(the following is from my good buddy, John Meyers, a resident of that area of NC/TN that was smashed by Hurricane Helene a couple weeks ago. For the most part, since I’m not in that part of the country, I’m going to leave his comments alone and let them be educational. However, being me, I’m not going to be able to abstain from some commentary. As usual, my parenthetical comments will be emboldened and italicized. Title is Meyers’. JM) In case y’uns (for those unaware of it, “Y’all” is actually a flatlander conjunction. In the southern Highlands, the traditional contraction was “y’uns” until the homogenization of American English that occurred in the 1970s/1980s with the spread of national media/cable) ain’t heard, Western NC/East TN got destroyed by Hurricane Helene. There’s a lot to say. Currently I have little time. Perhaps a formal debrief/AAR will come sooner than later. I was chatting with Mosby the other day and he asked if I’d jot down a few lessons learned. The following will be relevant to this specific “SHTF” event, but obviously it crosses over to many short term emergencies of varying levels. Here are a few bullet points. First off, for context, my immediate area has largely been high and dry so to speak. It is a higher elevation community and most folks live up higher than the creeks. The river is several miles away. While there were several washed out bridges, trees across the road, power lines down, and some crop damage, we didn’t suffer the extreme flooding other areas did. A week or more without power and a little bit of work to cut some roads out, some road rebuilding and we were relatively unscathed. The next community over on the other hand was devastated. A dairy washed out, 1300 bales of hay gone. Tons and tons of feed. 100 steers washed down the river. Buildings destroyed. Bridges gone, roads collapsed. Driveways caved in. Landslides. The following will be observations from my own experience or my direct friends, colleagues and acquaintances but are generally similar across the region. Read the rest: https://www.patreon.com/posts/quick...paign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Continue reading...
