Current Status of Helene-Hit Areas?

[astrochex]

Thank-you, jyl, for starting this topic. It is right to be reminded that the flooding victims are still suffering.

[fintstone]

Actual resident to local TV:

"I have nowhere else to go but in the streets. I've called them several times. They have not answered anything, they have not extended, they told me I had to be out by January 10," said Marlene Kramer, who was displaced by Helene.

[Tobra]

Still suffering and being failed by the government. Just like Paradise, East Palestine, Lahaina and the California fires will be.

[wdfifteen]

Those people have had over two months to find housing and haven’t done it. I don’t think Federal EMERGENCY Management was ever intended to provide long term housing. At what point does “emergency assistance” become “well fare?” If those people can’t take care of themselves after two months they need to apply to the alphabet soup of agencies that do provide long term assistance.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Those people have had over two months to find housing and haven’t done it. I don’t think Federal EMERGENCY Management was ever intended to provide long term housing. At what point does “emergency assistance” become “well fare?” If those people can’t take care of themselves after two months they need to apply to the alphabet soup of agencies that do provide long term assistance.

There is really no housing to be had that poor folks can afford...as it has long been the Mecca for the folks/retirees fleeing the northeast and they have driven prices beyond what local wages can sustain. Gentrification. Of course, much of the work the poor folks did was service related...and the brew pubs and restaurants they worked at washed away along with their apartments/homes. They get no insurance money for their losses because flooding is not covered by homeowners'...but they still have mortgages, homeowner' insurance and taxes to pay.

They are royally screwed despite the limited help by FEMA (for the few that figured out how to qualify for a room). They should be encouraged to leave (especially those that flocked there for the service work and have no real community ties) ...but many locals have never ventured outside the county (or maybe even the hollow they grew up in). Many lost their cars as well (making work and/or leaving difficult). Most simply have nowhere to go and no money to do it with. After a month in a hotel, any money they might have had was spent to eat. Few had more than a month of reserves and that was gone two months ago.

FEMA and other agencies should have spent the last month or two helping these folks towards longer term solutions, (like they do with illegal migrants), not just kicking them out into the cold in the dead of winter.

[fintstone]

Imagine that this is your house and your car (photos from my hometown). You are lucky to be alive. You had almost no money and a minimum wage job....and neither now. You have a small mortgage and a small car payment that you still owe on (property taxes were just due and required on the value of the property last Jan). Your employer is defunct. Insurance will not allow a claim as your damage was flood related. FEMA has rejected your claims (they came late and are leaving early). There were few rentals in the area even before the flooding and they were all expensive and require large fees to move in. Your family is sheltering in a small motel room in a city about 30 miles from where you lived. It is cold and wet (fresh snow) and temps are in the teens. There are no jobs (that you qualify for) and you have a high school education or less and no real experience ither than service work. You are in a city that is somewhat spread out and where there is no real public transportation to where the few possible jobs (and grocery stores) are not within walking distance of either your destroyed rural home (where you could primitive camp) or your motel room and your vehicle was destroyed. You can't buy another because you are still making payments on the one the storm destroyed. You are too old (or otherwise not qualified to join he military). Most of your extended family, friends, and neighbors lived nearby and are in the same situation as you and really cannot help. What do you do?

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by fintstone

Imagine that this is your house and your car (photos from my hometown). You are lucky to be alive. You had almost no money and a minimum wage job....and neither now. You have a small mortgage and a small car payment that you still owe on (property taxes were just due and required on the value of the property last Jan). Your employer is defunct. Insurance will not allow a claim as your damage was flood related. FEMA has rejected your claims (they came late and are leaving early). There were few rentals in the area even before the flooding and they were all expensive and require large fees to move in. Your family is sheltering in a small motel room in a city about 30 miles from where you lived. It is cold and wet (fresh snow) and temps are in the teens. There are no jobs (that you qualify for) and you have a high school education or less and no real experience ither than service work. You are too old (or otherwise not qualified to join he military). Most of your extended family, friends, and neighbors lived nearby and are in the same situation as you and really cannot help. What do you do?

Fint, most Americans can't imagine living the reality you describe.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Fint, most Americans can't imagine living the reality you describe.

It was/is pretty bleak for many in the small towns. More photos from my (very poor) hometown... Most had nothing before this...maybe an old mobile home parked on a tiny bit of land with some sort of lean-to added on so they could heat with a wood stove. These folks had a hard life (compared to most) before the floods:

[Tobra]

FEMA should not be hindering efforts of locals.


People can get paid, only if they give up their homes to the state, and the state gets compensated by the feds.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by fintstone

Imagine that this is your house and your car (photos from my hometown). You are lucky to be alive. You had almost no money and a minimum wage job....and neither now. You have a small mortgage and a small car payment that you still owe on (property taxes were just due and required on the value of the property last Jan). Your employer is defunct. Insurance will not allow a claim as your damage was flood related. FEMA has rejected your claims (they came late and are leaving early). There were few rentals in the area even before the flooding and they were all expensive and require large fees to move in. Your family is sheltering in a small motel room in a city about 30 miles from where you lived. It is cold and wet (fresh snow) and temps are in the teens. There are no jobs (that you qualify for) and you have a high school education or less and no real experience ither than service work. You are in a city that is somewhat spread out and where there is no real public transportation to where the few possible jobs (and grocery stores) are not within walking distance of either your destroyed rural home (where you could primitive camp) or your motel room and your vehicle was destroyed. You can't buy another because you are still making payments on the one the storm destroyed. You are too old (or otherwise not qualified to join he military). Most of your extended family, friends, and neighbors lived nearby and are in the same situation as you and really cannot help. What do you do?

Some people risk their lives hiking a thousand miles through dangerous, unfamiliar territory while being preyed on by thieves, rapists, and kidnappers in order to find a better life. We call them criminals.

[SpyderMike]

I would stop making payments and leave the area.

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by SpyderMike

I would stop making payments and leave the area.

This may be reality for many , assuming they have a way and $$$ to do so . If you are dead broke you can't even afford a bus ticket . Very sad .

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Some people risk their lives hiking a thousand miles through dangerous, unfamiliar territory while being preyed on by thieves, rapists, and kidnappers in order to find a better life. We call them criminals.

That is because they are criminals and chose to break our laws (definition of criminal). Of course, once they reach our border they are welcomed with gifts/benefits paid for by taxpayers like these displaced victims of the flooding.

The folks in WNC are citizens of this nation and they and their parents, grandparents, etc. have likely paid taxes their entire lives here, fought for our armed services, etc. They helped build our nation. I do not see the parallel to those that come to break our laws.

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by fintstone

That is because they are criminals and chose to break our laws (definition of criminal). Of course, once they reach our border they are welcomed with gifts/benefits paid for by taxpayers like these displaced victims of the flooding.

The folks in WNC are citizens of this nation and they and their parents, grandparents, etc. have likely paid taxes their entire lives here, fought for our armed services, etc. They helped build our nation. I do not see the parallel to those that come to break our laws.

Very well said , thank you .

[Alan A]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Some people risk their lives hiking a thousand miles through dangerous, unfamiliar territory while being preyed on by thieves, rapists, and kidnappers in order to find a better life. We call them criminals.

They are. Next false equivalence.

[greglepore]

And the national news outlets have moved on, as if its over. This is a historic winter in the midsouth, the coldest its been for a long period in 20 years or more. Forecast for midweek is lows in tens to single digits. Hopefully these policies will bend


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[onewhippedpuppy]

I have seen more calls to help LA Fire victims in the past week than I’ve seen calls to help NC flood victims in months. NC gets $750 from FEMA that’s apparently impossible to claim, USG has already said they will 100% fund LA fire relief for the next 180 days. Every media outlet is talking about assistance for LA, while NC is ignored and forgotten. We should absolutely be helping those who lost their homes in LA, but why does the media and Washington appear to be 100% ignoring NC? It’s very hard to see how this is anything other than political, meanwhile ordinarily Americans are suffering. It’s disgusting.

[3rd_gear_Ted]

Does NC have the threat of "strings attached" for fed aid? Trump will be beating his drum on the backs of all those folks for sure.

Yet, every single family will be doing all they can to rebuild and nobody is going anywhere else if they can. They don't make movies and TV shows many places.

The attributes that prompted investment in the area in the first time will become even more stable after the rebuild.

If the same can't be said for Helene N.C. whose fault is that?

Folks than can cowboy up will and others will suffer, there is NO doubt about that.

[jyl]

This is the way it works in the US after a major disaster:
- The government (Fed, state) steps in with emergency and short-term help - food, shelter, clothes, medical, etc
- The government (state) repairs the infrastructure - roads, utilities, bridges, etc
- Rebuilding private structures and replacing private property, is on individuals/businesses. The government (Fed) will loan money for certain rebuilding purposes. But govt doesn’t replace your house or car or clothes or job.
- Figuring out how to pick up the pieces of one’s life, deciding where to stay or go, is on individuals. Entirely.
- Rebuilding the area’s economy - bringing jobs back etc - might be something the (State/local) govt tries to do. Not a Fed role. And it’ll take a decade or longer. People need to forget about what happened.

So, in NC, I’d expect to see the state working on the roads and utilities, and FEMA providing emergency shelter to displaced people for a limited time, and making rebuilding loans to property owners who have decided to rebuild. I wouldn’t really expect much more.

I realize there are a lot of poor people there, who need help. They needed help before Helene too. But the appetite for anti-poverty programs and spending is pretty low, and getting lower.

And that’s what some of you are talking about, the people who were living in vans and trailers in the woods with $40 to their name - they cannot be helped by disaster relief, they are simply impoverished.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by jyl

This is the way it works in the US after a major disaster:
- The government (Fed, state) steps in with emergency and short-term help - food, shelter, clothes, medical, etc
- The government (state) repairs the infrastructure - roads, utilities, bridges, etc
- Rebuilding private structures and replacing private property, is on individuals/businesses. The government (Fed) will loan money for certain rebuilding purposes. But govt doesn’t replace your house or car or clothes or job.
- Figuring out how to pick up the pieces of one’s life, deciding where to stay or go, is on individuals. Entirely.
- Rebuilding the area’s economy - bringing jobs back etc - might be something the (State/local) govt tries to do. Not a Fed role. And it’ll take a decade or longer. People need to forget about what happened.

So, in NC, I’d expect to see the state working on the roads and utilities, and FEMA providing emergency shelter to displaced people for a limited time, and making rebuilding loans to property owners who have decided to rebuild. I wouldn’t really expect much more.

I realize there are a lot of poor people there, who need help. They needed help before Helene too. But the appetite for anti-poverty programs and spending is pretty low, and getting lower.

And that’s what some of you are talking about, the people who were living in vans and trailers in the woods with $40 to their name - they cannot be helped by disaster relief, they are simply impoverished.

The problem in WNC is it took so long for help to arrive. They (government) did not show up for months...and have helped little. They still have not fixed bridges or roads. The interstates were closed for many weeks. They only recently got potable drinking water in the city. Folks could not get back to normal or go to work if they had to. Now it is the dead of winter and people are still in tents and their money ran out long ago. The nearest city (Asheville) is run by the loons (folks that would be more at home politically in CA than NC) and has been for decades...so there is little industry and massive homelessness/drugs. They spend like California (but the people are poor like Haiti)...wasting the money on stupid nonsense (like million-dollar outdoor toilets for the homeless and electric busses that do not work). Taxes are high with nothing to show for it. Local colleges only teach basketweaving. There are no law schools, no engineering schools, no medical schools. The rural areas are totally forgotten (by the state and federal government) as always. Not enough votes to bother with, I guess. No industry, few jobs, high unemployment.

The biggest difference between this and most natural disasters is the fact that insurance does not cover losses from floods (unlike folks near the shore that would have subsidized flood insurance).

On a positive note, it looks like a lot of the recent new residents (carpetbaggers that have really hurt locals) seem to have fled elsewhere since the disaster as I do not recall ever seeing so many homes for rent. Too bad the folks that bought the homes up and jacked up prices are asking higher rent than ever...so they are still out of reach of locals.