We heard from our friends via another. They are luckily staying with nearby friends who have power…this is in Boone. They said the roads are a mess.
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I am impressed with how many people have power in that area! The linemen have been doing an amazing job getting it back up. We’ve had ice storms where the power was out longer. And while cell service is spotty it seems like there are more and more towers getting back online. But there continue to be more sad stories coming out and the death count rises. Last I saw it was up to 187.
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After a hurricane 20 years ago where MANY people lost everything in our small town it appeared at first that while devastating the death toll was next to nil from the storm. I worked with an oxygen company so we regularly kept track of obituaries. It was the weeks AFTER the storm that people died in high numbers. I can only attribute the high number to the stress. Many were elderly and after losing homes and possessions simply lost the will to live. I pray that those affected by this storm are supported 100% by outside communities. You can’t get help from local neighbors that are in the same sinking boat.
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I’m wondering…where is the National Guard? Where is the Army Corp of Engineers? Making roads passable is their specialty, isn’t it?
They are there. Just such wide spread devastation that it sounds like it’s going to take a very long time. FEMA, US Army Corp of Engs, and the NC National Guard websites have all kinds of information with what they are doing on the ground.
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There is a lot of misinformation out there about hurricane relief.
Before you believe anything that you feel is wrong or downplays any relief effort, I ask you to please do some research from places that are credible.
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They are there. Remember a “military” helicopter is delivering food to my aunt.
The devastation is just so widespread. There are hundreds of main impassable roads. Who knows how many secondary & local roads. And until recently communication was just not there.
We had a similar, but MUCH smaller scale incident a few years back. A wicked band hit us. We get passed over by hurricanes/TS from time to time. Yes, we’ve had flooding, trees down, etc. but nothing like this. It was completely unexpected. No state of emergency was declared beforehand even (which made getting reimbursed for funding difficult). But in 90 min, our city just came down. Completely without power, flooding, tornado… People actually were swept away by flooding in the city - completely unheard of here, and especially in the places that had never flooded before. I have been here 34 years and even when Fran hit, and we were at flood elevation when it with us with 13" of rain… it did not compare to this.
We had half a dozen roads (our city is only 40K people, so it’s small) completely gone. Washed away with a 20’ drop off. We had 100s of smaller issues, partially washed out roads. We ran out of cones to block traffic and my co-workers had to stand in the street to stop traffic so they wouldn’t go into the abyss…
But you wouldn’t believe the lack of communication and just everyone running around with no coordination. I felt like I was in the 1960s. My job was to take the lists of call-ins and make new paper lists, and then new paper lists from that to sort through them. And then I got to assess and estimate damage later… When computers, phones, cells are down, it’s hard!
Even with a plan it’s a mess. And we were such a tiny scale. This is a HUGE area covering multiple states, counties, localities, etc. And the mountainous terrain further complicates everything. And there’s little phone, cell service? I can only imagine how hard it is.
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Also, where to get materials to build the roads? How many asphalt plants, quarries, etc are operational? It’s such a huge area of destruction! And then where to get the workers who are stranded with their own families?
Even though it seems like forever to the victims, it’s only been a week. Assessing damage and figuring out how to help the most people the fastest takes time… construction takes time. And then getting to the remote people (like my aunt) takes even more time.
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And the garbage. Literal MOUNTAINS of garbage. Nowhere to put it. No one to collect it. Debris, Wood. Buildings destroyed. No roads. Destroyed property. All soaked in river flood water. Covered in mud, slime, decayed organic matter baking in the heat. If the sheer amount of debris doesn’t get you the smell will.
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Sadly, there are some using this tragedy for political reasons, to score brownie points or whatever, and it is sad, this is a tragedy of epic proportions, unprecedented really, and the focus should be on getting people back on their feet. I doubt it is the people in the affected region who are doing this, it is the usual suspects, fake news abounds, AI fakes, you name it sigh.
This storm hit 6 states, it didn’t just hit western North Carolina. You are talking rural areas and mountainous terrain, unless it has changed from when I drove through the area it was a lot of country roads, many of which already were sort of marginal, and there are a ton of bridges as well. There is a reason they are using helicopters to bring in supplies, right now that region is more akin to Alaska than it is to a typical state in terms of roads.
The Army corps of engineers and national guard are likely running at capacity. They have to assess the damage first, which means getting there, which isn’t easy, then they have to do triage and try and get critical roads and bridges back and running. If you look at the damage to I74, whole sections are literally gone. Then too they likely also have to worry about dams, many of which may be shaky after this storm.
There also is logistics, they have to get people into the region (talking Army COE/Nat Guard), and set up places for them to stay, eat, etc, it is literally a mobilization.
And yeah, then there is materials as someone pointed out. It isn’t like they have miles and miles of temporary bridging lying around, and keep in mind the last I read the rivers are still running somewhat crazy. To put in a temporary bridge they have to stablize the riverbanks, and that will require materials. Concrete, Asphault, wood, nails, gravel, steel to fabricate needed things, all has to be transported to the region , and right now that is likely mostly transport helicopters, and there aren’t all that many of those. Railroads are wiped out in the region as well, so they can’t be relied on, especially the local short line carriers (saw a picture from Trains magazine showing a CSX main line in Western NC, wow, it was wiped out for miles).
This is going to take years to clean up and a conservative estimate was at least 160 billion dollars (likely will be higher).
I am just praying that people are okay, done what I can with donating to causes (and please folks, be very wary of go fund me and the like, I am donating only to organizations that I can actually trace their work) and that the missing are mostly just because of communications.
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My sister in Augusta texted tonight that they have electricity at her house again. Don’t know if Dad’s house has it or if GA Power has kept it off til they can assess the structural damage. They live only a mile apart.
For any golf fans here, sounds like Augusta National is in rough shape.
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My friend in Hendersonville has power but no internet nor TV. Yesterday the banks and markets were able to take credit cards.
My neighbor has a home in S Carolina. He still he still cannot reach his friend who had a house on a lake. so many people yet to be found.
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This is the “Tent City” for first responders, line workers and other volunteers in my parents’ small, rural town. There are no functioning motels (no hotels at all). It’s going to be weeks/months before utilities are restored to some areas and much longer to repair the damage to homes and other structures, vehicles, etc.
Thankfully my parents are okay and will be with us in Atlanta for the next few weeks. We had a very stressful 6-7 hours Friday when we couldn’t reach them (or anyone, including emergency services). A family member 30 miles away thankfully had cell service and was able to drive to check on them and call us when he got back to an area with service.
It’s shocking to see the conditions people are living in now and will be for months. We delivered a truck and trailer of supplies (tarps, generators, camp stoves and fuel, lanterns and flashlights, food, paper products, bug spray, sharpening kits for chainsaws, gasoline, etc.) to help a small number of people. It is heartwarming to see the generosity of care the community is providing to its neighbors… from high school kids going house to house to check on people, clear driveways to people with running water opening their homes to those who don’t. I’ve not heard of any attempts at looting, etc. and hopefully it stays that way. 
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Is it your sense that many of these people will go elsewhere permanently…charlotte, triangle area, Atlanta, etc, and maybe never return? Similar to when people left New Orleans for Houston and never returned?
I don’t expect there will be much of that, unless with younger folks or perhaps transplants. This is not a vacation home destination. The entire county is approximately 10k. This is a rural community with generations living in the area, many with large farms. My own family on Dad’s side has been there since a land grant in the 1600s or early 1700s. My uncle has the family farm, one of the largest blueberry farms in GA. Dad was a college professor. My brother and I have just ended that streak as we have no intention of moving back “home”. (My dad reminds me we have burial plots available in the family cemetery as direct descendants of the chapel founder… bless his heart, he thinks that’s a good thing and not morbidly amusing. Sorry, Dad. I’ll be cremated.)
My mother is from Atlanta and we’d love to move the parents up here permanently near us and her siblings, but they’ve lived there since the late 70s (when they moved back) and their friends and social life are all there. My dad’s wheelchair bound now so they need their support network… especially my mom as caregiver. So as soon as their utilities are restored and their daily caregiver can resume services, we will take them back.
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I hope he is OK. So many people are still without power and cut off from the world. The power outage map this morning still shows almost 750,000 households/businesses a week later. And those last 250,000 or so may take weeks. It’s just so slow going in rural areas.
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I like to donate to World Central Kitchen. They are working in the hurricane areas focused on food and water. To me, especially for those trapped without roads and without power to run wells and such, food and water become a priority.
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