Helene Update from Western NC (10-09-2024--Hour2)

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_01]: 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 thepetekalinershow.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_01]: End of the last hour, we had a call from the now-banned Winston, the anti-Semitic bigot, who blames the Jews for everything, including why the relief efforts have been so slow in Western North Carolina. It's because he tied it to the Jews and then pretended that he didn't.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what you're talking about. I just said AIPAC, which is the American-Israeli Political Action Committee.

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And he tried to make some connection there because that's what anti-Semites do and conspiracy theorists do.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_01]: They try to find the connections and this is what they don't want you to know and all that.

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I have no idea. It would actually surprise me if there's no AIPAC money that has gone to anybody in Western North Carolina politics.

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_01]: That would be surprising.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_01]: But what do I know?

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I don't see Jewish boogeymen behind every rock or tree, you know?

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, Steve said, Winston is one of those agitators that we all talked about from the Talktoberfest livestream on Monday night.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I worry about his blood pressure.

[00:01:47] Yeah.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's one of the things I read.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I read a study.

[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, I guess it was last year.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And it talked about how people who believe in conspiracy theories, they actually are, they have less anxiety and they're happier because they think they know the answers to everything.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Because, you know, they know, quote, the truth.

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's the way that they get to make sense of a chaotic world.

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's like a security blanket for them.

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, oh, this would be makes me feel good.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's, yeah, I don't know if his blood pressure spikes for all of that.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And then Matthew says, please reconsider banning Winston.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_01]: After all the, after all, the purpose of a caller is to make the host look good.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_01]: And he is a superstar in that regard.

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Nice job today.

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I was entertained and instructed by how you engaged with him.

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, I, I thought he had, I thought he had evolved.

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I thought he had made some progress.

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I thought he was going to be better.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And that was my mistake.

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_01]: But you know what?

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_01]: That's sometimes that is the price I pay for giving people the benefit of the doubt, giving second chances.

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes you get hurt, you know, but I don't take it personally.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_01]: That was just, you know, okay, well, lesson learned.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Trick me once to quote George W. Bush.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Ain't gonna trick me again.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I think is what he said.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't really great on remembering the metaphors.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, that's fine.

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_01]: He got on once.

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_01]: He, he did his anti-Jew bigotry.

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_01]: And, uh, we banned him and then he, he snuck through at some point.

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And, uh, said, all right, well, it seemed, he seems a little bit better now.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_01]: And then I think he may have been on another time after that.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_01]: And, and then this.

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And so now he's done.

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_01]: That's how it goes.

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_01]: You, uh, you have now, you've now been banned.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't need, that's the thing.

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Like, it's just comedic value at this point.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just, like, we're just mocking you, you know?

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And that, that makes me feel bad.

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like doing that.

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, so.

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_01]: The juice isn't worth the squeeze for me on that.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, back to this piece at the Federalist.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_01]: I started it at the, uh, at the end of the last hour.

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, it's, uh, it's an anonymous piece, but the author, uh, claims to have been a U.S.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Army colonel serving on the Army staff in the Pentagon in August of 2005.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_01]: And, uh, that was during Hurricane Katrina.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_01]: He had also worked on the response to Yellowstone fires in 88.

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Uh, he, he worked out of, uh, Fort Bragg, uh, during Hurricane Fran.

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_01]: That was a bad one.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, and he was also in a support battalion of the 82nd in Afghanistan.

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_01]: So, he's been watching what has been occurring in the federal response to Helene in Western North Carolina.

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And what he says is, I have been grossly disappointed with the delayed and inept nature of the federal response.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_01]: So, why did this happen, is what he's asking.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Why did the military, the actual muscle of federal disaster response, as FEMA is merely a coordinating staff agency, right?

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_01]: But why did the military largely sit on the sidelines?

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_01]: And so, he goes through a few possible explanations.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Which actually makes a bit of sense, you know, considering his purported background.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_01]: And I say that because he's anonymous.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I cannot verify if he actually held these positions.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_01]: But it sounds like he did.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And making a list of this kind of stuff, of possible explanations, and going through each one.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, thinking each one through.

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_01]: That does seem to be sort of the mindset of a person who would be involved in these kinds of operations.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_01]: So, he says, first things first.

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_01]: In both disasters, state National Guard units performed valiantly under the command and control of their state governors.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_01]: However, the problems with National Guard units in a given state are twofold.

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_01]: First, National Guard units often lack the full spectrum of combat, combat support, and combat service support units found in the active component on bases so very close to the disaster.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Like Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Liberty, formerly Bragg, and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Fort Stewart in Georgia.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay?

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_01]: So, they don't have as much to draw from, number one.

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Number two, the state National Guard units often have their armories and their homes of the members of the Guard right in the path of the disaster.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes that impacts their ability to respond because maybe they've lost stuff.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_01]: They can't get to the armory.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_01]: They can't make it through whatever.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_01]: You don't know.

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_01]: So, deploying active military units, especially in a region with such robust active military capabilities as America's southeast, that's essential in disaster relief operations.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_01]: What have we heard, too, in the last couple of days?

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_01]: We have heard that they need strong backs, strong arms.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_01]: They need people to come and do work.

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_01]: And I can't help but thinking, like, would that be something that a larger active duty military presence, like if we had deployed more U.S. troops into the disaster area, is this something then that they wouldn't be wrestling with?

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And maybe they still would.

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not making an argument that they would be.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_01]: But I do wonder.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And apparently this author is wondering also, where are all of the active duty military?

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Now, Biden did call up some.

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_01]: But it took like six days for him to do that.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_01]: And then he had to supplement with another call-up.

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I think they're now at, it's either 1,000 or 1,500.

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_01]: And there are National Guard also.

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So the author here says, let's compare Katrina with Helene.

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_01]: In Katrina, a three-star general was placed in command, along with the two-star commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division,

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_01]: with a full Airborne Infantry Brigade Task Force of the 82nd.

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_01]: A core support logistics command of thousands of soldiers, a signal battalion, a combat support hospital, robust Army engineer assets, and countless other support units.

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_01]: All these units were on standby orders days before Hurricane Katrina hit.

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_01]: How about Helene?

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_01]: 1,000 Troop Airborne Infantry Battalion Task Force of the 82nd, which is one-third the size of a brigade,

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_01]: was given a warning order under the ground command of a mere one-star general.

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_01]: These forces are without the medical, engineer, core-level logistics, signal and communications, division-slash-Army HQ command,

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_01]: and control capabilities that defined Katrina's support.

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_01]: So Western North Carolina hasn't gotten all of that versus what Katrina got under George W. Bush,

[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_01]: which we were told was catastrophic, right?

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_01]: That this was a catastrophic response to that disaster.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_01]: So if that's the standard, what does that make this?

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[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Usually we talk with a friend, Mark Starling, from WWNC in Asheville at 1 o'clock,

[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_01]: but apparently there was some sort of phone issue or something going on out in Western North Carolina.

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm unsure why that would be the case.

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_01]: But so, Mark, I realize we're only going to have like two minutes here.

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_01]: So would you be able to like hang over through the newscast, the bottom of the hour news break?

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER_01]: So first off, let's just start with how are you doing?

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And how's the family and friends and your coworkers?

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_01]: How is everybody holding up?

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Everybody seems to be holding up pretty good.

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_03]: And my wife and my son and my four dogs are still in Atlanta.

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_03]: We are in the process of trying to get our house back in order so it can be habitable again.

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, the team at the radio station is, man, they're just grinding it out.

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of been 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_03]: And for the last 14 days, and, you know, I couldn't be prouder to work with the people that I work with.

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_03]: So they've really done a miraculous job of somehow turning storm coverage into what has become a rescue and resource network for people.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_03]: Our station team, they refer to themselves as the Minutemen Wellness Checks.

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_03]: They've been able to locate 121 families as of today, reuniting about 360 people with their loved ones.

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_03]: So I think that's some fantastic work.

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_03]: We've got two chainsaw crews.

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_03]: They're well up over 70 trees moved off of houses since the storm, you know, since we first got out of the storm.

[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_03]: So it's really turned into quite something.

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_03]: And it has really kind of put a spotlight on our western North Carolina community for sure.

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_01]: So do you guys have recommendations on where people want to send help?

[00:12:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Are you guys, who are you working with and who do you recommend?

[00:12:59] [SPEAKER_03]: So we are specifically working with Hearts With Hands.

[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_03]: Their website is heartswithhands.org.

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_03]: They've got two jobs, basically.

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_03]: They feed our first responders hot meals every single day.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_03]: And then they also package boxes of food for families and then deliver them and set up pickup locations as well.

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_03]: So we've been really specifically working with them.

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, the supplies are plentiful right now, but obviously with what's happening in Florida, that could change in an instant.

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, we realize that our kind of our, the attention of the nation being on western North Carolina is kind of fading.

[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_03]: We think the surge of supplies that came in really gave us, you know, even though there's an overabundance now, that stuff is going to deplete very quickly.

[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_03]: And we've still got a long way to go before we're anywhere near out of this thing.

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Mark Starling, Morning Guy, WWNC.

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, Mark, I'm going to put you on hold and we're going to do a newscast and, you know, pay some bills and we'll bring you right back.

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

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[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Let me go over to Mark Starling from WWNC.

[00:15:16] [SPEAKER_01]: He is the morning guy in Asheville and we chat with him every Wednesday.

[00:15:22] [SPEAKER_01]: So you're doing all right.

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_01]: We covered that right before the news there.

[00:15:26] [SPEAKER_01]: So I appreciate you hanging on through the newscast.

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that we are hearing is people are frustrated with the lack of a response or the inadequacy of a response from the federal government.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_01]: So you've been on the air now for what, 14 straight days or something.

[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And so like what have people been saying to you?

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_01]: What have people been calling in?

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Because you guys are acting as this sort of, you know, massive switchboard and everybody there is being affected by it.

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_01]: So what are you hearing?

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, I think there's a couple of things that are going on here.

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_03]: Number one, was the federal response behind when it came to the actual, like, boots on the ground right after the storm?

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely 100%.

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_03]: I've talked to somebody from FEMA.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, they've been fairly upfront and honest about that.

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Like, look, the federal government cannot mobilize the way that the private sector can,

[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_03]: which is why we had 80 or so private sector helicopters with pilots and relief supplies in the air,

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_03]: flying relief missions, doing rescues anywhere a long time before the feds could even hope to figure out

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_03]: even whether or not they were still chasing their tail.

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_03]: Now, with that said, this is probably one of the most significant responses that they've had to a storm

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_03]: in the sense of nobody ever expected a hurricane-force storm to smack western North Carolina.

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_03]: It just wasn't on the radar.

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_03]: The terrain here, Pete, you're familiar, you've lived here.

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_03]: The terrain makes things very difficult, obviously.

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_03]: Getting electrical lines repaired, getting water lines repaired, getting just supplies to people.

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_03]: So a lot of what we're hearing is people when they're applying for their disaster assistance.

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_03]: So the disaster assistance is the $750 that people keep talking about.

[00:17:30] [SPEAKER_03]: That is what they give you prior.

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_03]: That is like the first step, right?

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_03]: So you apply for that.

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Let's say you get that.

[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_03]: Once you get that, that money is not meant to make you whole by any stretch.

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_03]: It is meant to kind of get you along to get to the things that you need

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_03]: while you are going through the application process for the FEMA loans or grants, whichever it is.

[00:17:51] [SPEAKER_03]: When people, they have three ways they can apply.

[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_03]: They can apply through a 1-800 number.

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_03]: They can apply online or they can apply on an app.

[00:18:00] [SPEAKER_03]: And basically, or I'm sorry, on the app in person and by phone.

[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_03]: What we're hearing is most of the people who are applying by phone or by applying by app are getting denied.

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_03]: A lot of that is because of the way the form is, and it's not the most clear.

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, if you're filling it out on a phone, you can miss it.

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_03]: It's easy to miss a field.

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_03]: If you submit it, it immediately gets rejected.

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_03]: What we have found is that if that happens, we recommend that you take that to one of the actual FEMA tents,

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_03]: where you can sit down with a person, a live human being, and nine times out of ten,

[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_03]: the people who have done that that were rejected the first time, it was a problem with their application,

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_03]: or it was just, you know, there was some small insignificant thing that caused the rejection.

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Now they've gotten approved for it.

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_03]: So what we're telling people is stop bothering with the app, stop bothering with the phone number,

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_03]: and just go to the tent.

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_03]: That seems to be the way the people are getting the most response.

[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Most people are getting approved that way, at least from what we are hearing.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, we've heard a lot of things.

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_03]: We've heard that they won't give you any money for anything.

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_03]: Like if you lose your fridge and all your groceries,

[00:19:12] [SPEAKER_03]: they want a cubic foot measurement of your fridge so they don't have much to give you.

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_03]: That is false.

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_03]: That has absolutely no credibility to it whatsoever.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_03]: But again, we're hearing all these things, we're seeing all these things,

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_03]: and for the most part, all of that stuff is only inhibiting the process

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_03]: because it's making people who were skeptical about filing even more skeptical,

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_03]: and then they're not filing.

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_03]: And then it's, well, we didn't get anything.

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, but you didn't file.

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not trying to make excuses for FEMA.

[00:19:44] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that it has been a feckless response as far as the time

[00:19:50] [SPEAKER_03]: and how long it took to get them here on the ground.

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of a joke as far as I'm concerned.

[00:19:55] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't understand why my team from the radio station can save 50 families

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_03]: before FEMA can even deploy the first tent.

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, we were talking with a FEMA representative,

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_03]: and they said, you know, we're on the ground.

[00:20:09] [SPEAKER_03]: Our teams have been assessing the situation,

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_03]: and once we get our brick-and-mortar buildings set up for our FEMA centers,

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_03]: we'll be in good shape.

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm kind of like, wait a second.

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_03]: Why are we building brick-and-mortar centers for FEMA

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_03]: when we need to be building homes and putting people in shelters, for God's sakes?

[00:20:25] [SPEAKER_03]: That interview that I did with the guy from FEMA,

[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_03]: I may have gotten a little hot under the collar,

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER_03]: and the next day, that's when the tents got set up.

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_03]: But I want to say I feel like there was a mistake made

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_03]: when they talked about the brick-and-mortar centers

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_03]: because the fact of the matter is we don't need brick-and-mortar for the FEMA office.

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_01]: He was talking about building one versus just renting space?

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Correct.

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_01]: They were going to build a facility?

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_03]: They were either going to build or retrofit something,

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_03]: and of course, you know, how long does that take?

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_03]: That's ridiculous.

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_03]: But it was interesting because the next day,

[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_03]: I had a list of 10 centers where folks could go

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_03]: and meet with a person and get their, you know,

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_03]: and hopefully get their aid.

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_03]: Look, I don't fault the people on the ground with FEMA.

[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_03]: It's not their fault.

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_03]: Right?

[00:21:19] [SPEAKER_03]: This is bureaucracy.

[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_03]: This is Washington, D.C.

[00:21:22] [SPEAKER_03]: This is people having to try to decipher governing speak, basically.

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, anybody that has ever filled out a federal document,

[00:21:32] [SPEAKER_03]: it's about as clear as mud.

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_03]: You try to get right down to it.

[00:21:35] [SPEAKER_03]: When you've lost everything,

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_03]: when you might have even lost a loved one,

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_03]: filling out government documents like that

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_03]: can be one of the most difficult things that you could be asked to do.

[00:21:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Listen, I don't think there's an easy fix for any of this.

[00:21:50] [SPEAKER_03]: Right?

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_03]: And I honestly don't think that the answer to Western North Carolina's problems

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_03]: is going to come from the federal response.

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_03]: Because we have seen more from the people of Western North Carolina

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_03]: and those who have come here to help us from outside in the private sector.

[00:22:05] [SPEAKER_03]: Those are the folks that are making the difference right now.

[00:22:08] [SPEAKER_03]: And, again, I don't want to knock what FEMA's doing,

[00:22:10] [SPEAKER_03]: but the response was definitely lackluster.

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Are they getting in the way?

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_03]: I wouldn't say that they're getting in the way.

[00:22:18] [SPEAKER_03]: I think, you know, now we've seen aid being blocked to certain places.

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_03]: Nine times out of ten, it seems like what we're finding out is

[00:22:27] [SPEAKER_03]: there was a third party involved with that.

[00:22:29] [SPEAKER_03]: And that could have been a third party that was a local first responders group

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_03]: that basically kind of took it upon themselves.

[00:22:38] [SPEAKER_03]: FEMA doesn't have any power to shut anything down.

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_03]: They cannot tell you that you are not allowed to go somewhere and deliver relief supplies.

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_03]: If they do, I would recommend just keep going.

[00:22:52] [SPEAKER_03]: And if they think they're going to arrest you,

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_03]: they will have to think twice because they don't have any power.

[00:22:57] [SPEAKER_03]: Now, with that being said, if local law enforcement asks you,

[00:23:01] [SPEAKER_03]: please do not go any further, I would highly suggest that you put it in reverse

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER_03]: and go and find another way.

[00:23:07] [SPEAKER_03]: But, you know, a lot of times what we're seeing is it's kind of a

[00:23:13] [SPEAKER_03]: we're getting 50% of what actually happened,

[00:23:15] [SPEAKER_03]: and then 50% of it is kind of what people think happened.

[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[00:23:19] [SPEAKER_03]: And I get it.

[00:23:20] [SPEAKER_03]: They're frustrated.

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_03]: I get it.

[00:23:22] [SPEAKER_03]: I've been out of my house for 14 days.

[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, could I go back there and live?

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_03]: But it's probably not real safe right now.

[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:23:30] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not going to get any FEMA.

[00:23:32] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not going to get any disaster aid.

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_03]: My family and I have chosen to go through the Broadcasters Foundation,

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_03]: which is a foundation that is set up specifically for broadcasters

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_03]: who have been affected by natural disasters.

[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_03]: And then we'll pretty much eat the cost of the rest of it ourselves.

[00:23:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Wait, wait, wait.

[00:23:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Does corporate layoffs count?

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Could I get some of that?

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_01]: No.

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:23:55] [SPEAKER_03]: As much of a disaster as it is, it's not natural.

[00:23:57] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Mark, I appreciate it.

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Stay safe.

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_01]: We will touch base with you.

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Let us know if there's anything we can do down here.

[00:24:03] [SPEAKER_01]: The airwaves are open for you if you need them.

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, brother.

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_03]: I really appreciate it.

[00:24:08] [SPEAKER_03]: And we really appreciate everybody from Charlotte who's been sending love and prayers and supplies.

[00:24:12] [SPEAKER_03]: We definitely see it.

[00:24:14] [SPEAKER_03]: And we see you.

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, man.

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate it.

[00:24:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Stay safe.

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_01]: You got it.

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_01]: That's Mark Starling from WWNC.

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_01]: So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's.

[00:24:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to walk to end Alzheimer's.

[00:24:52] [SPEAKER_01]: And I am leading a Charlotte team this year.

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_01]: It's called Pete's Pack.

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_01]: You can sign up and join the team and walk with me.

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_01]: It's on October 19th at Truist Field in Uptown.

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Sign up at ALZ.org slash walk.

[00:25:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And then just look for my team, Pete's Pack.

[00:25:08] [SPEAKER_01]: And there's also a link in the podcast description here.

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Also, I'm going to be emceeing the Gastonia Walk on October 5th.

[00:25:14] [SPEAKER_01]: So make a team and join us.

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Or make a donation to help me hit my goal.

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I would really appreciate it.

[00:25:19] [SPEAKER_01]: There are a bunch of other walks around the Carolinas.

[00:25:22] [SPEAKER_01]: And you can go to ALZ.org for all of the dates and locations.

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_01]: We are closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's.

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And if you can help us get there, we would really appreciate it.

[00:25:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Will you come walk with me for a different future?

[00:25:36] [SPEAKER_01]: For families?

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_01]: For more time?

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_01]: For treatments?

[00:25:39] [SPEAKER_01]: This is why I walk.

[00:25:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks again to Mark Starlin for joining us.

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I started a piece at the beginning of the hour at thefederalist.com.

[00:25:53] [SPEAKER_01]: The headline is,

[00:25:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Biden-Harris's Helene response has been way worse than Katrina.

[00:26:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And this is a guy who actually was in the military

[00:26:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and was part of the response planning, coordinating for Katrina.

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_01]: And he's pointing out that there is a lack of military response

[00:26:14] [SPEAKER_01]: from this administration.

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_01]: And he's running through now some potential answers why.

[00:26:22] [SPEAKER_01]: So why is it so bad?

[00:26:25] [SPEAKER_01]: He says,

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_01]: The Biden-Harris administration's federal response to Helene has been horrific,

[00:26:31] [SPEAKER_01]: if not criminal.

[00:26:32] [SPEAKER_01]: And I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out why it's been so bad.

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_01]: So he made a list of all possible reasons why active duty military forces

[00:26:39] [SPEAKER_01]: have not, were not deployed en masse to disaster relief.

[00:26:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Number one, the Biden-Harris administration is grossly incompetent in terms of not pre-staging assets

[00:26:53] [SPEAKER_01]: and not cutting through red tape to get the assets moving.

[00:26:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that is probably a large part of it.

[00:27:03] [SPEAKER_01]: He says,

[00:27:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, let me back up.

[00:27:09] [SPEAKER_01]: He says,

[00:27:09] [SPEAKER_01]: One of the criticisms is that North Carolina's governor did not request federal military support

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_01]: so there was nothing Biden or Harris could do.

[00:27:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's technically accurate under the Stafford Act.

[00:27:22] [SPEAKER_01]: But he says,

[00:27:23] [SPEAKER_01]: This is BS.

[00:27:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Any competent president would pressure any governor to take the federal support.

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[00:27:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Did Cooper not want to do that?

[00:27:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[00:27:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Somebody should ask him.

[00:27:33] [SPEAKER_01]: He's got a press conference in another half hour.

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe somebody could ask him that.

[00:27:37] [SPEAKER_01]: When exactly did you ask for the federal units?

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Number two, here's another explanation.

[00:27:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that the units based in the southeastern U.S. are currently under classified deployment

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_01]: or standby orders to deploy to Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Taiwan,

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_01]: or some other world hotspot.

[00:28:01] [SPEAKER_01]: He says,

[00:28:02] [SPEAKER_01]: This one scares me because it might actually be true.

[00:28:05] [SPEAKER_01]: That's why they weren't deployed,

[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_01]: is that they're on standby to go off and fight in foreign lands.

[00:28:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Number three, potential explanation.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_01]: The classified readiness rates of America's military helicopters and their crews

[00:28:21] [SPEAKER_01]: are vastly worse than anyone outside the military understands.

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_01]: He says,

[00:28:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Is it?

[00:28:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I hope not because how are these units supporting global wartime missions?

[00:28:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Other potential explanations.

[00:28:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Hurricane Helene damaged most military helicopters in North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_01]: and that fact is being kept secret.

[00:28:43] [SPEAKER_01]: He says that seems unlikely.

[00:28:45] [SPEAKER_01]: The active duty military assets are not needed.

[00:28:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Everything is just peachy keen with the limited assets currently in use.

[00:28:51] [SPEAKER_01]: He's like,

[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I have seen the news,

[00:28:53] [SPEAKER_01]: so this seems absurd.

[00:28:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Or the conditions on the ground,

[00:28:57] [SPEAKER_01]: the availability of support units,

[00:28:58] [SPEAKER_01]: and the availability of fuel make it impossible to establish forward bases.

[00:29:03] [SPEAKER_01]: He says,

[00:29:03] [SPEAKER_01]: This one's hard to believe too.

[00:29:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Or the Biden-Harris administration and or the Democrat governor of North Carolina

[00:29:10] [SPEAKER_01]: are maliciously and deliberately denying or delaying the use of these assets

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_01]: for nefarious reasons that only they know.

[00:29:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And so he says,

[00:29:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I tend to think that it's numbers one, two, and seven.

[00:29:23] [SPEAKER_01]: In other words,

[00:29:25] [SPEAKER_01]: grossly incompetent

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_01]: that the units are under orders to be deployed elsewhere

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_01]: and that there may be some other reason for denying the use of the assets.

[00:29:35] [SPEAKER_01]: All right,

[00:29:36] [SPEAKER_01]: that'll do it for this episode.

[00:29:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for listening.

[00:29:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I could not do the show without your support

[00:29:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast.

[00:29:44] [SPEAKER_01]: So if you'd like,

[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_01]: please support them too

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and tell them you heard it here.

[00:29:47] [SPEAKER_01]: You can also become a patron at my Patreon page

[00:29:49] [SPEAKER_01]: or go to thepcalendarshow.com.

[00:29:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Again,

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_01]: thank you so much for listening

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_01]: and don't break anything while I'm gone.

[00:29:56] Thank you.