Just got back last night after 3 days in wnc. People up there aren't waiting for fema nor do they want fema there impeding efforts. They're resilient communities taking care of their own. They seemed to be in great spirits and just getting it done. It was great to see.
Just got home at midnight last night after taking a trailer of supplies and working to distribute them and cut trees for three days. It was a wonderful experience. All of the folks we encountered were in good spirits and communities were taking care of each other. We ended up in Bakersville in Mitchell County. The churches were set up as fobs/staging areas. Folks could come there for supplies and hot meals, and we would push out and deliver supplies to people who couldn't get there. We also coordinated well checks on people and organized clean up efforts from there. Only gvt I saw was local law enforcement helping do the same, and a Chinook delivering supplies. Everybody else was citizen volunteers from all over.
We started in the NW corner of the state in Ashe county this morning. The two major towns were up and running fine. Were told by local SHP that they were doing ok. We continued south into watauga county and into Boone. There was evidence of the flooding, but Boone was up and running just fine. Our objective was to locate smaller communities that may have been overlooked for relief supplies. As we traveled, we would stop and talk to locals and ask how the area was doing and where we could find folks in need of assistance. We finally made our way down into Avery County to the Newland community. They sustained more damage with evidence of severe flooding. We saw a few houses washed off their foundations, and cars down in the river amongst boulders. We stopped and distributed supplies to 4 locations, one of which was a little country church which is in the photo. These folks up here are wonderful and resilient. They never wanted to take all of our supplies and gave other locations for us to check and drop supplies. The NG is out in the community and working. There is no sign of fema and the people up here have no use for them. We ended our day about 20 miles from spruce pine. We're heading back out tomorrow to pick up more supplies from a church staging center and continue delivering them to remote locations. There are lots of supplies here, and the generosity is amazing. The main issue now is roads washed out and power being down. There are line crews out working everywhere.
If you're in GA, I think many small airports need help loading supplies onto planes/helos to fly into the disaster areas. Many here in Central nc have been begging for help. I'm heading out super early Sunday morning and taking supplies and a team to help with clean up and whatever we can.
Jews.