The best part of my childhood was spent in NE Georgia in the Appalachian mountains. In fact, it was spent about ten miles outside of the nearest town, which literally had one intersection. I loved when we took a few days, or even a week, to travel up and around, and as such I got to know a lot of small towns which are now in the news.
I do think we went to Biltmore Estates once, but the really neat stuff was elsewhere. It was in the small towns like Chimney Rock, the various falls, mills,forges, pottery places, and such. The towns and places that aren’t there any more.
I’ve seen a lot of posts from people I’ve been told I need to check out, follow, etc. doing engagement farming while slamming the people of the region for not being prepared, prepared enough, prepared with the shit they are selling. Bad enough they are doing that, but engagement farming off of tragedy deserves a sock party at the least. I’m going to stop now before I say more than I should and have to go to confession for it. Suffice it to say, several I will never follow, cite, of share now.
First up, understand the geology of the area. Appalachia is old, old mountains. The Rockies are babes in comparison. The soil is clay or near clay down, with areas of more decent soil as overlay. While there is some very good rock there, there is also a lot of what I was told was schist, that I and others removed a couple of letters from to describe it as it was useless for building or much of anything else.
It is crumbly, and while great for finding low-grade garnets (you might get lucky every now and then on something better) and such, it did not make a good foundation and you really didn’t want to use it for walls or anything else. Load bearing it was not.
There are ridges and valleys, and various pocket “hollers” that could be ovals, could be round, or an odd shape, but were carved out of the ridges. My memories are not what I would like (stupid lightning) but in a lot of the area the ridges run north-south, which makes moving east-west most interesting. Key thing to keep in mind, is that the valleys are usually the best place to build in terms of soil, foundation, etc. They also almost all have a creek, stream, or river flowing in them.
Also, the “hollers” tend to all have an effective bowl shape, and again a stream or such flows out of them. Usually spring fed, but augmented by water that flows down the bowl above or below ground. These feed into those streams in the valleys.
Now, keep in mind the soil conditions. While there is good rock, it is often deep in the valleys, and where it is well above ground you are up on top of the ridges where putting in wells, septic, and other delights is interesting. In other words, it really isn’t ideal on which to build. Or even build into for a number of reasons. So, you have clay/effective clay overlaid by other soil.
So, yes, you do get flooding and the locals (who are not stupid no matter how corporate media and hollyweird portray them) have built above such normal flood plains. Even old mills (and modern tourist hotels) are built 10-20 feet above most streams and such. Again, they were not and are not stupid no matter what you read/hear/see.
Now, interesting historical fact. Rabun County Georgia used to get more rain than almost any other county in the COUNTRY on average except for one county out in Washington State (if I remember correctly), and as such they were used to dealing with water.
To bring things up to date, most places in Appalachia were told to expect five or so inches of rain, winds, etc. What they got was in some cases 20 or more reported inches of rain. In less time than given for the five inches. Rain that both ran off and penetrated the surface layer of soil. What happened to that which penetrated you ask?
Well, it hits the clay/clay-like soil and begins to run off below. This results in mudslides and in water making it’s way down from the top of the ridges over DAYS to add to the flooding. That’s what is happening now. It’s why we still have flooding in areas, slides, and more.
To make things even more fun, in this part of the country you do have paved roads, highways, and more. You also have a lot of dirt “unimproved” roads that may be one car wide, or they may not. I learned to drive on those roads, and let me tell you it is fun. Especially when you meet another vehicle and one of you has to back up to a spot where you can get by each other. Those roads are not wide, they are not designed for this weather, and they are not designed for heavy loads. You really don’t want to know about the “bridges” on them. Yet, they are probably the only way into or out of many areas right now.
What happened isn’t a hundred year flood. It’s much more on a thousand year flood. Perfect storm, lots if immediate rain, storm stalled out and dumping more over several days on top of the initial. None of the plans or systems were designed for this, and something like this was not even considered in worst-case planning.
Now, add to it that few communities put any thought into backup communications. Most LE went to data systems rather than point-to-point systems of old. They are great, efficient, and modern just like the big city — and almost useless when the power goes out and it hits the fan. Repeat after me: centralization is bad as it creates a single point of failure. When you don’t have a backup, don’t have portable cell systems to deploy, don’t have point-to-point as a backup, don’t really have anything as a backup, and you have screwed the pooch for disaster preparedness planning. This is something I am seeing/hearing out of multiple communities.
Nothing will prepare you for having your entire town wiped out, and few will have what it takes to put in an emergency command post away from town with backup coms. Even as a radio and some gear in someone’s garage up on the side of the ridge. That’s foolish don’t you know. If I sound a bit bitter, it’s something I’ve seen everywhere. Keep in mind, politicians overruled the DP folks in NYC and put the emergency command post in the basement of the World Trade Center complex. This has played out in almost every jurisdiction in the U.S. and few have spent the time and even limited dollars to set something up in an existing space without rent even. Because it is not needed, until it is.
Leaving aside that, it doesn’t matter if you have food, generator, and more if a thousand-year disaster washes your house away. That’s when you need advance warning (something lacking in most of the area effected) and a good bug-out plan. There is nothing else you as an individual can do in those circumstances. The people hectoring you for not being prepared enough are full of it. When they do hector you, feel free to drop kick their nuts between their ears and move on.
Now, I have heard of/from some who got hit, but came out okay because of preparedness. Links to these good people later. They have valuable lessons to share that we ALL need to heed.
For now, these folks need help and they sure are NOT getting it from the Government. So, my recommendations are not to give to anything government at any level, the Red Cross, or Catholic Charities. Here are a few I have heard good things about or know some good about.
People on the ground are telling me Samaritin’s Purse is a great choice. Haven’t dealt with them before, but excellent recommendations and word is they are in there, doing, and not taking names.
Operation Air-Drop is another I’m hearing good things about. With roads out like they are, air drop and air mobile are the way to go. If you hear of anyone with a chopper who is getting stuff in, sing out and let’s get them some support. The government isn’t stepping up and I’ve heard, unconfirmed, that the FAA has been stepping on efforts to get private choppers in when they are most needed. Let’s do what we can to support such.
The Cajun Navy has been boots on the ground since Saturday (if not before). Good group and didn’t wait for the government to say go. More on that in a bit.
If you know of a Menonnite group involved, they do a lot of good work. Again, they go in and do no matter what, which pisses off the feds — which makes me think highly of them.
Why my ire towards the feds? Long-time readers know I’ve been through all the classes for being an On Scene Commander and have done a bit beyond that with disaster preparedness. Understand that the government hates anyone and anything that self-deploys and starts helping — even if FEMA and others have not responded (as is the case here). Initiative is NOT allowed, and FEMA and others are known to hammer flat any charity that does so. If you do so, you will never work in this town/with FEMA again. Period dot.
Since FEMA has not stood up for this, and the Feds are sitting on a huge mountain of aid (let’s not even count the military aid at Bragg and elsewhere in the form of field kitchens, tents, graves registration, and other things much much needed), I have no sympathy for them. In fact, if anyone around here has a couple of old deuce-and-a-halfs and wants to load them up with supplies (food, water, supplies, chain saws, other delights) and is willing to take on some of those unimproved roads, I’m betting I can find us a way in to some of the worst hit and underserved areas. Won’t be safe, fun, or easy, but we can do it.
Meantime, support those who are doing the work (and are likely to be hammered by the Feds for so doing). If you are in the area and need help, sing out and I will do what I can to get the info to those who can help. If you know others in the area who need help, same applies. I’m going to look at what I can do, including sending some of my supplies.
Those are my people, and that is my childhood floating away on the flood. I just wish there was more I could do.
