I’d have gotten to you earlier, but I’ve been busy checking in repeatedly with family members, from my 93-year-old mother to each of the five kids, and each of the five grandchildren. The sitrep:
- One has a tree (or a large part of a tree — see the image) on her house and water leaking into her dining room. We have a tree guy lined up, but it’s likely to be tomorrow before he gets there and gets a tarp on it, as the insurance people said we needed to do ASAP.
- Another without power.
- Another without internet.
- One who is down on the coast for work; his family is at home and reports no problems, although his in-laws have no power.
- One who flew out of Charleston this morning to Boston, on her way to Iceland.
- Another who is sitting in her house on a mountainside in Asheville. She’s watching the river below her, which is at 100-year flood stage and still rising eight inches per hour. She saw a house float down it.
- At my house, we’re doing fairly well. We had no water this morning, but it came back — dirty at first, but looking clear now. There are some trees down around the neighborhood, but we have power so far.
Meanwhile, I’ve heard that the Richland County jail has no power. And you know they have virtually no staff.
How are all y’all doing?
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The sun came out a bit ago. I stood at the front door to look at it. A small, yellow butterfly flew by in front of me. A few feet beyond, another one was checking out the blossoms in a flower bed, along with a couple of bees.
So I can report that routine pollination work has resumed…
Power out here in rural Oconee County as of 6 a.m. and local co-op says it’s likely to be a “multi-day event”. No structural damage for us though!
Never lost power.
Got up about 5am because I couldn’t sleep. Checked on my pool a few times. Watched the early morning news which was really the local weather people showing the radar and talking about it.
By 8 am, rain was stopped and it was actually decent outside except for the crazy wind.
Drove down to Myrtle Beach with my wife to see one of my kids and hang out a bit. The other lives closer to downtown Columbia with some college roommates. They have had no power all day today (Friday). a limb fell on the back window of one of his roomies and busted it. Lots of trees down in their neighborhood.
My high schooler was supposed to march in a marching contest tomorrow but found out today it’s been canceled. Big bummer for a lot of kids and band directors.
Friend lives in Western North Carolina – west of Asheville. He’s a college buddy of mine from USC. I texted him Friday afternoon and never heard back which was unusual.
Saturday, he sent me 1 text. He had to drive out of his neighborhood (which was a problem) and down the side of a mountain to a parking lot of a store and barely got a cell signal and told me his house was ok but the area around him was in bad shape and he could barely get a cell signal. No power at all.
I texted him back immediately but haven’t heard from him since. I know he couldn’t just hang out at the parking lot and text so it’s safe to assume cell service isn’t restored yet.
At least we have hundreds of billions of tax dollars that can be sent to Ukraine and Israel so that should help everyone in the southeast whose lives were destroyed. Bombs should always take precedence.
Bombs? Is that how you describe, for instance, keeping our ally Ukraine from being overwhelmed and destroyed by its more powerful neighbor?
I care about Ukraine as much as the Ukrainians care about Asheville, NC. Ukraine isn’t our “ally”. They are in an endless turf war with the boogeyman the defense industry has to create in order to keep billions of dollars flowing that could be spent on U.S. needs. Once we’ve exhausted all our resources for years to try an win an unwinnable war, what next? Another retreat from a failed mission like Vietnam and Afghanistan?
By the way, how much aid is our friend and ally Ukraine sending our way to help the people affected by the flooding? As Dionne Warwick sings, “that’s what friends are for”.
So, we’re not supposed to help someone who’s not in a position to help us? That’s one way of looking at the world, but it will never be mine…
That said, the barrier between what’s good for the other guy and what’s good for America is thin, and in many cases nonexistent. I know enough about history and even economics (I would certainly NEVER claim to be any kind of expert on the latter, but as I watch public debates, I repeatedly see that the average guy out there understands it even less).
Putin is a threat to Europe, and a threat to Europe is a threat with tremendous implications for this country, and the rest of the world. Clemenza was no great diplomat, but even he understood that…
And today, the threat to Europe is Putin…
“So, we’re not supposed to help someone who’s not in a position to help us? That’s one way of looking at the world, but it will never be mine…”
Charity begins at home. One way of looking at the world that will never be mine is the futile and heartless idea that providing military aid that ends up killing innocent people is somehow noble. It’s murder by proxy.
I’ll never understand how people can claim Putin is one of those existential threats to the U.S. and the world but not enough of a threat to actually take him out. We’ll borrow and spend billions that we don’t actually have versus simply killing him. Oh, you mean there’s someone worse than Putin that will takeover? There is no incentive nor interest in ending the war (or any other war). Otherwise, we’d be trying to bring leaders to the table… that’s not how this country works now.
You and Lindsey Graham can secretly get all warm inside every time a missile lands in Russia but not me.
One of these days, when I have a lot of time, we’ll have to discuss the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction, and how it applies especially to Russia (which has more nukes than we do). Then, perhaps, you will “understand how people can claim Putin is one of those existential threats to the U.S. and the world but not enough of a threat to actually take him out.”
“I care about Ukraine as much as the Ukrainians care about Asheville, NC. Ukraine isn’t our “ally”.
I disagree
They are, especially compared to Russia which is the necessary comparison.
They have other things to worry about than Asheville.
in World War Two, I doubt our allies were worried about storm damage in South Carolina either. Didn’t mean they weren’t an ally.
Countries have numerous conditional allies- so do human beings. It’s routine.
If your house is burning down to the ground and you were losing everything, is it acceptable if a friend of yours torches your friendship if you don’t call and check on his problems while you are trying to put the fire out?
we both know the answer.
It is not an either/or deal.
almost nothing is
In this case, there is a decision to spend more money defending Ukraine while it will end up a bombed out country with tens of thousands killed than rebuilding Asheville and western North Carolina. It’s a choice made by politicians.
The alternative being, of course, to do nothing, and watch Ukraine become “a bombed out country with tens of thousands killed,” and Putin standing triumphant in the ashes, and looking toward his next acquisition.
And I don’t know how many times I’ve explained this, but it’s not an either/or. We can help Ukraine, and help Asheville. And we are doing both. And it should please you that this help comes not just from the government. The National Guard and FEMA are certainly involved, but you’ve also got Duke Power (in that part of NC, I believe) and many other fine companies doing their best to restore some normalcy…
We are spending more on Ukraine BY FAR than on Western NC.
What is the end game for Ukraine? Describe victory. If the goal is to get rid of Putin, then do it. If not, explain what the goal is.
To stop Putin, and get his armies out of Ukraine, and do it without blowing up the world. That’s about it.
Howitzer rounds
…
https://youtu.be/PjppZa6HjU4?si=y7tWrpprgYf95xbd
Secretary of State Blinken tweeted this on Thursday:
The U.S. is at the forefront of humanitarian response to the growing crisis in Lebanon, announcing nearly $157 million in assistance today. We are committed to supporting those in need and delivering essential aid to displaced civilians, refugees and the communities hosting them.
—
We give money to Israel to bomb Lebanon and then give money to Lebanon to deal with the effects of being bombed.
Maybe we should bomb Asheville so they can get more of our tax dollars.
It’s disgusting.
No, it isn’t. As I’ve explained before just minutes ago, this is not an either-or. We’re doing what we can in Ukraine, Lebanon AND Asheville.
We know you’re a libertarian and find that hard to accept, but that’s what we’re doing. We’re the richest country in the world, and we’re helping the less fortunate, wherever they are…
Our “richness” is based on using borrowed money. We’re like the guy driving the leased Cadillac whose kids don’t have any shoes.
We seem to be giving plenty of money to Asheville and North Carolina.
We give money in foreign aid to other countries- always have- always will. Did the same under Trump too when he was in office.
The DOT has already pledged 100 million to NC DOT.
I would some in North Carolina have insurance so not sure we need to give money to people that have coverage. Asheville has had flooding before so some might even have flood insurance.
We are proving lots of federal aid. Nothing disgusting about it.
We are even providing it to people who spent a lot of time swearing they would never accept it and don’t want it- and of course now they do when it happens to them.
We lost trees, including a 45+ year old pecan. The pecan blew over from the roots. Our house was spared and is in good shape. We were out of power 6 days and used a camp stove to cook food; hubs did this part. I still don’t have internet service other than my cell phone via Verizon. Actual calls would get dropped, text messages didn’t go out , and couldn’t connect at all with internet the first several days so no emails We began to get county emergency text messages after a day.
I had plenty of pantry items to heat, so we were in good shape for the time being.
If I had it to do over, I would gas up my car and pack my fridge with ice ahead of the storm. I just had no clue we would be hit so hard in the upstate by a hurricane. As for getting out and hunting these things after the storm, it just wasn’t safe. Gas pumps weren’t working, and the absence of working traffic signals made it treacherous to get through intersections. It was better for everyone to just stay put. We’re continuing to clear out trees with the help of friends. Our yard will require a lot of work once we get all the heavy machinery is gone.
We feel very fortunate we weren’t impacted more. We’re thankful for the mild weather after the storm and for having potable running water throughout this time.
Our area is close enough to the devastation in the North Carolina mountains, that we’ve become a staging point to collect emergency supplies and for volunteers to deliver the supplies. We have people from all over North America here helping in the effort to restore electricity and deliver supplies. There are still sections of the upstate without electricity.