Posted on 10/02/2024 6:33:52 AM PDT by Red Badger
SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — Many residents of the Carolinas still lacked running water, cellphone service and electricity Wednesday as rescuers searched for people unaccounted for after Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage across the Southeast and killed at least 166 people.
President Joe Biden will survey the devastation in the two states as floodwaters receded and revealed more of the death and destruction left in Helene’s path.
More than 1.2 million customers still had no power Wednesday in the Carolinas and Georgia, where Helene tore far inland after initial landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Some residents cooked food on charcoal grills or hiked to high ground in the hopes of finding a signal to let loved ones know they are alive.
“We have to jump-start this recovery process,” Biden said Tuesday, estimating it will cost billions. “People are scared to death. This is urgent.”
While Biden is in the Carolinas, Vice President Kamala Harris will be in neighboring Georgia.
Cadaver dogs and search crews trudged through knee-deep muck and debris in the mountains of western North Carolina looking for more victims. At least 57 people were killed in Buncombe County alone, home to city of Asheville, a tourism haven known for its art galleries, breweries and outdoor activities.
[snip]
Cliff Stewart survived 2 feet of water that poured into his home, topping the wheels on his wheelchair and sending his medicine bottles floating. Left without electricity and reliant on food drop-offs from friends, he has refused offers to help him leave.
“Where am I going to go?” the Marine Corps veteran said. “This is all I’ve got. I just don’t want to give it up, because what am I going to do? Be homeless? I’d rather die right here than live homeless.”
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Who the heck is this “Joe Biden” character? We used to have a politician by that name if I remember correctly. He used to like to sniff little kids and eat ice cream.
Surprised the MSM hasn’t yet blamed “Trump,” or “climate change.”
I just learned last night that one of my husband’s coworkers grew up in Asheville , and that her parents and a sister still live there. Parents have no electricity but water. Sister has electricity but no water. It’s impossible to get around there though. They are stuck.
As we’ve seen from others, they are grateful they have their lives and their homes mostly intact.
Local Sheriff’s in some counties are strongly advising people to carry with the safety off if you go up into the hollers and back towns.
Many of those places have not seen any help and are being denied help from FEMA if they are so lucky as to get phone service to make contact.
East Tennessee..they (FEMA) are actually telling people to start go fund me pages.
Stupid city MOFOs haven’t figured out that to start one, you need internet.
Desperate people will do Desperate things.
You’ve seen these ads for solar powered generators…why isn’t the sellers of these devices sending these generators to that area?
Years ago after one hurricane hit my family particularly hard, one of my brothers had no power, no internet. Water yes, but there was a boiling alert. They had an electric stove. So drinking water was a problem, too.
It was weeks before he got his power back, and weeks more for internet. Not back woods by any means, but not a glitzy area where the media had focused.
By the time he got internet back, all he got was a bunch of spinning on the websites looking for any kind of relief. He was so frustrated.
These morons who run things have no idea what goes on in the aftermath of a disaster.
Restoration of electrical power in areas hit by Helene may be long delayed due to the fact that the administration shipped a substantial amount of the national reserve of power transformers to Ukraine, making virtually none available for disasters like this. Transformers, particularly the large ones, take a long time to build and there are very few plants that do so. Many factories are staged overseas.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/4207046/posts
The neighbors here are from around Pigeon Forge Tennessee.
The small town where he lived is/was cut off. Many have wood stoves so..
We somehow managed to talk to them via phone a couple nights ago.
Since many of the wells are either destroyed or contaminated they’ve gone up and started up their stills. Yup, those stills. Dumped the mash and started running distilled pure drinking water.
They’ve also sent the boys out to knock over some deer, or shoot some squirrel, rabbit, etc.
Fishing impossible. Rivers muddy and ruined for a while. Maybe the creeks in some places but I doubt it.
Maybe Joe or Kamala could call up Zelensky and say pretty please send some back?
Turning your back on Americans is a big effin deal to me. This administration shows it at every turn.
The roads are washed out in the hardest hit areas....
I went to that area a few years ago, trying to decide if we ever wanted to retire in Tennessee in that part. So we drove around a LOT every day. Talked with folks m too. It’s a beautiful place, but certain things didn’t fit my criteria (access to great healthcare and a major airport among them). I saw a few stills on that trip. Good that they dumped the mash and are using them for drinking water. This is gonna be a long haul, because Biden/Harris have NO IDEA what to do.
DeSantis has sent in helicopters to bring in water, and rescue people from their homes. Operation Blue Ridge. One governor helping out another. Now that’s neighborliness, not the kind that Tim Walz advocates.
Good for DeSantis. From what I can tell, the active rescue phase in Florida is over and DeSantis is redirecting those assets to help neighboring states..
I live in the eastern KY mountains and our electrical grid’s pretty shaky. We lose power on average once a month and it can be for a couple of hours up to three days. I finally ponied up the $ for a Jackery solar powered generator. I am expecting it to arrive this week after we spend several hours this weekend without power. We have had many times where we lost all the food in our fridges due to power failures. I’m done with it.
It will run a fridge, Starlink and a tv for many hours depending on the load from my research. Back in 2009 we went three days in a snow storm with no power and our only heat was a propane gas log insert. It kept the downstairs comfortable but upstairs it got down around fifty degrees at night.
God bless Governor DeSantis. Regarding the Asheville area, one of my friends texted this today:
“My friends’ friend is 88. She was airlifted by a helicopter hovering over her home. There was no clear space for it to land. So, she had to climb a ladder to get into it. May I point out her age!!!”
The media has been down-playing the disaster since day one. Once the storm went east of Atlanta,they pretty much lost interest.
I’ve seen story after story that has simply presented the disaster as being power outages, a few downed trees, and some washed out roads.
Locally, our EMC had 14,000 meters out. They serve 19,800 meters total in their coverage area so that was a large percent of their customers. I’ve been monitoring their progress, and as of right now, they have 1739 meters still without power (It was 2481 at 6:00 this morning). The linemen have been working from 6:00 in the morning to mid-night each day.
We spoke to one of the linemen on Tuesday and after thanking him for their hard work, he was surprised. He said they have been cursed and yelled at non-stop since they started the restoration work. The lineman also said the final 1500 or so meters were going to be the worst to get repaired. The power companies are short on transformers and other supplies since so many have been sent to Ukraine. They are made in China so have to be ordered months in advance. The hardest-hit spot in their service area is going to have to have almost every pole, transformer, and line replaced. He said it actually looks like a bomb went off.
I can’t imagine how long it is going to take to get power in east TN and NC restored. Especially since the Fed government seems to be working more AGAINST the rescue, recovery, and repair efforts than FOR them.
Awesome! Brave woman, too!
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