How a conspiracy-fueled group got a foothold in this hurricane-battered town
Over the course of 11 days, a supermarket parking lot became a snapshot of the chaos that can unfold in some corners of post disaster-America.

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A search-and-rescue team hikes along North Carolina Route 9 on Oct. 1 near a Lake Lure police vehicle in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

By Brianna Sacks, Scott Dance, Will Oremus, Samuel Oakford and Jeremy B. Merrill
October 23, 2024 at 5:30 a.m. EDT

LAKE LURE, N.C. — It started with hot coffee. ... Hurricane Helene had just cut off this already isolated foothill town from everything: power, water, information. Paralyzed, the only thing that residents Carin Harris and Hilary Yoxall could think to do was post up outside their Ingles supermarket and hand out something warm. Soon, donations began to pour in, and a makeshift supplies distribution center emerged from a parking lot off the main two-lane road.

Then everything got more complicated. ... A group called Veterans on Patrol showed up in Rutherford County late on the night of Oct. 11, just four people with no supplies. But their leader, Lewis Arthur, came with a lot of promises and a big vision, which he said was sent from God: a three-year plan to help this lakeside community and others around here bounce back, according to Yoxall and Arthur. ... At first, it did seem like a Godsend, Yoxall, Harris and other residents said. They started organizing the piles of diapers, boxes of canned food and mounds of winter clothes. But as soon as Yoxall, a retired Army nurse, and Arthur got to talking, and he started telling her about his work fighting cartels at the border, about his need for armed security, she got a bad feeling. ... “There’s something wrong here,” she told another longtime resident and fellow organizer.


Hilary Yoxall speaks with volunteers including Lewis Arthur. (Brianna Sacks for The Washington Post)

What she and others didn’t know yet was that Veterans on Patrol is an anti-government group steeped in conspiracy theories and that its leader has a well-documented history of embedding in communities to launch missions related to migrants or purported child trafficking, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Western States Center, two watchdog groups. ... And that the group was motivated to come to this small town because its members believed that the government was using the hurricane to move people here off lithium-rich land and stop them from getting it back, according to the group’s posts on Telegram, the messaging service.

“Hurricane Helene was an act of war perpetuated by the United States Military”; a “land grab” responsible for “murdering hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans,” the group said on Oct. 3. That same day, it launched its disaster deployment operation, stating that it was “coming to the aid of those who will not sell, have stolen, or be restricted their property” and to replace the Federal Emergency Management Agency. ... Over the course of 11 days, this makeshift hurricane supplies depot in a supermarket parking lot became a snapshot of the chaos that can unfold in some corners of post-disaster America: Residents came together to help their community because local officials were unable to. People came searching for critical supplies because the federal government does not give those out as part of its disaster response. An extremist group motivated by anti-government beliefs and conspiracy theories was able to show up, wield influence and become a source of help for some and fear for others.

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