Civilized said:
wolf howl said:
A buddy of mine got to one of the hardest hit areas, Burnsville, yesterday evening to volunteer and is there now. He's said its COMPLETELY all people helping people. People from all over assisting, donating, helping however they can. Beautiful to see.
I specifically asked him if he's seen FEMA. He said no. Seen 3 or 4 Humvees and that's it. No aid being distributed, no tents, no generators, no water from them, nothing.
For the record, he and his entire family voted for Biden in the last election so he's not some MAGA by any stretch of the imagination (wish he was), he's just reporting what he's seeing.
FEMA doesn't have troops or convoys of Humvees. They're not that kind of agency. They help coordinate agencies that do. I think people have expectations that are mismatched with the reality of what FEMA assistance looks like.
Helene's path of destruction was 500 miles long, by x miles wide. That's a 10,000+ square mile impact area. Even with 7,000 federal staff being deployed to the area, the concentration of staff will not be high in any one area.
They've shipped 15 million MRE's so far, the same number of liters of water, half a million tarps, and hundreds of generators in addition to helping coordinate other agency responses.
They've also had to create a webpage to debunk BS social media rumors.
No, they're not restricting airspace.
No, they're not seizing property.
No, they're not taking volunteers or cash; they never have. Donate and volunteer with local non-profits.
No, disaster relief money was never used for the border.
No, they're not seizing food or water being shipped in, or turning away vehicles. Road closures are the jurisdiction of local police.
No, $750 isn't the extent of relief available.
Why don't y'all take your lead from the governors of the impacted states regarding the sufficiency of aid and operations to-date, rather than social media?
And I say this with family that lives in WNC that's been staying with us.
Here a post from someone on the ground
WHOA! YOUR TOWN IS TO BE BULLDOZED AND YOU MUST ALL LEAVE. WE ARE NOT GOING TO RECOVER AND BURY THE DEAD.
@chrismartensonThis needs to go far and wide to put pressure on the government to do the right thing and save lives.
This evening, from a Peak Prosperity member to me via PM at my site:
Them: I can't post this online because it's not quite public yet, but government officials had a town meeting with all of the residents of chimney rock and basically told them the town was being bulldozed, bodies and all and the land was being seized by the federal government they would not be able to move back and basically their homes the ones that were standing were no longer theirs and the federal government owned it all. I don't know what crazy play for land this is, but there's a lot of conspiracy about lithium mines and let me just tell you, as someone who lives in Charlotte and has friends who live in the area of Western North Carolina, they are not being helped and this is actually being a stand down operation by federal government
Me: What the heck…? That's quite disturbing. Is this first-hand, second-hand, or more distant info?
Them: Our friend owns an Airbnb in Chimney Rock. They had a town meeting yesterday and someone from the federal government told them all of those things in the town meeting, but doesn't want the information getting out. Also, they are not picking up the bodies. The stench of the bodies everywhere is insane and for some reason, the government does not want to pick up the bodies. One pastor of a local church was going to order to door delivering water and they changed their delivery request to body bags because so many of the homes that they've gone to have needed body bags, we're trying to keep the body count. They're not picking up the bodies. They don't wanna identify the bodies and they're just leaving them to rot in the streets.
Me: I…can't…even. I'm stunned. This is beyond anything I could have imagined even very recently. You always pick up and bury the dead. It's what humans do. They are violating every possible custom … on purpose. Thank you for keeping me informed. People need to know about this. Let me know when you'd be comfortable with me posting to our forums in an anonymized fashion, of course.
Them: You can post it the message needs to get out. Something evil is going on in the NC mountains. I just didn't want to be identified. Just today we filled up a trailer for a shelter in Hendersonville NC that had no food for tons of moms and babies. All the stores round are empty or locked. In Chandler NC 2000 people haven't eaten anything or drank in 6 days and just got an SOS message out for help. I'm trying to tag the Cajun navy and operation airdrop but people are dying by the minute.
Multiple tuckers have reported having tires slashed. Our friends from Chimney Rock said they have heard multiple stories of people being robbed at gunpoint making supply runs. Two people that drove down to Charlotte yesterday and today one that we helped said bodies in trees, all over ditches in major roads back. Something weird is going on here in NC.
Me: God bless you. Let me know if I can help.
Them: Someone with a large national megaphone needs to amplify how bad it is. People are now starting to die trapped. My town is Operation Air Drop NC central command. They need pilots with planes and now are asking just for trucks. People with big equipment are needed but more than anything the nation needs to put pressure on Washington to deploy the National Guard asap. The 82nd was begging to go since Saturday but has been told to stand down. Every ****ing Apache we have should be flying rescue missions. Please amplify the message!!!