come together in big ways, representing the authentic culture of Appalachia. 

Our communities are banding together in a way that has never been seen before. The last thing on many people’s minds, however, is how this will impact their ability to vote in November. 

While families are coping with loss and communities come together to help each other out, state leaders need to start making plans to ensure those impacted by these devastating storms have the ability to make their voices heard at the ballot box. 

I have seen the social media posts, and I have spoken to many of our close friends and neighbors who are legitimately concerned about the politics at play here. Despite the news stories and photo-ops, they have not seen FEMA. They have not seen the governor. All they have seen are their neighbors and outside private groups of volunteers coming in to help them. 

As Americans, we don’t want to believe this is true, but these are the experiences of southern Appalachia. 

Critical swing states like Georgia and North Carolina have had towns wiped off the map, and many of them are in rural, conservative areas that would traditionally come home for Republicans. 

After the flood, on Sunday, September 29, 2024, the water in downtown Marshall, North Carolina, has mostly receded. Multiple buildings on Main Street were washed away during the flood, including the town’s historic train depot. (Logan Clark)

Western North Carolina and southern Georgia are two of the most densely populated regions for Republican voters in each respective state. The absence of these voices could sway how each state votes and ultimately be the deciding factor in who gets elected in November. 

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Just this week, the United States Postal Service announced major disruptions in both Georgia and the Carolinas. A concern for the almost 200,000 North Carolinians and absentee requests continuing in Georgia over the next few weeks, there is concern that ballots will not be returned or even delivered to voters.  

With wifi outages plaguing the region and no update on when cell service will return, the ability to communicate changes to voting procedures will become increasingly difficult the closer we get to the election. 

Larger counties like Buncombe and Watauga might have the ability to accommodate these changes. But what about smaller counties like Madison and Yancey in North Carolina? 

These issues are trivial in the larger reality compared to the reality being faced by so many in Helene’s path. However, ensuring that victims of Helene’s wrath can vote is a duty that every single lawmaker and government official should fulfill. 

The North Carolina State Board of Elections has begun the process of ensuring everyone has access to vote — I implore Governor Roy Cooper and elected leaders in Georgia and North Carolina to take proactive steps so the votes of those impacted by Helene are safe, secure and accounted for. 

Southern Appalachia will rebuild — it is in our DNA — but we need to ensure we have the resources necessary to come back stronger. That includes the essentials like water, dry food, baby formula, diapers, and, importantly, the ability to make our voices heard. 

Lisa Phillips had big dreams of becoming a top model when she encountered Jeffrey Epstein.

The cover girl, who said she was abused by the late convicted sex offender on his private island, is speaking out candidly in a new podcast, “From Now On.” It aims to raise awareness of human trafficking and how it can impact anyone.

“It took me many years to get to this point,” Phillips, now a model scout and agent in Los Angeles, told Fox News Digital. “I struggled with the confusion of what happened to me years ago.”

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“But as soon as I started speaking to other survivors, I started realizing that my story from so many years ago was the same as those – both the underage girls from Florida and the older girls that were 18-25,” she shared.

Phillips began modeling when she was 16 years old. By 19, she was already heading to fashion capitals, like London and Paris, making her mark. At age 21, she found herself in New York City, where she had booked a photo shoot in the British West Indies. 

It was there that a fellow model told her about an island nearby – Little Saint James.

“We had an extra day,” Phillips recalled. “She said, ‘Let’s get out of here. Let’s do something. I have a friend, a really good friend. He’s amazing. He owns an island close by. Let’s see him. He said he would send us a boat, and we could hang out over there.’”

Lisa Phillips is seen here heading to Little Saint James. (Courtesy of Lisa Phillips)

The women boarded a boat and headed to the island. When they arrived, there were other women already there swimming in a pool and “enjoying themselves.” 

At first, everything seemed “fine,” said Phillips. They had “a wonderful dinner” before Epstein approached them and introduced himself.

Lisa Phillips detailed her story in the podcast “From Now On.” (Courtesy of Lisa Phillips)

“He was very charming,” she recalled. “He was that type of man who just locked into you and made you feel very special, very safe and so interested in who you were as a person. I never had that attention from a man, not even from my father, expressing that much interest in everything that I was talking about, what I was doing, what my aspirations and goals were.”

“I always remember that he made me feel really special… That’s what he did for everybody.”

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Jeffrey Epstein’s former home on the island of Little Saint James in the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Emily Michot / Getty Images)

However, things took a turn “pretty quickly,” she claimed.

That same night, a woman casually approached her, saying that Epstein wanted a massage. A confused Phillips said she did not know how to give one. The woman nonchalantly told her to “just chill.” After assuring her, Phillips followed the woman’s lead. She felt safe with her.

Phillips claimed that the massage turned into Epstein sexually assaulting her in the room. 

“That was the cover I shot the day I went to the island,” Lisa Phillips told Fox News Digital. (Courtesy of Lisa Phillips)

“It wasn’t a straight, ‘Let me pull you into a room and abuse you,’” said Phillips. “He eases into things, like, ‘It’s just a massage, right?’ The girl went along with it and brought me into the room to do this massage with him. It was a slow thing that escalated into abuse. The whole process was very confusing to me.”

Lisa Phillips said she returned to New York City feeling very confused and “filled with shame.” (Courtesy of Lisa Phillips)

“I was on an island,” she said. “I wasn’t in a house where I could say, ‘Excuse me, I need to leave,’ and grab my stuff. I was far away from home on an island I should never have been on.”

Phillips later learned that multiple women, like her, alleged that they were assaulted by Epstein under the guise of a massage.

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Lisa Phillips said things took a turn quickly on the day she met Jeffrey Epstein. (Neil Rasmus/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

She returned to New York City filled with shame.

“After that, my life spiraled,” Phillips admitted. “I started doing drugs and drinking… I felt like I was tarnished, or something was wrong with me that I didn’t stand up for myself… And everybody looked up to Jeffrey at the time. 

“During those years, he wasn’t a playboy who hung out in the scene. People talked about him highly. When I would bring up his name to people, they would say, ‘We love Jeffrey. He did this for me. He got me a visa. He introduced me to my husband. He put me through school.’ It was always these big things that he did for people. That was confusing for me.”

Lisa Phillips has a podcast, “From Now On,” which aims to educate listeners on sexual abuse and human trafficking. (Brett Erickson)

Phillips also pointed out that the incident occurred in the early 2000s, long before the #MeToo movement where victims of sexual abuse came forward publicly with their accounts. At that time, she said, “You would never speak out about somebody like that with that kind of power.”

Phillips said she “suppressed” the shame and confusion she felt as Epstein portrayed himself as a mentor wanting to help.

“Nobody talked about the creepy massages and what was happening,” she said. “It was all hush-hush… He was influential, and he was manipulative. He groomed you to believe that he was your mentor.”

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Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photograph taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services sex offender registry on March 28, 2017 and obtained by Reuters on July 10, 2019. (New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services/Handout via REUTERS)

In 2006, Epstein was arrested over allegations that he had hired teenage girls to give him sexualized massages at his Florida home. 

Two years later, prosecutors allowed Epstein to plead guilty to a charge involving a single victim. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program then quietly started rebuilding his network of influential friends, with the help of his socialite former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

After a series of Miami Herald stories about the plea bargain that deprived Epstein’s victims of justice, federal prosecutors in New York revived the investigation and charged Epstein in 2019 with sex trafficking.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre holds a photo of herself at age 16, when she says Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein began abusing her sexually. (Emily Michot/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Epstein reportedly created and maintained a “vast network” and operation from 2002 “up to and including” at least 2005 that enabled him to “sexually exploit and abuse dozens of underage girls” in addition to paying victims to recruit other girls.

Prosecutors said that victims would be escorted to a room with a massage table where they would perform massages on Epstein.

At the time of Epstein’s arrest, prosecutors said they found a trove of pictures of nude and seminude young women and girls at his $77 million Manhattan mansion. They also say additional victims have come forward since the arrest. He pleaded not guilty.

Jeffrey Epstein is seen here with Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now serving her sentence at a low-security federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

On Aug. 10 of that year, Epstein was found dead behind bars. He was 66. The cause of death was suicide. 

When Epstein killed himself in jail, prosecutors charged Maxwell with facilitating his illicit sexual encounters and participating in some of the abuse. The 62-year-old was convicted and is serving a 20-year prison term.

Phillips said that while she hated her abuser, she cried after learning of his death.

Lisa Phillips admitted she cried after hearing of Jeffrey Epstein’s death, something that confused her. (Brett Erickson)

“I didn’t know why,” she explained. “He was a bad guy, but I had good thoughts about him too… I just had this emotional breakdown of confusion. But if he was still alive, I probably would’ve had way too much fear to speak out. I probably would have never spoken out. But… I was willing to finally talk about what happened to me. I needed answers.”

Phillips went on to testify in a 2022 civil case involving another Epstein accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, USA Today reported. She also filed as a Jane Doe under the Adult Survivors Act, citing abuse by an Epstein associate. According to the outlet, she received a settlement in a case involving JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Epstein accusers.

“The pain is in the numbers,” she explained. “You can go through some type of abuse and deal with it on your own… but when you start hearing about other women who had the same experiences with Jeffrey and others, it does something to your psyche,” she said. 

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David Boies, representing several of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims, center, arrives with Annie Farmer, second right, and Virginia Giuffre at federal court in New York on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019. Epstein, a convicted pedophile, killed himself in prison earlier that month while awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy and trafficking minors for sex. (Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“… And when I started speaking to the other survivors, that’s where I felt validation… That’s when I felt safe to talk about my experience without people shaming me. I wasn’t alone.”

Today, Phillips hopes her podcast will provide a platform for other victims who are healing, like her.

“I want people to know that there’s a place where you can come and be heard,” she said. “I also want to educate people on how to advocate for themselves, and look out for red flags while you’re building your career. Because this can happen in any kind of business.”

Lisa Phillips wants her podcast to be a “safe space” for other victims of abuse to share their stories without fear. (Brett Erickson)

“I feel different today than I did yesterday,” she reflected. “It’s getting better. But I’m ready to start speaking out. And I’m ready to help others speak out, too.”

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas’ words have come back to haunt him as video from earlier this year touting the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) preparedness before Hurricane Helene exposed shortcomings in the organization.

Mayorkas this week warned that FEMA was running out of funds as hurricane season continued to slam the southeastern United States. The organization has enough funds to deal with the aftermath of Helene but would not have enough to “make it through the season.”

This warning stands in stark contrast to previous comments Mayorkas made in the summer assuring that FEMA would be able to handle upcoming weather crises. 

“FEMA is tremendously prepared,” Mayorkas assured reporters in a video from July. “This is what we do, this is what they do, and the key here … is to also make sure the communities who are potentially impacted are prepared as well.” 

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“And it’s not just hurricanes and wildfires – also extreme heat, which certainly some parts of the United States are experiencing,” he added. Mayorkas stressed that FEMA has “exercised these muscles, regrettably, year after year” due to the “increasing frequency and gravity of weather events.”

However, Mayorkas did argue that FEMA’s disaster relief fund remained in a precarious position and needed fresh funding from Congress ahead of an expected heavy hurricane season. In July, he anticipated running out by “mid-August.” 

Mayorkas stressed the need to be ready for the “consequences” of increasingly severe weather events as climate change continues to exacerbate disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires. 

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Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the East Coast last week. Floodwaters and mudslides almost entirely wiped out some communities such as Asheville, North Carolina, where residents have remained without electricity and cell service while facing water, gas and food shortages. 

Cars sit submerged in a flooded area at a used tire dealer after Hurricane Helene in Hendersonville, North Carolina, on Sept. 27, 2024. (Ken Ruinard/USA Today Network via Reuters)

“They’re afraid. People are getting on edge,” retired Asheville, North Carolina, Police Officer Steve Antle told Fox News Digital. “They’ve already had people doing some minor looting in the area. Because there’s no power … so it’s just a free-for-all at this point. There are no traffic signals. There are not enough police officers.”

FEMA arrived in Western North Carolina on Monday after President Biden approved federal resources, but some residents as of Thursday said they still had not seen any federal officials. 

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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News host Sean Hannity that no FEMA rep had visited parts of South Carolina but had received assurances they would after he raised the issue with them. 

Flood damage at a bridge across Mill Creek in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Sept. 30, 2024 in Old Fort, North Carolina. The White House has approved disaster declarations in North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama, freeing up federal emergency management money and resources for those states. ( Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

“You know where I’m going to look to get money to help with this disaster?” Graham said. “There’s a couple hundred billion dollars in the Inflation Reduction Act … that hasn’t been spent.”

“Why don’t we take money from the Inflation Reduction Act and apply it to this disaster?” Graham asked. “That’s what I’ll be trying to do.” 

Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.