The Rev. Dr. William Barber II is the co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) As the Carolinas brace for Hurricane Florence, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has warned that "disaster is at the doorstep," comparing projected rainfalls to some of the worst storms in recent memory.

I have been a pastor in Eastern North Carolina for the past 25 years. Together with the community here in Goldsboro and Wayne County, I have been through many of those storms and have participated with local churches in the cleanup and rebuilding that happens after the waters recede. I know from experience that storms like Florence do more than destroy; they also expose the inequities in our society that are perpetuated by extreme policies.

William Barber

We witnessed this as a nation last year, as Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, a US territory that had been neglected in many ways before the storm and suffered afterward from a poor response -- one which we now know contributed to nearly 3,000 unnecessary deaths

While President Donald Trump continues to lie about his "success" in Puerto Rico, millions of my poor brothers and sisters -- black, white, brown and Native American -- have homes, farms and lives that are lying in the direct path of another storm. Meanwhile, the administration's attacks on anti-poverty programs and rejection of policies that would expand access for everyone have left poor people the most vulnerable as Florence bears down on us.

For example, hundreds of thousands of people in the path of Hurricane Florence do not have access to health insurance because legislators in both South Carolina and North Carolina refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. While the President and his political allies continue to undermine the Affordable Care Act, poor people in North Carolina become sicker than they need to be because they aren't receiving basic health care. The public health crisis that a storm brings will only exacerbate this inequality.

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