A social media user claims that Hurricane Helene’s victims stand to lose their shelter — and their children — after the storm. Helene hit western North Carolina on Sept. 27, causing record flooding in the state’s mountainous areas.

Human traffickers are trickling into western North Carolina to exploit the trail of vulnerability that Hurricane Helene left in its wake, a law enforcement representative warned at a recent North Carolina Human Trafficking Commission meeting.

It was the regionality and subject matter but also the steel underneath the quiet tale that called it to mind when I spoke to Jennifer Greene, the Executive Director of the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association recently,