Happy to report our local town mayor threatened to arrest FEMA crews for trespassing according to our town water manager. This would be one of those incidents where the phrase “armed militia” is used instead of “local sheriff” because it dilates the drama. Just like Covid, death count equals budget so I assume all of the agencies here are doing what they can to muster up their numbers. Probably lots of fraud too but that’s never an anomaly. Just like the war on drugs, we have a new arm of the law and FEMA will probably incorporate more intimidation next time to save from embarrassment of having to be asked to leave. We will probably see new federal laws overriding local authority during “times of emergency.” Also we should expect all deaths, regardless of cause, to be logged as FEMA failures to boost their numbers next time and local counties will complete for where the house ended up as a dollar for their bucket. This isn’t evil, it’s simply how bureaucracy has to function until more people see the nation’s true colors. We are the confederacy of turtle island. There is no corporation that could have dissolved us. Helene opened every river in Katuah like a pore and saturated its population with electrolytic change. Now it’s up to us to alchemize effectively.
Thanks for the info. As for the death toll discrepancy, two questions. 1) are there sites where people post about missing relatives? 2) is it possible people are buried? As for the people in the outer areas without services, do they have water wells? Do they have generators?
There is a google doc of community-sourced missing individuals circulating that currently contains around 750 names. I'm not sure it's reliable info, though, because it looks like people are meant to self-report if their missing relative is found, and people may naturally forget or neglect to do that. The governor says we have 92 missing individuals, so that's a pretty big gap.
It is definitely possible that people are buried with the many landslides that occurred.
Most people who live in the rural areas will have either wells or spring water. A gravity-fed spring is best, since most wells rely on electric pumps that won't work if the power is out. Many people have generators, certainly not all. Many generators have been donated/delivered/air-dropped to remote areas.
I think, in general, the Federal and state governments are moving towards much less transparency. I'm thinking of all kinds of examples like: what's happening in WNC, the disaster in Maui, inability to call a national election within hours of CA polls closing, # of true deaths from C-vid, the unemployment rate, etc. Anything that might imply inefficiency, ineptitude or poor performance on the part of national or state governments appears to be reported with far less clarity than was true even 20 years ago. When the numbers aren't a good look, they're not being reported or they're being reported at a lower level than the truth.
As a resident of the Asheville area, I am also confounded as to why they make no mention of the number of bodies found. The lack of transparency around the fatalities and bodies found is mind numbing. And the lack of coverage by MSM is hard to believe!!
As a citizen of NC, living in Charlotte, but both my daughters graduated UNC-Asheville, I'm keenly aware of what has been transpiring and I await Episode #3 and maybe tis already published, but I know you are aware of this - but your readers might appreciate a link to Episode #2 direct:
Thank you for all of this, and for continuing to be a voice of sanity through all of this terrible mess.
I have a thought. for one thing, I do tend to agree with you in terms of the potential desire on the part of certain people to not distract from the "most important election ever" - definitely something to consider with all of this.
I had a terrible thought earlier today though, to add to that. I was just starting to look into the current messaging coming from Gov. Cooper (and other suits) just in the last few days. About building bac, and so forth. I'll link one thing I was looking at in here if this system will let me. I mean I'm working to keep a level head and only go on what I can see for the most part, but this was . . unsettling, for sure. Among other things, they discussed legislation for "waivers" to ensure THEY could get done what they "need" to get done but then they also discussed a huge price tag for the EVENTUAL rebuild effort. Like, having to go to Congress for it, it will be so huge. And something dawned on me - in the early phases, when the most lives could be saved, getting people through the winter. . . I'm sorry to say it out loud but perhaps that isn't THEIR priority.
Perhaps getting an accurate death toll out now, or anytime soon, that would trigger more resources in THIS phase isn't a priority for them.
But perhaps later on. Either before the election or yes, likely after. THEN it MAY be in their best interest to have a death toll that grabs attention. "Oh wow that hurricane was off the charts!" people will say when they see it. THEN maybe it will help get THEM the funding they want for their Build Back Plan - whatever that is going to look like. Just like with COVID it was important for them to get high death tolls in the first few months - whatever factors led to that reporting, even if it was inaccurately high. Perhaps now in this phase they need the numbers low, even if inaccurately low or just "not updated." Then later they can say well yes of course our agencies were under so many demands, they were handling so much, they couldn't have given you the full numbers THEN.
As with so many things, I kinda hope I'm wrong here. . .
Thank you for this update! I appreciate how thoroughly you’re keeping up with the recovery efforts.
I think you’re right about federal inefficiency and how strange it is that they’re being tight-lipped about the death toll. I wonder if it’s election related or if they are saying as little as possible, because the people in Appalachia aren’t likely to trust what the government says anyway, and they don’t want to be accused of “lying,” or something. Honestly, either reason is plausible to me, so I’m glad you pointed it out.
God bless you!! Praying for you and for all my WNC East TN people. 🙏🏻
My impression is that if everyone you know is accounted for, and people you've talked to don't know of anyone who's missing, then the numbers might be no higher than your estimation and maybe below. If it's several hundred or in the thousands, there's be a friend of a friend who's missing. I wonder if a non-state reporting system of missing people would be helpful.
Yes, and everyone I know is accounted for. I know people who know people who passed away, but I don’t know if those deceased are included in the total. I don’t think I have any friends of friends missing but not confirmed dead. But there are still lists of unaccounted for people kept by local LE agencies, and social media posts going around about specific missing individuals.
Another factor is the ability of such extensive flooding to wash bodies away from the place of death and into communities or undeveloped areas downriver.
This administration is giving lots of money to other countries. And we can’t even take care of our own citizens. Something is upside down and backwards. Biden Harris is satanic.
The day has arrived when you become a casualty of war no one knows there in. Silent wars silent weapons they want to weaken us all get country people off their land. Before the smack down of the banking system. A Hurricane traveling thru the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains. Just picturesque sights, and sounds Erased, because The powers to be can not tolerate independent people not needing them and their system. Silent wars silent weapons some come and leave as
A heart attack a blood clot, migraines a Hurricane a 108 tornadoes
Government is generally dishonest. They are more incompetent than ever, thanks to a focus on DEI and protecting the agency (whichever one is involved). See Christopher Wray's description of his primary job- "Protecting the FBI."
The death toll by state is made more complex by the fact that people who died in NC washed into TN. That makes it a little more difficult to tally state numbers, then create a total.
Expect government to announce a number the day the election is resolved. It won't be final, but it will use the cover of the larger national story to hide the extent of the disaster. Why? Not all the deaths are directly from the storm. Many will be the result of post storm death due to exposure, lack of clean water... all traceable to poor government response and government interference with private efforts.
If a revised death total is not released under the cover of a major story, then the cause of the confusion is not dishonesty, but a combination of complexity and incompetence.
Happy to report our local town mayor threatened to arrest FEMA crews for trespassing according to our town water manager. This would be one of those incidents where the phrase “armed militia” is used instead of “local sheriff” because it dilates the drama. Just like Covid, death count equals budget so I assume all of the agencies here are doing what they can to muster up their numbers. Probably lots of fraud too but that’s never an anomaly. Just like the war on drugs, we have a new arm of the law and FEMA will probably incorporate more intimidation next time to save from embarrassment of having to be asked to leave. We will probably see new federal laws overriding local authority during “times of emergency.” Also we should expect all deaths, regardless of cause, to be logged as FEMA failures to boost their numbers next time and local counties will complete for where the house ended up as a dollar for their bucket. This isn’t evil, it’s simply how bureaucracy has to function until more people see the nation’s true colors. We are the confederacy of turtle island. There is no corporation that could have dissolved us. Helene opened every river in Katuah like a pore and saturated its population with electrolytic change. Now it’s up to us to alchemize effectively.
Thanks for the info. As for the death toll discrepancy, two questions. 1) are there sites where people post about missing relatives? 2) is it possible people are buried? As for the people in the outer areas without services, do they have water wells? Do they have generators?
There is a google doc of community-sourced missing individuals circulating that currently contains around 750 names. I'm not sure it's reliable info, though, because it looks like people are meant to self-report if their missing relative is found, and people may naturally forget or neglect to do that. The governor says we have 92 missing individuals, so that's a pretty big gap.
It is definitely possible that people are buried with the many landslides that occurred.
Most people who live in the rural areas will have either wells or spring water. A gravity-fed spring is best, since most wells rely on electric pumps that won't work if the power is out. Many people have generators, certainly not all. Many generators have been donated/delivered/air-dropped to remote areas.
I think, in general, the Federal and state governments are moving towards much less transparency. I'm thinking of all kinds of examples like: what's happening in WNC, the disaster in Maui, inability to call a national election within hours of CA polls closing, # of true deaths from C-vid, the unemployment rate, etc. Anything that might imply inefficiency, ineptitude or poor performance on the part of national or state governments appears to be reported with far less clarity than was true even 20 years ago. When the numbers aren't a good look, they're not being reported or they're being reported at a lower level than the truth.
As a resident of the Asheville area, I am also confounded as to why they make no mention of the number of bodies found. The lack of transparency around the fatalities and bodies found is mind numbing. And the lack of coverage by MSM is hard to believe!!
“Something is rotten in Denmark.” Hamlet.
Way to go...thanks for keeping the news on this going....
Here is a link to my Stack in this regard:
https://buffaloken.substack.com/p/this-is-something-folks-need-to-be
As a citizen of NC, living in Charlotte, but both my daughters graduated UNC-Asheville, I'm keenly aware of what has been transpiring and I await Episode #3 and maybe tis already published, but I know you are aware of this - but your readers might appreciate a link to Episode #2 direct:
https://youtu.be/5HpHvX-M9Oo
Regards,
BK
Thank you for all of this, and for continuing to be a voice of sanity through all of this terrible mess.
I have a thought. for one thing, I do tend to agree with you in terms of the potential desire on the part of certain people to not distract from the "most important election ever" - definitely something to consider with all of this.
I had a terrible thought earlier today though, to add to that. I was just starting to look into the current messaging coming from Gov. Cooper (and other suits) just in the last few days. About building bac, and so forth. I'll link one thing I was looking at in here if this system will let me. I mean I'm working to keep a level head and only go on what I can see for the most part, but this was . . unsettling, for sure. Among other things, they discussed legislation for "waivers" to ensure THEY could get done what they "need" to get done but then they also discussed a huge price tag for the EVENTUAL rebuild effort. Like, having to go to Congress for it, it will be so huge. And something dawned on me - in the early phases, when the most lives could be saved, getting people through the winter. . . I'm sorry to say it out loud but perhaps that isn't THEIR priority.
Perhaps getting an accurate death toll out now, or anytime soon, that would trigger more resources in THIS phase isn't a priority for them.
But perhaps later on. Either before the election or yes, likely after. THEN it MAY be in their best interest to have a death toll that grabs attention. "Oh wow that hurricane was off the charts!" people will say when they see it. THEN maybe it will help get THEM the funding they want for their Build Back Plan - whatever that is going to look like. Just like with COVID it was important for them to get high death tolls in the first few months - whatever factors led to that reporting, even if it was inaccurately high. Perhaps now in this phase they need the numbers low, even if inaccurately low or just "not updated." Then later they can say well yes of course our agencies were under so many demands, they were handling so much, they couldn't have given you the full numbers THEN.
As with so many things, I kinda hope I'm wrong here. . .
https://wlos.com/news/local/secretary-buttigieg-local-leaders-recovery-resilience-strategies-ncdot-governor-roy-cooper
Thank you for this update! I appreciate how thoroughly you’re keeping up with the recovery efforts.
I think you’re right about federal inefficiency and how strange it is that they’re being tight-lipped about the death toll. I wonder if it’s election related or if they are saying as little as possible, because the people in Appalachia aren’t likely to trust what the government says anyway, and they don’t want to be accused of “lying,” or something. Honestly, either reason is plausible to me, so I’m glad you pointed it out.
God bless you!! Praying for you and for all my WNC East TN people. 🙏🏻
I love your newsletters.
Your a smart gal
Thank ye kindly, sir.
My impression is that if everyone you know is accounted for, and people you've talked to don't know of anyone who's missing, then the numbers might be no higher than your estimation and maybe below. If it's several hundred or in the thousands, there's be a friend of a friend who's missing. I wonder if a non-state reporting system of missing people would be helpful.
Yes, and everyone I know is accounted for. I know people who know people who passed away, but I don’t know if those deceased are included in the total. I don’t think I have any friends of friends missing but not confirmed dead. But there are still lists of unaccounted for people kept by local LE agencies, and social media posts going around about specific missing individuals.
Another factor is the ability of such extensive flooding to wash bodies away from the place of death and into communities or undeveloped areas downriver.
This administration is giving lots of money to other countries. And we can’t even take care of our own citizens. Something is upside down and backwards. Biden Harris is satanic.
The opposite of Covid, huh? There’s always an agenda.
an excellent compilation of useful information…
This sounds exactly how it happened with the Joplin Tornado.
The day has arrived when you become a casualty of war no one knows there in. Silent wars silent weapons they want to weaken us all get country people off their land. Before the smack down of the banking system. A Hurricane traveling thru the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains. Just picturesque sights, and sounds Erased, because The powers to be can not tolerate independent people not needing them and their system. Silent wars silent weapons some come and leave as
A heart attack a blood clot, migraines a Hurricane a 108 tornadoes
Government is generally dishonest. They are more incompetent than ever, thanks to a focus on DEI and protecting the agency (whichever one is involved). See Christopher Wray's description of his primary job- "Protecting the FBI."
The death toll by state is made more complex by the fact that people who died in NC washed into TN. That makes it a little more difficult to tally state numbers, then create a total.
Expect government to announce a number the day the election is resolved. It won't be final, but it will use the cover of the larger national story to hide the extent of the disaster. Why? Not all the deaths are directly from the storm. Many will be the result of post storm death due to exposure, lack of clean water... all traceable to poor government response and government interference with private efforts.
If a revised death total is not released under the cover of a major story, then the cause of the confusion is not dishonesty, but a combination of complexity and incompetence.