LinvilleGorge

Damn, Baker. That was nice.

I have the next three days available to run a chainsaw, swing a hammer, load helicopters, whatever. Just trying to figure out where I can be of the most use.

Damn.

Can I get there from Morganton? I can come help this weekend if needed.

Media and politicians will do what they do. They've been net negatives for a long time now. They feed off of divisive bullshit. It's their lifeblood.

Yeah, I've heard Swannanoa is bad. Burnsville is probably going to be the worst effected town but the isolated communities up 19 and 80 are probably going to be the worst.

Yeah, I've heard Swannanoa is bad. Burnsville is probably going to be the worst effected town but the isolated communities up 19 and 80 are probably going to be the worst.

There's posts here and there. The overall track of the thread is fine and refocuses itself just fine. Don't try to start a squabble where there is none.

Honestly I guess the better comp would've been Bull Run at the start of the war. People just had no clue the carnage that was to come. You had caravans of wagons of people riding out to watch the battle like a sporting event evidently completely unaware of the horrors they were going to witness. Sorry, I'm down a rabbit hole. History is just my thing so I end up putting everything into historical perspectives. LOL

Some of this makes me think back through history. It kinda makes you sort of start to understand what it has to be like being a simple rural farmer in Gettysburg, PA and then all of a sudden... WHAT. THE. FUG!!! Obviously all of this is still nothing compared to that but it makes you start to be able to barely comprehend what something like that must have been like.

Yep. They're using Asheville as the bench mark but 1916 effected areas north of Asheville the heaviest. The sad thing is those same areas that got hammered in 1916 got hammered just as hard as Asheville in this one. I'm afraid the death toll along the North Toe forks in particular is gonna be heavy. I was talking to a friend who is a Burke County deputy yesterday and they going to have boats on Lake James St the mouth of the Catawba and Linville Rivers starting today because they're legitimately concerned there's gonna be bodies starting to show up. I honestly doubt it. Not because there aren't an any but because - and not to be grim - but because they're likely to end up hung up on deadfall along the way. Steam levels have subsided to the point now that Lake James is probably too far downstream to be getting bodies.

I'm taking a break today. I just don't feel like there's much else I can do. The areas that are accessible have more volunteers than they can effectively utilize and the areas that are inaccessible are pretty much down to the areas that need helicopters to access. Chainsawing your way through this stuff really just isn't feasible in terms of getting to people to help them. In a lot of areas the road bed is completely washed out so you're not getting any vehicle traffic through anyway.

Yep, pretty much.

Some people are just powerfully stupid.

That's awesome. Honestly, it's probably just a few hot heads. Probably the same ones the other cops don't even like. LOL

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty getting done but for the most part it's in spite of the authorities and not because of them.

I've been to Old Fort, Spruce Pine, and Linville helping out. Same story. Too many chiefs not enough Indians. Cops and firefighters just standing around barking at people wanting to be in control but doing nothing but yucking it up with each other and smoking cigs. People are basically just telling them to STFU and they keep working. I mean, government in general is just pretty incompetent and inefficient.

From what I've seen the "organized" efforts are at least if not more so of a cluster fug than the local grassroots efforts.

Facts. Our local dipshit Warren Daniel had to get out there to "escort" aid convoys. Nevermind the state troopers in front of his truck doing the actual escorting. You're just taking advantage of photo ops.

The politicians flocking to grip and grin just fugs poo up. Just keep your asses away and sign the paperwork. How about some damn helicopters? It's pathetic that the private helicopters are still grossly outnumbering the government helicopters. Just started noticing Blackhawks yesterday. Before that it was almost all private birds with the occasional Chinook.

I'm very glad to have Starlink. I would've been without connectivity from home other than text for a few days without it. We talked about getting a whole house generator when we bought this place because we're half a mile off the road and there's only two houses on this line. I knew in the event of a major outage (I was thinking ice storm would be the most likely culprit) we'd be super low priority. But since we bought the place we've never lost power but for a few minutes. Now this and sure enough, nope we still don't have power. I don't really care. I'm fine with being the last house in Burke County with power as far as I'm concerned. I have a 3500w generator that can run everything except the HVAC, kitchen range, and dryer and I have plenty of other cooking options.

I was fortunate I never lost water. We were on a boil advisory until just a couple hours ago we got the alert it was lifted. My folks lost water for three days but they're under a different municipality. As soon as they lost water I bleached all the bathtubs and filled those bitches up. We've just been dipping water out of the bathtubs. If we'd ran out of that I was gonna start boiling creek water instead of boiling whatever sketchiness was causing the boil advisory. I assume sewage contamination. Nah, I'm good. I'll drink creek water.

And I'll play for league minimum and no one on that sideline will ever want for a cold Gatorade or a fresh towel

Because they're basically shut off. You can get to Spruce Pine but beyond that you pretty much need a helicopter.

We need helicopters. There's a ton in the air but not enough and I'm not sure how many are doing S&R. There's so many roads washed out and/or hopelessly blocked by down trees that about of isolated mountain communities literally aren't accessible any other way. Cutting your way in with chainsaws really just isn't feasible. It's absolutely pathetic that five days after private helicopters are still outnumbering government by probably 10:1.