To begin with, this is your president. This ought to be one of the most shameful things ever said by a sitting president.

“Do you have any words to the victims of the hurricane?”

BIDEN: “We’ve given everything that we have.”

“Are there any more resources the federal government could be giving them?”

BIDEN: “No.” pic.twitter.com/jDMNGhpjOz

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 30, 2024

We must have spent too much money on Ukraine to help Americans in distress. I don’t generally advocate governmental control of anything, and following Biblical sphere law (State, Church and Family), communities and the church should be the first to respond and maybe the only ones.

But we’ve impoverished the middle class with taxes, and government has taken the role of both justice and grace/mercy (which is not its role). So if we’re going to have a FEMA, the least they could do is be present and do their jobs.

It’s a lie to say that no one can get there because of trees and road closures. The Billy Graham Association and Samaritan’s Purse were there within one day.

But on to the horrible affects to the fine people of Appalachia from storm Helene. This will be in flow of consciousness fashion, with some stunning video of both the storm and aftermath.

One of the most stunning things I’ve ever seen, provided by Reed Timmer.

Massive debris flow traveling at lightning speed in eastern TN! The preceding drought conditions followed by days of rain ahead of Hurricane Helene set the stage. This is incredibly rapid for a debris flow. pic.twitter.com/LhT2Dzos6B

— Reed Timmer, PhD (@ReedTimmerUSA) September 28, 2024

Black Mountain.

Chimney Rock.

From Lake Lure to Asheville.

I-40 damage.

Chopper9 arial video.

THREAD: Today we flew in Chopper9 for nearly 5 hours to get a look at the damage in Western North Carolina.
What we saw was devastating. @wsoctv
These are some of the images:

📍Riverside Dr NW Charlotte pic.twitter.com/pEJqaH5kQq

— Hannah Goetz (@HannahGoetztv) September 29, 2024

Nolichucky River and bridge collapse.

Arial video of Helene damage, especially Lake Lure.

I know all of these places well. Very well. It makes me very sad to see it.

Pray for the good folks of Appalachia. Pray for God’s mercy and grace, in spite of the malevolence of their government. Pray for communities and churches to step up.

I will continue to update this thread with more videos in the comments or as updates to this post.

I would appreciate it if readers added their own data, observations, videos and news reports.

Here is one such report of a good son.

It had been 48 hours since the winds and rains from Hurricane Helene ripped through western North Carolina and Sam Perkins still had not heard from his parents.

So, on Saturday morning, he got in his vehicle and started driving toward their home, nestled on a mountain between Spruce Pine and Little Switzerland, to find them.

“My parents live in an absolute gem of the North Carolina mountains,” Perkins said in a post about his experience. The area is about an hour’s drive from Asheville. “Under normal circumstances, it’s pleasantly very isolated,” he added.

“Little did I know that up there, Helene has demolished roads, homes and utility networks. This area is completely cut off from resources in every direction.”

More than 100 people are dead after Helene tore through the southeastern United States, including at least 30 in Buncombe County, where Asheville sits, according to CNN’s tally. North Carolina was hit hard: Days of unrelenting flooding have turned roads into waterways, left many stranded without basic necessities and strained state resources.

Gov. Roy Cooper called it “one of the worst storms in modern history.” While supplies have been deployed, at least 280 roads are still closed throughout the state, making it hard for officials to get them into areas in need, Cooper said.

When he realized how many roads were cut off, Perkins said, he left his vehicle near a closed highway at the bottom of the mountain and started hiking to his parents’ home.

“I tried every road route I could, but the roads, no matter where you go, are blocked by landslides or failures,” Perkins explained to CNN. “I can’t tell you how many failing roads and deep mudslides I had to cross, how many fallen trees I had to take off my backpack for and navigate through.”

While hiking, Perkins said, he ran into multiple people trapped due to the devastated highway. For more than three and a half hours, Perkins said he hiked 11 miles and 2,200 feet high to finally reach his parents’ home.

“I have never been so relieved to see anyone OK,” Perkins told CNN, adding his parents are in their 70s, but pretty resourceful people.

“I just hugged them, cried, filled them in on all the news they were missing … walked around the property, helped them decide how to approach some challenges.”

Perkins found his parents in decent health and their home was mostly fine, but they were effectively trapped, unable to hike down the mountain on foot, he said.

“They have food. They are pretty much out of water, but they have enough propane to boil once they start needing to,” Perkins told CNN on Sunday, noting power restoration may take weeks for their area.

After he found his parents on Saturday, fog and rain settled in and Perkins decided to head back down. “I didn’t want to use their supplies, so I went ahead and decided to trek back,” Perkins explained, adding on the way down, he was even able to hitch a ride on an undamaged portion of a road with someone in the community.

And that community is strong, he said: “Everything you would expect with Southern Hospitality.”

His mother was able to a send him a message earlier Sunday, and it mostly focused on trying to get supplies for her neighbors.

“I’m still processing it all. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Perkins said. “Power is a couple weeks out. I cannot fathom how long it will take (the Department of Transportation) to repair the curvy roads that hug the steep mountainsides.”

Sam Perkins is his name. Sam is a good man, unlike Joe Biden.

It is also of great concern to me how completely tied we are to cell phone and cell towers (we’ve all cancelled our land lines, although they may not have survived this either), local grocery stores, grid power, local medical care, and government assistance.

I have the necessities of course like most readers do, firearms and ammunition, water and means of filtration, freeze dried foods, generators, etc., etc.

But a lot of folks don’t, and even if you do have these things, they aren’t forever.

UPDATE #1:

Sam Perkins’ FB Post.

Gov. DeSantis launches Operation Blue Ridge. He’s a better man that Biden, of course.

Bat Cave, Ashville River.

Swannanoa.

I-40 & I-26 closure estimates and detours.