Hurricane Helene check-in

[Pawz4me]

51 minutes ago, popmom said:

The fatality count is way underreported. God have mercy. We just heard from our nextdoor neighbors-- a couple in their 70s who have a second home in Newland, NC. They stay there during the summer through fall. Population is 700. He told us local officials have confirmed 66 people have died. And that number will likely go up. That's 10 percent of that little town's population. He said the town will never be the same and that it was the worst storm they have ever experienced. We are just glad to know they are okay. This is all just incomprehensible. Please keep praying.

eta: That population number is actually for the entire county. It's in Avery County. I am assuming the death toll is also for the county rather than just Newland. Not that it makes a difference. I just want to make sure I am being as accurate as possible.

????

Avery County is small, but it has way way more than 700 people.

[Ann.without.an.e]

18 hours ago, popmom said:

The fatality count is way underreported. God have mercy.

yes, it’s no where near accurate at all. 

Edited Tuesday at 05:26 PM by Ann.without.an.e

[popmom]

2 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

????

Avery County is small, but it has way way more than 700 people.

I will double check that! ETA: you are correct. So much for my accuracy! The county’s population is around 17,000. So Newland is 698. I hope that 66 number is for the entire county. Either way it’s horrific.

ETA: I got my husband to read the text to me, and our neighbor said, "66 just in our little town." 

Edited Tuesday at 01:37 AM by popmom

[TechWife]

3 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

With all the water treatment plants offline, potable water is gonna be a problem for a while. 

It will indeed. 

[TechWife]

2 hours ago, kbutton said:

That’s an “everyone” knows someone who died number, and with 700 people, it’s probably more like everyone knows multiple dead people. How terrible.

If people want to pass this along through any channels possible to get people help, SBC mud-out teams are forming to deploy to these areas: 

 

They are feeding people in Boone, NC right now if that is information that is helpful to friends and family.

I no longer attend an SBC church, but we have acquaintances who sacrifice a lot of vacation time and travel expenses to volunteer for these things. It is something they feel called to do, and I am grateful they have jobs that let them do it.

NC Baptists have feeding stations at First Baptist, Boone, NC and Biltmore Baptist, Arden, NC.
NC Baptists are nationally known for their disaster relief teams. They have a food truck that can make 30K meals daily along with several other, smaller food trucks.
There’s  a lot of coordination between the different NGOs & gov’t to try to get needs met in as many places as possible. Meals made by NC Baptists might be delivered by another org, for example. Food trucks spread themselves out, too. One thing many don’t realize is that the relief organizations often also feed first responders that are in from out of town to work because options are usually very limited in a disaster area. 

[kbutton]

@TechWife , do you know if any of the Baptist teams have water filtration capabilities? One of our local churches used to, but I think they had to narrow their focus a few years ago as the director had health issues. They still have teams, but not the same variety.

It seems like a food team might even need their own water filtration to operate.

16 minutes ago, TechWife said:

There’s  a lot of coordination between the different NGOs & gov’t to try to get needs met in as many places as possible. Meals made by NC Baptists might be delivered by another org, for example. Food trucks spread themselves out, too. One thing many don’t realize is that the relief organizations often also feed first responders that are in from out of town to work because options are usually very limited in a disaster area. 

I don’t think that the resource sharing is commonly known. 

[TechWife]

43 minutes ago, kbutton said:

@TechWife , do you know if any of the Baptist teams have water filtration capabilities? One of our local churches used to, but I think they had to narrow their focus a few years ago as the director had health issues. They still have teams, but not the same variety.

It seems like a food team might even need their own water filtration to operate.

I don’t think that the resource sharing is commonly known. 

Yes, some do. The big NC food truck has one IIRC. 

[whitestavern]

My sister made it home to Asheville. No electric or water but she did have cell service. Though with no way to charge, her phone is likely dead by now. She’ll be there until gas is available as she drove home on fumes. She’s incredibly thankful she was spared damage. It seems miraculous given how close she is to the devastation. Praying for all in the hard hit areas. 

[KeriJ]

Just putting this here. Below is a message from a close personal friend. (not an acquaintance or from social media)

 

"Hendersonville, NC

Hurricane Helene

I have lived in Florida my entire life and have never seen this level of devastation from a hurricane.

The storm came through on Friday.

Today is 3 days+ post storm.

There is no FEMA in Hendersonville, arguably the epicenter of destruction along with Asheville and other small communities nearby.

There is no state aid.

There is no local aid besides the churches and other community groups.

There are NO power trucks working on the lines. The only place we have seen power trucks are on TV.

Main roads are blocked because of trees down. The citizens are cutting them and clearing roads.

We have seen no one, not one, government truck or power trucks doing anything anywhere.

We did see one Henderson county deputy directing traffic around a part of road that has washed away. Thank you Sheriff Griffin.

AT&T failed this community terribly with cellphone service.

The governor came today and said virtually nothing of use.

The president and vice president are coming Wednesday. Clearly a campaign stop. Their FEMA department has done nothing.

There was no drinking water distribution until today and you have to bring your own containers. That was in Asheville, not Hendersonville.

The mayor of Asheville was on today and was asked specifically who was responsible for the failure. She deflected the answer.

Who is running the disaster response effort? Will there be any accountability?

In Florida, bottled water would be distributed immediately. Power trucks would be swarming. 3+ days and no power company trucks in Hendersonville doing anything visible and I have travelled many areas in the past days.

(wife's name) and I are fine, but many people are suffering from failure of government at all levels. Local, state and federal. Massive failure."

[KeriJ]

And the friend and his wife I quoted above have become sick from the water 

[fairfarmhand]

On 9/30/2024 at 5:23 PM, ScoutTN said:

With all the water treatment plants offline, potable water is gonna be a problem for a while. 

One thing that will make it hard for the utilities to get back online is the extremely high possibility that their trucks and equipment were damaged/ruined/washed away. In the 2010 Nashville floss, My dh and his crews were wading in waist high water through the night to get generators and trucks out of the parking lots to higher ground in 2010. Had they not done that, Nashville utilities would have been in a deeper mess than they were. I'm sure there in NC and East Tennessee things happened so fast that they may not have had the time to retrieve the equipment.

Edited Wednesday at 06:54 PM by fairfarmhand

[Pawz4me]

32 minutes ago, KeriJ said:

Just putting this here. Below is a message from a close personal friend. (not an acquaintance or from social media)

 

"Hendersonville, NC

Hurricane Helene

I have lived in Florida my entire life and have never seen this level of devastation from a hurricane.

The storm came through on Friday.

Today is 3 days+ post storm.

There is no FEMA in Hendersonville, arguably the epicenter of destruction along with Asheville and other small communities nearby.

There is no state aid.

There is no local aid besides the churches and other community groups.

There are NO power trucks working on the lines. The only place we have seen power trucks are on TV.

Main roads are blocked because of trees down. The citizens are cutting them and clearing roads.

We have seen no one, not one, government truck or power trucks doing anything anywhere.

We did see one Henderson county deputy directing traffic around a part of road that has washed away. Thank you Sheriff Griffin.

AT&T failed this community terribly with cellphone service.

The governor came today and said virtually nothing of use.

The president and vice president are coming Wednesday. Clearly a campaign stop. Their FEMA department has done nothing.

There was no drinking water distribution until today and you have to bring your own containers. That was in Asheville, not Hendersonville.

The mayor of Asheville was on today and was asked specifically who was responsible for the failure. She deflected the answer.

Who is running the disaster response effort? Will there be any accountability?

In Florida, bottled water would be distributed immediately. Power trucks would be swarming. 3+ days and no power company trucks in Hendersonville doing anything visible and I have travelled many areas in the past days.

(wife's name) and I are fine, but many people are suffering from failure of government at all levels. Local, state and federal. Massive failure."

From what I'm hearing from my FEMA contact the NC Air National Guard has already airlifted over 100,000 pounds of FEMA supplies into the Asheville airport. And this person is in a position to know that with certainty. I'm sorry your friend hasn't seen any of it yet.

ETA: I also personally know of other local (NC) groups that have gotten aid into some of the affected areas.

Edited Tuesday at 05:31 PM by Pawz4me

[Ann.without.an.e]

We are right outside of the area and our grocery stores are getting slammed and empty from people coming to get supplies to take back if they can get in and out. That’s ok. They can come here and I’ll shop more east of us. 
 

DSIL’s friend is with national guard and said they pulled 60 bodies from the area he was working alone.

I don’t want to know what the final number will be. 

[Ann.without.an.e]

Just now, Pawz4me said:

From what I'm hearing from my FEMA contact the NC Air National Guard has already airlifted over 100,000 tons of FEMA supplies into the Asheville airport. And this person is in a position to know that with certainty. I'm sorry your friend hasn't seen any of it yet.

Right but the problem is that ALL aid is going to Asheville and the other areas like Hendersonville are being overlooked completely.  

[Pawz4me]

1 minute ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

Right but the problem is that ALL aid is going to Asheville and the other areas like Hendersonville are being overlooked completely.  

Does Hendersonville have an airport? I think not?

The bulk of supplies will need to go into the Asheville airport and then be transported, either via helicopter or ground, to the outlying areas. Many roads are damaged or gone, and it takes time to get supplies unloaded from planes, loaded onto helicopters, and then distributed. I'm guessing in some of the affected areas it's even hard to find a place to land a helicopter. I know there are organizations flying things in with drones, but I don't think you can get large amounts of supplies that way.

[Ann.without.an.e]

Just now, Pawz4me said:

Does Hendersonville have an airport? I think not?

 

Yes they have a small one that could potentially be used but idk the status of it, maybe it is under water too. 

[Ann.without.an.e]

6 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

Does Hendersonville have an airport? I think not?

 

I’ve considered going. My parents took a generator to a friend there and it was a lot of dead ends and took a while but they did make it. That is going from where we are though. We are a little east of the mountains. 
I think aid could get there, it’s just everyone is going to Asheville. Even the non profits. 

Edited Tuesday at 05:35 PM by Ann.without.an.e

[Pawz4me]

9 minutes ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

  
I think aid could get there, it’s just everyone is going to Asheville. Even the non profits. 

No. A lot of agencies from my area are concentrating on getting aid to Ashe and Watauga Counties.

ETA: And I'm wondering from a FEMA/NC National Guard/large non-profit perspective is providing disaster aid sort of like getting the power back on -- you first concentrate on the area that will get the most customers back online the quickest, and the more rural/end-of-the-line areas where fewer people are affected always have to wait the longest? If so it makes sense to concentrate on Asheville. (Not that knowing that would make me feel any better if I were in Hendersonville or any other smaller town desperately waiting for some help.)

Edited Tuesday at 05:47 PM by Pawz4me

[Ann.without.an.e]

47 minutes ago, KeriJ said:

Just putting this here. Below is a message from a close personal friend. (not an acquaintance or from social media)

 

 

Are they blocked in? Can they drive? How far are they willing to drive?

[KeriJ]

14 minutes ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

Are they blocked in? Can they drive? How far are they willing to drive?

He himself is fine and seems to be able to drive around.  Like he said, churches and community groups are doing all they can. He is just bemoaning the lack of outside help coming to the area.

[prairiewindmomma]

2 hours ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

Yes they have a small one that could potentially be used but idk the status of it, maybe it is under water too. 

The runways have to be built to a certain grade to bring in the very large and heavy airplanes they are bringing in. Most smaller airports cant handle very large airplanes. 

[prairiewindmomma]

NC doesnt have the disaster recovery management experience FL has, and it also has a very different set of challenges in terms of terrain and infrastructure. It’s not going to look like a FL recovery.

To be blunt, we should all have a couple of week’s worth of food, water, medicines and supplies in our homes. We cannot expect immediate rescue. We would hope that that would happen, but as a nation we do not staff, fund, or prepare well for disasters.

In my own state, if Cascadia ever rips in a 9.0 earthquake (for which we have a 40% likelihood in the next 50 years), all of the planning documents state 6-18 months for infrastructure to be up in majorly populated areas, and some areas will not recover. It’ll be 8 weeks for potable water in limited areas and for port a potties to be brought in. 
Our state tells us two weeks of emergency supplies…not nearly enough.

We need to be much more blunt in our communication….with increasing storm frequency and severity everybody needs to be more self sufficient, more aware of their home placement with re: to flooding, and more demanding of county planning commissions about where we should or should not be building.

 

[73349]

The rugged terrain is the principal cause of the difficulty getting aid into the NC and TN mountains. The roads washed out because of it. There were limited roads built there in the first place because of it. Four hundred roads are still closed as of today--that the NC highway patrol knows of. The power company trucks can't get through because the roads and bridges are broken. National Park staff warns that park roads cannot be used instead because they were only built to hold passenger cars; if the road breaks underneath your truck, it will literally cost you $20k just to get towed out.

The need for aid is in numerous communities throughout 25+ mountain counties. There are limited places where it's physically possible to land large aircraft. Most of the relief is coming on National Guard helicopters right now.

People who live in towns of 10,000+ might not think of themselves as living somewhere remote, but geographically speaking, in the mountains, yes, they are. It's great that folks are helping one another in their communities, because there's no other choice when the swath of devastation is like this.

Bigger and closer-to-Charlotte towns are going to get the ground-based help first because that's where trucks can get to. The City of Raleigh sent a bunch of pipes to help repair water systems today.

In Florida, the land is pretty flat, there are roads everywhere, and you're never more than what, 75 miles from somewhere a ship can land? It's not a reasonable comparison. Plus, people in Appalachia are often prepared for a wildfire (and they're not California-sized ones here), but not a hurricane. Some of those folks never even go to a beach (because it's 6+ hours away).

Edited Tuesday at 08:37 PM by 73349

[ScoutTN]

I am sure more could be being done, and efforts better organized, had we been better prepared. But I think they are doing their very best, given the circumstances.

They are working in Asheville first bc they must have it as the primary staging area for all relief and recovery work. There are thousands of people working, but as pp have said, no access bc of washed out roads. Also, all the people working must be housed and fed. 

Edited Tuesday at 09:29 PM by ScoutTN

[Carrie12345]

This is all heartbreaking, and I don’t want to criticize victims’ criticism.

I do want to remind everyone who is safe and sound today that there is a REASON FEMA asks that everyone be prepared to be on their own for AT LEAST 3 days. May we all learn from this unexpected tragedy. 

[Terabith]

I found out today that one of the 3 year olds in my class was in Asheville over the weekend and saw dead bodies floating around.  They'd gone for a wedding and only were able to get out because an elderly couple gave them $40 cash for gas.  

You also have to understand, there wasn't a lot of warning that it was going to hit western North Carolina, which is not exactly a hurricane prone area.  I mean, I know theoretically we should all have several weeks or months worth of supplies, but I don't know how that works when we aren't allowed to get meds enough in advance to build up even a week's worth of supplies, let alone months worth.  

Nobody was prepared for a hurricane here because hurricanes don't generally hit mountains 300 miles from the beach.  Derechos?  Blizzards?  

Roanoke has done a lot of work in flood mitigation, because we have had floods, but we have a river running through the city.  

[prairiewindmomma]

Please don't think I am in any way trying to victim blame. I really am not.  I think we have had a CHANGE in weather and previous expectations around storms need to end.  What we are seeing are supercharged storms dumping vast amounts of water in short periods of time. That isn't normal, even for hurricanes. Our oceans are much, much warmer than they were even ten years ago, and because they are supercharged, large amounts of water vapor are being captured in clouds and dropping as deluges.  Hurricane Harvey, the flooding in Vermont & NY, this storm....I can list a dozen "one in 1000 year" events that have happened in the last ten years.  Our old way of thinking about weather needs to end because our current circumstances do not match those predictive patterns. 

If you load in the NCA5 maps and read about climate change's expected patterns for extreme weather events, we are matching what we would expect at about 2C global warming. We're currently on track for RCP 8.5. Asheville is actually in that band for extreme precipitation events according to that map. (If I find that specific map, I'll post it.) This is a broad general overview of changes expected across the US: 

Things are changing faster than expected.

I think we all need to really stop and pause and think about, "Given this scenario, how would I personally handle this..." because I think we are all, statistically, going to be dealing with extreme weather events on a fairly regular basis. 

[prairiewindmomma]

I'm going to spin off because I think this thread should stay focused on recovery. My heart really goes out to y'all in the area. ❤️

[Terabith]

Up until now, people (myself included) have sorta kinda joked, but also pretty seriously said that the Blue Ridge Mountains are perfect and one of the safest places to live in an era of climate change.  We aren’t on any major earthquake faults. We are largely shielded from tornadoes.  We have never had to worry about hurricanes. Don’t have the wildfire issues that the West does. Far enough south that blizzards are rare, but elevation and location means even with climate change, we’re in a better spot than many other places. 
 

I mean, I freaking hate the word unprecedented, and plagues are one of the most precedented events ever, but this hurricane really is unprecedented.  It sucks, but yeah, comparing recovery efforts to Florida just aren’t really comparable.  
 

The roads are such that even under the best of circumstances, it can take 15 minutes to drive somewhere you can see is very close by, because mountains dictate where roads go.

[KeriJ]

13 minutes ago, Terabith said:

Up until now, people (myself included) have sorta kinda joked, but also pretty seriously said that the Blue Ridge Mountains are perfect and one of the safest places to live in an era of climate change.  We aren’t on any major earthquake faults. We are largely shielded from tornadoes.  We have never had to worry about hurricanes. Don’t have the wildfire issues that the West does. Far enough south that blizzards are rare, but elevation and location means even with climate change, we’re in a better spot than many other places. 
 

I mean, I freaking hate the word unprecedented, and plagues are one of the most precedented events ever, but this hurricane really is unprecedented.  It sucks, but yeah, comparing recovery efforts to Florida just aren’t really comparable.  
 

The roads are such that even under the best of circumstances, it can take 15 minutes to drive somewhere you can see is very close by, because mountains dictate where roads go.

If you read what he said though, he mentioned that not even Hendersonville seems to be doing anything at all. I don't think he was expecting the same level as FL but that there appears to be literally nothing.

[kbutton]

4 hours ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

Right but the problem is that ALL aid is going to Asheville and the other areas like Hendersonville are being overlooked completely.  

When several towns near my parents flooded in areas that don’t usually flood, there was essentially nothing that wasn’t state or local, and months on, people are still not back to normal. My parents live in a large town of around 3500. Access wasn’t the problem. Size was.

4 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

 

ETA: And I'm wondering from a FEMA/NC National Guard/large non-profit perspective is providing disaster aid sort of like getting the power back on -- you first concentrate on the area that will get the most customers back online the quickest, and the more rural/end-of-the-line areas where fewer people are affected always have to wait the longest? If so it makes sense to concentrate on Asheville. (Not that knowing that would make me feel any better if I were in Hendersonville or any other smaller town desperately waiting for some help.)

I bet so.

2 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

To be blunt, we should all have a couple of week’s worth of food, water, medicines and supplies in our homes.

That only works if either your home is not hit, or you have enough advanced notice to SAFELY evacuate with good information flow. Considering I live in an area with decent communication, and no matter how much I mess with my phone settings, I get every kind of alert except the tornado warnings, I figure we’re toast. Roads will be gridlocked around here. There will be nothing to keep them from being gridlocked.

Some meds for one of our peeps can’t be taken without a way to monitor blood levels. Extras won’t help. Shots are a separate option, and we do tend to have those on hand. Some meds we’re lucky to be able to get at all ahead.

None of the prep is enough if you have time to get your hide out and nothing else because it’s happening too fast.

None of this is enough if you have people sheltering with you who got out with the clothes on their backs.

1 hour ago, Carrie12345 said:

This is all heartbreaking, and I don’t want to criticize victims’ criticism.

I do want to remind everyone who is safe and sound today that there is a REASON FEMA asks that everyone be prepared to be on their own for AT LEAST 3 days. May we all learn from this unexpected tragedy. 

Just knowing where to store my supplies in this new age of disasters is a guess. We have high risk of tornado, so we put most of them in the cellar. We have increasing risk of fire and floods. Before long, it’s all going to be guesswork about where to put them and what alerts we don’t get on our phones that we should pay attention to.

Being prepared is a great idea, but it’s not foolproof.

[Pawz4me]

2 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

NC doesnt have the disaster recovery management experience FL has, and it also has a very different set of challenges in terms of terrain and infrastructure. It’s not going to look like a FL recovery.

 

NC has massive amounts of disaster recovery experience, unfortunately. We're the fourth most likely state to be impacted by hurricanes. IMO no state does coastal hurricane preparedness better than NC.

But yes, in this case the mountainous terrain + washed out roads is a huge challenge.

 

2 hours ago, 73349 said:

The rugged terrain is the principal cause of the difficulty getting aid into the NC and TN mountains. The roads washed out because of it. There were limited roads built there in the first place because of it. Four hundred roads are still closed as of today--that the NC highway patrol knows of. The power company trucks can't get through because the roads and bridges are broken. National Park staff warns that park roads cannot be used instead because they were only built to hold passenger cars; if the road breaks underneath your truck, it will literally cost you $20k just to get towed out.

The need for aid is in numerous communities throughout 25+ mountain counties. There are limited places where it's physically possible to land large aircraft. Most of the relief is coming on National Guard helicopters right now.

People who live in towns of 10,000+ might not think of themselves as living somewhere remote, but geographically speaking, in the mountains, yes, they are. It's great that folks are helping one another in their communities, because there's no other choice when the swath of devastation is like this.

Bigger and closer-to-Charlotte towns are going to get the ground-based help first because that's where trucks can get to. The City of Raleigh sent a bunch of pipes to help repair water systems today.

In Florida, the land is pretty flat, there are roads everywhere, and you're never more than what, 75 miles from somewhere a ship can land? It's not a reasonable comparison. Plus, people in Appalachia are often prepared for a wildfire (and they're not California-sized ones here), but not a hurricane. Some of those folks never even go to a beach (because it's 6+ hours away).

Yes to all of this.

2 hours ago, Terabith said:

 You also have to understand, there wasn't a lot of warning that it was going to hit western North Carolina, which is not exactly a hurricane prone area.  I mean, I know theoretically we should all have several weeks or months worth of supplies, but I don't know how that works when we aren't allowed to get meds enough in advance to build up even a week's worth of supplies, let alone months worth.  

Nobody was prepared for a hurricane here because hurricanes don't generally hit mountains 300 miles from the beach.  Derechos?  Blizzards?  

Roanoke has done a lot of work in flood mitigation, because we have had floods, but we have a river running through the city.  

They had a few days' warning about the expected torrential rainfall. And the mountains of NC being impacted by the remnants of hurricanes isn't unusual. But this one was . . a lot.

[BusyMom5]

Can someone post a good place to read more local info about rescue efforts?  I've watched a few national news stories, but I think local news usually reports a more accurate picture.  

[Pawz4me]

14 minutes ago, BusyMom5 said:

Can someone post a good place to read more local info about rescue efforts?  I've watched a few national news stories, but I think local news usually reports a more accurate picture.  

I'm getting my reports from a rescue person who has been working in the area (with a little sleep time) since Saturday night. He's been in many of the NC counties that border TN and has spent most of today outfitting first responders who have arrived to help from as far away as Arizona and California with necessary communications equipment. He has nothing but praise for the National Guard, Army air support, and Starlink. Thirty Starlink satellites have been deployed today, which he says will greatly help the affected counties' 911 and emergency operations centers with internet access and wifi calling.

[LauraClark]

We are just east of the hardest hit areas and just got our power back a couple hours ago. If I read the numbers right, 75% of our county was without power. We had a large tree block our driveway (that wonderful friends with an excavator helped clean up within a day!) and a couple huge ones in the back. Thankful nothing hit the house. It's been an inconvenient few days, but further West is just so heartbreaking. We have friends in the Black Mountain area who happened to be out of town. They have been told not to come back by the mayor because the water system is compromised. They homeschool their kids and everything has changed for them in an instant.

[freesia]

2 hours ago, KeriJ said:

If you read what he said though, he mentioned that not even Hendersonville seems to be doing anything at all. I don't think he was expecting the same level as FL but that there appears to be literally nothing.

I lived an hour north of NY city when Sandy hit. We were not in the mountains although the Hudson froze so they couldn’t get gas up river. The roads did not wash out. We were without power for nine days. We did not see trucks except on the news,  but they were working their butts off. It was a team from PA that got us on. They cannot be everywhere at once. At some point we could get dry ice and water from the town but not two days later. And again, we had roads. 

[Corraleno]

A ranch in NC is using pack mules to get supplies into areas that trucks can't reach:

"The mule team had a successful day today, and they were able to bring mule loads of food and supplies to many residents in Black Mountain. All went smoothly, and the mules and packers are resting for the night! Their plan for tomorrow, is to bring supplies, food, and check on residents' needs in an area towards Swannanoa, where it is believed 30% of the town's residents are trapped and can't get out. This will be a busy day for the team, and we pray for their safety and stamina! Here at home, we stocked up on a huge amount of supplies, thanks to donations of so many!! And, Tractor Supply generously loaded a 24' stock trailer to the brim with plenty of livestock and pet food and also lots of gear like tarps, batteries, lights, work gloves, brooms, and shovels. Then we met at the Food Lion in Cleveland, NC to collect food and supplies brought by those that wanted to donate."

 

[Ann.without.an.e]

https://www.ednc.org/comprehensive-update-on-rescue-relief-and-recovery-in-western-north-carolina/

[Ann.without.an.e]

Also to clear misinformation, I read a horrible comment stating that it’s not a bad thing for the mountain area of a swing state to be wiped out. It will help get rid of conservative voters. Not only is that awful but it’s also untrue. Asheville is a liberal city for NC and so is Boone (a college town) as are most more populated areas. Asheville is often called the Portland of the South. It’s an artsy, crunchy, eclectic city with lots of young voters. Think breweries and lots of vegan restaurants and farmers markets. Not backwoods with lots of confederate flags flying. Not that the latter would have justified the comment. 
 

I’ve heard a few people question how this much flooding happened. We were supposed to go up there Wednesday the 26th to go hiking (DH took the day off for his bday) and we ended up staying here since it had been raining and was forecasted to rain all day. We knew it would be too wet and rainy and muddy. This was the weather before the storm hit. 
We actually spend a good deal of time in some of these areas because we love the mountains. We went often. 

[Carrie12345]

Dh just got a client call to do a job in Asheville. (He’s currently in FL finishing his part of a job.) I hate this part of his work! He has nothing to do with helping with immediate needs, but I guess it’s still important to get random businesses fixed up for when they’ll be needed or wanted again. It just feels dumb to think about at this particular time. 

[Happy2BaMom]

2 hours ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

Also to clear misinformation, I read a horrible comment stating that it’s not a bad thing for the mountain area of a swing state to be wiped out. It will help get rid of conservative voters. Not only is that awful but it’s also untrue. Asheville is a liberal city for NC and so is Boone (a college town) as are most more populated areas. Asheville is often called the Portland of the South. It’s an artsy, crunchy, eclectic city with lots of young voters. Think breweries and lots of vegan restaurants and farmers markets. Not backwoods with lots of confederate flags flying. Not that the latter would have justified the comment. 
 

I’ve heard a few people question how this much flooding happened. We were supposed to go up there Wednesday the 26th to go hiking (DH took the day off for his bday) and we ended up staying here since it had been raining and was forecasted to rain all day. We knew it would be too wet and rainy and muddy. This was the weather before the storm hit. 
We actually spend a good deal of time in some of these areas because we love the mountains. We went often. 

People online are hideous. I can guarantee you that somewhere else on the internet, other trolls are celebrating the fact that two liberal towns in western NC are wiped out.

[73349]

1 hour ago, Carrie12345 said:

It just feels dumb to think about at this particular time. 

Maybe take it as a positive sign that the area is trying to get back to normal?

[Ann.without.an.e]

34 minutes ago, Happy2BaMom said:

People online are hideous. I can guarantee you that somewhere else on the internet, other trolls are celebrating the fact that two liberal towns in western NC are wiped out.

Oh yes, I haven’t seen it personally but I can guarantee it since the hate usually runs both ways lol. Only people on one extreme or the other deny that. 

[LauraClark]

2 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Dh just got a client call to do a job in Asheville. (He’s currently in FL finishing his part of a job.) I hate this part of his work! He has nothing to do with helping with immediate needs, but I guess it’s still important to get random businesses fixed up for when they’ll be needed or wanted again. It just feels dumb to think about at this particular time. 

I've been struggling today with not knowing what to do. I asked our pastor and they need someone to just be at the church in case anyone brings donations. In some ways it seems insignificant, but the small jobs are needed too and what a great opportunity to teach my kids (who just want to haul trees off of people's houses) that. Likewise, my husband is back to work today and not able to "do anything", but it's an important thing for him make money for both our family and so we can donate. 

[kbutton]

3 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Dh just got a client call to do a job in Asheville. (He’s currently in FL finishing his part of a job.) I hate this part of his work! He has nothing to do with helping with immediate needs, but I guess it’s still important to get random businesses fixed up for when they’ll be needed or wanted again. It just feels dumb to think about at this particular time. 

People will need their jobs back long before this is all fixed, and some of those businesses will eventually help to stabilize some kind of recovery, even if it’s only economic.

I saw that Lowe’s is sending people from one store to another to try to relieve the workers at the functional stores closest to the disaster areas. It helps relieve the staff—they might be working extra shifts because someone else can’t, and some of the local workers might have a mess at home and need to take leave to get it fixed. I think there are a lot of cogs needed for recovery that don’t seem significant but are.

[Ann.without.an.e]

I posted in a separate thread but I also know there’s several Charlotte area people here. Is there water and toilet paper in plenty in Charlotte? We are trying to fill the gaps in needs before a church van goes up Friday morning. Our area is looking sparse on all things. 

[prairiewindmomma]

I found the graphic I mentioned yesterday. It's reposted again in this article that is on today's NPR webpage: https://www.npr.org/2024/10/01/nx-s1-5133530/hurricane-helene-rain-flooding-climate-change  Scroll midway down, to the graphic of the United States. That's from the NCA5 report, chapter 2, figure 2.12.  Here's a separate link to all of the NCA5 report figures if you want to see more graphs and maps on the topic: https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/all-figures/#2  Figures 1.10, 2.4, 2.8, 3.7, 4.3, 11.13 and all of chapter 22 is relevant to this point also.

[Carrie12345]

It looks like at least some areas got cell/internet access today, and many are posting on TikTok.

I was amazed by a video showing the new road people carved into the mountainside to make evacuation possible. A new road. Carved into the earth.   
This is why it’s taking time. Goodness only knows how many individual areas need that kind of intense work to get out!

[freesia]

1 hour ago, Carrie12345 said:

It looks like at least some areas got cell/internet access today, and many are posting on TikTok.

I was amazed by a video showing the new road people carved into the mountainside to make evacuation possible. A new road. Carved into the earth.   
This is why it’s taking time. Goodness only knows how many individual areas need that kind of intense work to get out!

My dh was asking why we are seeing supplies brought in by mules and horses and not ATVs. My guess is that with the hills and trees and lack of roads that even ATVs can’t get through easily

[Ann.without.an.e]

 

 

My local store is getting sparse 😅