Hurricane Helene thread - Not a football thread but y’all be safe *keep politics, conspiracy theories, and and tinderbox squabbles out of this*

[strato]

8 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

The helicopter traffic today is insane. We've had a year's worth of helicopter traffic today alone. I guess they're surveying damage. They're flying loooooow and slow. Rare to go outside and not hear at least one. Most aren't showing up on Flight Radar. The ones that do are medical.

I hate to say it but they are probably finding people. Recovery stuff. And looking for anyone that could be helped, along with taking video, probably.

[bandu]

the problem in Asheville right now  is we just cannot leave  a really toxic & bad situation due to the roads being impassable  & so here we sit day in & night out without any power no water no gas no cards cash only if you can even  find a store open with a generator which is almost impossible because there is no gas hardly left to operate the generators at this point  & then who knows what the roads are like without internet & no line of communication such a radio which once again does not work because we have no power 

&  to make matters even worse each day the mold is of course growing & multiplying at an alarming rate while all at the same time here we are stranded inside these toxic & unhiahitable mold infested homes with no where else to go 

as far as people such as fema/ rescue, national guard, utility workers, construction workers , etc I have seen not a single person that fits any of those aforementioned descriptions in 4 days now? Why I live in West Asheville almost the heart of Asheville ? I ask again why & where are they at ?

[strato]

That sucks man. Been there with the destruction back when Hugo hit and totaled the house and many others I don't think we had power for week at least. 

This has to be the most massive damage, geographically spread over states and just where you are there is more than enough. But it's everywhere.

The people in Florida are massively fuged too, I mean on your level and worse. And that was forecast well in advance of landfall. Not sure about where you are, if they were mobilized for that. They almost certainly had crews from all over lined up to go to Florida, but likely weren't ready for what happened up there. Probably going to have to deal with it as best you can for a couple of days maybe. And the bridges being out the roads being washed away, it isn't just clearing fallen trees to make their way to you. Much bigger challenge. 

Good luck , hang in there.

[LinvilleGorge]

5 hours ago, bandu said:

the problem in Asheville right now  is we just cannot leave  a really toxic & bad situation due to the roads being impassable  & so here we sit day in & night out without any power no water no gas no cards cash only if you can even  find a store open with a generator which is almost impossible because there is no gas hardly left to operate the generators at this point  & then who knows what the roads are like without internet & no line of communication such a radio which once again does not work because we have no power 

&  to make matters even worse each day the mold is of course growing & multiplying at an alarming rate while all at the same time here we are stranded inside these toxic & unhiahitable mold infested homes with no where else to go 

as far as people such as fema/ rescue, national guard, utility workers, construction workers , etc I have seen not a single person that fits any of those aforementioned descriptions in 4 days now? Why I live in West Asheville almost the heart of Asheville ? I ask again why & where are they at ?

That sucks. Hang in there. Even though Morganton is a wreck I'm fortunate that we're basically at the very beginning of the disaster zone. I can go 20 miles east to Hickory and things are pretty close to normal. We really did just barely take the big punch. I live off of exit 105 on I-40. East of exit 110 there's hardly any trees down along 40. They probably had to cut close to 20 out of the highway between 107 and 106 alone. 

[csx]

A route out of Asheville?

It seems to match up with other maps I've seen.

[LinvilleGorge]

One thing this has shown me is just how crazy things can get so quickly. I'm not talking about the flooding and trees down and that stuff. I'm talking about people. A lot of folks just fall apart pretty damn quickly. People were pulling guns on each other hours into a power outage over access to gas pumps. Stores were getting robbed because everything was cash only so they were cash rich easy targets.

If these new tropical storms forming end up tracking through this area poo is going to go from bad to apocalyptic.

Speaking of cash, this has also shown me that if you have the ability, you should definitely keep a supply of cash available. I'm not talking "cash" in the bank. I'm talking in your home available to you. We've always kept about $1000 on hand. The folks who didn't have cash couldn't buy anything. Still can't at most stores. 

[strato]

10 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

One thing this has shown me is just how crazy things can get so quickly. I'm not talking about the flooding and trees down and that stuff. I'm talking about people. A lot of folks just fall apart pretty damn quickly. People were pulling guns on each other hours into a power outage over access to gas pumps. Stores were getting robbed because everything was cash only so they were cash rich easy targets.

If these new tropical storms forming end up tracking through this area poo is going to go from bad to apocalyptic.

Speaking of cash, this has also shown me that if you have the ability, you should definitely keep a supply of cash available. I'm not talking "cash" in the bank. I'm talking in your home available to you. We've always kept about $1000 on hand. The folks who didn't have cash couldn't buy anything. Still can't at most stores. 

And stay armed.

[LinvilleGorge]

10 minutes ago, strato said:

And stay armed.

It took a bear breaking into our house for my wife to realize "okay, I need to learn how to actually operate these guns". I'd tried and tried to teach her and she just had no interest and I'd always told her that even though you have no interest you might find that one day you have a need. A bear in the house with her home alone and between her and all exits woke her up on that one pretty quick.

[Waldo]

Sounds like they got the helicopters to the area. I don't think hurricane plans really include that much air power at the coast. It's a different playbook up there and it doesn't look like they are doing air drops yet. Here on the coast they just boat or drive it in but they should be dropping off manpower and shipping containers of goods up there by air. I hope they get it to yall soon!

[LinvilleGorge]

1 minute ago, Waldo said:

Sounds like they got the helicopters to the area. I don't think hurricane plans really include that much air power at the coast. It's a different playbook up there and it doesn't look like they are doing air drops yet. Here on the coast they just boat or drive it in but they should be dropping off manpower and shipping containers of goods up there by air. I hope they get it to yall soon!

There was a massive convoy coming up I-40 yesterday and they have Chinooks flying in to drop off essentials to areas that are completely cut off. We're fortunate that even though things are a wreck here locally, I'm five minutes off of I-40 and can easily get out and to areas where things are basically normal. I haven't even ventured into Morganton proper. I just hit 40 and go to Hickory. What blows my mind is that Icard at exit 116 is the first place heading east where all the restaurants are open ("all" being both of the two of them) and the gas station up and running and traffic will be lined up on the interstate people trying to get off. Folks, drive 7-8 more miles and then get a mile off of 40 and life is basically normal. 

[Waldo]

5 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

There was a massive convoy coming up I-40 yesterday and they have Chinooks flying in to drop off essentials to areas that are completely cut off. We're fortunate that even though things are a wreck here locally, I'm five minutes off of I-40 and can easily get out and to areas where things are basically normal. I haven't even ventured into Morganton proper. I just hit 40 and go to Hickory. What blows my mind is that Icard at exit 116 is the first place heading east where all the restaurants are open ("all" being both of the two of them) and the gas station up and running and traffic will be lined up on the interstate people trying to get off. Folks, drive 7-8 more miles and then get a mile off of 40 and life is basically normal. 

Great to hear. I haven't heard that yet. It's a frustrating thing at best to endure and the exhaustion and stress of all of it tends to get to people. I know they are collecting supplies here all over the place to send up that way when groups leave to go help. 

[strato]

35 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

It took a bear breaking into our house for my wife to realize "okay, I need to learn how to actually operate these guns". I'd tried and tried to teach her and she just had no interest and I'd always told her that even though you have no interest you might find that one day you have a need. A bear in the house with her home alone and between her and all exits woke her up on that one pretty quick.

There have been so many worthy comments since Dalton was 'activated', I'm out of pie and beer. So cheers.

What is the bear gun that your wife can handle? 

[LinvilleGorge]

19 minutes ago, strato said:

There have been so many worthy comments since Dalton was 'activated', I'm out of pie and beer. So cheers.

What is the bear gun that your wife can handle? 

Now? All of them.

[mrcompletely11]

50 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

There was a massive convoy coming up I-40 yesterday and they have Chinooks flying in to drop off essentials to areas that are completely cut off. We're fortunate that even though things are a wreck here locally, I'm five minutes off of I-40 and can easily get out and to areas where things are basically normal. I haven't even ventured into Morganton proper. I just hit 40 and go to Hickory. What blows my mind is that Icard at exit 116 is the first place heading east where all the restaurants are open ("all" being both of the two of them) and the gas station up and running and traffic will be lined up on the interstate people trying to get off. Folks, drive 7-8 more miles and then get a mile off of 40 and life is basically normal. 

I wonder if they are staging at the bottom of the mountain.  NCDOT told us again this morning to stay the fug away for now.  But they have to be able to set up some sort of supply chain especially if they have choppers.

 

From what our group leader said today it doesnt feel like anyone is in charge or at least taking the reigns.  We may just hit the road on Wed and see what happens once we get up there to 40.  I think telling huge groups of people that have supplies to stay home and not come is counter productive.  Maybe I am not seeing it clearly