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Disaster

Helene’s cost could be 600 lives, $160B in damages

Published

3 months ago

5 minute read

From The Center Square

By 

AccuWeather recorded more than 30 inches of rain in two locations and estimated damage between $145 billion to $160 billion, up from weekend estimates by others of $95 billion to $110 billion.

Six hundred people are unaccounted for, and one of North Carolina’s hardest-hit counties by the remnants of Hurricane Helene on Monday said at least 35 have died.

Six states total at least 121 fatalities, many places in the Blue Ridge Mountains have yet to be checked because of failed infrastructure, and critical aid is being rushed to survivors of historic flooding. Buncombe County, where Asheville is county seat, had withheld a fatality number pending notification of kin, a protocol made more troublesome by lack of power, internet and cellphones in many big pockets throughout the region.

Twenty-five years to the month after people in the mountains of the state and elsewhere sent resources to eastern North Carolina for the 500-year flood caused by Hurricane Floyd, convoys of bottled water, cleaning supplies and necessities were heading west. AccuWeather recorded more than 30 inches of rain in two locations and estimated damage between $145 billion to $160 billion, up from weekend estimates by others of $95 billion to $110 billion.

South Carolina and Georgia each lost 25 lives, and Florida 11, according to published reports.

Asheville has been like many other locales along North Carolina’s stretch of the Appalachian Mountains – only reachable by air. At 4 p.m. Eastern on Monday, DriveNC.org reported 432 total road closures due to Helene – nine interstates, 25 federal highways, 42 state highways, and 356 secondary roads.

More than 150 have been cleared since the storm began, U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., said in a release. He also shared that his district – the southern-most part of the mountain range bordering Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina – should have most of its service from Duke Energy operable by Friday.

More than 600 National Guardsmen have been deployed to western North Carolina, their mission bolstered by high-water vehicles, palletized load systems and forestry support teams for debris clearance. They were expected Monday.

AccuWeather said rainfall totals were 32.51 inches in Jeter Mountain, 31.36 inches in Busick, and 26.65 inches in Hughes. From Asheville, Jeter Mountain is about 40 miles due south not far from South Carolina, Busick is about 40 miles northeast just off the Pisgah National Forest, Hughes about 70 miles northeast near Sugar Mountain.

Gov. Roy Cooper said he expects, as crews reach more areas that are yet to be accessed, the fatalities total will rise. White House Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said Monday, “It looks like there could be as many as 600 lost lives. We know there are 600 who are either lost or unaccounted for.”

President Joe Biden, before departing Dover Air Force Base aboard Air Force One, on Monday said, “It really is amazing. You saw the photographs. It’s stunning.”

The 81-year-old, besieged from the public by health questions halting his attempt for reelection on July 21, said he would visit the North Carolina areas when safe and not an intrusion on recovery and relief efforts.

Vice President Kamala Harris, No. 2 in charge of his incumbent administration, changed her campaign plans so she could visit the Southeast this week, newswire Reuters said.

The images Biden referred to have blitzed the internet many in the region can’t access. Some structures floated off foundations and went down roads in whole; others were torn apart by the downhill rapids, splintered and spread as if dropped by a tornado. In published reports, residents were aghast at the magnitude and offered “never seen anything like it” over and over.

They would have had to remember July 1916, when six straight days of rain started July 5. It was associated with a hurricane coming out of the Gulf of Mexico that weaved from the Mississippi-Alabama line to eastern Tennessee, and a second one that made landfall in Charleston, S.C., on July 14.

Asheville, at 94,589 easily the largest city in the state west of Winston-Salem near the Virginia border and Charlotte toward South Carolina, has a city water system damaged and has been cordoned by a mudslide blocking Interstate 40. Going west, I-40 is closed because two eastbound lanes fell into the Pigeon River along a mountainside about 4 miles from Tennessee.

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Disaster

FEMA skipping homes in disaster areas lures calls for federal probe

Published on November 13, 2024

By

From The Center Square

By 

“Homes are skipped”

Two North Carolina congressmen believe there is validity to claims representatives of FEMA chose to avoid residences based on politics in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Federal probes, said U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., are coming. Political signs were among what is described as community trends leading to the skips.

“This is infuriating,” Hudson wrote on social media late Tuesday afternoon. “We will ensure those responsible for this un-American abuse of power are held accountable. Investigations are coming.”

Hudson amplified a clip from Monday’s edition of the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show, where Marn’i Washington was interviewed. Washington is identified as a disaster survivor assistance crew leader for the Federal Emergency Management Agency fired from her job.

“Homes are skipped,” Washington says after a lengthy back-and-forth with Martin to describe the job, the encounters and the instructions from the agency led by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and embattled Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “The American people need to know that. If we are approached with hostility, or our people feel uncomfortable, we do disengage.”

Washington said workers did so for homes not only with Donald Trump signs, but also for Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, and homes with no signs.

Washington described the federal agency’s plan as to observe what are called community trends. For example, engagement at three or four homes on a street all with similar political signs would constitute such a trend. She said workers would work with people at homes with those signs if they wanted to engage, and with other homes on the street if able.

Washington says she’s unfairly singled out, and that incident reports for disaster survivor assistance crews will offer vindication.

In the interview, Washington says incidents first reported in Florida were not isolated and also happened in the Carolinas. She said it is false that her actions are described as advancing her political agenda.

“They allege that these actions were made on my own recognizance,” she says, “and that it was for my own political advances. However, if you look at the record, there is what we call a community trend. Unfortunately, it just so happened that the political hostility that was encountered by my team – and I was on two different teams during this deployment – they just so happened to have the Trump campaign signage. FEMA always preaches avoidance first, and then deescalation. So, this is not isolated. This is a colossal event of avoidance, not just in the state of Florida, but you will find avoidance in the Carolinas.

“Senior leadership will lie to you and tell you that they do not know but if you ask the DSA crew leads and specialists what they are experiencing in the field, they will tell you. Demand for FEMA to give you those incident reports.”

Washington, a Californian, told Martin she did not vote this election cycle, citing the high demand for her to go and work as a reservist for FEMA. She was subsequently fired, effective immediately, from her full-time job with Avanath.

Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., agreed with a post from Rep. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., saying “Homeland Security Committee needs to launch an immediate investigation and call this individual to testify. Under oath. In public.”

Helene, a Category 4 hurricane when it made landfall Sept. 26 in Florida, killed 231 across seven states. The toll is 102 in North Carolina.

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Disaster

FEMA’s response to the hurricanes of 2024 – Inadequate, corrupt, and politically charged

Published on November 9, 2024

By

Robert W Malone MD, MS

The news from Hurricane Helene and Milton just gets more bizarre and shows the truly punitive nature of the Biden/Harris administration.

The Daily Wire Reports:

A FEMA supervisor told workers in a message to “avoid homes advertising Trump” as they canvassed Lake Placid, Florida to identify residents who could qualify for federal aid, internal messages viewed by The Daily Wire reveal. The supervisor, Marn’i Washington, relayed this message both verbally and in a group chat used by the relief team, multiple government employees told The Daily Wire.

The government employees told The Daily Wire that at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags were skipped from the end of October and into November due to the guidance, meaning they were not given the opportunity to qualify for FEMA assistance. Images shared with The Daily Wire show that houses were skipped over by the workers, who wrote in the government system messages such as: “Trump sign no entry per leadership.”

It is unclear whether the same guidance was issued elsewhere in the country. The employees were part of a Department of Homeland Security surge capacity force team, meaning they volunteered from other DHS agencies to help an understaffed FEMA as it dealt with a second major hurricane in a span of just a few weeks.

The employee said it felt wrong to discriminate against Trump supporters when they were at their “most vulnerable.”

“I volunteered to help disaster victims, not discriminate against them,” the employee said. “It didn’t matter if people were black, white, Hispanic, for Trump, for Harris. Everyone deserves the same amount of help.”

The guidance came as the Biden administration was criticized over its sluggish response to Hurricane Helene in rural areas across the country. In Roan Mountain, Tennessee, for example, locals told The Daily Wire it took nearly two weeks for FEMA to show up. The town is located in Carter County, which voted 81% for Trump on Tuesday.

Supposedly, after this news story made the alternative media rounds, including the Daily Wire, – this “supervisor” was fired. About then, Fox and other conservative media ran with the story.

 

In other FEMA related news, the New York Post reports that:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to answer nearly half of the calls for aid and assistance it recently received during Hurricanes Helene and Milton, a report released this week shows.

During a recent week, FEMA’s call centers were so overwhelmed, almost half of all callers never connected with a federal working, according to data released this week.

And it took federal agents on average more than an hour to actually pick up those calls that were answered.

The damning report comes as the Harris-Biden administration has been slammed by conservatives for its response to disaster relief after Hurricanes Helene and Milton slammed into Florida, North Carolina and other southern states.

One man seeking help after his North Carolina home was flooded called FEMA and got a recording that said he was 675th in line.

 

A Google news search shows that there has been almost no mention about Hurricane Helene since October 7th. It is as if it never happened on Google News and MSM. A search on Hurricane Helene documents that the top articles are about

  1. NASA hurricane surveillance,
  2. pecan farmers in Georgia, and
  3. deforestation caused by Helene.

Note the lack of news about the destruction, FEMA’s response, or the communities affected.

Adding the words North Carolina to Hurricane Helene doesn’t pull up any articles on the plight of those suffering, the recovery, or information on FEMA’s response. Instead, there are news stories on deforestation (again), opoids, and a local NC article on bad drinking water (an article that does not even mention FEMA or the hurricane response).

 

By all appearances, there is a governmental blackout regarding their disastrous response and criticisms about that response. Of interest, previous news stories between Oct 1-7, almost all center around “fact-checks’ that try to blunt the criticisms about FEMA, including Trump’s.

The vast media blackout on FEMA’s lack of an organized response in North Carolina is truly a blackeye on America and mainstream media.

By all appearances, the deep state is both protecting its own reputation and that of the Harris campaign. They wanted nothing out there that would reflect poorly on the Biden/Harris administration before the election. Mainstream media compliance and cooperation with the Federal government to hide their incompetence and corruption before this election and over the last decade may be the biggest story of this generation.

The video below is probably the most accurate synopsis of what the situation in NC looks like right now:

Of course, this video was found on X and TikTok- no such news stories on MSM!

North Carolina Department of Transportation has been mentioned as doing amazing work.

And course, Ron DeSantis has been amazing

In combing through X, it is clear that there is a lot of false information out there about the hurricanes this year. Just as has always been the case – gossip and rumors abound during and after a crisis.

By using common sense, and due diligence, people figure it out. By getting all sides of a story, the good, the bad, the false, and the exaggerated – people figure it out and filter reality as it pertains to their view of the world. We don’t all have the same beliefs or worldview.

This is the nature of individuals, communities, and groups – just as it has always been. “Fake news” is nothing new.

Censoring anything not approved by the government is evil. Particularly when DHS (FEMA) has been corrupted, poorly managed, and involved in hate crimes – such as discriminating against Trump supporters. Their malfeasance is palpable. That is the road paved to a totalitarian society.

“The real story here is that the Biden-Harris administration has spurned the interests of the American people since day one, pushing for hundreds of millions of FEMA dollars every year, specifically for illegal immigrants,” Chairman Green said. “Last year, House Republicans eliminated this spending in the FY24 DHS appropriations bill, only for the Democrat-controlled Senate and White House to fight to add it back to the omnibus spending bill.

“This is an issue of priorities, and the Biden-Harris administration’s are completely backwards. It takes a lot of nerve for Secretary Mayorkas to ask for more money after he and his bosses in the White House fought for roughly $650 million just this year for the Shelter and Services Program. Under Biden and Harris’ leadership, our tax dollars are being used to help facilitate illegal immigration, while many American citizens are left to suffer following natural disasters.”

-House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN)

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