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.
” That’s when you need advance warning (something lacking in most of the area effected) and a good bug-out plan.”
And you need to pull the trigger on that bugout plan before the real rain starts because once in it, and certainly after, you won’t be able to escape. At All. To anywhere. “Better two days early than 5 minutes late” was never more true.
I strongly suspect most of the country is not nearly angry enough about the lack of appropriate federal support; those of us in the area – I’m in nearby SC and we came through OK, my neighborhood even has power back now – are foaming at the mouth angry about a federal government that can send billions to Ukraine and every other tin-pot dictator but can’t muster a single helicopter to deliver water, food or perform evacuations. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the area of NC that’s so seriously affected and seen the drone videos of some of the devastation; people do not realize that not only is the road system “compromised” it no longer exists in a lot of places and the towns that those roads led to don’t exist now, either. It’s being reported by those on-scene that the town of Chimney Rock is gone. The entire town.
Any helicopters you see in western NC right now are private, and the owners are doing the flying and paying the fuel bill themselves. Cargo planes are hauling goods in from Charlotte to what’s left of the Asheville airport because there’s no other way to get the stuff into the area. US Highway 40 between western NC and Tennessee is closed – and may be for a year, not weeks or months – because a couple miles of it got washed away and is now several miles downriver, so there’s no major road into Tennessee from western NC or upstate SC; almost everything we buy in the U.S. gets hauled by truck, and in that section of the US that haul just increased by about 100 miles, and will go over two-lane roads that were never designed for that much traffic.
Meanwhile, Her Royal Highness is doing TV interviews about Doritos and Slow Joe is reclining on a Delaware beach.
Iggy
Excellent point on pulling the trigger early, as at the moment is almost always too late! Good points and much appreciated. Glad to hear you got power back.
LW
For emergency communications, I’m hoping that ham radio can help fill in. OTOH, with the devastation, a lot of that operators and/or equipment might not have survived. (1000 people missing and feared dead? Yikes!) Those hollows are going to be a pain to deal with, but HF radio should be able to get out. If there are enough operators with usable equipment around. Given the reports, I’m not going to be overly helpful.
I’ve known a few people who’ve dealt with Red Cross at the pointy end. None have had anything good to say about them. OTOH, they do run the blood donations, and in many cases, are the only game in town. On the Left Coast, Stanford had/has(?) a blood bank. I haven’t been able to donate for a few decades, (I’m a walking pharmacy, alas) so my information is way out of date.
We gave money to Salvation Army for one of the Houston hurricanes. I think they spent all that money on begging letters to us to try to get more cash. Nope. Not any more.
My sister-in-law was unimpressed with Samaritan’s Purse’s overhead costs (27%), and while they do good work, she recommended a new one, Convoy of Hope. https://convoyofhope.org/ They claim 7.4% overhead. We donated with them. So far, one email with a receipt, no further begging. We’ll see how it goes.
Make that “overly hopeful”. Wrong end of the country to be much help.
Back in the day, CB radio was a huge help. For years, the nearest phone to our cabin was a mile away, and it was quite the walk. The closest phone you could be sure of getting to 24/7 was 2-3 miles away. CB was the lifeline and used extensively. Two people pretty much ran base stations as they did have phones (reliable) and would relay at need. I see a need for such, along with HAM, as a good com backup.
As for SP overhead, I’d like to see their figures. I know from the two charities I was involved with that some of what got lumped in with (had to be put with overhead) really were not overhead. Most grants would not cover transportation and other costs, requiring it to come out of other pots. If it is spent on salaries (like I and others ever got one), that’s one thing. It it is spent on other things, I tend to be more sympathetic.
Thank you for bringing up Convoy of Hope! Glad to get that input and have it out there.
Charity Watch (https://www.charitywatch.org/charities/samaritans-purse) puts it as
“Amount spent on programs relative to overhead.”
A lot of people pretty well tuned into the issues are recommending SP, so if people don’t want to take a flyer on Convoy, it’s a good bet. For what it’s worth, Charity Watch doesn’t list them, though they claim Forbes and other sources as saying they’re OK.
I used CB on a long road trip in the 1980s. Saved me from a couple of traffic tickets, though hearing the drug deal go down in Omaha (speed, naturally) was interesting and a bit creepy.
RC_Pete said: “For emergency communications, I’m hoping that ham radio can help fill in. OTOH, with the devastation, a lot of that operators and/or equipment might not have survived.”
Our AUXCOMM coordinator sent an email a few days ago asking anyone deployable to get in touch with him to coordinate locations and schedules. Apparently NC Emergency Management has hit up all the coordinators for volunteers, and they’re telling folks when and where to report. I don’t know how big the team was that we sent – I’m not deployable, so out of the loop these days.
Re: For personal bug out plans, not a mandatory evacuation, the most important part of those are your go / no go criteria (really, what are your triggers to evacuate or hunker down), your risk assessment (what can you accept? what can you mitigate? what’s residual after mitigation?), and “your time to decide” – when is the point of no return from a decision to go or stay, when MUST you make the call by.
Good points and thanks for sharing. Hope to get a post on up parts of this here soon.