News From the Frontline of Helene
I continue to be deeply horrified and upset by Hurricane Helene's devastation. Like everyone else in the Southeast, we have friends, family, and colleagues who are deeply affected.
As Jill and I are very involved in the horse community in the southeast, our social media is filled with heart-wrenching posts and photos. There are so many horror stories. The accounts of bravery, despair, looting, stealing, fighting, starvation, thirst, and selfishness are like looking into the souls of our fellow men and women. We read in shock -
One of the most disgusting things has been our government’s response. Although they are unable to get into the areas hardest hit, they have protocols for private citizens to stand down. These protocols are being enforced. So, although our government can’t supply water, food, air support, or rescue missions, in many cases, they are not permitting others with the resources and supplies to do what is needed. Trucks full of water and food are being turned around, and rescue missions are being stopped.
That said, rumor has it that relief is starting to pour in and all around the country; people are chipping in to help.
Below is list of some organizations currently helping in Western North Carolina. Please consider supporting them.
FEMA is now getting a better handle on how to help Western North Carolina.
The images and events that will shape our world for years to come. For some areas, they will never recover. I think we are all feeling a bit heartbroken by it all.
Below is a first-hand account of the vast devastation from Western North Carolina -
by Auobrey Charlotte
Today I saw true devastation and death and I am not ok…
Today was the first day that I attempted to make it into Asheville to work. I wanted to check on my store and my staff and see my coworkers and to get some much needed supplies. I am still out of power and water at my home in Marion. With hwy 40 East Bound closed I had to take back roads around it which included down close to lake Lure and Chimney Rock and then back up into Black Mountain and Swannanoa before finally into Asheville.
The normally 40 minute drive to work took the better part of two hours and in that time the things I saw will haunt me for the rest of my life. The lightest of things were down trees collapsed power lines. I drove over and under so many destroyed power lines it wasn’t even funny.
Then I got into areas where I was driving over cliffs and the edges of collapsed roads some of which had me wondering if I would even make it to Asheville alive or see my little girl again. On more than one occasion my car felt as if it were slipping off the road. The road was collapsed in many places and slid down the mountains and or into rivers below so much so that barely one car could make it through. I even had to drive through what used to be a stream which is now small river that had overtaken a bridge. It took me a while to get the courage to drive through it because I couldn’t see the bottom and wasn’t sure how deep it was or how safe it was to drive through. I had to wait on someone else obviously more familiar with the area to go through first for reassurance I could make it in my little Kia.
Then I began to see cars such as the one below and even houses and a couple of campers collapsed and or washed away down the mountains and the rivers. Not even just with trees fallen on them. They had completely been destroyed and taken away by the storm waters. I saw whole sides of mountains and rivers that had collapsed in giant mudslides more than one hundred feet high easily.
But that wasn’t the worst…
As I drove through several areas where the storm had hit the worst I saw bodies. Bodies of animals wild and domestic, and then..I saw human bodies who had gotten caught in the storms and the rivers. (No im not kidding or exaggerating) At first I thought they were Halloween decorations or just clothes or something but as I got closer I could see they weren’t, they were real. Real victims of Helene washed away by the storm. I saw their faces.
Words cannot describe how much I was affected by those sights. Even worse when I was able to get signal when finally getting into Asheville I called emergency to let them know about the victims, and was told they would get to them when they could but they were currently overwhelmed with calls similar in nature and the disaster response, and honestly they didn’t know if and when they would be able to get to them.
All of this was happening while on the radio which for Asheville has mostly become call ins a woman got on the call from Swannanoa to talk about the bodies she had seen floating down river and piling up.
I am horrified. I am not ok. Those two hours this morning completely changed me. It’s one thing to hear of these kinds of disasters and a complete other to see it, truly see it. I’ve seen posts of people trying to find their loved ones in all of this, and all I can think of now is..were some of those people I saw the loved ones they were searching for? What will happen to them? Could anyone have saved them? Did they have any warning? I am utterly heartbroken.
I’m sure my coworkers thought I lost my mind because I couldn’t really do much except stare off into space thinking about what I saw and or was in tears.
WNC was never prepared for what happened with this hurricane. I don’t know if there was a way to prepare for what happened, and now all I can say is if you have family in WNC and/or anywhere that was affected by this storm please help them, check on them, do what you have to.
Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers. Please remember kindness in the face of this disaster.
We are not ok. Today I saw true devastation and death and I am not ok…
Despite technology and the world having come so far, it is mules that are bringing relief to some parts of Western North Carolina
.The power of that much rain can’t be denied…
Churches across the region and around the nation have mobilized and are also leading efforts to help North Carolinians.
The Chronicle of the Horse published this first-hand account of a small horse farm’s experience during the storm:
Stranded With Supplies Dwindling
One of the people connected with once her phone charged was Dressage rider and breeder Emily Wright, who owns the nonprofit Tempus Renatus School of Classical Riding in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Three of Wright’s mares were swept away by rapidly rising flood waters as she and her septuagenarian mother were trying to save them
“It was terrifying,” Wright said of Friday’s events. “I was watching the Ring camera all night to watch the water, and then there was a little stream next to the creek. We went to get horses out of the low-lying areas, where we had a couple of pens, but within minutes it was up to their knees. We got a stallion out and chucked him in the feed room—I was like, ‘sit, stay.’ Within minutes the fields were already knee-deep, and I was breaking fences, tearing down electric tape, and then one mare ran into the rapids, and her pasturemates followed her.”
Miraculously, one of the mares, Rubia, was later found alive; another was found dead, and the third is still missing.
“At least we were able to get most of the animals out; it was a matter of seconds from, ‘it will be fine’ to, ‘it’s not fine,’ ” she said. “It was really, really terrifying. It looks like an apocalyptic wasteland. There’s so much debris; there’s so much destruction that it’s hard to even know where to begin.”
Variations on this story were repeated a thousand times in those hills last week. Horses, dogs, cats, cattle, chickens - swept away. People working feverishly to save their beloved animals, often failing. Sometimes, those very people probably lost their own lives in the fight.
Jill’s Facebook feed is full of heartbreak, fear, bravery, and perseverance. The impact of this hurricane has only begun to be felt.
Mainstream media and our government are already politicizing this tragedy.
True Story: This is not the first time such a horrific event has occurred in North Carolina. in 1916, there was a flood of epic proportions:
The account of this flood can be read here (it is worth the read) - and it is every bit as devastating as last week’s flood - except the population in North Carolina was smaller then, so one might speculate that loss of life from this might be much more significant.
So, the evidence is there. This type of flooding has happened before. From the 1916 report:
On Saturday, July 15, 1916, the Blue Ridge region saw more rain than anyone anywhere had ever seen since such records had been kept. One spot in Altapass, near Grandfather Mountain, measured more than 22 inches of rain in 24 hours.
In fact, the amount of rainfall during helene was remarkedly similar to the 1916 event.
Why is that important?
Because our government is already using this storm to politicize climate change.
“Our best estimate is that climate change caused over 50% more rainfall during Hurricane Helene in some parts of Georgia and the Carolinas,”
report released by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Based on this government report, CNN ran the following story soon after the hurricane:
CNN reported that scientific "modeling" estimates that "climate change ...caused by fossil fuel pollution" was responsible for Hurricane Helene's severity...
The Weather Channel and other MSM outlets also published similar stories.
This type of climate modeling is very similar to the "modeling" that predicted a 3.4% case fatality rate of COVID-19 in 2020, which led to the draconian COVIDcrisis policies.
Using this tragedy to create modeling to fit their narrative to enact more climate change policies is unethical.
Psychological bioterrorism by our government to support a pre-determined narrative is just more PsyWar.
People with supplies being turned away is exactly what happened after Katrina. I cannot understand this. We have people in middle Georgia who are still without power. We are all praying for everyone effected.
I feel guilty about whining about no power or internet for 5 days when we didn't know what was happening around us. Our neighbors are suffering beyond belief. Thank you for sharing. Mercury One is another good group to donate to.