Archive for the 'Survival' Category

I will continue to remind everyone of the tragedy as long as I have breath.

By the way, I really love the cadence of his narration, and his prose is virtually poetic.

Recall that I told you that the Virginia Creeper trail above Damascus, Virginia, was closed, and the only part of the trail open was between Abingdon and Damascus?

Here’s why. I can’t embed it because it’s a YouTube Short. The images are stunning.

My wife and I took a bike ride on the Virginia Creeper trail Saturday morning. We had read the report that the trail had been re-opened and both wanted to ride again and also to help the fine folks in that area with our business. This is a trip we have taken dozens of times. The part of the trail from Whitetop to Damascus is closed and will be for a very long time, perhaps years. The portion between Damascus and Abingdon is open, albeit with a few rough patches that make is a little more like single track than pleasant road. That’s fine with me.

Eighteen trestles were completely destroyed over the Whitetop Laurel River. That river is wide at parts and deep at parts, and both wide and deep at parts. Without the trestles there is no way to get down from the mountain, and also no way to get to the outside world (more on that later).

We began on Highway 321 but were soon diverted to other roads (we should have known that we couldn’t get there by the regular route). Highway 421 in the section crossing NC into Tennessee (to Mountain City) is closed. We were sent (by Waze) through West Jefferson, NC. We began to see the damage that had been done by the flooding as soon as we left West Jefferson.

Every few hundred yards was a new debris pile that will eventually have to be burned. I was astonished at the trash lining the river banks. The river banks were not what they used to be. A lot of escarpment had been washed away and in its place was debris, dead trees, mud, and as I said, trash. Miles and miles of trash that had washed down the river and deposited along the sides of the river. It looked like a scene from a war.

We were eventually routed on to a gravel road that was suitable only for a single vehicle, around winding turns, up hills and down, with washouts every few hundred yards. We were within feet or even inches of having a tire over the edge of some of the washed out areas (and then down the mountain with what I’m sure would have been several dozen rolls of our vehicle).

We didn’t know we would end up taking this route. We should have gone Highway 77 to Highway 81 to Highway 91 and it would have taken us into Damascus on clear roads. Anyway, this way I got to see the damage and destruction. People live up in these hills and believe me when I tell you that many of them are cut off from the rest of the world. That gravel road is currently only suitable for ATV traffic, at least safely, and then maybe not.

Asplundh trucks and workers are everywhere (before you get on this road). I wonder who is paying for all of this work? When you get on this gravel road, you’re literally on your own. You could have rolled off the side of the mountain and no one would have known it for weeks. Eventually though, we ended up in Taylors Valley, Virginia. I was shocked. We drove right up to the restaurant we always stopped at in Taylors Valley when biking from White Top. I looked to the right for the bridge / trestle and it was gone. In its place was an enormous amount of gravel on both sides of the river with a temporary bridge.

I was thankful for that bridge. On the other side of the Whitetop Laurel River, you need a bridge or trestle to get down to civilization. The folks there would be completely cut off without it, and I’m sure they were for some period of time before the temporary bridge was put up. The driver who took us to Abingdon talked some about what happened in Taylors Valley. He described the story of the couple who almost perished, although in greater detail that in this report (because up there, everybody knows everybody). He actually bound his life vest to a tree so that “his body could be found later.”

At Blue Blazes Bike Rental (where we hopped a ride to Abingdon with our own bikes) Rick told us that the mud inside the shop was two feet deep. They had to excavate before the shop could be reopened. Other businesses there were destroyed. It all made me very sad. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Rick for very long, but I’ve written him and told him that I’d like to volunteer my time for any manual labor they or anyone else in the area needs.

I do have a few closing thoughts. Our driver told us about a visit to Damascus from OSHA soon after the flooding. The OSHA inspector had a big problem with a receptable that had no plate – in a city without power. He made other problems for them too, until the chief of police told him to get out of the town.

FEMA came up there too, but sat in offices (or tents) and hooked up to the internet (I guess via uplinks and battery power) and after they were told of a isolated couple that needed help, the response was “Tell them to come down here and fill out some forms.” He was told that the couple was isolated, had no power, and didn’t know how to use a computer anyway. Eventually they were able to talk him into hopping a ride with someone to actually go see them.

The National Guardsmen who were manning the station at Ashe County to supply emergency resources to the people were doing mostly nothing as far as I could tell. They should have been on the train up to where we were with backpacks on. We went further in car than they did by any means at all. Asplundh made it further up into the NC mountains than the NC national guard did.

If the NG actually wants to train its men to do this sort of thing, they need to look for hunters, survivalists and backpackers. What better training for the NG than to put on backpacks and head into the mountains of NC and Virginia with no power, only the weight on their backs, and maybe a Milstar uplink?

FEMA should look for the same type of people if they are serious about their mission. But they apparently aren’t, and so it’s a waste of taxpayer money. No one I talked to said anything good about any government entity at all after the flood (except for city or county rescue), although the helicopter that picked up the survivor in Taylors Valley was a Black Hawk, so thankfully the NC NG did something right.

The NC legislature will have to make it so that all of these piles of debris can be burned without interference from NC DHEC. I have no confidence that the governor will do anything about this, but hopefully the legislature can get a veto-proof vote on helping these folks out. Most of the work I saw happening was being done by the people of Ashe County, not any government entity.

I do have a few pictures I may share later.

Watch this video first. It’s short but instructive.

Snake Boots.

Next up, here’s someone who’s been out there a lot.

I had been suspecting something like this. And it’s not the first time I’ve heard it from folks who should know.

Also, catch what Mr Guns & Gear says about where FEMA is: Asheville and Boone. The land of progs and the town of ASU. I would have expected something like that from the cowards at FEMA. The rest of the poor folk are left to die in the wilderness or get help from the locals.

Also, he points out a very said fact. It’s getting cold in the hills of N.C. and Tennessee, and there are a lot of people who tried to survive as their house floated away, have no food, have no power, have no internet, and have no clean clothes, and are still having to make house payments.

Oh, and by the way, I would believe Eustace Conway before I would believe anybody in government, whether local, state or federal.

I usually try to wait for confirmation on things like this, but the confirmation surely did come. With personnel wearing head cover, in fact. The only reason you cover your face in a situation like this is shame.

Y'all, we're trying really hard to stay out of the conspiracy space, but some people aren't making it easy. This actually happened to a distribution site we supplied in WNC. Make it make sense please. #CajunNavy https://t.co/39b5SeouCA

— United Cajun Navy (@Unitedcajunnavy) October 7, 2024

UPDATE: The initial investigation indicates the helicopter in the video belongs to the North Carolina National Guard. The pilots have been grounded until a further investigation can be completed.https://t.co/JjTyLop78X

— Connecticut National Guard (@CTNationalGuard) October 8, 2024

Tulsi Gabbard says that FEMA has a “major bureaucracy problem.” No ma’am. Your proclivities and inclinations are still way off.

FEMA is a bureaucracy.  That is its problem. It shouldn’t exist, any more than the department of education should exist. There is no constitutional mandate for such things.

The government shipped up 3 pallets of electric chainsaws to us in a community without power pic.twitter.com/LTy1vkRkUY

— Masters (@M_C_Masters) October 8, 2024

It’s all very difficult. I would be in the mountains helping if I could. It makes no sense to me if the FedGov or local government claims that they’re better off without help like I could offer. I would be willing to strap on a backpack and hike up a mountain 15 miles to determine if someone’s parents were still alive, or carry medicine to them. And I would fully indemnify all parties in the case of my demise.

I think that only an idiot would say that I’m not welcome. But merely volunteering just doesn’t do it.

If you’re not on government orders, you’re not going in here. Period.

If you’re a member of a group like this, it seems to be easier. That is, if you could bring bad publicity for being shut down by FEMA, they seem to leave you alone.

SWANNANOA, North Carolina — Hundreds of special operations personnel in North Carolina have formed their own homegrown rescue and supply operation in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene after they grew tired of waiting for the federal government to get its act together.

The Post found an all-volunteer operation being run out of a Harley-Davidson dealership with ruthless efficiency and military precision.

“Who’s FEMA?” ex-Green Beret Adam Smith derisively responded when asked about the agency’s presence on the ground …

“This disaster has definitively proven without a shadow of a doubt FEMA’s incompetence and incapability,” he said, noting that the agency didn’t even show up until Thursday — almost a week after the storm that has killed at least 232, nearly half of them in the mountainous west of the Tar Heel State.

I’m not sure if it’s incompetence and incapability or intentional.

This Harley-Davidson dealership has become a forward operating base, complete with a fleet of 35 helicopters that have flown hundreds of rescue, reconnaissance and resupply sorties.

Organizers are calling the effort the “Savage Freedoms Relief Operation,” but Smith says they’ve proudly adopted the alternate moniker — “the Redneck Air Force.”

The dealership teems with current and former soldiers decked out in camo pants and army boots with handguns strapped to their chests and hips. Crop duster pilots, helicopter tour guides and special operations pilots — most of them off-duty or retired military — have answered the call from Smith and others in North Carolina’s extensive military community.

They’re using their own aircraft to fly doctors, medicine, generators, fuel and food to isolated residents cut off from the world by the unprecedented floods to washed out mountain roads and wiped entire towns off the map.

Supplies and fuel for an operation of this magnitude don’t come cheap, but the group has relied entirely on donations, including around $190,000 raised through a GoFundMe page, Smith said.

[ … ]

Now that the effort has taken on a life of its own, Smith and others leading the operation have gone from cursing FEMA for its absence to hoping they never come back.

Smith said he fears their carefully calibrated rescue mission will be bogged down with governmental red tape if the feds show up.

“Nobody out here wants the federal agencies to come in. FEMA has walked into operations centers like this and has attempted to just take over and tell them what they’re doing is illegal and they’re not allowed to keep going. I’ve seen it firsthand in this area,” Smith told The Post.

“My biggest fear is they’ll move into the area and in the process they’ll reinvent the wheel and rebuild the entire process.”

Yeah, I’ve heard other curse FEMA as a result of this as well. I don’t blame them.

If I can help in any way, please let me know. I’ve donated $$$, but it was probably all confiscated by FEMA for use by illegal aliens. Or spent on Covid. You read that right. Covid.

F&S.

The KUIU Mountain Star was one of the lightest tents in my test, thanks to carbon-fiber trekking poles from Easton. The poles feel like they’re made out of arrow shafts, and they seem strong enough for the job. That said, if I planned on using this tent long-term, I’d take extra care with assembly and takedown.

I’ve recommended that you stop purchasing Patagonia and North Face gear and apparel.

The hunting gear and apparel manufacturers, on the other hand, know what’s what. One bad review of a product can send it into the tank. There are so many hunter forums and discussion threads on various topics that you wouldn’t be able to read them all in a lifetime. But the well-visited sites have so much power over the hunting gear and apparel manufacturers that virtual instantaneous changes have been made because of complaints.

Their gear works, or it gets phased out very quickly in favor of something that does. They invest magnificent amounts of money into research of relevant topics. For example, how do we know that deer can’t distinguish between red and orange versus grey? And that they see blue very well, so that all blue threading and dyes must be removed from deer hunting apparel? We know it because Sitka sponsored a student doing a PhD at the University of Georgia to study that very thing.

Their GoreTex fabric works, and you can get one, two or three layer fabric (the three layer being just right for awful conditions). You know those hunting shirts that use silver to do built-in odor management for your hunts? I have several. They really work.

Do you want similar apparel without the camouflage patterns? They all have that too. Do you want backpacks? There are so many that it would take weeks to go through them all – or go to Mystery Ranch and get one, or one of the many makers of tactical packpacks (like TRU-SPEC, Condor, 5.11, etc., etc.). I have a TRU-SPEC and it works great.

So if the KUIU Mountain Star tent is light and good looking, does it perform well or does it leak? The Outdoor Gear Review gives it a thumbs up, and he’s picky about his tent reviews. You have to fast forward to 32:30.

Full disclosure. I am being paid nothing to write this post about the KUIU Mountain Star tent, and KUIU has no idea who I am.

Donald Trump made a visit to N.C. The awful Charlotte Observer had the temerity to criticize him after the visit.

He’d go further in an interview with Kellyanne Conway, one of his most ardent truth-twisters on cable TV before she was largely exiled from the networks, accusing Harris of trying to “hurt” western North Carolina residents.

On Saturday, Trump’s claims provoked a response from one of the state’s most widely-read newspapers, the Charlotte Observer. The Observer’s editorial board slammed the ex-president for his lies about the federal response to Helene, which is believed to have killed more than 100 across the state.

“This is not a situation to capitalize on for political gain. But former President Donald Trump has politicized the situation at every turn, spreading falsehoods and conspiracies that fracture the community instead of bringing it together,” read the newspaper’s editorial.

“There’s no evidence to support any of those ridiculous claims. And by every indication, state and federal agencies have been working to help people in need,” it continued.

Now that you’ve read the trash that is the Charlotte Observer, let me tell you the rest of the story. I cannot tell you how I know the things I will say, I can just tell you that I do know them.

I have long advocated Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse as a worthy consideration for donation to assist those in need. Franklin is a good man, and Samaritan’s purse is a good organization. In fact, they were one of the first ones at the scene with water, food, batteries, and so on.

When Trump made his visit to N.C., he discussed the situation with Franklin Graham. He asked him what was needed. Franklin told him that the State National Guard was slow walking the rescue and recovery, had been deployed, but like most other rescuers were awaiting “assessment by the authorities.”

He told Trump that the biggest thing the folks in the N.C. mountains needed at the moment was the ability to communicate. That would aid rescue, would enable folks to contact loved ones, and help them request the needed rescue and help. Trump picked up the phone and called Elon Musk.

He told Musk that communication was badly needed in N.C. Musk said essentially “I’m on it.” He readied his aircraft to deliver the needed infrastructure and sent them on their way.

Now. How did all of this work out? You don’t have to be left wondering. Musk tells you how it all worked out

Just received this note from a SpaceX engineer helping on the ground in North Carolina. @FEMA is not merely failing to adequately help people in trouble, but is actively blocking citizens who try to help!

“Hey Elon, update here on site of Asheville, NC. We have powered up two…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2024

SpaceX engineers are trying to deliver Starlink terminals & supplies to devastated areas in North Carolina right now and @FEMA is both failing to help AND won’t let others help. This is unconscionable!!

They just took this video a few hours ago, where you can see the level of… pic.twitter.com/abpOsfNenF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2024

I see we’ve reached the stage of civilizational decline where the sclerotic federal bureaucracy is hamstringing the tech billionaire’s effort to run private disaster relief in the face of government inaction while trapped civilians run out of food and water… https://t.co/9QSXZBIavy

— John Daniel Davidson (@johnddavidson) October 4, 2024

Some idiot state senator in N.C. (we have a lot of them) said this.

“PLEASE help stop this junk,” added Corbin, a Republican. “It is just a distraction to people trying to do their job.”

“Folks, this is a catastrophic event of which this country has never known,” his statement said. “It is the largest crisis event in the history of [North Carolina]. The state is working non-stop.”

I’ll say to that state senator what I’ll say to the Charlotte Observer. Go pound sand. You don’t know what you’re talking about. But it’s the legacy media and an idiot state senator. So why would anyone trust them anyway?

Quartz (also a terrible publication) penned a commentary entitled Donald Trump and Elon Musk are Trying to Take Credit for Starlink’s Response to Hurricane Helene.

“And so we’re working on that, getting them hooked up,” Trump said. “They asked me whether or not that would be possible. We’re going to try and get the Starlink in there as soon as possible.”

In a post on X (META), White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said the plan to get Starlink terminals for hurricane-hit areas “is already happening.” Bates shared an announcement by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Monday that outlined plans to deploy Starlink systems in North Carolina.

In North Carolina, “40 Starlink satellite systems are available to help with responder communications and an additional 140 satellites are being shipped to assist with communications infrastructure restoration,” FEMA said in the announcement. Each county’s emergency operations center will deploy one Starlink system to assist with communications and keep the government online, according to the agency.

Meanwhile, Musk said on X that his company “SpaceX has sent as many Starlink terminals as possible to help areas in need” since the hurricane started.

“Earlier today, @realDonaldTrump alerted me to additional people who need Starlink Internet in North Carolina,” Musk said. “We are sending them terminals right away.”

Progressives always accuse someone else of doing what they do, and always take credit for doing what others did. In this case, Musk confirms what I said above and the Quartz article title is equally ridiculous as the Charlotte Observer commentary.

I just told you how it happened: the request went from Franklin Graham to Trump and then to Musk. And no, the federal government didn’t do anything with this except to impede progress.