Helene Recovery & Info

  • Thread starter Thread starter TullyHeel
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies: 1K
  • Views: 30K
  • Off-Topic 
Ugh. Sorry to hear that SP.

Helene is now the second deadliest US hurricane in the last 50 years, behind only Katrina. I'm hopeful we're close to the top end of the death toll, but probably not quite there yet. They're down to a couple dozen people missing in Asheville, and only a few more in the rest of Buncombe County, but it may take longer in some of the smaller, more rural counties to even reach many of the isolated homes to determine whether the people there are OK.
 
lawtig02 said:
Wow
Click to expand...
Given the destruction in the Asheville area that's no real surprise. I'm not sure UNC-A will be able to reopen even then. Reports I've been receiving from my sister's family and other people I know in the Asheville area is just devastating. It will almost certainly take the city and surrounding area years to fully recover, if ever. Some roads are just completely gone and will have to be rebuilt, the river arts district is gone, lots of infrastructure damage. The tourism industry is going to take a major hit. The National Park Service has closed the Blue Ridge Parkway "indefinitely" due to heavy damage - no timetable for when it will reopen. Just terrible news all around.
 
StrangePackage said:
The ex of one of my friends, his fiance, and her two young children were confirmed dead earlier today. They tried to drive out of Marshall, got stuck in the rising water, and were washed away.
Click to expand...
That is terrible. I am devastated to hear that.
 
I just a copy of a MAGA text from a MAGA family member about 'Biden Cooper, where are you , people are dying in the mountains"
Sad shit
 
So, what I've seen over the past few days re: Helene, and this could be a long post, so apologies for you tl;dr folks.

Let's start at the beginning. To me, the biggest thing that's getting overlooked in this whole thing is the massive amount of rain that WNC got on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday PRIOR to Helene hitting. Rain totals are going to vary, but in my area, it was anywhere from 7-10 inches over that 3 day span. So, the ground was already saturated AND creeks and rivers were running pretty quick and were a bit elevated. In my opinion, that event was what pulled the pin out of the grenade and Helene let go of the spoon. If this had been a Helene only event, we wouldn't be having the devastation that we've seen. It would have been bad for sure, but not devastating like we're seeing now. Honestly, its all irrelevant now, but that's just a little context for the event.

The old adage that $hit rolls downhill, well it does. This thread has talked about Asheville and talked about Boone, but at the bottom of both mountains is McDowell, specifically the Old Fort community on the Asheville side and the North Cove community on the Boone side (yeah, I know Lenoir on the other side of Boone, but staying in areas that I know for this). It's also one of the places that the ZZL regularly puts on the "NCs crappiest places to live thread", which it's not by a long shot, but to each his/her own (sorry for the sidebar). Due to the already saturated grounds, the water started rolling right off the bat. It didn't take several hours for the flooding to start; it happened immediately. Roads 226, 226A, 221N, and 80 to Mt. Mitchell had massive damage, totally washing away in many areas. We've talked about 40 to Asheville, and it's working its way to being fully open, but those other roads are gonna take a lot of time to repair. Bridges in both communities totally gone, isolating folks. Houses totally destroyed too, like everywhere else. But it wasn't just those 2 communities, it was all over the county, but it seemed to be heavier there.

I was asked to work on Saturday at the command center to relieve some very exhausted workers, so I jumped in. Place was packed, but very organized. I was tasked to do other stuff after being in the command for a few hours, but during the time I was there, I walked right by some FEMA folks and saw with my own eyes the National Guard rolling in. Anyone that says they weren't there, I can 100% call BS on that. So, in less than 24 hours, they were there, as were others. Several of us were tasked to get things ready for donations, so we went to it. Things moved slowly at first, and one of the first things that we took in was the mobile morgue. We all just stopped and things got real quiet for a while when it rolled in. You know $hit's about to get real when that thing shows up. But, Sunday through yesterday was a shining example of the kindness and generosity of people everywhere. Cars from further east in NC, personal trucks loaded down with water, diapers, canned foods; I can't tell you how many states were represented bringing stuff in, but it was a bunch. Our own people that weren't as affected (lost power only, some trees down, things like that) were off to Morganton and Hickory to bring things back. Let's just put it like this, we were in a huge empty warehouse Saturday afternoon/evening with NO power, and the donations practically filled it in 3 days. I can't tell you how many tractor/trailers we unloaded. Starting Sunday, we had volunteers donate box trucks, their own personal trucks & trailers and things like that to start delivering out to sites. I can't say we didn't have hiccups because we did, but for something put together that quickly, it worked pretty well. And the longer it went, the more that folks started showing up to volunteer. It was a lot of very hard, exhausting work, but rewarding as well. Emotionally, I'm a wreck. This is my home, no matter how crappy many of you think it is, and it absolutely kills me to see people suffering like they are. My family was fortunate - power issues and a flooded basement. It may cost me my fairly new AC unit. I'll take that every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I didn't have to worry about anything at all. Others had their world wrecked and needed help, and it was a pleasure to help give even the smallest amount of relief. Command asked us to put it together, and we did - they didn't have to worry about a thing with this. They were blown away when they came by later on Sunday.

Now for some tips, and I'm hesitant to do this, but I feel like this will help you if you or a group ever donate to natural disaster relief like this one. In these situations, the basics are what's needed right off the bat: water, canned foods, diapers/wipes (including adult diapers), baby formula, baby food. Secondary stuff includes personal care stuff (toothbrush/toothpaste, shampoo, feminine products, deo, blankets, towels, tarps, stuff like that). Clothes are a bonus and are needed, but people need to be watered and fed first and foremost. If you're with a group that's gonna donate in bulk, whether it's a small box truck or a huge 53 foot trailer, I'd encourage you to try to pallet or consolidate things if you can, not just toss it all in there. It may take a few more hours for you to get your stuff organized and sent on its way, but it's actually significantly quicker on the receiving end because palleted and/or consolidated items can be pulled right off the truck and taken right to a specific location in your facility, and many times put directly on a vehicle for delivery. Obviously it helps if the folks receiving have forklifts (and forklift drivers) available to help with the pallets; we did, which was a godsend.

So there's what I have for you. If you're interested in volunteering up this way, I can set you up. Just send me a PM and I'll point you in the right direction, because this thing isn't going anywhere soon.
 
mpaer said:
I just a copy of a MAGA text from a MAGA family member about 'Biden Cooper, where are you , people are dying in the mountains"
Sad shit
Click to expand...
I wish I could say I'm surprised. I knew the moment this hurricane hit Florida that within a day or two Trump and his minions and base would be claiming that Biden and Harris and Walz and pretty much any other Democrat they could think of was ignoring and failing and even deliberately refusing to help all those "Real Americans" who were suffering. And it's total bullshit of course, but that's who these people are. Trump is filthy rich - why doesn't he visit these devastated areas in western NC and do something to help? Instead he's out selling his crap to his supporters - too busy grifting to help. But in the meantime he'll blame Democrats for not doing more, because it's an easy lie for him to make and he can get away with it, at least among his base.
 
billybobblockhead said:
So, what I've seen over the past few days re: Helene, and this could be a long post, so apologies for you tl;dr folks.

Let's start at the beginning. To me, the biggest thing that's getting overlooked in this whole thing is the massive amount of rain that WNC got on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday PRIOR to Helene hitting. Rain totals are going to vary, but in my area, it was anywhere from 7-10 inches over that 3 day span. So, the ground was already saturated AND creeks and rivers were running pretty quick and were a bit elevated. In my opinion, that event was what pulled the pin out of the grenade and Helene let go of the spoon. If this had been a Helene only event, we wouldn't be having the devastation that we've seen. It would have been bad for sure, but not devastating like we're seeing now. Honestly, its all irrelevant now, but that's just a little context for the event.

The old adage that $hit rolls downhill, well it does. This thread has talked about Asheville and talked about Boone, but at the bottom of both mountains is McDowell, specifically the Old Fort community on the Asheville side and the North Cove community on the Boone side (yeah, I know Lenoir on the other side of Boone, but staying in areas that I know for this). It's also one of the places that the ZZL regularly puts on the "NCs crappiest places to live thread", which it's not by a long shot, but to each his/her own (sorry for the sidebar). Due to the already saturated grounds, the water started rolling right off the bat. It didn't take several hours for the flooding to start; it happened immediately. Roads 226, 226A, 221N, and 80 to Mt. Mitchell had massive damage, totally washing away in many areas. We've talked about 40 to Asheville, and it's working its way to being fully open, but those other roads are gonna take a lot of time to repair. Bridges in both communities totally gone, isolating folks. Houses totally destroyed too, like everywhere else. But it wasn't just those 2 communities, it was all over the county, but it seemed to be heavier there.

I was asked to work on Saturday at the command center to relieve some very exhausted workers, so I jumped in. Place was packed, but very organized. I was tasked to do other stuff after being in the command for a few hours, but during the time I was there, I walked right by some FEMA folks and saw with my own eyes the National Guard rolling in. Anyone that says they weren't there, I can 100% call BS on that. So, in less than 24 hours, they were there, as were others. Several of us were tasked to get things ready for donations, so we went to it. Things moved slowly at first, and one of the first things that we took in was the mobile morgue. We all just stopped and things got real quiet for a while when it rolled in. You know $hit's about to get real when that thing shows up. But, Sunday through yesterday was a shining example of the kindness and generosity of people everywhere. Cars from further east in NC, personal trucks loaded down with water, diapers, canned foods; I can't tell you how many states were represented bringing stuff in, but it was a bunch. Our own people that weren't as affected (lost power only, some trees down, things like that) were off to Morganton and Hickory to bring things back. Let's just put it like this, we were in a huge empty warehouse Saturday afternoon/evening with NO power, and the donations practically filled it in 3 days. I can't tell you how many tractor/trailers we unloaded. Starting Sunday, we had volunteers donate box trucks, their own personal trucks & trailers and things like that to start delivering out to sites. I can't say we didn't have hiccups because we did, but for something put together that quickly, it worked pretty well. And the longer it went, the more that folks started showing up to volunteer. It was a lot of very hard, exhausting work, but rewarding as well. Emotionally, I'm a wreck. This is my home, no matter how crappy many of you think it is, and it absolutely kills me to see people suffering like they are. My family was fortunate - power issues and a flooded basement. It may cost me my fairly new AC unit. I'll take that every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I didn't have to worry about anything at all. Others had their world wrecked and needed help, and it was a pleasure to help give even the smallest amount of relief. Command asked us to put it together, and we did - they didn't have to worry about a thing with this. They were blown away when they came by later on Sunday.

Now for some tips, and I'm hesitant to do this, but I feel like this will help you if you or a group ever donate to natural disaster relief like this one. In these situations, the basics are what's needed right off the bat: water, canned foods, diapers/wipes (including adult diapers), baby formula, baby food. Secondary stuff includes personal care stuff (toothbrush/toothpaste, shampoo, feminine products, deo, blankets, towels, tarps, stuff like that). Clothes are a bonus and are needed, but people need to be watered and fed first and foremost. If you're with a group that's gonna donate in bulk, whether it's a small box truck or a huge 53 foot trailer, I'd encourage you to try to pallet or consolidate things if you can, not just toss it all in there. It may take a few more hours for you to get your stuff organized and sent on its way, but it's actually significantly quicker on the receiving end because palleted and/or consolidated items can be pulled right off the truck and taken right to a specific location in your facility, and many times put directly on a vehicle for delivery. Obviously it helps if the folks receiving have forklifts (and forklift drivers) available to help with the pallets; we did, which was a godsend.

So there's what I have for you. If you're interested in volunteering up this way, I can set you up. Just send me a PM and I'll point you in the right direction, because this thing isn't going anywhere soon.
Click to expand...
Yeah. I posted the broad River over it's banks the day before the storm and the fact the mountains were predicted to get the bulk of the rain

Sometimes I hate being prescient. (Started the covid thread years ago)
 
Mulberry Heel said:
I wish I could say I'm surprised. I knew the moment this hurricane hit Florida that within a day or two Trump and his minions and base would be claiming that Biden and Harris and Walz and pretty much any other Democrat they could think of was ignoring and failing and even deliberately refusing to help all those "Real Americans" who were suffering. And it's total bullshit of course, but that's who these people are. Trump is filthy rich - why doesn't he visit these devastated areas in western NC and do something to help? Instead he's out selling his crap to his supporters - too busy grifting to help. But in the meantime he'll blame Democrats for not doing more, because it's an easy lie for him to make and he can get away with it, at least among his base.
Click to expand...
As a reminder
Matthew was a huge hit
Trump approved I think 6.1 million on a 1 Billion plus ask
 
uncgriff said:
Yeah. I posted the broad River over it's banks the day before the storm and the fact the mountains were predicted to get the bulk of the rain

Sometimes I hate being prescient. (Started the covid thread years ago)
Click to expand...
"Seems like it's a growing story worthy of its own thread" or something similar

Seared into my brain
 
We left Tuscaloosa last Wednesday. From there to the Georgia border is about 140 miles. Except for about 5 miles east of Birmingham, it poured rain. It was raining so hard you couldn’t see the tail lights of a car 30-40 yards in front of us. All that shit was moving north and east into our mountains. That just helped to lay the stage for Helene’s terrible consequences as she followed right behind.
 
mpaer said:
I just a copy of a MAGA text from a MAGA family member about 'Biden Cooper, where are you , people are dying in the mountains"
Sad shit
Click to expand...
Social media is unfortunately and predictably full of this narrative that Biden, Harris, and Cooper have abandoned folks in western NC and the media is lying about everything. Lots of outrage regarding money sent to Ukraine as well while the federal government is supposedly ignoring Americans in need. Seems obvious where that particular talking point originates from and it's being propagated by MAGAs all over social media. It's all so disgusting and exhausting and disheartening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top