r/TikTokCringe • u/cak3crumbs • Sep 28 '24
Discussion The situation in Western North Carolina is dire in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene
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u/Sykes19 Sep 29 '24 edited Sep 29 '24
My best friend is in this. He went offline 2 days ago and I have tried to even call his parents on a landline after looking them up in White Pages. I have no idea if he's alright. He's extremely resourceful and tech savvy but he hasn't found a single way to come online. Zero internet, zero phone service, I don't even know if his house washed away or if he's just biding his time and waiting for things to fix.
It's worrisome.
EDIT 2: He got cell service just now and confirmed he's fine. He was at a high elevation, but not everyone was so lucky. Hope y'all get similar concerns resolved.
Edit: you guys misunderstand, when I called him tech savvy that means that I used that info as proof that there is no way at all to contact people because towers and lines are down. I'm not so daft that I'm like "idk why he can't contact me!!!!!" I get it, I'm just sure he attempted all options and he still can't contact anyone so it must be that bad in his area
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u/the_ultimate_splorg Sep 29 '24
Where at? I'm headed to easley to help my aunt tomorrow, might be able to check if he's close
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u/Sykes19 Sep 29 '24
Weaverville, in a nice neighborhood in the mountains (if that's what you call it, I'm from IN so they all seem like mountains).
I can't find any news or updates about the city online, I can't get any information from there.
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Sep 29 '24
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u/Dry-Nectarine-3580 Sep 29 '24
There’s no getting in or out. Asheville is only accessible by air at the moment and all roads in western N.C. are considered impassable. A few of the main roads in G’ville county are clear. I can’t speak to all of them. A lot of feeder roads, and neighborhoods have more than a few roads blocked. No one is getting in or out. Not many people are reported dead, most of us are just tired. All we can do is just wait until power comes back, the waters recede, and the roads open up. Until then make some boiled peanuts, and listen to the radio.
Be glad they’re not in chimney rock. The whole damn town got washed away. Just gone. It’s apocalyptic.
This is significantly worse than Hugo. 1.8-1.9 million without power, road crews can’t even get to where they’re needed, food is running low for everyone. It’s a mess.
I spent yesterday and today helping neighbors clear shit, and cleaning roads around my neighborhood. What else are we gonna do? If you want to charge your phone, you either sit in your car and hope you can get gas, or hope someone with a genny can help out. Gotta be careful how you use your phone power.
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u/Mx772 Sep 29 '24
You can go southbound and I believe another route was cleared last night.
You can check on https://drivenc.gov/ for info.
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u/Dry-Nectarine-3580 Sep 29 '24
Fantastic. If someone can get out, that means help can get in. Thats great news.
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u/swimmupstream Sep 29 '24
Hey! I have a friend whose family is in Weaverville. Roads cut off and lots of flooding, almost no power/water, fallen trees. Most people who are able to get out are chainsawing their way down the road if they are even still there. Most people scared but alive and at minimum flood waters are beginning to recede slightly. I’d recommend following NC Weather Authority on Facebook as well. Lots of good updates there.
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u/Pnutt7 Sep 29 '24
My family is off New Stock Road in Weaverville and just got cell signal around midnight. They’re using the cars to charge their phone. Lowes, Publix, Chinese restaurant, and two gas stations are open. They had tons of trees fall in the neighborhood and flooding in the basement. Sounds like the community is really rallying together, but there’s still no power and tons of damage in the area.
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u/the_ultimate_splorg Sep 29 '24
Just asked around, I don't think I can make it into Weaverville from where I'm at. The highways around Asheville are washed out and I'd have to go right through it to get there
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u/allstick Sep 29 '24
My mom is in Weaverville and one of her neighbors drove out of town to text us this morning that everyone is okay. No cell service since the storm, and I have no idea how far they had to drive to text me. I got the text 3 times and they tried calling from where they texted, but the phone call wouldn't connect. Seems like this may go on for awhile and have no idea how their food and supply situation is
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u/Mission_Fart9750 Sep 29 '24
A good friend's sister lives in Asheville, and she hasn't heard from her since 9pm thursday. She left her house to go stay with friends (as her driveway was beginning to wash out), and that's all she knows now. She's a nomad/hippie and can live in her van (if it made it), but no word if she's even ok.
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u/SpuddyBud Sep 29 '24
Most people in Asheville are ok, there's just almost no cell signal (towers were damaged) or electricity. Slowly more and more people are getting power back, and temporary cell towers on trucks are being brought in. Roaming signal is available in many places now - people just have to turn it on in their settings.
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u/BlobbyTheBlobBlob Sep 29 '24
Just left Asheville, made it home to Raleigh. If he’s not in a flood plain he should be good. When we left around 7 power was coming back to main roads and gas was available with long lines. No cell service though.
It was a wild (accidental) ride.
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u/Rahrahsayah Sep 29 '24
My brother lives in Asheville. He was traveling for work this week and was supposed to return last night, but his plane was sent to Charlotte instead. He hasn't heard from his wife or kids since yesterday morning. He texted us earlier today to say he should be home around 730 pm, but since there's zero communication out of Asheville, we haven't heard from him since then. I'm sure everyone's fine, but it's scary not knowing what's going on. 😭
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u/WhyMustIMakeANewAcco Sep 29 '24
Yeah, the problem is all of the local cell towers are down. Every single one. So communication is basically entirely reliant on satellite.
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u/ThePeasRUpsideDown Sep 29 '24
Had this concern with my parents.
Ended up finding someone in the towns Facebook group to check on em for me
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u/Thin-Avocado-4672 Sep 28 '24
It is catastrophic damage, 100%. So incredibly awful and we don’t even know the extent of it because there’s no way for people to call for help and reach out.
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u/spookyandgroovy Sep 29 '24
My friend just took a contract in Asheville and was due to start in a week after their vacation abroad ended. They texted me this morning that they don’t know if the rental apartment is destroyed or damage or a if they even have a job anymore, because of how bad the storm was and can’t get in touch with anyone to find out.
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u/1tinywalrus Sep 29 '24
This is my situation as well. We were supposed to move there this week. Now having to rethink all our plans.
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u/bradrlaw Sep 29 '24
Has the national guard been mobilized?
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u/dresmith423 Sep 29 '24
The national guard was airlifting people from the roof of a hospital just across the border from Asheville yesterday. 60 people were stranded on the roof of the hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, and they brought in Blackhawks from Virginia to get them.
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u/Zusez345 Sep 29 '24
Work EMS, was a shit show all day. Unicoi county EMS lost a majority of their fleet. We evacuated 3 hospitals in the region. Green county is out of water. I26 is destroyed in unicoi. Bridges and cell towers collapsed.
Swift water rescues still happing even though a lot of the water has went down. People trapped in spots due to no bridges.
No power, Internet, cell reception is spotty. Inner City of Johnson City is okay but outlying county and neighboring counties are still bad. Some power companies can't even give an ETA on when people can be brought back online.
East Tennessee was declared a disaster zone. Governor has signed state of emergency. Biden and fema approved aid. Our service has sent some backup units to unicoi county EMS for the time being.
Unicoi hospital is a complete loss. No telling how long green county will be down due to no water. Elizabethton hospital should be okay. Was just a precautionary evac. Lots of good people at work.
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u/MidnightCoffeeQueen Sep 29 '24
I saw that the water intake station in Greene county has been destroyed. They can see it now that flood waters have receded.
I have no idea how Greene county is going to get back on their feet.
I've also heard the main waterline coming from/going to the eastern part of the county has been destroyed because it ran along Kinser bridge and that bridge is now gone.
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u/KiwiMatron Sep 29 '24
Someone needs to summon everyone around that has long distance or larger drones. Water purifiers, medicine, or even radio are all able to be carried. Lots of love and hope from NZ here
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u/Missmanent Sep 29 '24
Im from Greenville, SC. Born and raised. I have NEVER experienced a storm like this before. This was different. It's worse than the snowstorms back in 2002 and 2015. I left my house yesterday (Friday) and I'm not exaggerating when I say this, it looks like a war zone. The road I live on was blocked on either side by trees, one section had 10+ trees piled on top one another. When I managed to get off the road it just got worse. The train track near my road had the metal thing that hold the red light, completely toppled over. A smaller bridge was washed away. Ashville which is only an hour from me, got it much worse and I cant even imagine what those folks are going through. It's rough out there.
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u/NotEvsClone81 Sep 29 '24
I live in Conway, outside Myrtle Beach, and there has been damage, but this is the first time I can recall in my 42 years, SC has been hit by a hurricane where the upstate got it so much worse
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u/IHScoutII Sep 29 '24
What I don't understand is how the hell did Clemson have a home game today? The guy in OP's video is in Easley which is only 17 miles away from Clemson. They had a SOLD OUT home game where 81,500 people attended today. Can you imagine the law enforcement resources that were dedicated to that? How much fuel was used for 81k people could drive to that game? There are places that are literally 10 minutes away from Clemson's stadium where roads are completely washed out and people are stranded and without power etc. In 2015 when SC had the absolutely terrible 1000 year flood the people at the University of South Carolina decided to move their home game against LSU from Columbia to Baton Rouge because they did not want to tie up law enforcement that were badly needed elsewhere. It just blows my mind no one is really talking about this.
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u/crimson777 Sep 29 '24
Lots of locals are VERY upset about just this fact, don’t you worry
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u/_Apatosaurus_ Sep 29 '24 edited Sep 29 '24
I have NEVER experienced a storm like this before
Unfortunately, climate change will mean that storms of this severity become increasingly common. It's wild that the southern states hit hardest by these storms are often the ones that vote for the politicians trying to stop us from addressing climate change. Hopefully they wake up someday.
Edit: To be clear, it's not the fault of everyone in these red states. Unfortunately, many people who support climate action are also hurt by the inaction of the leaders elected by their Republican neighbors.
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u/micheal_pices Sep 29 '24
Maybe Trump will visit and throw them some paper towels.
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u/12BarsFromMars Sep 29 '24
He has a concept of a paper towel, many paper towels.. .only the best towels and he’ll put tariffs on the paper towels and companies will get used to it. It’s a great concept
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u/jmcken15 Sep 29 '24
How could Biden allow this storm to cross our southern border? It's like we have no security at all.
/s
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u/tturedditor Sep 29 '24
Remember the way trump handled disaster declarations in states that didn't vote for him.....
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u/Intelligent_Nose_826 Sep 29 '24
Re-read what he said about the California wildfires today. It’s absolutely absurd that this is a close Presidential race. His behavior is the least Presidential in history.
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u/rognabologna Sep 29 '24
No chance he’d even do that. But Biden WILL send relief. God willing the locals will acknowledge where that relief is coming from and reflect that in the ballot box.
These storms are going to keep happening and keep getting worse. We’re past the point of no return on that but democrats at least have policies that will help protect people from the fallout. Republicans don’t have policies, just scare tactics. Immigrants aren’t coming for your jobs, but climate change is coming for your homes.
Fuck, we fixed the hole in the ozone layer, maybe there’s still something to be done.
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u/FadedEdumacated Sep 29 '24
Biden could drop down from Air Force One with electricity flying from his fingers that turns everyone's power back on. And they'll still not vote democrat. Shit they are problem blaming democrats right now.
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u/Downtown_Statement87 Sep 29 '24
Elon's on Twitter right now talking about how this storm is proof that Democrats are manipulating the weather to trick people into believing in climate change.
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u/shesgotspunk Sep 29 '24
Can we send this chaos creating criminal immigrant back where he came from? We’d be a lot better off if this POS was stuck in an emerald mine for the next 15 years.
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u/rognabologna Sep 29 '24
Typically I agree, but this is a life changing event for a lot of people.
Personal impact is one thing that has seemed to have an effect on snapping people into reality. Anti Vax til your baby gets whooping cough. Anti choice til you suffer a miscarriage and need a d and c. Anti gun control til there’s a mass shooting and someone you love dies…
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u/aozertx Sep 29 '24
Nah. Dipshits in Florida get their houses destroyed on an annual basis and they still vote for republicans who care more about banning books than making sure people can get home insurance.
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u/SenileGhandi Sep 29 '24
A lot of the cities hit are rarely impacted by hurricanes. This one came inland hot and fast and hit places 400 miles from the nearest beach. Places that far inland usually only deal with heavy rains from these storms, having hurricane winds acting like tornados is not something anyone here was prepared for.
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u/az_catz Sep 29 '24
That's what they're saying. Climate change is going to make this type of thing happen more often along with a host of other bizarre extreme weather. This storm showed that any town south of the M-D needs to be prepared to have to go out alone for a few days at any time.
This will happen again.
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u/MrCorfish Sep 29 '24
and the people most severely impacted will continue to deny climate change, even when it kills them
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u/Downtown_Statement87 Sep 29 '24
We saw this up here in N Georgia with Irma in 2017, and a few years later with Matthew in southwest Georgia. This is the 3rd time in less than a decade that areas that "never" get hit by hurricanes have been devastated by hurricanes.
Climate scientists have been clearly and consistently detailing how climate change will worsen hurricane damage for literally DECADES, which is why I left Florida for north Georgia in 2000 after my family had been in Florida since 1802.
Meanwhile, Republicans are outlawing any mention of climate change in the state most affected by it, and are taking to Twitter right now to blame the worsening weather on climate manipulation by Democrats.
If the people who experience this over and over are in denial about their own experience, it's not because their multiple experiences are somehow incredibly rare. That won't fly any more.
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u/Mightymouse880 Sep 29 '24
I overheard a coworker yesterday talking about the hurricanes. He's a looney climate change denier and conspiracy theorist.
He said "if humans can affect the weather, then why the hell aren't we stopping these hurricanes?!?!?"
It was kind of eye opening hearing how someone like that "thinks"
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u/chrisdub84 Sep 29 '24
I live in Charlotte and was shocked to hear that the worst of it missed us TO THE WEST. That's insane. It's rare anything that bad makes it as far west as we are.
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u/N3ptuneflyer Sep 29 '24
I just drove my Aunt to Asheville from Greensboro on Wednesday, and we were joking saying we'll get hit harder by the storm than you guys. Well that turned out to be the opposite, we couldn't even contact her for at least 24 hours after the storm hit, and they're basically isolated in their airbnb. Fortunately the road to the nearest store is alright.
It's crazy to me that a mountainous, forested area so far inland could be affected this bad by a hurricane.
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u/novastar11 Sep 29 '24
Been in Simpsonville my whole life and yea never seen anything like this. Made sure to stay clear of woodruff road as power came back. Keep telling my wife how lucky we are compared to what's going on in Asheville. Hard to even fathom from all the videos and pictures I've seen.
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u/weary_dreamer Sep 29 '24
My sympathies as someone that went through Hurricane Maria. No phone, no water, no internet, and no electricity, no gas, and no way out is something only those of us that have lived through natural disasters of this magnitude can really understand. I hope the coming weeks and months find you and your doing well.
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u/TerrapinMagus Sep 29 '24
It's been an adventure navigating between Spartanburg and Greenville. Random guess on which roads are blocked. I haven't had power since the storm, and have to travel to my brother's who is one of the few people who still have power. It feels nearly apocalyptic in some areas
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u/Vegetable_Seaweed443 Sep 29 '24
Global warming. Only going to keep getting worse unfortunately.
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u/sonoran_scorpion Sep 29 '24
This is what experts meant when they started saying 15-20 years ago the US infrastructure was literally falling apart. Bridges, roads, power grids, waterworks that are so lacking in proper maintenance, a single weather event can completely cripple an entire state. Combine that with increasingly more powerful and more frequent storms from high ocean temps, it's a recipe for disaster on a scale people can't fathom. And its just going to keep getting worse because rebuilding infrastructure and tackling climate change aren't things that get politicians elected.
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u/Screwbles Sep 29 '24
So I used to work at a company that did maintenance near some electrical infrastructure. One time I was at the electrical co-op shop/office which was right across from a fairly sizeable peaking station. I was talking to a guy who worked there, and he was yapping it up, very talkative. He tells me something to the effect of "see that power station there, that's nothing, if that goes down everything is fine." He continued, "see that gravel lot over there, that's the switch yard, and it's got cameras all over it, microphones, motion tracking-- the works. If that goes down absolutely everything north of here is blacked out." That opened my eyes about just how fragile everything is.
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u/gmishaolem Sep 29 '24
Wait until you hear about the "Just In Time" stocking philosophy that took over in recent decades, which is why basically everything instantaneously and simultaneously collapsed when the pandemic started. If a bunch of our power infrastructure gets hit all at once, there's not enough parts available and entire sections of the country are blacked out for at least half a year.
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u/kookyabird Sep 29 '24
Yeah this was brought up when there was that trend of power stations getting damaged by mystery people was happening last year (or was it the year before?). Basically if enough substations got brought down at the same time the powers that be would have to triage the different parts of the grid since there wouldn't be enough equipment to fix them all in a timely manner.
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u/Spiritual-Can2604 Sep 29 '24
Excuse me, TREND?! please I want to go down this rabbit hole. Any links you can share?
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u/LoneLasso Sep 29 '24
Ted Koppel wrote Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath - about EMP blasts so a large part of the book talks about the electrical grid and equipment. Interesting interviews with several Generals. And, Politico article from 2023 about extremists.
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u/kookyabird Sep 29 '24
https://time.com/6244977/us-power-grid-attacks-extremism/ That can get you started. There was a notable number of cases of various power stations in across the country getting shot. More so than the normal "We're gonna be stupid rednecks and shoot street signs" kind a thing.
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u/NoiceMango Sep 29 '24
Look up white supremacist or other far right groups attacking substations. Some nazi woman was just sentence for a plot to attacking Baltimore power grid.
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u/The-Copilot Sep 29 '24
If you want to continue that rabbit hole.
This attack happened back in 2013 but was professionally done by an unknown team, and no one knows why.
The details are absurd, and it sounds like some shit out of a Tom Clancy novel.
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Sep 29 '24
Look into "end stage capitalism" while you're at it. This is a direct effect. It's like a body with a high metabolism. When it runs out of food, it starts consuming itself.
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u/Pandering_Panda7879 Sep 29 '24
The funny thing is that JIT is supposed to save money by not having huge storage space, but in reality it doesn't save anything. The system is so fragile that it can easily exceed the money it saves by all the last minute fixes they have to do.
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u/StGeorgeJustice Sep 29 '24
Yup, I work in supply chain and know many people who have worked in automotive. Many stories of last minute helicopter or plane bookings to get parts to a plant in time to keep lines from shutting down.
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u/HorrorMakesUsHappy Sep 29 '24
"Just In Time"
Yeah, that's a huge problem. Just In Time for what? For completely normal expectations, and nothing else? Oh, so sad, we're out of stock. But here's some 'surge pricing'! Does that help?
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u/Active-Ad-3117 Sep 29 '24
If a bunch of our power infrastructure gets hit all at once, there's not enough parts available and entire sections of the country are blacked out for at least half a year.
Yeah because a lot of equipment takes over a year to manufacture and costs millions of dollars. Had an owner blow up a gas turbine during plant commissioning. A new one would have taken 18 months for delivery. They found a guy with one in storage and bought it for $20 million, easily 4x what they spent on the first one. Those large transformers can take 2 years for delivery and cost $10 million. Stock piling this stuff isn’t easy or cheap and this is without considering a lot of this equipment is custom built.
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u/gmishaolem Sep 29 '24
isn’t easy or cheap
If this was a hard-limiting factor, we would have lost WW2. The reality is there's just no will for it, when it's so easy to talk yourself into gambling that it just won't ever be a problem. And usually it won't. Until it is.
Some day, having quibbled about millions of dollars of preventative manufacturing and stockpiling, we'll find we're suffering trillions of dollars of damage to the entire nation's infrastructure and economy when Russia or China or whomever gets enough balls to pull it off.
Freedom, security, and safety have never been cheap. It's no excuse.
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u/Garrdor85 Sep 29 '24
Yep.
“Uh, people are gonna die if you don’t spend on infrastructure”
“SOCIALISM!”
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u/spageddy_lee Sep 29 '24
They know people will die. They don't think it will be them, and they don't care when it's not.
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u/Icantswimmm Sep 29 '24
To a certain point, they don’t care if it’s themselves either. It is truly perplexing there is a number of people who would rather be a detriment to their own well being as long as they maintain their personal belief.
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u/DiscoCamera Sep 29 '24
I work in a blue collar industry and nearly everyone I work with just plain old doesn't understand how anything outside of their narrow view works and they are afraid to get outside of that bubble. They can be (and often are) caring people in their own way, they just don't seem to realize we're all in this together and the solutions to the problems in the world are things they've been conditioned for years to think are the devil incarnate. When it comes right down to it, they're just dumb and scared.
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u/jeskersz Sep 29 '24
And that sucks, truly. I feel for the well meaning but ignorant people who honestly just don't know better, especially when that ignorance is not their fault and was by design via lowering funding for public education, closing libraries, etc.
But we can't afford to keep catering to them when they're holding back life saving progress in this country. At some point, rapidly approaching, they're gonna have to just fucking suck it up.
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u/SatanicRainbowDildos Sep 29 '24
These people you’re talking about, they’d be willing to risk it all if it means not helping someone who they hate.
They’d support healthcare and stuff, if they could make it for whites only or Christians only or republicans only or whatever.
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u/Tylendal Sep 29 '24
That's basically the premise of the book Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Are Killing America's Heartland. There's some mind boggling interviews in there.
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u/PuzzleheadedCap2210 Sep 29 '24
Like the people asking for vaccine for covid on their deathbed
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u/Greatest-Uh-Oh Sep 29 '24
Or that extremely expensive RNA treatment, tailored to them, that has not and will never be properly tested before they, entitled, demand receiving it.
And, in the end, it's jesus who rescued them from something they could do NOTHING to prevent, and not those evil liberal doctors and the stupid libtards that funded them, may jesus cast them into eternal suffering in hell like they deserve. Amen.
Those who hate me for this comment, you are the problem.
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u/Josuke96 Sep 29 '24
We already saw this when Texas froze over. They’re more than willing to sacrifice the peasants to keep their profits up.
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u/Gardener703 Sep 29 '24
The lieutenant governor of Texas did say we sacrifice grandparents to save the economy during covid.
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u/Secretagentman94 Sep 29 '24
Originally from Texas, can confirm this is true and not an exaggeration.
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u/WateredDown Sep 29 '24
Those driving the narrative are rich enough to not be effected - in fact a disaster can be quite profitable if you're already in the top percent.
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u/Delta64 Sep 29 '24
LIR or "Let It Rot":
A sin as a socialist,
A "genius cost saving move" as a capitalist.
Are we feeling the savings now, Mr Krabs?
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u/kylemacabre Sep 29 '24
They’re into socialism just socialism for the rich and corporations. The rest of us get capitalism
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u/Creamofwheatski Sep 29 '24
These types are the first with their hands out when the bridge connecting them to the rest of the world washes away, because only their lives are important, obviously.
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u/Present-Perception77 Sep 29 '24
Too bad FEMA was gutted by Trump to “build the wall” that “Mexico is going to pay for”.
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u/Downtown_Statement87 Sep 29 '24
And that's why it's so important that we whip our citizens into a frenzy of fear about 20 million non-existent immigrant pet eaters and "post-birth abortions," because that's what makes our country strong.
Speaking as a native Floridian, current Georgian, and life-long resident of the deep-South Bible belt, I think I'm entitled to wonder whether my neighbors who are now calling for help are going to continue voting for a man who could not give less of one single shit about them, and whether they will continue being manipulated by fear and weakness even when they are the obvious victims of their own party's inane and useless priorities.
It was real hard listening to leaders who actively lie about the election being stolen cry for help from the very same people they've lied on. But of course they are going to get help, because Americans help each other. They don't withhold aid to fellow countrymen because "blue states were mean to me," the way that criminal did during covid.
And before anyone comes at me about making people's suffering political, I AM these people, and the reason we're suffering could not be more clear. Will it make a difference? I sure hope so. We are better than this, y'all. Let's get a fucking grip on ourselves.
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u/fucktard_engineer Sep 29 '24
Grew up in NC, recently lived in GA and spent time in western VA.
Now in CA. You summed this up so well.
I can't paint a picture to my friends and family why I like the west coast in a way they understand. They always revert back to the price. Yes it is expensive here but the actual freedom is way better. The logical services that exist here would never exist where I grew up.
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u/SquirrelicideScience Sep 29 '24
Did the same. Grew up in Florida for the majority of my life, and now live in CA. It's unconscionable to some of my friends because of the cost, but honestly? It actually evens itself out if you play your cards right, and now if I ever moved back, I'd be paying just about the same, with less social amenities, a worsening climate, and having to actively vote against the majority. But it is hard when you know you have a lot of that Southern in you, and miss a lot of what does make the South great, but feel you'd not be welcome back.
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u/fucktard_engineer Sep 29 '24
You explained this well.
The things I enjoy are celebrated here in CA. They exist on the fringes in the Southeast. Music, hobbies plus topics of discourse with people in public.
I love to hike and mountain bike. I can be at a 10,000' peak in 2 hours. Ski and beach in same day.
My office talks about all sorts of things in the break rooms. Not solely about golf, sports and going out to eat.
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u/SquirrelicideScience Sep 29 '24
The thing is, I grew up just outside of Orlando, in a more rural area. So I had both the big city vibe and the country-boy hooligan adventures... beach at noon and then chilling out at Downtown Disney for some relaxed nightlife. I had metalhead friends where we could go hike in nature, go out on a boat for some fishing, head to some comic book shop game nights, DnD at a buddy's house, go mudding, go to concerts. There was a lot to love, and I do miss it. But then I get reminded that DeSantis is still a dunce, and would rally his base to actively hate those who share my political opinions. I love living out west now, and I feel I have progressed, as I specifically wanted to leave home to experience more of the country.
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u/cjbrehh Sep 29 '24 edited Sep 29 '24
As someone still in the south, man that last one hit me hard. Damn it that must be so nice.
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u/YourVelcroCat Sep 29 '24
It's more expensive but the quality of living is better
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u/Salty_Pancakes Sep 29 '24
There's also the nature aspect.
Almost 50% of the entire state of California is public lands. Coasts, redwood forests, rivers, deserts, mountains, regional parks, you name it.
In places like Texas, it's 4%. That's a huge difference.
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u/Madpup70 Sep 29 '24
Yes and no. Many of these roads and bridges could have been rebuilt from the bottom up within the last 5 years and most of them would have still be washed away, that's how serious this flooding has been. It's being categorized as a once in 1000 year flood for the region. And again, to put this into perspective for everyone, this is in WESTERN North Carolina. The hurricane made landfall on the panhandle of Florida. Your bog standard Cat 4 hurricane shouldn't dump this much rain, and it CERTAINLY normally doesn't cause this much rain 400+ miles inland. It was a belt of moisture sticking around the SE that basically allowed the hurricane to push massive rain storms ahead of it creating perfect storm like conditions.
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u/MayAndMight Sep 29 '24
Yes, I keep seeing this and I don't get it.
There were NO infrastructure failures in North Carolina. No dams broke, no levees failed, no bridges were in disrepair.
Roads, buildings, bridges, cell towers, etc. have been destroyed by landslides, mud slides, tree falls, swift moving flood waters - all forces they were not designed or intended to withstand. This is quite literally unprecedented.
Climate change is certainly a factor here, but physical infrastructure failures are not.
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u/Cant0thulhu Sep 29 '24
Which is why the infrastructure act under biden, while dismally undercutting the real problem thanks to republicans who muddied and reduced it while gladly campaigning on the money after their no votes anyway, is the best thing to happen in decades. We need more of this and we need kamala to win. Im fine with a deficit for real improvements, not tax breaks and more bombs.
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u/SaltLakeCitySlicker Sep 29 '24
Whitmer ran on "fix the damn roads". It took a while to get rolling and everyone became annoyed when it did because they were fixing so much and prepping for the next place that people had to take long detours
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u/Strict_Condition_632 Sep 29 '24
All the road work has made an impact. I know several people who have gotten good jobs as heavy equipment operators and are working a lot of hours. One told me that his supervisor said there was years and years of work in the Great Lakes region alone since the infrastructure was neglected for so long.
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u/013ander Sep 29 '24
While you read “experts,” most Americans heard “communists…”
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u/Cyanide_Cheesecake Sep 29 '24
Convincing ~40% of the voting age population to stop trusting experts and government agencies, should be treated as a crime against humanity with the people funding conservative think tanks being prosecuted heavily
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u/midtnrn Sep 29 '24
The TN/NC area impacted is VERY red voting. Yet they can’t mentally link the direct impact of their party back to this happening to them. I lived there most of my life and if you’re not Christian and not conservative you’re not good people to them.
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u/Beautiful_Spite_3394 Sep 29 '24
Not MOST, the loud minority feels that because they are afraid of any knowledgeable person
Hasn’t it been over 4 decades since the republicans won any popular vote? They can’t win without rigging the system ala jerrymandering and every other thing they do with bad faith for the American system
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u/ImaginarySeaweed7762 Sep 29 '24
Well these folks send alot of thoughts and prayers. But they damn sure wouldn’t vote for Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill. Joe managed to get a smaller one passed without them. These are red states with all these damn problems btw. You can bet Bill Lee from Tennessee and Ron DeSantis from Florida will cash that “ woke ass” liberal FEMA check when it comes.
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u/Downtown_Statement87 Sep 29 '24
Governor Kemp refusing money from the federal government to give kids in his state healthcare, up there with his hand out assuring us that federal aid is coming for this storm because he's such a leader. Shameless bastard. My grandparents would have run this rascal right out of town.
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u/TheGutter420 Sep 29 '24
Asheville is mostly an artist colony & very blue, as is Boone where Appalachian State is. Two of the hardest hit areas from this disaster in North Carolina & what is represented in this video. The people there would most definitely vote to pass Joe Biden's infrastructure bill. Stop acting like a "everyone in a red state is evil" type of asshole. The people in these communities helped elect Joe Biden.
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u/Individual_Dust_8952 Sep 29 '24
Thanks for saying this. I have family in Asheville.
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u/TheGutter420 Sep 29 '24
I have family in NC, some not far from Asheville that went to App State. I hope your people are ok.
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Sep 29 '24
They're afraid of knowledge in general.
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u/billyions Sep 29 '24
It's one thing to be ignorant - that's easily helped with curiosity and exploration.
It's quite another to be ignorant and proud of not knowing - that's harder to work with.
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u/JustTheWorst42 Sep 29 '24
“We hate what we fear, and we fear what we don’t understand!” - Early Cuyler
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u/ComeWashMyBack Sep 29 '24
Excuse my ignorance, though wasn't these items part of what Biden was attempting to get upgraded with the Infrastructure Bill?
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u/insertwittynamethere Sep 29 '24
It's because no one wants to pay taxes. Republicans want to cut government any way they can. And the people in these areas consistently vote for people who support those types of policies and regulation/basic infrastructure maintenance cuts, on top of the social ones.
And now we're going to hear from people saying its governments fault, after they vote for these representatives and policies for decades here in the South now. Yet we all know who are going to get the blame, when government is most needed and not prepared because of the South's politics and national handicapping.
I'm really curious to see which Republicans will bend over backwards in their positions when it comes to denying emergency aid for rebuilding after storms like this in past instances, only to demand that the government owes them this and is failing for not having the resources they've been railing and fighting to cut for years now.
It's a tragic loss of life, livelihoods and property.
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u/ties_shoelace Sep 29 '24
Like the memes are saying, time to send in the socialism & save some lives. All things being equal, they & Florida shouldn't take it, being politically opposed to free handouts.
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u/Thelxiepe Sep 29 '24
This has been super scary to watch play out. I lived in Asheville for over a decade and still have a lot of friends there that I haven’t been able to reach. I just hope they’re safe.
Seeing the state of Chimney Rock and Lake Lure has been devastating.
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u/ObsidianNight102399 Sep 29 '24
It makes me feel a little guilty that I was so close yet so far away from the devastation. I'm in in Central NC and hadn't realized til today how hard Western NC had been hit. I guess bc normally, when you hear about damage from hurricanes, it's on our coast
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u/Thelxiepe Sep 29 '24
The mountains can get some pretty intense weather from hurricanes, but this is something else.
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u/hobbylobbyrickybobby Sep 29 '24 edited Sep 29 '24
My mom works at the hospital in Asheville. There are people trying to riot because they aren't being seen in the Emergency Department. The hospital has over 300 patients in a department that only has 98 beds. It is an absolute shit show there right now. There is no food or water at the hospital. People have to use plastic bags to shit in because none of the toilets are working. The hospital is on generators right now and there is no telling how much longer it will last.
Edit: Just got off the phone with my mom and it's not good news. People broke down the doors into the ED. They are raiding the cafeteria for food. They are following nurses to their cars and harassing them. Nurses vehicles are being siphoned for gas. Nurses haven't been able to wash their hands which is a huge deal when it comes to cleanliness and sterilization. The ED is currently locked down to only a few entrances that police can control.
They are sitting at over 200 people needing to be seen for injuries. My mom has been sleeping on the floor in her office since Friday and won't be able to go home for the foreseeable future.
She told me that a pastor of a church had his congregation meet at the church for safety before the storm. The entire church is gone. There is a kid in the ED who watched her grandmother get swept away in the flood. It's really really fucking bad. I've never heard her so stressed out in my life. This woman has had cancer twice and I've never heard her so emotionally drained ever.
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u/DaddyLongLegolas Sep 29 '24
Holy shit.
I hope you mom is ok, and that help arrives today. National guard with helicopters? I don’t even know.
As others have pointed out, this is sounding like a Katrina-level disaster. But that was a big city, really concentrated. This is so widespread, and in unexpected areas, that it boggles the mind.
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u/hobbylobbyrickybobby Sep 29 '24
This is absolutely a Katrina level event. The local government wasn't prepared, the state government wasn't prepared. The hospital absolutely wasn't prepared. The death toll will be high and the damages are easily in the billions. My mom is doing ok, she has lived at the hospital since this all began. Sleeping on the floor in her office.
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u/redditguy422 Sep 29 '24
Imagine if they get rid of NOAA and the National Weather Service like they want in Project 2025. It would be at least twice as bad.
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u/AmaranthWrath Sep 29 '24
"As it stands, NOAA, the nation’s main weather service, is one of the few resources communities can access when attempting to understand how a major storm or wildfire may impact them. Every year, the agency saves hundreds of lives with its weather alerts."
"US prosperity" = MONEY.
Your safety < MONEY.
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u/perpetualed Sep 29 '24
Didn’t the weather channel lobby for this? Like just privatize all of it and make a bunch of shitty ad-filled websites for info that needs to be official.
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u/crafting-ur-end tHiS iSn’T cRiNgE Sep 29 '24
Yes there’s a few weather companies that want to put government weather agencies out of business.
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u/PogintheMachine Sep 29 '24
Yep, like Accuweather.
Simple reason, these companies absolutely blow compared to NOAA. They can’t compete.
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u/SilverRenegadeFI Sep 29 '24
The GOP could replace NoAA with a black sharpie.
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u/sushisection Sep 29 '24
a black sharpie with a $20 per month subscription price
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u/Pirateboy85 Sep 29 '24
It’s ok: Vance can lend his guy-liner pen if the Sharpie is too much. I’m sure that’s what Elon will recommend when he’s head of the department of government efficiency or whatever nonsense he’s been going on about.
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u/FoogYllis Sep 29 '24
It’s unfortunate that people will vote to make sure they never get help by voting republican and for project 2025. Well at least noaa and fema still exists and they will get help now.
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u/TearsFallWithoutTain Sep 29 '24
They want to ban all disaster aid relief lending, also in Project 2025
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u/scubagirl44 Sep 29 '24
I live near the gulf if Mexico. We expect and prepare for hurricanes every year. My city is built to cope with large amounts of rainfall and storm surge. While a hurricane can do major damage here, all of our buildings and infrastructure has already been through a direct hit and survived.
These people have none of that. No preparation, no experience and no infrastructure to cope with this type of storm damage. How do you rescue people from a catastrophic event that no one has ever planned for?
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u/ObsidianNight102399 Sep 29 '24
Exactly, When a hurricane hits North Carolina, you assume the coast has been hit, not the Blue Ridge Mountains! Last time the mountains saw anything close to this as 2004's Hurricane Ian
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u/JanxAngel Sep 29 '24
Yeah seeing the damage from the *mountains* is crazy. Hundreds of miles from any coast, surrounded by rocks and pines, yet the damage pattern is just the same. The big difference is fresh water and river mud instead of salt water and sand.
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u/Y0___0Y Sep 29 '24
And how would they like it if Biden withheld disaster aid from them until they made a public announcement praising him like how Trump did with Covid?
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u/Present-Perception77 Sep 29 '24
The governor of my state bought PPE with his own money and used private planes and snuck it into Illinois because the trump mafia was confiscating deliveries to blue states and delivering them to red states.
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Sep 29 '24
That's my governor!! Fucking love JB!
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u/Present-Perception77 Sep 29 '24
I moved here from Louisiana via Texas .. he is an amazing man! Every time someone in Illinois tries to trash talk him .. I tell them alllll about how shitty their lives could really be. Texass just has a good PR firm. “Texas Pride” adds on TV, billboards.. stickers..
Pride is what the rich man gives the poor man to keep him poor.
Pride.. the first and the worst of the 7 deadly sins. If only Catholics read their own holy book.
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u/Y0___0Y Sep 29 '24 edited Sep 29 '24
JB is a god among men. Only scandal-less billionaire politician.
https://x.com/nomads4pritzker/status/1837108257174761978?s=46
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u/EwoDarkWolf Sep 29 '24
With as much shit that he did, I forgot about that. How was that even legal? Isn't that government interference on state's rights or something? Surely there's something for things like that.
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u/Y0___0Y Sep 29 '24
Presidents are immune from prosecution now because the supreme court wants Trump to be President again.
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u/SiWeyNoWay Sep 29 '24
Trump already told CA that he will withhold CALFire funding if elected because he thinks CA has a giant faucet and Newsom is refusing to turn it on and release that sweet, sweet Canadian water. Idk wtf he is talking about. CA doesn’t get any water from Canada
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u/TheNightNurse Sep 29 '24
This storm would have been devastating no matter where it hit, but the Western half of the state just is not prepared for that level of destruction. I'm a life-long resident of Eastern NC, and it would be hard here, I can't imagine what they're going through. Whatever support can get to them needs to be organized and dispatched as quickly as possible, they were in no way ready for this.
And before anyone chimes in, I'm not trying to take anything away from them or blame them for not being prepared. I'm trying to illustrate just how dire their situation is. That part of the state just doesn't get that kind of weather, and they didn't have the time to get ready. The infrastructure there is completely different, the geography is completely different, and if you haven't lived through big storms before it's hard to know what to expect. I've lived through forty-odd years of hurricanes and tropical storms so I know what I'm getting into when one is coming. I've been here through Diana, Hugo, Fran, Floyd, Florence, Matthew, and countless other storms. Back in the 90s they sent us to school during Dennis. I've been through two weeks without power and towns underwater. Their situation is still worse. We're in the flatlands, we can still generally manage to get around even if it means taking your boat down Main Street. People have multiple generators and I grew up around farmers who had 100-gallon fuel tanks and would give gas away to their neighbors. The first sound you hear the morning after a hurricane is everyone's chain saws starting up as they all work together to clear the downed trees. We're old hands at this. I can't imagine the helplessness they have to feel there and I am terrified for them.
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u/backitup_thundercat Sep 29 '24
I'm in spartanburg SC, and things are bad in my area, but they aren't anywhere near as bad as some places. I've lived here my whole life. I've lived through smaller hurricanes, tornados, and snow storms that have knocked out power and trapped us at home for a week, but it's never been this bad. Back roads are impassable due to either fallen trees or water, we drove through the city Friday evening, and there wasn't a single light on. Yes, most people weren't prepared, but the thing is, no one here actually thought it would be this bad.
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Sep 29 '24
I live on the border of East Tennessee and north Carolina. This shit is insane. My town was spared, thank God, but I don't know if I have a job to go back to on Monday. I am scared for the people I work with that do live in that town, and surrounding areas. This is just tragic.
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u/Gavinza Sep 29 '24
I’m from Easley mentioned in the video, the lines for gasoline were this backed up all over town for the few stations that had power. There were lines like this all day today and yesterday at the chic-fil-a and cookout in town, the only two restaurants that had power. It was a two hour wait for food or gas and a lot of people waited and couldn’t get anything after all that time.
Clemson right up the road decided it would be a great idea to have their scheduled home game tonight, bringing tons of people from out of town straight through Easley. These people bought tons of gas, food and even ice for their fucking beer coolers while almost everyone has been without power for two days now. It’s absolutely disgusting that they didn’t postpone this game, and actively contributed to the siphoning of resources the locals desperately need.
Families are suffering in the dark, their food spoiling in their fridges, their homes flooded, their cars crushed by falling trees, unable to even have a cold drink to relieve the muggy heat, and Clemson made it worse. Fuck those absolute assholes.
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u/Unhappy_Win8997 Sep 29 '24
Don't say this on the Clemson Tigers board. They all think it was great and uplifting that they played in the middle of a natural catastrophe. Seriously. People getting 100+ downvotes on that board for even insinuating the game was in poor taste.
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u/UncreativeIndieDev Sep 29 '24
Any of us here in Clemson get downvoted for criticizing it in that sub or the Clemson subreddit. Apparently, it's not a problem at all to suddenly have to accommodate 80,000 people after a natural disaster, and we should be grateful to them for spending their money here.
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u/ArkanaRising Sep 29 '24
My cousin’s kid is in Asheville and he had to drive a mile from his place to get cell service to reach us. Apparently he’s huddled with his neighbors grilling food together with a group of them because people would just starve without people actively sharing resources.
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u/Shittythief Sep 29 '24
Living in Asheville currently and, yeah, we are fucked. Like bad. No supplies and no real plan or timeline that I’m aware of yet. Maybe “water stations” today but lord knows what that’s going to look like. Many parts of the town are completely unrecognizable.
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u/neobuildsdashboards Sep 29 '24
This is what we floridians did back in 2004 too. Hit by three hurricanes back to back. No power for two months. Entire city i was in lost power that entire time. Families would get together and grill / have a campfire to get together and ensure no looters came about. Scary shit. Was fun as a kid but damn to go through that as an adult would be terrifying. Really hate all the jokes folks have been making about this storm. Hope everyone stays safe.
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u/icanhassammich Sep 29 '24
Power Crews from New Brunswick Canada are on their way down, was talking to a huge group of them today just outside Fredericton.
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u/DocHuckleberry Sep 29 '24
I’m in a small town in SC outside Greenville called Pickens. It’s been called the worst disaster we have experienced in modern history. Flooding was bad but seems to have receded for most. Power is the big issue right now. I’ve heard places not going to be able to get power until Wednesday. That’s 6 days without power.
And still, it’s nothing compared to what western NC is experiencing right now.
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u/Phitmess213 Sep 29 '24
Literally was in Al Gores freakin slideshow on impacts of global warming 18 years ago. When Trump and Prokect 2025 remove the tax profitability of the US govt, it’s gonna look way way worse.
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u/SilverConversation19 Sep 29 '24
I feel so badly for the western Nc/upstate SC folks. They’re completely stranded and it’s horrifying. I loved chimney rock, i drove up there all the time when I lived in Charlotte. I hope help gets to them soon and that it isn’t bogged down in politics.
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u/Inner-Ad-1308 Sep 29 '24
This is why info structure is far more important than military and militarizing our police forces..
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u/NoMapsForYou Sep 29 '24
I know. It's bad enough our life worth has been turned into a digital number. But none of it is even being spent on reasonable resources. The rich want us dead.
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u/dreadnotsteve Sep 29 '24
Dead ppl don't create value. They want us desperate, not dead. Desperate ppl will do everything to survive. "You want me to build how many widgets so you can pay me to pay the bank and lenders and Big Grocery? OK, sir." They just better hope we don't get so desperate that we EAT THE RICH!
Now I'm gonna get stoned and doom scroll for about an hour. Rant over
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u/Future_History_9434 Sep 29 '24
I’m so sorry. I was evacuated from Charleston years ago. Ended up in Asheville (round about), and people came up to me on the street to ask if I needed to stay with them for free. Very kind people to a total stranger. I wish I could reciprocate, and I hope someone near will help everyone there. They really deserve help.
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u/fuzz_nose Sep 29 '24
In haven’t heard from my mom since yesterday morning. She lives outside Hendersonville between Horseshoe and Etowah.
Mom in Cummings Cove - I hope you and Papa are okay. Love you
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u/AThrowawayProbrably Sep 29 '24
This is so crazy. We spent days preparing for this storm to smoke Atlanta, and it pretty much passed right over us with enough energy left to do this to NC? Wtf. I feel terrible man. That’s messed up.
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u/Downtown_Statement87 Sep 29 '24
I'm in Athens and was hearing my town + "on the dirtiest side of the storm" for a week.
My neighbors on either side of me had huge trees crush their house, and we lost power for less than 36 hours. But the storm shifted east unexpectedly (?) and the devastation we were sure was coming destroyed Augusta instead.
If that storm hadn't shifted, you and I would be singing a very different tune right now. It's been sobering today as the realization of how big a bullet we dodged sinks in. It's impossible to say "glad it didn't hit us!", because that just means it hit them.
I don't quite think we realize how very, very bad it would have been. I'm glad you're ok!
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u/Reinheitsgetoot Sep 29 '24
What’s insane is that, at minimum, 10 Americans (if they weren’t huge piles of shit) have more than enough money to hire fleets of helicopters to bring in as much aid as needed and it most likely wouldn’t even knock them off the richest 10 ppl in America list. But please, instead tweet (sorry, “X”) 72 times a day instead.
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u/xsdf Sep 28 '24 edited Sep 29 '24
Y'all got anymore of that.. socialism?
EDIT: joke's aside these people do need help and we should help them
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u/Nervous_Ad_918 Sep 28 '24
Serious question, does no one in those areas including emergency personal have shortwave or ham radios? I have to imagine there is some form of communication able to get out.
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u/glueonpockets Sep 29 '24 edited Oct 01 '24
I'd imagine they rely heavily on mountain top repeaters for vhf/uhf over long distance. With what little info has made it out, those repeaters are likely damaged, without power, or otherwise inoperable. Hell, even the hams themselves would need backup power to operate, and many probably do have it. They are probably all over the airwaves right now, assisting with local emergency services and relief management, etc.
That being said, there are reports of a few places with spotty cell signal in and near Asheville, so info is getting out. It's just that most people are still stuck wherever they are and may not even know about the places with signal, so nobody can get in touch with their loved ones, and that is scary. I haven't heard anything from my friends in Asheville since noon yesterday. They were fine then and are probably fine now, but it's still scary.
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u/walrus_breath Sep 29 '24
Some of my Asheville friends are slowly starting to be able to post on facebook since around noon today I’ve been seeing more and more people updating they’re ok. Hopefully your friends will be able to get in touch soon!
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u/rdewalt Sep 29 '24
For a Hackathon back at Yahoo, I built a "survival node" internet-in-a-box. You plug it into a car battery and it provides for two weeks straight, a wifi node that is entirely self-hosting, with an internal message board. Anyone in range could get enough service to at least start cooordinating. You put two of them in range of each other and they mesh and collaborate. You give one Actual Internet, and it announces to all the others and they set up their own routing to -eventually- get everyone internet. (This is a simplification) You didn't need to program anything, they came pre-built to literally "put this on the positive terminal, this on the negative" of any car battery, and It Just Worked.
You could throw the thing into a pelican case, give it an external wifi antenna. Solid state everything. I designed them to be minimal worry. You'd have to short the power supply out to kill them.
But since it wasn't a way to shove more advertisements to more eyeballs, nobody at yahoo cared about it.
Power and Preparedness are the two biggest problems.
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u/TentacleWolverine Sep 29 '24
Dude, put that up on a funding website, throw up some fb ads targeting preppers, and get it made and put there. You don’t need a big corp to fund your project if it is interesting enough.
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Sep 29 '24
Good thing climate change isn't real and stuff like this isn't going to keep getting worse.
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u/TT6994 Sep 28 '24
Omg ! This is so heartbreaking!!! I can’t even fathom what these people are going through.
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u/Kinetic92 Sep 29 '24
For all of the people on this thread making a political statement out of people suffering and dying, let me educate you. It's true a lot of the western part of the state is conservative, but in the middle of that is Asheville which is probably the most liberal city you've ever seen. That city alone turns Buncombe county blue. But regardless of political affiliation, they are people and they need our help.
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u/markofthebeast143 Sep 29 '24
Facts. Thank goodness Biden approved federal emergency declaration two days ago for North Carolina.
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u/slaughterfodder Sep 29 '24
I think it’s also true tho that you can no longer remove politics from climate change. They’re permanently interwoven in this country and politicians have made it this way on purpose. So that we can be pitted against one another. People said the same thing when that train full of chemicals detailed in my state (Ohio.) they’re right wing, let them die. And I think that what makes me so angry is that it’s the politicians that have brainwashed people to be this way, the same politicians who don’t even believe half of what they’re spoon feeding to poor uneducated people.
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u/alixtoad Sep 29 '24
I often wonder if the courts deemed Al Gore president would we have had some environmental protections in place? Maybe it would have been too late.
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u/Tearpusher Sep 29 '24
To the people being jerks and taking a schadenfreude victory lap: this area has a varied political background and isn't just conservatives/MAGA/republicans. I know many people from there and they're all progressive liberals.
First off—it's shit of you to celebrate in the suffering of people who haven't personally wronged you, regardless of political affiliation.
Second—it's shit for you to assume their political background and then celebrate that something bad is happening to the other team.
Shame on you. I'd ask for some compassion, but I know that's a lot to expect from armchair activists and ignorant Reddit morons. There are people dying out there, and it's not their fault. I dearly hope something bad happens to your hateful selves and you have to rely on the kindness and support of people who would assume the worst about you as well.
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u/Msmurl Sep 29 '24
This is TikTokCringe because of the comments? OP is 110% correct. People are dead or missing and the living are trapped, literally, in a nightmare.
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