Dr. Bill Fortschen from Black Mountain, NC (10-03-2024--Hour2)

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_00]: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content, like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to welcome to the program Dr. Bill Fortschen. He is a bestselling author of a number of books, the series One Second After, detailing the post-apocalypse after an EMP detonation. It takes place in the town of Black Mountain, North Carolina, which is where Dr. Bill lives. And that is now one of the hardest hit areas in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And Bill, I had a lot of people ask about you over the last few days. So give us a status report. How are you doing?

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, do we have a good connection, Pete?

[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we do.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, great. Okay. Hi, from Bill Fortschen, the guy who wrote the book that everybody's going to blame this money on.

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_03]: No one's blaming you.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm expecting an angry mob to come up on driveway any second now.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Right. Well, I mean, if anything, I think they may, this is one of those things because people have referred to you as what the godfather of the prepper movement or something because of this book that you wrote.

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And it frankly scared the hell out of a lot of people about what a town would look like in the wake of losing basically everything that y'all have now lost.

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_00]: And I guess for people who aren't aware, how did you, because I know the story behind this, but how did you develop sort of the timeline of the deterioration of the society?

[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_00]: How did you get that information?

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, first of all, before anything else, I'm sitting here in awe.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, I wrote a novel about the town of Black Mountain and a time of terrible crisis with an EMT.

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_03]: And I had hoped then when writing it that this was a town that was going to pull together.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_03]: It has pulled together everywhere.

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, people are helping out.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Supply trucks are coming in.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_03]: People are cooking meals, just handing them out.

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, peach barbecue, for example, they lost all their meat.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_03]: But before it went beyond a certain point of attention that they just gave it away.

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_03]: They went up to my college on Saturday and gave them a hundred pounds of barbecue.

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, Pete, I can't even tell you how much I've been awed by this.

[00:02:45] [SPEAKER_03]: Yesterday I was watching as the center for passing out insulin was taking care of people.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, I'm actually kind of speechless over the whole thing.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_03]: We've had a terrible, terrible tragedy.

[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, a lot of people killed, everybody displaced.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, my only reason for being so lucky was three weeks before the storm came.

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, I had some guys drop the pine trees behind my house.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_03]: If I had not done that, I wouldn't have a house today.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, sure.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_03]: The electricity is off.

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_03]: We'll live through it.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_03]: The water.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be painful.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_03]: But Black Mountain is, I'm just in awe of this town and the way people are pulling together.

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, and, but this was one of the things that you did talk about in the book that you had stories.

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and you had kind of, you know, you could look around your own neighborhood and, and kind of use people as characters in your stories and how they might react.

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And you did have these stories, these types of stories.

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess it's just, I guess it's confirmation that what you hoped would happen actually has.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, uh, what was it?

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_03]: 24 hours into it, there was a town meeting down in the center of town and this was, it was still raining out a bit.

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_03]: Um, and I, I was almost in tears because it was like a scene right out of my book.

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_03]: A couple of people from town management were there, big circle of people around them, no loud speakers or anything.

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_03]: And they were just going down the list.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_03]: You can get food here.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_03]: You can get water here.

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_03]: You can get shelter there.

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_03]: We don't know when electricity will be back or the water supply because Black Mountain, its entire water system has been blown out and it could very well be weeks.

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_03]: And there were so many moments I was like deja vu all over again.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_03]: I wrote about this and now it's happening.

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Mm hmm.

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_00]: So, uh, let me go back to that question.

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: How did you, how did you write about, uh, the, what might happen if, uh, an EMP, which is sort of the electromagnetic pulse that is radiated off like a nuclear bomb, but there are also EMPs that can be sent out.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Also solar flares can knock out, um, a lot of these communications because of the, the chips and such.

[00:05:11] [SPEAKER_00]: And so, um, how did you, how did you, uh, know sort of the deterioration, how it would occur enough to write about?

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER_03]: In my mind, this all started way back in 1991.

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_03]: One, I was in Lafayette, Indiana, Purdue University, my great alma mater.

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_03]: And we were hit with a once in a thousand year event, an ice storm that took down the whole grid from north of Indianapolis to Chicago.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_03]: And I was observing, I'm an observer.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_03]: And in my college town, people were getting kind of squirrely after five or six days.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, there was some looting.

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_03]: If you had a generator, people were knocking on your door.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_03]: And that became the basis of the book.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm very familiar with the EMP because I studied it as a graduate student, studied it again extensively when I started working on this book.

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_03]: And what I did then was I went around the town, you know, before this disaster.

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_03]: And I interviewed the chief of police, the mayor, the pharmacist.

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_03]: I'll never forget interviewing the pharmacist who informed me within 30 days, this is going to happen.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_03]: And she started to cry.

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_03]: She said, you know, what about pancreatic enzyme disorder?

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_03]: What about people who are, you know, final stages of cancer, medication, things like that?

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, these things are now coming to pass.

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_03]: And like I mentioned, you know, insulin, they were table was set up to get you taken care of medication.

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_03]: They're bringing in medication.

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, you guys, well, another station had a report.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_03]: There's 50 trucks from Walmart coming up to town today to resupply Walmart.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Now I have to emphasize one other thing.

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_03]: Our disaster is local.

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_03]: It involves Buncombe County, all the counties of Western North Carolina, and then in Tennessee and down into Georgia.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_03]: It ultimately is a local event.

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_03]: Supplies are coming in from all over the country.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_03]: The guy who surveyed my property yesterday for electricity was from Ontario, another team from Vermont.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_03]: Think of how more terrifying it would have been if everything was gone in a region the size of Eastern United States because of an EMP.

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_03]: And that's why I wrote the book to try and make people aware that if you even have a month's worth of supplies on hand at a crucial time, you're going to survive.

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_03]: Otherwise, you're not.

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and you don't, and it might not even be some man-made event.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_00]: It could be like this.

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_00]: It could be a solar flare.

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_00]: It could be just natural disaster occurs.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: If it is a regional or it's, uh, you know, half of the country or something, then there, there, there are no relief operations to be had.

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_03]: Um, that will, you know, I was listening to the news yesterday.

[00:08:17] [SPEAKER_03]: They said what's happening here in North Carolina is comparable to Katrina in some ways far worse because remember, Trina was in a flat land where the rain fell, et cetera.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, you have 6,000 foot mountain ranges here.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_03]: The rain, 20 inches of rainfall there, that water cascades to 5,000 to 4,000.

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_03]: I heard that the Nolichucky River, uh, was flooding so extensively that the amount of water passing through in any given second was the equal of Niagara Falls.

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_03]: Think about that.

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_03]: Um, you know, what I saw in little creeks here, Swananoa Creek, totally destroyed downtown Swananoa.

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, nobody that it's being called a once in a thousand year event and I'm living in the middle of it.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_03]: So I'm taking notes.

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_03]: I'll write once I get electricity back on, but, um, we have to be prepared.

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_03]: We should always be prepared.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_03]: One of the worries I had was just last week, a couple of days before this hit, I was talking to, um, central district of FEMA, you know, out in Kansas and all that.

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_03]: And they asked me to come in and talk, you know, it was on zoom.

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_03]: And at the end of an hour discussing EMP, they said, they're not prepared.

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_03]: That terrifies me.

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Because for something like an EMP or a major cyber attack that shuts the grid down, we're not prepared.

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, can you hang on Dr. Bill?

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't know what else you got going on right now without a power.

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_03]: No, nothing.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm sitting in my Tesla recharging everything.

[00:09:59] Okay.

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, hang on.

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_00]: That's Dr. Bill Forsten.

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_00]: He is a bestselling author.

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_00]: The book is called one second after it's been out for years.

[00:10:07] [SPEAKER_00]: He's got, um, uh, I think there's three now follow-ups to it.

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, also the book about the space elevator and stuff.

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And so, um, you can see, get his work on Amazon, um, and in bookstores.

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_00]: But, uh, the one second after book was the one that kind of launched, uh, a lot of this.

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_00]: He is a history professor at Montreat college as well.

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I'll ask him about how that, uh, university is doing in a moment.

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[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_00]: We are talking with Dr. Bill Forstin.

[00:11:35] [SPEAKER_00]: He is the author of the best-selling trilogy.

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess you did a fourth book, right?

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a fourth one to this now too?

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:11:45] [SPEAKER_03]: Titled Five Years After.

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_03]: And that's the last book I ever want to write on this subject.

[00:11:50] Okay.

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Because we have it.

[00:11:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I think Christy already read it and it's sitting on the bookshelf.

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I haven't gotten to it yet.

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_00]: So I remembered there is another one that I have to read.

[00:11:59] [SPEAKER_00]: So there are four books in the One Second After trilogy.

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I have it linked in the podcast description as well.

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_00]: And I will also point out real quick, I just saw that Lowe's in West Asheville and in Hendersonville is offering tomorrow, October 4th, starting at 11 a.m., one free bucket per car load of cleaning supplies.

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_00]: So they're going to hand out buckets of cleaning supplies for people at those two locations, West Asheville and Hendersonville.

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And also I saw that in Swannanoa, the Federal Urban Search and Rescue Team has arrived there.

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_00]: They've got in Swannanoa Task Force 2 is operating with a 90-person team in Swannanoa, which is right next door to Black Mountain.

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It's also part of the novel that Bill wrote because it took place in Black Mountain.

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And one of the featured places in the book is essentially Montreat College, right, which is where you are a professor of history.

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And so first, how did the college fare?

[00:13:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Have you been in contact with anybody from the school at your university?

[00:13:17] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, Montreat College.

[00:13:20] [SPEAKER_03]: It's almost like a litany from me of you can't believe how people can work collectively who are total strangers and volunteering and getting things done.

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_03]: My college on Saturday, we had 400 kids stranded there.

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_03]: All the bridges in except one one lane area was open and no electricity, no water.

[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_03]: But the cafeteria was struggling by passing out sandwiches.

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_03]: The biggest problem, 400 kids that have to use the bathroom.

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_03]: We evacuated the college out.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_03]: All the kids are gone.

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_03]: We're hoping that the college will be open around October 10th to 15th, somewhere in there.

[00:14:09] [SPEAKER_03]: But everything's gone.

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, plumbing, electricity, all of it.

[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if they have power yet.

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_03]: Because that Montreat Road, the trees were just, was a carpeted trees.

[00:14:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, I said this yesterday.

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_00]: The thing that makes the mountains so beautiful is the thing that makes them so dangerous.

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, yes, yes.

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you've got...

[00:14:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, go ahead.

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, that's the difference between Katrina and what's happening here, which I think is

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_03]: going to wind up as probably one of the worst natural disasters in America for 20 or 30 years.

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_03]: It's tens of thousands of trees were just blown out.

[00:14:49] [SPEAKER_03]: As I mentioned, if I had not cut the trees behind my house only three weeks ago, I would

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_03]: be calling you from an emergency shelter someplace or a friend's house.

[00:14:59] [SPEAKER_03]: I would have lost my house.

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_03]: I only had one tree go down next to the electrical line.

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_03]: So, not bad.

[00:15:06] [SPEAKER_03]: One thing I wanted to note was, imagine if on 9-11 all communications went down as well.

[00:15:14] [SPEAKER_03]: The complete panic.

[00:15:16] [SPEAKER_03]: Giuliani, the voice of Giuliani on the radio did a lot telling the people in New York City

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_03]: we're going to pull together, we're going to get out of this, we will recover.

[00:15:26] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, the same thing's happening here now.

[00:15:28] [SPEAKER_03]: Local radio station, they've been on 24-7 for the last seven days.

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_03]: People are calling in.

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_03]: My Aunt Martha at such and such an address in Swannanoa, we can't reach her.

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_03]: They'll send an emergency team out to look for her.

[00:15:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Again, it almost moves me to tears when I see some of this.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_03]: People are basically good, 99%.

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_03]: The 1%, there have been some scammers and looters.

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_03]: Law enforcement is not being nice to them.

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so we've been talking to Mark Starling from WWNC in Asheville, where I used to work.

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_00]: We've been chatting with him.

[00:16:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And he told us yesterday that he starts every show with a list of names.

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_00]: People that are missing or aren't accounted for.

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And then people call in and say, oh, I saw her over here.

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah, she's down the mountain.

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Or he's over in this shelter and stuff.

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And so they're able to give people answers, which, like to your point, I mean, that's the...

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_00]: That's the...

[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_00]: One of the biggest comforts is just getting communication, getting information and hearing the voice of somebody saying, you know, help is coming.

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Help is here.

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to get through it.

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be okay.

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, just hold on a little bit longer.

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, obviously all of that is reliant on help actually arriving.

[00:16:52] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, it is arriving.

[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_03]: A few days ago, it was like an endless stream of helicopters flying right over my house.

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_03]: Helicopter a minute just spreading out across Western North Carolina.

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_03]: The interstate is finally open.

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_03]: I-40 is open, but they're only allowing emergency traffic westbound.

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_03]: And people trying to come into the town now, they're being stopped by the police.

[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Who are you?

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_03]: Why are you here?

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_03]: To try and keep possible scammers out of the area.

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Again, and again, and again.

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_03]: It is amazing how the people in the mountains of Western North Carolina are pulling together.

[00:17:30] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to write a book about it, I guess.

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I might as well.

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you got the bones from the first one.

[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_00]: So, I mean, you could just kind of...

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Like, don't some authors do that?

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Just keep swapping out names and just keeping the same story, right?

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but I do need electricity.

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not going to do this longhand.

[00:17:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, come on.

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm dyslexic, graphlexic.

[00:17:51] [SPEAKER_03]: I can't even write my own name longhand.

[00:17:54] [SPEAKER_03]: So, I need the Jews before I can write.

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Bill Forsten, we will keep in touch with you.

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Stay safe.

[00:18:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Stay sane.

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And all the best to you.

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_00]: God bless.

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_03]: God bless you.

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_03]: And I'll say it again.

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_03]: If you're a praying person, pray for the people in North Carolina, but especially the emergency

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_03]: responders who are putting their lives on the line every day.

[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_03]: I wouldn't go up a 40-foot tree to try and cut limbs down with all of this.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_03]: The guys are doing it.

[00:18:26] [SPEAKER_03]: And like I said yesterday, crew from Ontario and another from Vermont were taking care of

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_03]: the trees down below my house.

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_03]: I thank God that I live in North Carolina.

[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Bill Forsten, thanks for your time, sir.

[00:18:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Appreciate you.

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_03]: See you later, Pete.

[00:18:42] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, man.

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_00]: All right.

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[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_00]: You just heard Dr. Bill mention that there was a town meeting in Black Mountain and I actually

[00:20:06] [SPEAKER_00]: saw an account of this written by Jeremy Markovich over at ncrabbithole.com.

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And he's a longtime journalist.

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_00]: He's got his own sub stack, NC rabbit hole, North Carolina rabbit hole.

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_00]: He does like really like offbeat types of stories and such.

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So highly recommend it.

[00:20:28] [SPEAKER_00]: But he was talking about a picture that he saw.

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_00]: It was taken by.

[00:20:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Evan Fisher, a meteorologist who lives near Black Mountain, and he took a couple pictures

[00:20:45] [SPEAKER_00]: of this town meeting that was held on Monday in the town square.

[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And he says the news was grim.

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_00]: The power might take weeks to come back on.

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_00]: The water system was significantly damaged.

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_00]: The sewage system on the French Broad River was completely destroyed.

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Highway nine was gone in a lot of places and I-40 was closed at the time.

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Here in maybe the most technologically advanced nation in the world, people were getting vital

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_00]: information in the same way a town crier would have delivered it in medieval times.

[00:21:19] [SPEAKER_00]: With cell phone service and internet largely out, how did people even know when and where

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_00]: to show up?

[00:21:25] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a great question.

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Fisher said, oh, they put posters all over town.

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_00]: How did they get there?

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Most of them walked.

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Some of them rode their bicycles.

[00:21:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Some drove.

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Did everybody stay quiet?

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Because it was outside.

[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_00]: There was no amplified sound.

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Just a guy standing on a table.

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_00]: He said, yeah, for the most part, Fisher said, no one heckled, which was impressive.

[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_00]: If you've ever been to a town meeting in Western North Carolina, that's usually a good bet

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_00]: you're going to hear something like that.

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_00]: One woman fainted in the middle of the meeting.

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Anything medical assistance was provided.

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_00]: They did not open it up to questions because there were just too many people, but they did

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_00]: have folks answering individual questions afterwards.

[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And before this photo, Fisher had sent out a picture of what appeared to be a white sheet that was hung up at Black Mountain Presbyterian Church.

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And it had the names of people who wanted others to know that they were safe.

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_00]: So people would go to this sheet and they would write their names to say that they're safe.

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Jeremy Markovich says, we've all gotten so accustomed to finding things out in the way that best suits our lives.

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_00]: We expect algorithms to deliver exactly what we expect to see.

[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_00]: When technology fails us, it's easy to feel lost or isolated or anxious.

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And the further we get away from the way people used to do things, the less we actually remember what it was like or how to even do them.

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_00]: But those things are still there and they still work when nothing else does.

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Modern naval ships.

[00:23:22] [SPEAKER_00]: I did not know this.

[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Modern naval ships still carry sextants just in case that's one of those devices that they use so they can read the skies.

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_00]: But they still carry these in case all your navigation systems fail and sailors need to calculate their positions by using the stars.

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Paper maps don't require batteries.

[00:23:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Radio, a century old technology, has been invaluable in helping people find out what's going on and to reconnect with loved ones after the storm.

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_00]: People are communicating using walkie talkies and in some places regularly gathering around sinkholes to tell each other what's going on.

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_00]: For all of the ways in which modern technology has brought the world closer to people, the best and in many cases the only way to know what's going on in places like Black Mountain right now is to see it, hear it, smell it, and feel the awful reality in person and then describe it to others.

[00:24:27] [SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, big shout out to my former colleagues up there at WWNC Newsradio 570.

[00:24:35] [SPEAKER_00]: They've been on the air.

[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_00]: We've been talking to Mark Starling regularly about, you know, how they're doing and it's been acting as a clearinghouse of information.

[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Because that's what radio does best in times of crisis.

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a comfort and it's a voice.

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I've never forgotten that.

[00:25:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I've been behind a microphone for many disasters.

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of times that's all it is, is just some voice that's in the house or in the car with you telling you stuff's going to be okay, telling you what's going on, letting you know where to get help, letting you know that, you know, help is on the way.

[00:25:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's what I've been trying to do here.

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Search teams with Urban Search and Rescue and the National Guard are in Buncombe County.

[00:25:33] [SPEAKER_00]: They've been focused on Swannanoa.

[00:25:34] [SPEAKER_00]: They've been looking for flood victims as well as victims in mudslide areas.

[00:25:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I also just saw, I don't know how long of a clip this is.

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Let me go ahead and just load it up and see.

[00:25:49] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, it's 23 seconds.

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_00]: So this is Pete Buttigieg, the Transportation Secretary.

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And apparently there is, they're implementing a restricted zone over Western North Carolina areas.

[00:26:06] [SPEAKER_00]: So no more flying of the drones.

[00:26:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Our goal is to make sure that funding is no obstacle to very quickly getting people the relief that they need and deserve.

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_01]: There's also some safety issues that come up.

[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_01]: For example, temporary flight restrictions to make sure that the airspace is clear for any flights or drone activity that might be involved in helping to allow those emergency responders to do their job.

[00:26:33] [SPEAKER_00]: So this is getting a lot of criticism because drones are being used to help identify where victims are, where survivors are, as well as to drop supplies in.

[00:26:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Part of the problem is because of the topography.

[00:26:45] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, if I've got a line of sight and the drone is running off of a line of sight, it's got a range as much as I, you know, as far as I can see it.

[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And in the mountains, if you're going up and over a mountain, the drone can't do that because it loses line of sight when it goes up, you know, 2,000 feet above where the operator is standing.

[00:27:08] [SPEAKER_00]: So they're deploying a relay drone, like they'll put a drone and hover a drone above the mountain peak.

[00:27:17] [SPEAKER_00]: So then that will act as a relay signal so they can get the drones over the mountains and keep the signal going.

[00:27:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I mean, I hope that, as I was about to say, I hope there's coordination, but some of the stories I'm seeing, I'm not terribly hopeful on that front.

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_00]: But apparently there's, like if you violate FAA regulations in these types of situations, like they could drop the hammer on you, take your operator license, take the drone, fine you tons of money.

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think they've got enough drone operators to replace all of the civilians that are doing it.

[00:28:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, that being said, I understand the risk of drones operating in airspace if you're trying to run a rescue operation and a drone gets into your rotors.

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I get it. I get it.

[00:28:12] [SPEAKER_00]: But I kind of feel like that was what the whole point of the emergency management agency was supposed to do.

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_00]: What FEMA is supposed to do is coordinate all of these activities.

[00:28:23] [SPEAKER_00]: This is why I don't put a lot of faith in government, people.

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Hurricane Katrina taught me a lot, okay?

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's.

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And before he died, my mom and my dad and all of us really helped take care of him as he got progressively worse.

[00:28:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Forty years ago, there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family.

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Things are different today because of the work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of Western North Carolina.

[00:28:48] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a great organization with awesome people.

[00:28:51] [SPEAKER_00]: They've got huge hearts.

[00:28:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I've been a supporter for like 25 years.

[00:28:54] [SPEAKER_00]: This cause means a lot to me.

[00:28:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I participate in the annual walk to end Alzheimer's.

[00:29:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And I am leading a Charlotte team this year.

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_00]: It's called Pete's Pack.

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_00]: You can sign up and join the team and walk with me.

[00:29:06] [SPEAKER_00]: It's on October 19th at Truist Field in Uptown.

[00:29:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Sign up at alz.org slash walk and then just look for my team, Pete's Pack.

[00:29:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And there's also a link in the podcast description here.

[00:29:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Also, I'm going to be emceeing the Gastonia Walk on October 5th.

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_00]: So make a team and join us or make a donation to help me hit my goal.

[00:29:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I would really appreciate it.

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_00]: There are a bunch of other walks around the Carolinas.

[00:29:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And you can go to alz.org for all of the dates and locations.

[00:29:34] [SPEAKER_00]: We are closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's.

[00:29:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you can help us get there, we would really appreciate it.

[00:29:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Will you come walk with me for a different future, for families, for more time, for treatments?

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_00]: This is why I walk.

[00:29:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm actually going to get into this topic in the next hour, but I'll take Mike's call first.

[00:29:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, Mike.

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the show.

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_04]: Hello, Pete.

[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_04]: Thanks for taking the call.

[00:29:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, sir.

[00:29:58] [SPEAKER_04]: First of all, I think you're doing a great job coordinating what's going on in the mountains over there.

[00:30:03] [SPEAKER_04]: It's just a nasty situation.

[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[00:30:06] [SPEAKER_04]: But I wanted to comment on something that I don't know that people are aware of, that this administration in Washington is highly complicit in.

[00:30:16] [SPEAKER_04]: And it's going to get ugly, potentially.

[00:30:18] [SPEAKER_04]: And that is this port strike.

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_04]: Are you familiar with it?

[00:30:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.

[00:30:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, I've been prepping that topic as well because my concern is the impact it's going to have on the relief and rescue operations.

[00:30:33] [SPEAKER_04]: Well, yeah.

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_04]: I was listening to it.

[00:30:35] [SPEAKER_04]: And I work in the transportation industry, so I know.

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_04]: But I was listening to the Brett Runnable show last night.

[00:30:42] [SPEAKER_04]: And one of the Trump folks he had on, and he asked him about that, and they said, yeah, it's part of the problem of the inflation, which is true.

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_04]: But the real issue here is this maritime strike by the Maritime Union is all the Eastport ports on the East Coast all the way down to Texas.

[00:31:05] [SPEAKER_04]: And people should know that I believe most all of the refined gasoline and fuel comes in through the port of Houston.

[00:31:18] [SPEAKER_04]: And so when those supplies run out, a very likely scenario, the longer this drags out, is you're going to see the price of fuel and potentially shortage of fuel if it plays out as it has in the past.

[00:31:33] [SPEAKER_04]: And then some of the parts and perishables and things that people use, because those boats are going to be sitting out there.

[00:31:40] [SPEAKER_04]: And once the supplies are depleted, you're going to have inflation.

[00:31:46] [SPEAKER_04]: Now, Biden was asked if he was going to intervene, and he said he was not, which he could do, as he did on that rail stride a couple of years ago with the, what is it?

[00:32:01] [SPEAKER_04]: Taft-Hartley Act.

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_04]: Taft-Hartley Act.

[00:32:03] [SPEAKER_04]: But he told folks he wasn't going to intercede in that.

[00:32:09] [SPEAKER_04]: Now, what people need to know is those people on the ports, and I think it's probably more at the top than any of these people,

[00:32:17] [SPEAKER_04]: because the average guy, the longshoreman, makes about $80,000 a year, and if you add in his overtime, it's about $125,000.

[00:32:24] [SPEAKER_04]: They are not poor.

[00:32:26] [SPEAKER_04]: Those crane operators run up to $200,000 a year.

[00:32:32] [SPEAKER_04]: So they're compensated very well.

[00:32:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and they're not even running efficient ports.

[00:32:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Our ports suck.

[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_00]: No.

[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_04]: And they were offered a 50% pay increase, but they went on strike, and I believe it's the leadership that's doing it.

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER_04]: Because I think those people are probably saying, hey, why would I want to go on strike?

[00:32:54] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm getting paid well.

[00:32:56] [SPEAKER_04]: But the thing is, the real demand that they've made is one, they want a 77% pay increase.

[00:33:03] [SPEAKER_04]: Mm-hmm.

[00:33:05] [SPEAKER_04]: Plus, here's the kicker.

[00:33:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, this is the big one.

[00:33:07] [SPEAKER_04]: They want all automation eliminated because they want to protect union jobs.

[00:33:14] [SPEAKER_04]: Right.

[00:33:15] [SPEAKER_00]: No automation of the ports.

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[00:33:18] [SPEAKER_04]: And the port of Shanghai, I think they've got like six crane operators running the whole thing,

[00:33:22] [SPEAKER_04]: the busiest port in the world.

[00:33:24] [SPEAKER_04]: That is where automation can help you.

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_04]: And I believe O'Leary, the president of the Timsters Union, released a statement, and he said,

[00:33:34] [SPEAKER_04]: I told President Biden to state an explicative out.

[00:33:37] [SPEAKER_04]: And that's documented.

[00:33:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.

[00:33:39] [SPEAKER_04]: So I don't know if people understand that.

[00:33:41] [SPEAKER_04]: And so the Biden administration's in a tough hole because they're the ones that kill the energy

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_04]: with all the leasing and the drilling and the Keystone pipeline.

[00:33:50] [SPEAKER_04]: So if fuel can't come in, sooner or later something's going to give.

[00:33:56] [SPEAKER_04]: And I'll just mention the ads that's being run by the Harris, one on this station,

[00:34:03] [SPEAKER_04]: are exactly what Trump's did.

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER_04]: And those people over there are just trying to flip the language around because they don't

[00:34:12] [SPEAKER_04]: care about the economy.

[00:34:13] [SPEAKER_04]: And her ad says, well, there's people in Porsches and all.

[00:34:17] [SPEAKER_04]: They're the ones that supply the jobs.

[00:34:19] [SPEAKER_04]: Never mind.

[00:34:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah.

[00:34:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And look, I get people asking me about the Kamala Harris ads.

[00:34:24] [SPEAKER_00]: We are literally required to carry the ads.

[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I know you are.

[00:34:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I know you are.

[00:34:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I find them to be disingenuous.

[00:34:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I find them to be class envy.

[00:34:34] [SPEAKER_00]: They're just disgusting.

[00:34:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I can't help it.

[00:34:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I can't do anything about it.

[00:34:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And I hate them, too.

[00:34:41] [SPEAKER_00]: But they've got tons and tons of billionaire dollars to burn, and we have to take them.

[00:34:48] [SPEAKER_00]: So everybody does.

[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, I'm not a fan.

[00:34:51] [SPEAKER_00]: But you have summed up very nicely the problem that we are now facing because of this international

[00:35:00] [SPEAKER_00]: longshoremen's union strike that they went on, what, Monday, I guess it was, Monday or

[00:35:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Tuesday.

[00:35:08] [SPEAKER_04]: Monday at midnight.

[00:35:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:35:09] [SPEAKER_04]: And I'll be surprised if it doesn't go to the West Coast.

[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And so one of the concerns is that this starts, you mentioned the Teamsters, that it starts,

[00:35:20] [SPEAKER_00]: that others start striking in, quote, solidarity.

[00:35:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And look, the head of the longshoremen, he said, I mean, he threatened.

[00:35:29] [SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I will cripple you.

[00:35:30] [SPEAKER_00]: That's what he said to Americans.

[00:35:32] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's the kind of guy we're dealing with, some mobbed up enforcer guy.

[00:35:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Mike, I do appreciate the call.

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm up against the news.

[00:35:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to get into this.

[00:35:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I got some audio.

[00:35:43] [SPEAKER_00]: But I will say this.

[00:35:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says the Florida National Guard is being deployed to ports

[00:35:50] [SPEAKER_00]: impacted by the strike to maintain order and, if possible, resume operations.

[00:35:56] [SPEAKER_00]: He's going to go down there and break that strike, it sounds like.

[00:36:00] [SPEAKER_00]: God, we could have had, we could have had Ron DeSantis.

[00:36:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, never mind.

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, that'll do it for this episode.

[00:36:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening.

[00:36:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise

[00:36:11] [SPEAKER_00]: on the podcast.

[00:36:12] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here.

[00:36:15] [SPEAKER_00]: You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepcalendorshow.com.

[00:36:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.