Western NC update (10-07-2024--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'm going to run through an update from the, well, from various sources. On the disaster out in Western North Carolina, we are now over a week in. They are still rescuing people trapped in homes on the sides of mountains that they have not been able to get to. And the people can't get out because the roads have been destroyed, just washed away.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I've seen videos where people are running rope lines along mountains so people can hold on to the rope as they walk along the face of the rocks, you know, and they walk along these little ledges and they've got ropes to kind of walk along with.

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_00]: The death toll is now over 230 across six states. North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: The most deadly effects was in North Carolina, 117 of the 232. South Carolina, 48 deaths, Georgia, 33, Florida, 20, Tennessee, 12, and Virginia, two, two deaths.

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It is the second deadliest hurricane to strike the United States in the last 50 years.

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Only Hurricane Katrina killed more at 1,833 people. That was back in 2005.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_00]: There are still hundreds unaccounted for.

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_00]: The number I saw, the last number I saw on this was roughly 600.

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_00]: But there were so many people in shelters all around Western North Carolina that there and people that, you know, they just haven't been able to get into get in touch with, get get into contact with because the communication systems were so destroyed.

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_00]: The Blue Ridge Parkway, which, by the way, is the number one most visited site in the National Park Service with almost 17 million visits in 2023.

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_00]: That 400-mile-long Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina and Virginia remains closed.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_00]: There's no reopening date set, and there probably won't be because they, you know, a lot of portions close for the winter months.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's off limits.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And, in fact, I heard from there's a friend of mine.

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_00]: He's a photographer, and that's what he does.

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_00]: He goes along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_00]: He makes a living doing it.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: His name is Stacy Redmond, and he drives the Blue Ridge Parkway, and he takes all these gorgeous photos.

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_00]: His company is called Red Rock Photography, RedRockPhotoNC.com, and he sells his stuff at all of the art shows all around the state.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, most of them have been canceled.

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_00]: The ones, the biggest art shows and festivals and, you know, arts and crafts things, they're all closed in Western North Carolina.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: They've been canceled.

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And so all of these artists that rely on those shows to earn an income to support their family, they don't have that source of income anymore.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_00]: They were also, he had a bunch of his work that was at a gallery along the Swananowa River, and the gallery was completely destroyed.

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_00]: All of the artwork, not just his, but all of the artwork was just totaled.

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And apparently that gallery's not going to reopen.

[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_00]: About half of businesses that get knocked out during these types of disasters, like four, I think the number I saw was like 48%, they don't reopen.

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_00]: And then within the next year, about a third are done.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_00]: They can't ever, they end up closing within a year or two.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_00]: So, like this says, long-term implications for the people that live and work there.

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of the artists that, you know, people went to the mountains to buy their stuff at all of these festivals and art shows.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And they just, they, they're wiped out.

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_00]: So, if you, you want to help people directly, that's a really good way to do it, is to buy their artwork.

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Christmas is coming.

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you buy their artwork, and you can check people off the list, and then you can also be helping people pay their bills.

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Let me go over to phones here.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_00]: 704-570-1110.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's start with Jeff.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, Jeff.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the show.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_03]: Hi, Pete.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for taking my call.

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, sir.

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_03]: And, Pete, thanks for all of your great work in parsing out all of the information that's coming in and trying to make sense of what is true and what's not.

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_03]: It's just, I feel terrible for the people up there and what they have endured and what they're going to endure.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_03]: But I did have a comment about the FEMA administrator that you had on earlier, and I'm glad he came on, and I applaud him for that.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_03]: But I would like to ask him, just where is he right now?

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_03]: From his answers, he didn't sound like he was anywhere close to the region.

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, keep in mind, he's the media specialist guy.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: He's the spokesperson guy.

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So he has been deployed from wherever he is from, I don't know, but he has arrived.

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's, I mean, like FEMA reached out and they, you know, blasted out this press release with his information on it.

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I said, oh, I'll have him on the show.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Because now Mecklenburg County just got added to the list of counties.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And so now we got, I think that's how we got put onto the media distribution list.

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I don't know where he's operating out of, but he's handling, like we are the most, I think, Mecklenburg County is sort of the eastern most county that's in his zone of responsibility.

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Right.

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_03]: It's just this comment about how they were sending two-person teams up through the neighborhoods.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm like, well, what neighborhoods are they going to go through?

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, it just sounded rather disingenuous to me for him to be providing that kind of information when he knows nothing about what's going on other than it's terrible.

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, he may be talking about his zone.

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't catch him saying, he's talking about sending people door to door, which obviously you can't do if the road is washed out.

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And as I understand it, I saw one story, I think it was the New York Post.

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, here it is.

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00]: In Batcave, North Carolina, where residents say that their town has been almost totally destroyed and they're fending for themselves after FEMA told them that a sign that was put in the road that said road closed, they apparently said that was an insurmountable obstacle.

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_00]: That they could not get through the road, they couldn't go around the road sign because the road sign said road is closed.

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So I guess that's sort of their, it's like a sloped roof, I guess, for Secret Service, like that's the equivalent.

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, yeah.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_03]: They have their own definitions, so yeah.

[00:08:37] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:08:37] [SPEAKER_03]: And the other question I have was, I saw a snippet of the mayor of Asheville, what's her, Esther?

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_03]: Esther Manheimer.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and from what I gathered, the second thing out of her mouth was that climate change needs to be addressed before they can do anything.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm like, really?

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_03]: With the amount of devastation that's in her community and this is what she comes up with?

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_03]: Did you see any of that?

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I have not seen it, but it is not surprising.

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_00]: The city of Asheville, the city council is like, it is literally 100%, you know, liberal women.

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And that is probably the thing that they are latching on to to talk about.

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Because look, I mean, so I try to give some, a little bit of grace to people in these types of situations because people have a hard time processing what they're seeing.

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_00]: You know?

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_00]: And you think about the kind of person that runs for a city council seat in Asheville.

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you think that anything that they have ever done in their lives prepares them to be in a leadership position of some kind for this?

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_00]: No.

[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_00]: They have no idea what they're doing, really.

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And like, so I try to give them a little bit of slack here, you know, cut them some slack because they probably have no clue what they're doing.

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_03]: And they...

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and same thing here, you know, because both the liberals and the conservatives are suffering up there,

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_03]: but yet this is what she comes up with to, amidst all the destruction, you know, like, have some feeling for the humanity around you.

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_03]: But now she's going to promote her agenda.

[00:10:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Right.

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, honestly, then if, I mean, if the climate change is the thing that she wants to focus on,

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_00]: then just go ahead and put a building moratorium.

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_00]: No one else is allowed to move into Asheville.

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Shut it all down.

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't rebuild any of the power plants.

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't rebuild any of the substations.

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't rebuild the wastewater treatment facilities.

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't rebuild the water treatment.

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Nothing.

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Just don't let anybody live there, right?

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_03]: Because...

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_03]: Walk the talk and then let's see how everybody likes it.

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Jeff, I appreciate it.

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Appreciate the call, sir.

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[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you to everybody who showed up at the Gastonia Walk to End Alzheimer's on Saturday.

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I was the emcee.

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I did okay.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Held it together okay.

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I've been doing this.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I've done like, I don't know, six or seven of these things.

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And I owe every single time I get choked up.

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I can't help it.

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And anyway, we got another walk coming up on Saturday the 19th.

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_00]: That's in Charlotte.

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be a Truist Field at the Knight Stadium there.

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And I am not emceeing that one.

[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just going to be walking.

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to join me, go to alz.org slash walk.

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And then look from a team.

[00:12:48] [SPEAKER_00]: It's called Pete's Pack.

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's P-A-C-K, not P-A-C, not like a political action committee or nothing.

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_00]: But if you want to walk with me, that's how you do it.

[00:12:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Sign up and then we'll see you there.

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_00]: That's on the 19th.

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_00]: alz.org slash walk.

[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I have seen videos, too, of these literally black helicopters.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_00]: I know.

[00:13:14] [SPEAKER_00]: But they are always black.

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I cannot explain that.

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Hovering for a few seconds over some of these open-air disaster relief spots

[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_00]: where people are bringing together supplies and distributing supplies and stuff.

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_00]: And I've seen two videos of these black helicopters that come into the area,

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_00]: hover overhead.

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And then the wind from the propellers blows around all of the stuff on the ground.

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And then the helicopter takes off.

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And there's now two examples of this.

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what that's about.

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know who's doing it.

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_00]: That's why they have black health.

[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_00]: That's why they're painted all black.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know who's doing it.

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if these were mistakes.

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Same chopper.

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Different chopper.

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Same video.

[00:14:13] [SPEAKER_00]: The videos appear to be at two different locations and two different times of day.

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know.

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if they were trying to land or something nearby and then pulled out because

[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_00]: they were creating all of this wind.

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Or if they were trying to mess with the people on the ground.

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's all I can tell you.

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[00:14:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Jim, welcome to the program.

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, Jim.

[00:14:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, Pete.

[00:14:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey.

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for your Alzheimer's work.

[00:14:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Lost my dad when he was 76 and he had no idea who he was.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:14:50] [SPEAKER_01]: You're a prisoner in your own body with that.

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_01]: That was one of the first group of people I thought about this past weekend up there.

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_01]: There are some retirement centers.

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure you're aware of this.

[00:15:02] [SPEAKER_02]: I am.

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_01]: That are just classified memory impairment type retirement.

[00:15:07] [SPEAKER_01]: And in most retirement home facilities, there typically is a section just for the memory impaired

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_01]: people.

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the first group I actually thought about.

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And then, of course, the older, infirm people that just literally you couldn't get to their

[00:15:22] [SPEAKER_01]: home anymore or children.

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_01]: First people I thought about.

[00:15:27] [SPEAKER_01]: But, Pete, I'm having flashbacks to 2020 and the Wuhan.

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I refuse to call it COVID.

[00:15:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I call it the Wuhan.

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_01]: And the issues I spent with my wife's little business and some of my semi-retired accountants, some other small businesses, trying to get them lined up for help and assistance.

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_01]: And, Pete, if you didn't have an Internet connection and you had somebody that knew a little bit about it or you're an accountant and just donating his time or lawyer, you didn't get any help.

[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And then even after you did all that, you know, the unemployment agency and they are now, they got involved in North Carolina unemployment.

[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, they started falling all that money out due to people that, you know, the government just told everybody to stay home, if you remember.

[00:16:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:16:19] [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, to continue to have money flowing in.

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_01]: First of all, I thought about the $750 last week.

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I bet that's either going to be a direct deposit or a debit card.

[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to be cash.

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_01]: When in reality, I bet you many of those applications and those people need $750 of cash in their pocket.

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to worry about transactions and Internet and banks.

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it definitely poses a problem, Jim, if you're giving out debit cards.

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_00]: If people, you know, don't have Internet connection or electricity, they can't be swiping the cards.

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_00]: That's yeah.

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how they're actually distributing it.

[00:17:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Probably direct deposit.

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: If people have that information to submit.

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I got to run, Jim.

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate the call.

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_00]: All right.

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[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_00]: So I mentioned this story earlier.

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_00]: This is from the New York Post out of Bat Cave, North Carolina.

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_00]: That is a place that is actually a place.

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think the population.

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, here it is.

[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_00]: 180.

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_00]: 180 residents.

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_00]: So this is what I was talking about last week where when we talk about, you know, communities in the Western North Carolina area that were, you know, quote, wiped off the map.

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_00]: They were just leveled, washed away in the flood.

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_00]: This is why this happens and why that that sentence is used is because a community in Bat Cave of 180 people is very small.

[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_00]: You get these little pockets of communities and villages and they have different names and sometimes the names are the name of the mobile home park, right?

[00:19:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Like that's just just it's the only buildable land that you could find in some particular area that was close enough and they could get some flat land to build on flat enough, close enough to like some employment center or something.

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe it's land that was in somebody's family for generations and they sold off chunks of it.

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And then they built some homes for their, you know, kids and then the grandkids built on it and then the great grandkids built on it, that kind of thing.

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_00]: So you get all these little pockets of small communities all over the place.

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And so this is a Bat Cave is outside.

[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_00]: You've probably seen the signs every time I would see the sign going up and down the mountain.

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I would always go down and down and down and down and down.

[00:19:55] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I couldn't help myself.

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_00]: But this town of Bat Cave was featured in the New York Post.

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_00]: They talked to a local resident named Chelsea Atkins, 38 years old.

[00:20:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And she said, FEMA called me and told me that they wanted to come and inspect my house.

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And then they called me back to say that they could not drive around the road closed sign.

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_00]: They weren't allowed.

[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_00]: She says, you can drive it by car for sure.

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not that bad.

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_00]: You just have to drive around the road closed sign.

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I explained that to them and they said they couldn't.

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Left to fend for themselves, Bat Cave residents banded together, opening the roads and starting the arduous work of cleanup and recovery.

[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_00]: The residents there told the New York Post that they don't need FEMA now.

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And at this point, they don't even want the disaster relief agency to come.

[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_00]: OK, see, like this is I understand the sentiment.

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_00]: But this is not helpful to you if you're trying to get funding from the government to rebuild.

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, like I said, FEMA is the check writing arm here.

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_00]: FEMA will come and write the checks and help you after the fact.

[00:21:13] [SPEAKER_00]: They're not really the ones that are going to be coming in and and, you know, traversing the mountainside or or, you know, crossing rivers in order to pull you out of crumpled house.

[00:21:27] [SPEAKER_00]: While the sick and elderly residents of Bat Cave were airlifted to safety a week ago, those left behind have seen virtually no sign of government agencies except for a handful of Louisiana state police troopers, quote, keeping an eye on everything.

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Who the locals say haven't done much of anything else.

[00:21:45] [SPEAKER_00]: The intermittent were of military Chinook helicopters buzzing over the town serves as a reminder that people in the devastated western part of the state are getting help.

[00:21:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Just not in Bat Cave.

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_00]: The Broad River runs through the town.

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And it is now 10 times wider than it was before the hurricane.

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Atkins is a health researcher originally from Buffalo, New York.

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_00]: She said FEMA called her to arrange an inspection of her house on the Broad River that was rendered uninhabitable by the storm, but that she never showed they never showed up because the road was closed.

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_00]: The very same road that the New York Post reporters had successfully traversed on its way into Bat Cave.

[00:22:39] [SPEAKER_00]: The road is treacherous, but navigable.

[00:22:42] [SPEAKER_00]: It's littered with downed power lines and whole sections have collapsed.

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_00]: One portion of Highway 9 is entirely washed away, forcing traffic to navigate a huge chasm through somebody's front yard.

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Quote, FEMA hasn't been here.

[00:22:57] [SPEAKER_00]: She said, the DOT has been here.

[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And random fire departments like Kannapolis, they were great.

[00:23:03] [SPEAKER_00]: But nobody's been bringing in supplies except civilians.

[00:23:08] [SPEAKER_00]: At this late stage in the recovery effort, Atkins said there are concerns that FEMA showing up at this point could do more harm than good.

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_00]: No.

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_00]: It's been a civilian run operation since day one, she said.

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_00]: You can't ask the authorities for help.

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_00]: They'll say that you need to leave.

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So this is also what happens in these types of situations.

[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I've heard this before.

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_00]: In the wake of a disaster, the authorities are going to tell you to leave the area.

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_00]: They want you to clear out for your own safety.

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And I understand why they say that.

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I also understand some of what makes the people of Appalachia the people they are,

[00:23:47] [SPEAKER_00]: is they don't really care very much what you have to say, really about anything.

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_00]: But particularly if you're going to tell them what to do.

[00:23:56] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, they generally don't appreciate that.

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And they don't want to leave their mountain.

[00:24:03] [SPEAKER_00]: They don't want to leave their holler or valley.

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_00]: They're not going to leave.

[00:24:08] [SPEAKER_00]: They're going to stay there and they're going to fix it.

[00:24:10] [SPEAKER_00]: They're going to rig up a bunch of stuff.

[00:24:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And it'll be reliable enough for them.

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's all that matters.

[00:24:17] [SPEAKER_00]: They're fine with that.

[00:24:17] [SPEAKER_00]: They are.

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_00]: They're fine with that.

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_00]: So you've got a culture clash, I think, going on here as well.

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just people, by the way, who are from there.

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_00]: This woman seems to have that same sort of disposition.

[00:24:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And she's from upstate New York.

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Which, by the way, in case you are unaware, has mountains and trees.

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Upstate New York does.

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I call it Canada.

[00:24:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Because I'm from Long Island, originally.

[00:24:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And anything north of the Bronx is Canada, in my mind.

[00:24:50] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's technically not.

[00:24:52] [SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, as an American, it's my birthright not to know geography.

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, her neighbor, Curtis McCartt, a retired Los Angeles Fire Department captain and paramedic,

[00:25:05] [SPEAKER_00]: estimates that a dozen houses along his stretch of the winding Highway 64 were washed away in the storm.

[00:25:11] [SPEAKER_00]: The town itself has been ripped in half.

[00:25:14] [SPEAKER_00]: A 15-foot segment of bridge that was connecting the two halves of the town has been destroyed.

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_00]: The gap is now spanned with pieces of sheet metal.

[00:25:24] [SPEAKER_00]: It cannot support a car's weight.

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So you have to walk across the sheet metal planks, basically, to cross this broad river.

[00:25:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Which was, before the storm, about 10 yards wide.

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_00]: So about 30 feet wide.

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_00]: It is now 100 yards wide.

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And it is filled with trees, concrete slabs, power lines, transformers, debris.

[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Just debris.

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Just all sorts of stuff.

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_00]: McCartt says he hasn't seen anybody in Batcave wearing a FEMA uniform.

[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And like Atkins, he also worries about what's going to happen if they do show up.

[00:26:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Quote, at this point, I don't care if FEMA comes by.

[00:26:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want somebody to pull me out of here saying that I'm working in an unsafe spot.

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_00]: This is what they're going to run into now.

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Is that people don't want to leave.

[00:26:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And the government emergency responders are going to tell them that they have to.

[00:26:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's.

[00:26:31] [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.

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Forty years ago, there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family.

[00:26:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Things are different today because of the work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of Western North Carolina.

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a great organization with awesome people.

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_00]: They've got huge hearts.

[00:26:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I've been a supporter for like 25 years.

[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_00]: This cause means a lot to me.

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I participate in the annual walk to end Alzheimer's and I am leading a Charlotte team this year.

[00:27:02] [SPEAKER_00]: It's called Pete's Pack.

[00:27:04] [SPEAKER_00]: You can sign up and join the team and walk with me.

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_00]: It's on October 19th at Truist Field in Uptown.

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Sign up at alz.org slash walk and then just look for my team, Pete's Pack.

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And there's also a link in the podcast description here.

[00:27:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Also, I'm going to be emceeing the Gastonia Walk on October 5th.

[00:27:21] [SPEAKER_00]: So make a team and join us or make a donation to help me hit my goal.

[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I would really appreciate it.

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER_00]: There are a bunch of other walks around the Carolinas and you can go to alz.org for all of the dates and locations.

[00:27:34] [SPEAKER_00]: We are closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's.

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you can help us get there, we would really appreciate it.

[00:27:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Will you come walk with me for a different future, for families, for more time, for treatments?

[00:27:46] [SPEAKER_00]: This is why I walk.

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_00]: The email is Pete at thepetecalendorshow.com and on the Twitter machine, at Pete Calender, which just reminds me, I have not actually looked at my email in a bit.

[00:28:00] [SPEAKER_00]: So I apologize for that.

[00:28:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I will get to your messages in the next hour, I promise.

[00:28:06] [SPEAKER_00]: First, we'll go over and talk with Ray, because why not?

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, Ray.

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the show.

[00:28:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Hello, Pete.

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_02]: How are you?

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Hey, I'm good.

[00:28:14] [SPEAKER_02]: How are you?

[00:28:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Good.

[00:28:16] [SPEAKER_02]: I just wanted to call in.

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_02]: My wife and I used to stay.

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_02]: We haven't been in a few years, but we used to stay at the Lake Lure Inn and Spa two or three times a year for a couple days each time.

[00:28:29] [SPEAKER_02]: And we walked up the pathway up toward Chimney Rock there where all the shops are and got up there a little ways and had a little place where you played putt-putt golf or something like that.

[00:28:40] [SPEAKER_02]: And down behind it was where a little stream was running, and it had come a good rain a few days before.

[00:28:47] [SPEAKER_02]: And it washed it out pretty good just from that hard rain.

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_02]: And I can imagine what it did to the, you know, with this amount of water coming down.

[00:28:58] [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm hoping that they'll rebuild it and won't do away with any of the towns, because it's really nice to hear those little quaint-sounding names like Bat Cave and Chimney Rock.

[00:29:09] [SPEAKER_02]: It's just a nice place to go.

[00:29:13] [SPEAKER_02]: And also, but I hope, I wish they would get in there and do some kind of engineering to keep this from happening again somehow to, you know, if they could, to channel the water in different directions so this won't happen again.

[00:29:29] [SPEAKER_02]: And also, when you take the ride on the pontoon boat on Lake Lure, there's one spot they stop at.

[00:29:36] [SPEAKER_02]: I'll just say this for your information or anybody that doesn't know it.

[00:29:41] [SPEAKER_02]: One spot they'll stop at or kind of go slow a bite, they'll say, this is a spot where Patrick Swayze and the lady that helped him make the movie Dirty Dancing, they filmed a scene right there on Lake Lure.

[00:29:56] [SPEAKER_00]: What's her name?

[00:29:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Gray?

[00:29:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Eric?

[00:29:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Jennifer Gray.

[00:30:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yep.

[00:30:01] [SPEAKER_02]: I believe that was it.

[00:30:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:30:02] [SPEAKER_02]: But anyhow, I just thought I'd give that as an FYI to your listeners.

[00:30:06] [SPEAKER_02]: And I hope they rebuild that place and, you know, get it back the way it was, because you like going up there and buying the cider and the apples on the side, that sort of thing.

[00:30:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:30:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there's old culture up there.

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Ray, I appreciate it.

[00:30:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, sir.

[00:30:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Have a good one.

[00:30:23] [SPEAKER_00]: You too.

[00:30:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Take care.

[00:30:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I do wonder if there's an opportunity to raise awareness and keep this story in front of people with the hook of Dirty Dancing.

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:31:10] [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm just spitballing here.

[00:31:11] [SPEAKER_00]: There are no bad ideas under the cone of creativity here, people.

[00:31:17] [SPEAKER_00]: To raise point about the flood mitigation measures, though, I do think there needs to be a serious conversation about creating more dams, more lakes, and create a way to manage the water flow better.

[00:31:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:31:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:31:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And I understand what that means.

[00:31:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I do.

[00:31:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I understand what that means.

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Displacement.

[00:31:45] [SPEAKER_00]: It means seizure of land.

[00:31:48] [SPEAKER_00]: It means flooding areas, creating large bodies of water through the mountains.

[00:31:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I recognize that.

[00:31:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't have any plans.

[00:31:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't have any ideas specifically about how that occurs.

[00:32:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I just, I think that this can't happen again.

[00:32:06] [SPEAKER_00]: We should, and I think that we can mitigate it to some degree, like we saw Tennessee do with their, the Tennessee Valley Authority damming projects that they undertook, you know, a hundred years ago or so.

[00:32:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And they built all these, this network of dams for flood mitigation because this was a big problem.

[00:32:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And so they, and it was a works project.

[00:32:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I get that too.

[00:32:32] [SPEAKER_00]: I know.

[00:32:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and I know there are a lot of downsides.

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like Thomas Sowell, the economist, he says, right, there are no good options and bad options.

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_00]: There are trade-offs, you know, it's all trade-offs.

[00:32:47] [SPEAKER_00]: So, I don't know, I think that, uh, in the wake of this kind of devastation, because you've got places that, that, that probably aren't coming back.

[00:32:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't like that.

[00:32:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not happy about it, but that's the reality of it.

[00:33:02] [SPEAKER_00]: People cannot make out, I mean, people were barely making a living up there beforehand.

[00:33:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And now they got to rebuild with nothing and there's nowhere to work.

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_00]: There's no way to get any income.

[00:33:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And look what happened after Katrina.

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_00]: People fled New Orleans.

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_00]: They never came back.

[00:33:19] [SPEAKER_00]: So, that can happen in Western North Carolina as well.

[00:33:23] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, that'll do it for this episode.

[00:33:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening.

[00:33:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast.

[00:33:31] [SPEAKER_00]: So, if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here.

[00:33:34] [SPEAKER_00]: You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com.

[00:33:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.