Elemental: Fire, water, and government failure (01-08-2025--Hour2)

[00:00:04] 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 thepetekalinarshow.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] So we got the wildfires out in California. As I was going over in the last hour, we went through a lot of the details there. Bad policy, bad politics, bad priorities. I have a bunch of emails here. I will read through a couple of the only the best ones. Only the best.

[00:00:48] But I also just saw the there's a clip here and I'm hesitant to play it just because it's on the Joe Rogan podcast. Remember when Donald Trump in the election, it's like a couple, I guess, a couple months ago, two months ago, he went on the Joe Rogan podcast.

[00:01:05] And because it's a podcast and it's Joe Rogan, I'm afraid because I haven't screened it yet. So I don't know if there's any cousin involved. But this clip, it's like a seven minute clip of Trump talking about this exact problem, this exact problem.

[00:01:26] He talks about the Delta smelt. He talks about how they have all this water. He specifically discusses that the rainwater is being wasted by being directed into the Pacific Ocean.

[00:01:39] He says, you know, in Los Angeles, you can't get proper amounts of water in order to protect a tiny little fish. The water up north, it gets routed into the Pacific Ocean.

[00:01:50] Millions and millions of water of gallons of water gets poured into the Pacific. And then he says he got it all done. Nobody could believe it. It was the best, blah, blah, blah.

[00:02:00] You got so much water. And he says to Governor Newsom, all you have to do is sign a contract or an agreement or something. And Newsom wouldn't do it. He didn't want to sign.

[00:02:12] He says, every time I go to California, I say you have so much water. They don't know it. I'm telling you, people living in Beverly Hills, they turn off the water. Same thing with the electric.

[00:02:23] These are choices. These are choices that are made by politicians who are pandering for reelection, pandering for money so they can get reelected, right?

[00:02:35] Pandering so they can keep their salaries. Some of them believe this stuff, sure. Although I don't know what you, I don't know, like, how do you defend this?

[00:02:48] How do you defend what we are seeing right now? How do you defend that?

[00:02:53] To say, no, no, we're going to dehydrate, you know, a third of the state of California or half of the state of California.

[00:03:03] We're going to just send all the water away because of some little tiny fish to save this little tiny fish.

[00:03:10] And this isn't just a California problem, obviously. This happens everywhere in North Carolina.

[00:03:15] Remember the heel splitter muscle? Remember that one?

[00:03:19] Right. And look, I understand, you know, protecting ecosystems and the amount of damage that can be done and that sort of thing.

[00:03:27] But if you want, like, if you want to stop development, then just stop development.

[00:03:33] That's what you need to do.

[00:03:35] But what you're doing right now is creating really dangerous circumstances.

[00:03:41] And until people are held accountable for it at the ballot box or maybe even criminally or civilly liable, this doesn't change.

[00:03:50] And I don't live in California, never have lived in California.

[00:03:53] I've only visited it once.

[00:03:55] That was enough for me.

[00:03:56] But, I mean, that was San Francisco.

[00:04:00] No, they didn't have the Pooh map at that time.

[00:04:03] But I would have actually gone around.

[00:04:06] I would have gone to check to see, you know, how accurate the Pooh app was.

[00:04:10] But I digress.

[00:04:13] Brett writing in to Pete at ThePeteCalendarShow.com.

[00:04:17] He says, Pete, where did all the massive snowfall in California go?

[00:04:21] Answer, not the reservoirs.

[00:04:23] It was sent to the Pacific Ocean.

[00:04:25] I got an email from a friend in California.

[00:04:28] Their fire hydrants are empty.

[00:04:30] Citizens are using garden hoses.

[00:04:33] David says, with respect to the fires in L.A., when solar panels burn, they leave behind toxic ash.

[00:04:43] All these L.A. homes with solar panels are polluting the air and land.

[00:04:49] Should the EPA step in and fine California for poor environmental management by limiting water supply, poor forest management, and pushing solar panels in fire hazard areas?

[00:05:03] I'd be for it.

[00:05:04] But seriously, I don't know any other way at this point to combat this kind of stuff.

[00:05:11] Because the people who are making these decisions have incentives that align with a continuation of making these really bad decisions.

[00:05:22] And until they are punished in some way, I don't know how that changes.

[00:05:27] Now, maybe voters wake up and they're like, you know what?

[00:05:29] We're going to choose a different direction.

[00:05:32] But I don't think they will.

[00:05:34] Because politics and political alignment, particularly in a state like California and particularly in an area like Los Angeles, it is their identities.

[00:05:44] People have adopted their politics as their identity.

[00:05:48] And so they can't divorce themselves from it.

[00:05:53] Like, if you've been out there advocating for the Delta smelt, right?

[00:06:00] If you've been out there saying, no, it's okay for us to turn off our water when your neighbors are grumbling that they can't water their lawns or something.

[00:06:07] And you're the one that's out there, you know, morally preening to the neighborhood, virtue signaling that you're better than they are because you're okay with dehydration.

[00:06:18] You're okay with the increased fire hazards.

[00:06:22] You're okay with this approach and these policies.

[00:06:25] How do you turn around and go back on that?

[00:06:29] Right?

[00:06:29] Because you've elevated it to not only your identity.

[00:06:35] You have a personal stake in this.

[00:06:38] But you've also gone on the record as saying that this is the better way to go and that this is what the environment requires.

[00:06:48] So how do you change your mind?

[00:06:50] For any other reason?

[00:06:51] Like, because there wouldn't be any new science about this.

[00:06:54] Everything is already known about why these fires accelerate.

[00:06:58] Oh, by the way, I also saw...

[00:07:02] Where was it here?

[00:07:04] Ah, yes.

[00:07:05] Libs of TikTok.

[00:07:07] Did you know in Los Angeles last year or I guess 2023, two years ago, there were almost just shy of 14,000 homeless fires in L.A.?

[00:07:23] It was 13,909 fires that were started by homeless people.

[00:07:30] Beginning in 2021, homeless encampment fires accounted for 80% of fires in downtown Los Angeles.

[00:07:42] Just three years prior, there was an average of seven encampment fires every day.

[00:07:50] Seven a day in 2018.

[00:07:54] By three years later, that number had tripled.

[00:07:57] In 2023, a massive fire, likely started by a homeless person, shut down a major freeway, putting L.A.'s notorious traffic into a gridlock for days.

[00:08:08] And just a quick reminder, California spent $24 billion on homelessness and the problem got worse.

[00:08:16] Because the entities and individuals making money serving the homeless have an incentive that the homeless problem get worse.

[00:08:29] Because if the homeless problem gets better and there are no homeless people to serve, then you don't get paid.

[00:08:38] And your organization is no longer necessary, right?

[00:08:43] So you want to serve more clients.

[00:08:46] You want to have more customers, right?

[00:08:48] The incentive structure is aligned to not solve the problem.

[00:08:53] And that doesn't mean there aren't people with good intentions and doing it for the right reasons and really trying to make a difference and an impact.

[00:09:00] Sure, there are those people.

[00:09:01] Absolutely.

[00:09:02] There are entities and organizations that try to help people like that.

[00:09:06] Absolutely.

[00:09:07] The problem is when government becomes the funding agent and these organizations then get hooked on that government grant,

[00:09:16] the incentive is for them to keep getting the grants.

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[00:10:33] Got a message here from Seth to Pete at thepetecalendarshow.com.

[00:10:39] First, I'd like to say it's good to hear your voice on the radio again.

[00:10:43] Thank you, Seth. I appreciate that.

[00:10:44] The people on the West Coast need to pretend that it's Donald Trump telling them not to burn the underbrush

[00:10:53] and give a big middle finger to their government, just like they do to anything Trump says.

[00:10:58] That whole cesspool of the U.S. has no one to blame but themselves for all the problems they have for lack of action.

[00:11:04] Yeah, this is different than the disaster in Western North Carolina in that they knew these types of hazards were coming, right?

[00:11:15] This is a regular occurrence, and there are all sorts of mitigation programs and such that they know can work.

[00:11:24] And Californians have decided to not do those things.

[00:11:27] They keep electing people that continue to not do those things.

[00:11:31] And so there is a bit of a difference here.

[00:11:35] Now, I'm not interested in checking people's voter cards before getting them evacuated from these disaster areas, obviously.

[00:11:44] It doesn't matter to me if the home that a firefighter is trying to save is the home of a Democrat or a Republican.

[00:11:53] It doesn't matter.

[00:11:55] The emergency response does not take into account the political identification of the people they're trying to save.

[00:12:03] That being said, there needs to be a recognition that the policies that have been enacted and the priorities that these leaders have adopted are incorrect.

[00:12:20] I said it after COVID, right?

[00:12:23] After the pandemic and Governor Roy Cooper here in North Carolina, and he opened everything back up begrudgingly, that there needs to be an after-action report.

[00:12:36] There needs to be what is often referred to as a post-mortem, an autopsy, if you will.

[00:12:42] There has to be some sort of an assessment about what they got right and what they got wrong.

[00:12:48] And that's not to drag and criticize the people that made the decisions.

[00:12:55] I mean, yes, those things will happen, no doubt.

[00:12:58] In fact, I would probably participate in some of that criticism.

[00:13:01] However, the more important reason why you do those types of reports is so you don't make mistakes again.

[00:13:10] So if you have another situation that arises, you have a blueprint of things that work and things that don't.

[00:13:18] And unless you're going to tell me, which apparently Roy Cooper, and to my...

[00:13:24] Well, I am.

[00:13:25] I am still amazed.

[00:13:26] I am.

[00:13:27] And I don't know why.

[00:13:28] Maybe I'm a Pollyanna on this.

[00:13:29] I expected some media people to at least ask the guy before he left office,

[00:13:35] did you get a single thing wrong in your pandemic response?

[00:13:40] That's the question that needs to be asked, whether it's the pandemic or it's Hurricane Helene recovery and relief,

[00:13:47] or it's the wildfire situation in California.

[00:13:51] Did local leaders, did politicians, did policies get anything wrong?

[00:13:57] I know you want to talk about all the things that you've done that look good for you, right?

[00:14:03] You want all of the good press.

[00:14:05] I get that.

[00:14:06] I don't care.

[00:14:07] Okay?

[00:14:08] I don't care to listen to all the things that you want pats on the back for.

[00:14:13] I am more interested in an honest assessment that identifies things that you got wrong.

[00:14:18] Not so I can criticize, but so we can say, don't do that again.

[00:14:23] Don't do that again.

[00:14:25] Hey, you know, we postponed that controlled burn in this area.

[00:14:29] And then, oh my gosh, a wildfire came through and has destroyed thousands and thousands of acres

[00:14:34] and thousands of structures and probably killed a bunch of people.

[00:14:38] Like, well, let's not do that again.

[00:14:41] Maybe we should do some controlled burns from now on, right?

[00:14:44] Maybe keep them on a schedule.

[00:14:46] Remove them from some political whim that apparently the administration had,

[00:14:51] that the Fed said, oh, we don't want to do this because if it's out of control,

[00:14:53] it could hurt the Democrats' re-election chances.

[00:14:55] So why don't we take that decision away from these politicians?

[00:15:00] Just spitballing here.

[00:15:01] All right, I hope you had a happy holiday season,

[00:15:04] but tell me if something like this happened at your house.

[00:15:06] Your family and friends are gathered around.

[00:15:09] Maybe y'all are in the living room.

[00:15:10] You're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing,

[00:15:13] and then somebody says, hey, Dad, remember those old VHS tapes?

[00:15:17] Did you ever get them transferred?

[00:15:19] And then the room gets all quiet.

[00:15:20] All eyes are on Dad who says, oh, you know, well, I've been meaning to,

[00:15:25] but I just haven't gotten around to it.

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[00:16:07] So from fires out in California to the flooding in western North Carolina

[00:16:13] from Hurricane Helene, we have some updates there.

[00:16:17] Leslie Colba writing at the Tribune, tribpapers.com is the website.

[00:16:23] On October 30th, HUD informed the city of Asheville that it was going to be getting

[00:16:29] an additional $1.75 million from the CDBG fund.

[00:16:37] That is Community Development Block Grant.

[00:16:42] And part of that fund is the Designated Disaster Recovery Fund.

[00:16:46] Before receiving any money, however, the staff says that the, quote,

[00:16:51] City Council will need to authorize the submission to HUD of amendments

[00:16:56] to their annual action plan.

[00:17:01] And they have to update their goals for the disaster recovery

[00:17:06] in some 2020 through 2024 consolidated plan.

[00:17:13] And that will give a concise summary of the actions and activities that will be used

[00:17:17] to address the disaster recovery, right?

[00:17:19] So they need to have a plan.

[00:17:20] And part of this, look, I understand why GovCo does this stuff,

[00:17:24] because there's a grant program.

[00:17:26] And if they were to turn around and say, all right, here's a check for $1.7 million

[00:17:30] to the city of Asheville, and there's no plan to spend it,

[00:17:34] there's no plan for, you know, what it's going to be used for.

[00:17:36] And then the city of Asheville does something really stupid and uses it to replace,

[00:17:41] you know, sidewalks because fat tourists jump up and down and break the sidewalks.

[00:17:47] And I'm not kidding, by the way, on that.

[00:17:49] And I mean, not that fat tourists are breaking sidewalks,

[00:17:51] but that's what the city of Asheville years ago,

[00:17:53] the city council blamed all the tourists for why their sidewalks were in such disrepair.

[00:17:59] However, they blame tourists.

[00:18:02] Like, guys, a sidewalk, people walking on a sidewalk,

[00:18:07] it's going to take about 70 years for that sidewalk to decompose.

[00:18:12] The life cycle on a sidewalk is like 70 to 80 years.

[00:18:17] And so, no, it's not because of a whole bunch of tourists walking on your sidewalks.

[00:18:22] It's because you guys have not, what, prioritized the spending.

[00:18:27] You've taken money that you should have spent or should have set aside for sidewalk repairs

[00:18:33] and replacement, and you've used it for other things.

[00:18:37] You see, and this gets to a fundamental difference in the way people see spending,

[00:18:43] whether it is at the governmental level or even in their own household budgets,

[00:18:49] which is see a penny, spend a penny.

[00:18:52] And that is not a long-term viable strategy.

[00:18:55] You will eventually go bankrupt.

[00:18:58] You will eventually become insolvent if you are doing it in your household.

[00:19:04] If you are GovCo, well, you could just keep taxing people.

[00:19:07] Until, of course, you hit sort of that death spiral, right,

[00:19:10] where now people don't want to live in your place because it's too expensive and it's too crummy,

[00:19:14] and so people leave, and then you have to raise taxes,

[00:19:18] which creates more of an incentive for people to leave,

[00:19:21] and you end up in this death spiral.

[00:19:25] When you get the revenue in, and they know this, by the way,

[00:19:29] they do reserve studies on the long-term replacement costs for sidewalks and roads and all this stuff.

[00:19:37] They have all of these plans.

[00:19:39] They have all these projections.

[00:19:41] And they take the money in, and rather than designate it for the reserves to fund adequately the replacement on infrastructure,

[00:19:51] they don't.

[00:19:52] They spend it.

[00:19:53] They see a penny and they spend it.

[00:19:54] And then they're like, we don't have any money to replace sidewalks.

[00:19:59] Yeah, because you're spending all of this other money on other things that you shouldn't have been spending it on

[00:20:05] because it is not one of your core services.

[00:20:07] You have prioritized other things above the core service.

[00:20:13] When Los Angeles cuts its fire department by $17 or $20 million, whatever it was in this year's budget cycle,

[00:20:23] that is a deprioritization.

[00:20:25] And you could say, well, they had a budget crisis or crunch and they needed to fill a deficit.

[00:20:29] I get all of that.

[00:20:30] Sure.

[00:20:31] But as Joe Biden's dad told him,

[00:20:34] Joe,

[00:20:36] right?

[00:20:38] And we all know what that means.

[00:20:40] Don't tell me what your priorities are.

[00:20:42] Show me your budget.

[00:20:43] That's what Joe Biden has said for decades.

[00:20:45] Right?

[00:20:47] I don't know if his father actually ever said that to him.

[00:20:49] But it does make sense.

[00:20:51] It's one of the few things that Joe Biden has probably ever uttered that is true.

[00:20:56] And if you have a budget that is diverting money away from sidewalks, police, fire, the courts, right?

[00:21:06] These are the things that the government is supposed to be doing.

[00:21:10] Although some would argue against the sidewalks and roads.

[00:21:14] And that's a whole different debate.

[00:21:16] But most people concur that these are the core services that government needs to do.

[00:21:22] And if you're not doing those things right, do you really think you've earned the right to start doing all these other things?

[00:21:29] You keep spending more and more and more and more money.

[00:21:33] And Charlotte is the same way.

[00:21:36] Right?

[00:21:36] Charlotte is under this exact same pressure.

[00:21:40] They keep spending more and more money on all of these nice-to-have things or want-to-have things

[00:21:46] and not need-to-have things.

[00:21:49] Out in Asheville, same thing.

[00:21:52] There is a common denominator in all of those jurisdictions.

[00:21:57] But I digress.

[00:21:58] Asheville's Community Development Division manager, James Shelton,

[00:22:01] explained to the city council that the high administrative burden was needed for expedition and oversight of disbursements.

[00:22:09] Shelton said that Helene cost the Asheville metro area about 8,200 jobs or 4% of the labor force,

[00:22:17] which would raise the unemployment rate to almost 11%.

[00:22:22] That's the whole area.

[00:22:24] To help the city of Asheville, contributed about $700,000 from the CDBG funds that it already had on hand

[00:22:33] to an organization called Mountain Biz Works.

[00:22:39] And they have a Rebuilding Together grant fund.

[00:22:41] And so the idea there is to get people jobs and training and that sort of thing.

[00:22:46] To council's surprise, no funds had been drawn down from that grant, though.

[00:22:52] Shelton said that Mountain Biz Works, which was the pass-through agency for the funds,

[00:22:56] was currently reviewing and scoring the applications, and interviews would begin later this month.

[00:23:02] What's the holdup?

[00:23:03] City has the money.

[00:23:04] They passed it on to Mountain Biz Works.

[00:23:06] Mountain Biz Works is now going to pass it on to some other organizations,

[00:23:10] but they've got to do all of the applications, and they're totally going through it.

[00:23:14] I mean, it's been, what, four or five months since Helene hit?

[00:23:16] What's the holdup?

[00:23:17] Well, they don't have the capacity.

[00:23:19] In other words, the catastrophe was so big that these organizations don't have the infrastructure

[00:23:25] to get this stuff done in a timely manner.

[00:23:31] One of the many challenges in this kind of disaster recovery and relief operation.

[00:23:36] All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events.

[00:23:40] And I know you do, too.

[00:23:41] And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources.

[00:23:45] Why?

[00:23:46] Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News.

[00:23:51] It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place,

[00:23:57] so you can compare coverage and verify information.

[00:24:00] You can check it out at check.ground.news slash Pete.

[00:24:05] I put the link in the podcast description, too.

[00:24:07] I started using Ground News a few months ago, and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate

[00:24:12] because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom.

[00:24:17] The Blind Spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right.

[00:24:21] See for yourself.

[00:24:23] Check.ground.news slash Pete.

[00:24:26] Subscribe through that link, and you'll get 15% off any subscription.

[00:24:30] I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.

[00:24:34] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News

[00:24:38] as they make the media landscape more transparent.

[00:24:42] Bill says in an email to Pete at the PeteCalendarshow.com,

[00:24:47] Pete, I have quite a few relatives in California.

[00:24:50] There are a lot of conservatives.

[00:24:52] They're just outweighed or outnumbered by the wackos, much like Mecklenburg County.

[00:24:58] We are suffering under the Democrat city and county rule by a thin majority,

[00:25:02] and then they get to gerrymander the districts.

[00:25:04] We're going to become California, Mecklenburg County if we don't watch out.

[00:25:08] Love you.

[00:25:09] So glad you're back from vacation.

[00:25:10] Thank you, Bill.

[00:25:10] I appreciate it.

[00:25:11] I'm glad to be back.

[00:25:12] Glad to be back.

[00:25:13] Yeah, this is a problem.

[00:25:14] So when I say people need to realize that these are the ramifications of their decisions,

[00:25:20] I'm not really talking about conservatives on this stuff.

[00:25:23] These are Democrats.

[00:25:24] But look, Republicans do this as well.

[00:25:27] Republicans, when they run the roost in a certain town or county,

[00:25:31] they will also lose sight of their core service mandates and their priorities.

[00:25:37] Absolutely.

[00:25:39] You look at Republican-run jurisdictions all over the country,

[00:25:44] and they do things that are outside of the core services.

[00:25:49] So it's not strictly limited to Democrats.

[00:25:51] However, it is way more pronounced among Democrats,

[00:25:55] just because they have a different philosophy when it comes to the spending.

[00:25:59] As I said, see a penny, spend a penny.

[00:26:02] Which Jan says, come on, Pete, see a penny, spend a penny.

[00:26:06] You used to live in Asheville.

[00:26:07] You've seen GovCo work for years.

[00:26:09] It's not see a penny, spend a penny.

[00:26:12] It's see a penny, spend a dollar.

[00:26:14] And malign anyone who disagrees.

[00:26:16] Okay.

[00:26:17] That's fair.

[00:26:18] So see a penny, spend a dime.

[00:26:19] How about that?

[00:26:21] Jan says, I have two degrees in forestry.

[00:26:25] Fire ecology was part of my education.

[00:26:28] While intensive management cannot stop the fires out west,

[00:26:32] because it is a fire-maintained ecosystem,

[00:26:34] it will lower the degree of catastrophic events.

[00:26:37] I saw a bumper sticker that said, being stupid should hurt.

[00:26:42] It most assuredly does in this case.

[00:26:44] Right.

[00:26:45] Like, this is true.

[00:26:46] So what they found, I remember reading a story about this.

[00:26:48] Gosh, it must have been 20 years ago or something.

[00:26:51] I don't even remember.

[00:26:52] It was so long ago.

[00:26:53] And it was talking about some massive wildfires

[00:26:56] that had raged across, like, the Midwest or something.

[00:27:01] And the scientists were all surprised to see

[00:27:06] this growth occurring of some kind of tree

[00:27:10] that they thought didn't exist anymore or something,

[00:27:13] because the tree was not reproducing,

[00:27:17] except, like, the extreme fire,

[00:27:20] the temperatures were needed for this particular tree

[00:27:23] to procreate.

[00:27:26] Something like that.

[00:27:27] And so they were astounded to see this.

[00:27:30] And it's like, well,

[00:27:31] you had a wildfire that burned all this stuff.

[00:27:34] And so when they were trying to just

[00:27:35] prevent all wildfires,

[00:27:38] that used to be what they did,

[00:27:39] just prevent everything, no wildfires.

[00:27:41] And then they realized, oh, no,

[00:27:43] we can't do that,

[00:27:44] because it's actually going to kill these ecosystems, right?

[00:27:47] So you have to have, as Jan just said,

[00:27:49] a fire-maintained ecosystem.

[00:27:51] Fire has to be part of this,

[00:27:54] of the ecosystem.

[00:27:56] But that doesn't mean you don't control it.

[00:27:58] That's why you have the controlled burns.

[00:28:00] And for some reason, just like nuclear,

[00:28:02] the, quote, progressives

[00:28:04] don't want to see that happen.

[00:28:06] But that's the natural order of things.

[00:28:10] Out in Western North Carolina,

[00:28:12] the Business North Carolina Daily Digest,

[00:28:16] their daily newsletter that they put out,

[00:28:18] businessnc.com,

[00:28:22] they say that it remains unclear

[00:28:25] how many properties are damaged.

[00:28:26] It's not a criticism.

[00:28:27] It's a reflection of conflicting information

[00:28:29] in the most recent Office of State's

[00:28:33] State Budget and Management report

[00:28:36] 133-page report,

[00:28:38] quotes officials saying that they expect

[00:28:39] about 73,700 homes total to be damaged.

[00:28:45] So 74,000 homes.

[00:28:47] A few pages later,

[00:28:49] it's suggested that based on

[00:28:51] individual assistance claims to date,

[00:28:54] the estimate could be between 121,000

[00:28:58] and all the way up to 132,000 homes damaged.

[00:29:02] They just don't know at this point.

[00:29:05] The smaller number refers to homes

[00:29:08] that have FEMA-verified damage.

[00:29:10] But the state believes the actual number

[00:29:13] could be much, much higher.

[00:29:15] Meanwhile, the new governor,

[00:29:19] Roy 2D2, a.k.a. Josh Stein,

[00:29:21] he did a tour the other day,

[00:29:24] and on his first day in office,

[00:29:26] he announced five executive orders,

[00:29:27] and he is sidelining the Roy Cooper-created

[00:29:33] NCOR, the North Carolina Office of Recovery

[00:29:36] and Resiliency.

[00:29:37] That's the department or agency

[00:29:40] that Roy Cooper set up

[00:29:42] when the hurricanes hit down east.

[00:29:45] And was it Florence and Matthew?

[00:29:49] And there are people,

[00:29:50] and it's been over eight years since Matthew,

[00:29:52] and they still haven't gotten replacement homes.

[00:29:56] So what's going to happen

[00:29:58] in Western North Carolina

[00:29:59] is going to be run through

[00:30:01] the Governor's Recovery Office

[00:30:03] for Western North Carolina.

[00:30:05] So right out of the Governor's Office,

[00:30:07] the Governor's Recovery Office,

[00:30:09] or G-R-O-W-N-C,

[00:30:11] or as I like to call it,

[00:30:13] Grow NC.

[00:30:14] Yeah, well, that makes sense.

[00:30:15] All right, that'll do it for this episode.

[00:30:17] Thank you so much for listening.

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[00:30:20] without your support

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[00:30:32] Again, thank you so much for listening,

[00:30:34] and don't break anything while I'm gone.