In the past 36 hours information to understand the context of devastation in Western North Carolina/East Tennessee has started to slowly come out. Today, we hope more families are able to contact their loved ones, as the number of missing persons continues to rise.
As communication lines start to open up, consider this thread an open discussion link for any information about the isolated impact zone. If you are in the region, let us know how you are doing. Tens-of-thousands remain trapped and isolated.
Thousands of rescue and recovery workers are now arriving just outside the area as officials attempt to patch together a way for relief efforts to reach impacted communities. Most mountain roads and bridges have failed or become severely compromised. Stay safe. Our entire CTH community is united in prayer and support.
Below is a solid representation of status for multiple families.
One Story: “My parents are ok but completely trapped. Yesterday, I hiked up to check on them. Brain spew coming; I’m still processing it all and was just locked in on go-mode yesterday.
Still not having heard from my parents in 48 hours, I was drowning in worry. My parents live in an absolute gem of the NC mountains — the Little Switzerland, Spruce Pine, Burnsville area — halfway between Asheville and Boone. Under normal circumstances, it’s pleasantly very isolated.
Little did I know that up there, Helene has demolished roads, homes and utility networks. **This area is completely cut off from resources in every direction.** I tried multiple routes to drive up but had to settle on parking in Marion at the base of a closed road (Hwys 221/226) and hiking 11 miles and 2,200 feet to find my parents thankfully ok but surrounded by devastation. I have never been so relieved to see anyone ok.
Crews weren’t even close yesterday. I can’t tell you how many failing roads and deep mudslides I had to cross, how many fallen trees I had to take off my backpack for and navigate through. While hiking up 226A, I met multiple people trapped by devastation in both directions of the highway.
In this part of the mountains with steep terrain rolling off the Blue Ridge Parkway, not only did water rise, it RAGED to tear up roads, earth and homes. Then, the winds (I’m certain tornados in some places) have brought down up to half the tree canopy.
I’m still processing it all. I’ve never seen anything like it. Power is a couple weeks out. I cannot fathom how long it will take DOT to repair the curvy roads that hug steep mountainsides with the most amazing views. Most of all, I want my parents to have the same basic needs they always provided me — food, water, shelter (house is mostly ok) and the ability to explore! But they can’t even leave their home right now. The steep part of their gravel road has braided channels only 18″ wide but up to 5′ deep from rushing water.
It’s just a waiting game now. If you are or you have family in the mountains, I feel for you. Know that crews are chipping away.”
A small portion video from Lake Lure to Asheville:
This may not be a popular post, but this old woman needs to vent.
My mother grew up a stone’s throw from Lake Lure in a little hamlet called Bostic. I visited there often as a child. The people were country folk and we very tight knit. Over the years on our coast where I grew up and in the mountains I have watched the landscape change dramatically. I have no problem with normal economic development. I do have a problem with rampant over development. I watched it the NC Outer Banks and in the mountains. If there was a “view” someone built a house or cabin. Second homes and condos took over the communities. 90% of the structures on the Outer Banks are empty 60% of the year. It’s happened in our beautiful mountains also.
Where does it stop? It breaks my heart that this devastation may be what wakes people up.
Sorry for the rant, but I knew a big storm was going to do this. I suppose it was my recollection of hurricane Hazel when I was 6 years old that I’ve carried with me my entire life.
TRUTH SAID LINDY
TRUTH SAID
you are welcome to rant we don’t judge, much. great post
I have been watching the same since the early 2000s Lindy in the Nc mountains, observed the same in Colorado since the 1980s. Tired of seeing skylines cluttered with expensive but temporary life span homes and antennas and those damned wind turbines.
Where I live was rural when I was growing up. In my late teens and early twenties houses went up everywhere as farmers sold out . We are now a bedroom community for NYC and Westchester County. The big employers were the prison system, US Post office and IBM. IBM is just about gone. The prisons are empty being left to rot and the posts office closed the processing centers leaving only small post offices.
Upstate South Carolina- North Carolina state line here. The Spartanburg area was hit pretty bad but very limited flooding and only trees and power lines down . We’ve been without power since Friday but praise the Lord for overcast skies, a gentle breeze and knowledge from my country grandma!
The only accurate information we’re getting out of Western North Carolina is from the local talk radio. 98.9 and random posts on FB from those on the ground. Every single county in Western North Carolina has been affected if not devastated. What we hear from the alphabet media seems to center on Asheville. While that’s terrible and my heart goes out to them, there are large numbers of small mountain towns that are no more with a trapped population, no way in or out. People from the surrounding area with big equipment and helicopter resources, organizations like Samaritan’s Purse, and emergency personnel and linemen are working around the clock with no federal help. The Cajun Navy even came yesterday to assist.
You prayers are coveted.
Of course the enemedia will report only on Asheville. It is infested with democrats.
Country grandmas are a gift from God.
Thank you for letting us know who is getting supplies and assistance to the people.
Prayers continue for all of you.
I have prayed. I am in Louisiana. When I have gone through hurricanes, I did not have the situation of being trapped and isolated on a mountain. I am so sorry the so called government is not assisting more. As well the national news and the m’m should be keeping this on the news.
I just mailed Cajun Navy check on my way to work this a.m.
And, of course, the scammers are coming out. Was reading on FB (I know, I know) on Cajun Navy 2016’s page that some people have been taken by a fake Cajun Navy. I hope you donated to Cajun Navy 2016. The fake one is just Cajun Navy. God bless all those volunteers and keep them safe.
Looters should be shot on site.
FYI, CBN’s Operation Blessing is also a good place to donate for Helene victims in Valdosta, GA and NC. I have worked for CBN for many years, and they do great disaster relief work, partnering with local churches, bringing in food, relief, and cleaning supplies, and even recruiting volunteers to help people tarp roofs, clear out fallen trees and debris, and try to recover personal belongings. They are on the ground working with local officials, while their CBN News team reports up close on what’s happening. Here is a story that aired today, with links and info about donating or volunteering:
https://cbn.com/news/us/hurricane-helenes-devastation-nc-called-catastrophic-death-toll-still-rising
Prayers for these people
The One Video People Need to See About What Is and Is Not Going on in Western NC Post-Helene
https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2024/09/30/the-one-video-people-need-to-see-about-what-is-and-is-not-going-on-in-western-north-carolina-n2179952
(North Carolina-based Stacey Matthews, a former liberal who also writes under the name “Sister Toldjah”.)
I clicked on most of the hyper-links in the post and none of them were to the video the local weatherman she mentions. So nothing to “watch and share.”
What is shared on CTH is so much more informative than anything else I have seen.
Video was there. Very good presentation.
Dang. Wonder why I can’t view. No link, no embedded image of a video. Brave browser. Maybe it’s my vpn.
It’s not my vpn. I opened the link on my Safari browser and there it was.
On Brave I scrolled up and down the page several times, and it absolutely is not there. So weird.
Even weirder: I just attempted to play it a dozen times on Safari and it will not play. It just flat out does not appear on Brave. With or without vpn. And it simply will not play on Safari. Oh well.
No video for me either. Just worthless programming and ads.
Just a little north of your red oval, near the intersection on North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee you will see on a google map the little town on Damascus, Virginia. It’s where the Appalachian Trail and the Virginia Creeper Trail (a well known rails to trail in this area). Damascus was devastated as well. I think 30 homes are gone and multpile missing persons, probably drug down the South Fork of the Holston river and into Holston Lake. I know for a fact their fire department was flooded as well as every other in Damascus proper. Apparently FEMA finally showed up and kicked the local volunteers out of the cleanup effort… [I’m from the government and I’m here to help (control your life from here forward)]. Want to piss these people off more than they already are? Send our national guard to Israel… WTA
They did the same thing in Lamar area.
Adams county, South Central Ohio. Power out for 5 days, just restored 2 hours ago. Certainly not the devastation that others are experiencing to the south of us, but the effects of Helene were much more wide spread than many appreciate.
Report: Migrants Arrested for Looting in Flood-Ravaged TN After Hurricane
As I posted before, if you have a basic bicycle, you have the means of transport. 11 miles from the roadhead? Can do. Bike-packing gear makes it feasible to carry decent loads, and you can portage over rough areas.
If there are roadways or paths…you can’t ride or even carry a bike when you have terrain that has been so destroyed it is all but impassable.
Just my experience…
It rained a lot Scott. There will be places in those mountains and foothills where the gullys are 5 ft wide and 6 ft deep some worse some not and were not mentioning mudslides. 11 miles and packing a bike isn’t so easy as a desert trail if that’s where your your thoughts are.
I live in Caldwell County NC, close to Hickory NC which is about 60 miles NW of Charlotte and about 60 miles east of Asheville. Boone NC is about a 25 minute drive. Many people around here are still without electric service here. Crews have come from all around to help.
At the manufacturing plant where I work the employees have not been able to come in to work because while we have power on in the offices the 3 phase power for the plant has not been restored. Many of the plant workers are getting desperate because they cannot afford to miss a week of wages. Many people in the area live paycheck to paycheck.
There has been a field hospital set up in the county for people who need oxygen and other aid. A staging area for helicopters taking in supplies has been set up at the airport in Hickory. Yesterday evening I heard multiple helicopters passing over.
My 5th great grandfather was the first non native man to come to the the Catawba Valley in the 1700s after leaving Germany. Many forebears were original settlers here. These are my people in the mountains who are suffering and hurting right now. Really good people who would gladly give to help someone else even though they don’t have a lot themselves.
Please consider donating to the organizations that are helping.
Calling the Hickory FBO to Pitch in some Money to the Pilot Gedunk . i MISS The Folks in Carolina, Wish i Could Do More.
If you have a preference and are willing to share that, I will go to that site to make a donation.
I would suggest Samaritan’s Purse in Boone, NC. This is Franklin Graham’s world wide disaster relief ministry (son of Billy Graham). They do phenomenal boots on the ground work.
Already donated to them:) I was asking mellie’s preference so as to honor her ancestor.
“Many of the plant workers are getting desperate because they cannot afford to miss a week of wages. Many people in the area live paycheck to paycheck.”
Step One (Gasp! What an idea…): “We are not going to charge you anything.” You don’t need to worry about your mortgage or your credit-card bills. We’re simply not going to try to collect from you, and we will “take our losses” as what we can do from here to assist you. We won’t charge you anything until you are once again capable of paying. Because this is clearly “force majeure.”
Is any corporation in this country enlightened(!) enough to actually step out and do any such thing?
Take the “losses.” However big they might turn out to be. Tell your shareholders and bankers and investors to “suck it up and do their part to bear the load.” And then, write them off. At every level, be willing to tear-up your “old agreements” and to look at “reality.”
Everybody is going to, on paper, “take a loss.” But this is not about paper.
Go ask Joe, recipient of jillions of $$$ from MBNA (Delaware credit card hub) to go to his buds there, and tell them.
We can’t forget about upstate South Carolina. These people need help too
Something tells me that the death toll will rise when they start to reestablish communication over in these areas with poorer coverage.
Unfortunately, you are right. Prayers for all these folks.
I hope JD hammers the administration tonight being he is familiar w/Appalachia. I hope he chews Crazy Walz up.
👍🙏🇺🇲❤️
East Tennessee water:
Getting it done…target date Friday.
Full press briefing (Video):
https://etnwxnetwork.com/greene-county-press-brifing-10-1-24/
Mule team packing it in…
The very ugly – SOBs trying to steal people’s land for pennies on the dollar in the face of disaster ://
Warning – strong language.
The predators are already out.
These people call us all the time. With the “hey I’m a friend here to help you out” voice. Horrible what they are doing to our communities.
Supplies via air drops…
Other info on the group:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/09/29/unreal-using-a-teleprompter-script-north-carolina-governor-roy-cooper-holds-a-press-conference-to-outline-catastrophic-damage-to-western-north-carolina/comment-page-4/#comment-11160902
A different perspective on the longshoreman strike…
They turned down a 50% pay raise over a few years. It’s cNBC so take it for what it’s worth.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/01/east-coast-ports-strike-ila-union-work-stop-billions-in-trade.html
The simple fact of the matter is that they could postpone their strike and continue trying to bargain until AFTER the people affected by this disaster have been helped. Instead they are going to put a hurting on the food supply…
BTW – the union head makes close to $1M/year…
Average salary 81,000 dollars a year. That is pretty damn good.
Another private group doing all they can to reach the small pockets of people isolated and often ignored by larger groups…
Continuing issue in some areas…my own view is it’s the FEMA #1 priority (DEI) that is driving it – they want to control who gets what. F’em.
He’s got a great YT channel (John Bryan). If anybody can bring these useless, arrogant gov’t toads to heel, it’s him!
Good ole boys and toys over government and their regulations ANY day of the week and twice on disaster days.
The NWW trucks in the pick came up from South Carolina. The PEOPLE are answering the call while the federal government doesn’t do squat and threatens everyone…
Elon’s helping solve one of the issues…
Help down Georgia way…
Another team heading in with pack horses to help reach isolated areas.
Don’t give to ANY government – they are worthless *names I won’t say here*…
This in spite of Marine and Army bases in the area having massive airlift capability, including tilt-rotor and rotary assets…
Speaking of such assets, along with medical personnel…
Meanwhile the cabal that hates the American people think foreign lands are more important than American citizens – just as they think illegal invaders are more important than American citizens :///
Noted this yesterday – it’s continuing still…no FEMA loads of supplies coming in. Guess the millions of illegal invaders have consumed the stock pile.
A reminder of FEMA’s goals under the Cackling Communist and Petrified Pedo…
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75 year old hero…you are never too anything, whatever it is in your mind that holds you back, to help your fellow citizens.
Have seen numerous GOP politicians rolling their sleeves up and digging in – but not one single Dim…
Hamas is obviously more important to the Cackling Communist and the Petrified Pedo in the WH than American citizens in dire need…
HAM radio updates…
“73’s.” Just keep doing what you are doing, “Hams.”
A miracle – and a reminder on why the airborne and marine divisions in the area should have been sent into the area to help American citizens on day 1.
For lack of immediate airborne rescue by the governments… 8,(
I see this and can’t help but think of that guy with his own chopper, trying to rescue people but was threatened with arrest if he continued trying.
People found.
Most of the time, “a hurricane strike” is about “lots of water and wind.” Because, typically, the initial strike is against coastal plains, and the hurricane dissipates before it strikes other geography. The coastal dwellers have it hard; then it just turns into a very-soaking rainstorm.
But, this time, the water had unfathomable kinetic energy. The mountain slopes concentrated it. It was moving at forty to sixty miles an hour, crashing down from one stream or river to the next, carrying rocks and trees and everything-else with it. There was nowhere else for it to go. And, there is nowhere else to put your roads, or anything else of your vital infrastructure. All of which very simply will not survive any such onslaught. “Force Majeure.”
Who is slashing the tires of relief supply trucks while the drivers take their rest breaks?
https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/1840598207749038302
Two suspects I can think of right off the top of my head are the biden/harris administration and those who are hateful and anti-America enough to vote for them.