Inside the Forgotten Aftermath of Hurricane Helene

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for the video audience this is very
unique access the cameras have left and
the problems are still here at first
nobody thinks about a hurricane of this
size hitting western north carolina
mountains we’re trying to get through
here a lot of road closures they’re very
reluctant to even ask for help because
they assume that their neighbors have it
worse this is day 221 and we’ve charged
nothing to the people we’re helping it’s
americans helping americans and it’s
probably 10,000 square miles so are you
just seeing this all day long all day
long fema had always been helpful if i
was waiting for fema i would be spooked
homage to the rescue so past 7 months
and this is this kid’s first chance to
get into his house the storm impacted
more than what people think of the
mainstream media really just blew it off
just over the hillside it’s total normal
life you come into a town like this and
you would never know anything happened
it’s never going to be the way it was
before right it’s a rebirth i guess
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road is right here as you see the white
line where the shoulder was so it shows
you with hickory creek how much that
came through and just wiped out i mean
all the asphalt’s gone from here
problems are still you know super severe
super severe yep yep you still have
towns that it looked like it happened
yesterday you know here in chimney rock
batcave area it’s like we appreciate the
help it’s come from all over the world
but as you can look in front of us and
this is just one little small area
compared to how much devastation is
still around and we’re 7 months out now
there’s so so much that needs to be done
and we made great progress but we’ve
only put in a dent to what needs to be
done so we’re going to get into it today
that you’re going to show me some of the
hot spots some of what you guys have
been doing absolutely yes sir you’re
with the united cinjun navy yes sir not
the cajun navy there many there many
names right there’s many spin-offs that
you know use the name and spun off but
yes we’re the united cajun navy and we
have you know partnerships with other
people but yeah you came the day after
yeah the next day i came up with uh me
and my buddy travis we had packed 110
gallons of gas and bunch of diapers
bunch of first aid water all kinds of
stuff and came up found oursel in
burnsville north carolina and we’re
there for 14 days sleeping in our
vehicle sleeping on the ground just
doing anything and everything we could
to help people at that point so what
drew you in just the passion or the
purpose to help just the passion the
purpose to help and the fact that it was
an hour and 10 minutes from my hometown
okay so it was so close and you know at
first nobody thinks about a hurricane of
this size hitting western north carolina
mountains we don’t think it’s going to
be serious so you sat around you know
you watch the news and other people’s
stories for a little bit and you’re like
“wow it’s getting worse by the minute by
the hour.” yeah it was september 27th my
birthday we’ll never forget it were you
working at the time you just packed up
and left just packed up i project manage
a construction company and i no way yeah
i have a boss and i told him i was like
“hey man i’m going to take a couple
months off and i kind of you know put my
whole life on hold and here we are.”
okay so you came up here with a buddy
yep and then you got a gig working with
the united cajun navy yes sir are you
glad you did you stepped over to them
yeah absolutely yeah i could have done
what i did solo but doing it with them
just you know it sped up the process we
were able to do it on a much larger
bigger scale quicker scale and we were
able to get to way more people than i
could ever got to you know just by
myself or with a couple volunteers and
my friends so here’s this is where you
know there was buildings here most of
these rivers were 2 ft wide a foot wide
some of them in places and the water
rushed through at such speed and force
that some of these rivers now are 15 20
foot wide and they just brought
destruction along every single path so
like the water here it rose up to here i
think it was like 7 ft and then it came
over and just to these trees you know
where you have the asphalt right here it
was you know 6 7 ft outside of where the
river normally is there’s a a trailer
there this is a part of a roof and an
attic it looks like here and then
everywhere around this area you always
have your checkpoints you have to stop
to go
through so this here you can see what i
was what i was saying with the way the
so you can see the can you take the
camera yes put it out there there you go
so you can see here the creek where it
literally is normally it’s like a foot
to a foot and a half deep and the water
rose this high to where it eroded this
far took this house with it and then you
can just see how far the river actually
spread now it’s i would guesstimate 25
ft right here when it’s normally a foot
wide right so did a lot of people they
knew it was coming they evacuated or
they were in these homes so a lot of it
like sleeping or how does that work it
was the most flash flood warnings in the
united states like in the united states
at one point in time in history so a lot
of people didn’t like i’ve talked to a
lot of survivors that we’ve worked with
and you can see here even just where
they were roaded out here and this is
this is across the road yeah wow that
came up like 40 ft in elevation at least
so a lot of people you know didn’t take
it seriously there’s some that did
there’s some you know families that we
worked with that did evacuate but a lot
of the people you know they stayed back
home because they’re like “okay you know
it floods sometimes it has flood and you
know we’ll get to higher level and
nobody was you know prepared for the
amount of water that came through
because before then it was already
raining heavily the 3 days prior mixed
it with a hurricane and it just you know
do they know how many people died in
total they released a number recently of
what they projected it was and i think
it was like 248 or 268 was the final
number okay but they just found another
body on the nalachucky river 2 days ago
so the count i don’t think they’ll ever
have an accurate number on the count
just for the fact of there wasn’t taken
into consideration the homeless
community the people that hiked
appalachian trail the people that were
here illegally the people that kind of
lived off grid that didn’t want to be
found or you know didn’t have anything
to do with society so there’s so many
considerations that people don’t take in
that makes that number way different
than what it actually really is
so are you just seeing this all day long
all day long yep just hauling out debris
debris okay
okay we’re trying to get through here a
lot of road closures go that way then
you get on 64 and take a left
100% said he would have let us through
but they’re spraying concrete oh
okay so fair to say these are the
heaviest hit areas yeah batcave swanoa
chimney rock lake burnsville those are
probably on the top five worst hit towns
so that shows you how wilder came here
to the wow bottom of the house that came
up big time jeez
so look there was a bridge here that’s
completely gone so now that’s their
entrance to their house which that even
looks like it’s been roped off since
this yeah and you got big steel i beams
in the middle of the river yep so what
was this like day one for you it’s
pretty intense day one was i mean it was
helicopter search and rescue there was
just so many calls coming in from help
from all over from you know hours in
different directions that we we set up a
generalized standpoint location with
like a command center and then we were
just dispatching teams okay all day long
so we had people by helicopter to
batcave people by helicopter to black
mountain to swanoa we had so this area
you were yeah so we had people running
here to help with search and rescue work
efforts you know to do welfare checks to
elderly communities to homes like that
that were no power and there was a lady
that she had liver failure and one of
our teams actually were able to get her
out and get her on a helicopter and get
her to safety wow just so much work to
be done you can see this whole lane’s
missing right here yeah so we’re getting
some access right to a place where we
need to meet a a lady who has special
access to exactly the only way you can
get into chimney rock is either having a
pass there that you’re doing active work
there or that you’re a resident there so
we’re meeting a team called precision
grading there that has done phenomenal
work rebuilt roads bridges things like
that to get people back into their
communities back into their homes and
all volunteer we’re partnered with them
so they send us volunteers that they
can’t use for different things and we
send resources their way okay and like
my biggest thing has always been you
know better together the more
partnerships that we do the better the
faster the work gets done because not
just one organization can handle
everything that’s been you know that’s
been done here
she said it’s one of the only buildings
standing and she’s she’s definitely
right i made it i did it yeah this is
interesting guys it takes on a whole
different feel down here how you doing
good how are you good peter shannon nice
to meet you without you guys i wouldn’t
be getting this footage yes as you can
see there’s a lot to do here and there’s
not any funding to go with it so a lot
of it’s been boot on boots on the ground
okay so i’m going to get into that today
we’ve sort of kept that topic uh on the
download so far cuz we haven’t really
gotten into the action yet but i want to
get into that like what’s going on with
funding yes that’s a problem it’s a big
problem really yes because we have a lot
of homeowners that are still very much
in need what we’ve seen is seven months
out the donations and the awareness have
right dropped there are other issues out
there now people lose their attention
span goes away yes that’s why i wanted
to come here that’s why i come here
after the fact yes and then you getting
varied reports that are showing that the
roads are open which is not true they
were originally planning to open chimney
rock up in may but that’s been pushed
back
shannon what’s your background like what
do you do outside of this or what did
you do i work full-time still i’m an
accountant i’m originally from michigan
but i worked with a food pantry in
saluda and when the hurricane hit i met
the crew from precision grading and when
you start meeting the people here and
seeing the challenges of what they’re
going through you can’t stop it’s really
hard to go back to normal you can see
here where there’s a memorial down here
on the right oh right the cross right
there yeah yes where a bridge is missing
right and then these homes up here this
is where people are living now right yes
a lot of them did not have insurance a
lot of the people that we’ve helped or
retired they were in their forever home
now their home’s gone they may not have
access for four five months they have
health issues i mean it’s across the
board look at this road this is wild
wild yeah this is a temporary road the
local authorities are ticketing folks
that are here without proper reasoning
right just so the audience knows don’t
come out here don’t try to do this
you’re not going to get by right make
that point don’t try to do this well
usually when you tell people not to do
something like myself many times i want
to do it more but there actually is a
checkpoint right it’s not going to let
you go by okay we have mountain strong
up there and so just a lot of the
community coming together fair to say
like this really tried people together
absolutely you have a lot of people
coming in and giving whatever talents
they have to try to get businesses and
people back in their homes yes this is
wild yes community is great they’re
resilient they’re very reluctant to even
ask for help because they assume that
their neighbors have it worse you can
see here this was the entrance to the
chimney rock park so this is the town of
chimney rock right here to the right is
where the entrance was you can see that
the bridge is completely missing right
this is why they do not want people
other than locals and workers here
because you can
see actively working yeah yeah gotcha
and so before big tourist destination
fair to say yes definitely
wow they just go right in the middle of
the river
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so the guy in the cat on the right is
the owner of precision grading company
yes jake jarvis they’re restoring the
river banks yes we have over 70 people
on our list right now that are still
needing our help maybe we can talk to
him when he catches a break yes yes
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oh that’s so cool just gently placed it
there look at this wall they’re just
building up this massive retaining wall
for whenever the river swells again and
then up here as you can see the
river smashed into the hillside there
ripped apart some of these buildings to
some degree some are salvageable looks
like these ones are and then just
massive rocks like that i mean the force
of this
thing i couldn’t imagine what this
looked like when it was happening and
then you have a home that was here
chimney still standing that’s about it
i’m going to run and talk to these
people if you don’t mind real quick is
that cool
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we live right over there where the
chimney is wow
okay so what was it like that day did
you evacuate or you just we did evacuate
we were right right across the river at
the carter lodge which you can see from
here the brown siding our house didn’t
wash completely away this tree right
there which is mostly dead and we had
planned to have it pulled down in
november it saved the house from
floating completely away but i said “i
don’t want the chimney torn down because
it survived the flood and it deserves to
stay.” and i said “we’ll put lights on
it and plant pansies around it.” and we
did this was sort of a living room
dining room that went all the way across
the front of the house okay so what’s
your overall view of how the help has
been and reconstruction and all of that
or what’s your take on that i think the
help has been amazing
awesome i would have thought that by now
uh we’d be forgotten and other disasters
you know whatever’s on the front page of
the newspaper would get attention but we
haven’t been forgotten even though this
occurred september 27th i mean you look
at my sign for the longest time we had
signs all around the chimney that said
“do not demo don’t demolish this
chimney.” right once the house was gone
we flipped the signs over and said
“thanks to the helpers.” has the federal
government’s helped the state
government’s helped local communities
helped all the above mhm i don’t know
about the state government i believe so
but the federal government has helped us
they’ve given us money to help us
rebuild and they gave us money uh
initially just to live on okay and uh
i’m hoping that we’ll get extended
rental support because we’re renting
right now and are you happy with the
amount they gave you feel like it’s a
fair treatment you got i think so that’s
cool yeah i would get so angry when i
would would hear people say fema’s done
nothing when fema had always been
helpful i mean i had to gather
information they needed okay and the
town here has been wonderful to have
meetings every two weeks okay and so
we’ve been updated all along and i knew
from having people from fema come in as
guest speakers yeah that it’s not
unusual to have your your application
denied but it usually means that you’ve
overlooked something you just have to go
back find out what it was and so you
just got to you just got to be on it
with the paperwork and the filing and
all that stuff and fema folks were they
were on hand until recently so i would
just go to their office and meet with
them and they would do the work for me
oh okay so okay but look plants are
coming up there we go new beginnings my
roses are coming back so and then have
most people left town or most are
staying here right now most are staying
okay so has it’s made the town stronger
fair to say the community town was
strong to begin with okay absolutely an
amazing community of people that were
community-minded and involved and it
doesn’t surprise me that nobody left i
mean some people have had to leave to
get work okay uh we’re fortunate because
we’re retired and we had no debt have no
debt so our concern has been for younger
friends who in some cases lost their
homes and their businesses yeah that’s
rough but i don’t know of anybody who’s
not coming back do you think there’s a
consensus when i asked you about fema
and the government helping do you think
most people feel like you or it just
really depends who you ask i think it
depends who you ask but most people from
around here i’ve heard the same thing
okay that they’ve gotten help i honestly
don’t know about folks that are um maybe
farther back in the mountains that are
more remote i don’t know how easy it’s
been for them to get the help they need
yeah you’re sort of in a popular place
here okay gotcha well thank you this is
how we learn this is how we learn about
what’s going on interest in us and not
forgetting us not forgetting no way
forget us we’re still here i love you
guys this is one of the coolest parts of
the country in my opinion i think it is
it’s a it’s a beautiful sliver of
america it really is special you know
yeah yeah
okay guys let’s try to talk to jack
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how’s it going out here right now uh
treacherous treacherous yeah it’s
abusive on the equipment and us but
we’re getting it have you ever done any
work like this before yes but um you
know it comes in spurts usually we build
boulder walls you know as part of our
company or used to before the we became
all voluntary
but this is different because it’s
constant you know it’s it’s every single
day you guys have to go this whole river
is that is that the plan it wasn’t to
begin with it was to save a couple of
houses like that one down there it was
falling in and uh this one up here by
the bridge was falling in but once we
did a couple you know the land owners
that lost their homes it’s turned into
the whole road pretty much this is day
221 you know 221 221 and you see my
whole crew and all my equipment is out
here doing something so how many days
have you gotten off in t21 i took one
weekend one weekend yes yes how does
this work um the nuts and bolts of it
like is the state paying you is are the
feds paying you nobody’s paying us who
pays you have to working off the
donations that come into the company and
donations that come in solely that no we
have gotten zero from the state zero
from any government and we’ve charged
nothing to the to the people we’re
helping sometimes they’ll make a
donation if they have you know if they
have the funding if they don’t doesn’t
bother me we’re still helping so so are
you losing money versus your normal life
before this definitely at this point uh
you know it’s a the donations have
fallen off cuz we’re 7 and 1/2 months
and and uh people kind of forgot and you
know there’s still so much to do i i was
just talking about it this morning but i
can’t say no and since i’ve been here
today we picked up three more lots here
that want help so and you know these
people are so kind they come up and you
know you can’t say no to a little old
lady that needs help to try to get her
land back yeah i just talked to one the
lady with the chimney yeah i mean
they’re all so nice and sweet and
they’ve a lot of them have lived here
their whole lives and i would think the
federal the state government would have
you know uts uh tend all the way down
the river why is that not the case or or
how does that work or would that not
work or they’re working hard it’s just
they’re working on the state roads and
they haven’t done anything for the
private we’re helping individual land
owners and homeowners there was homes
all through here they’re just gone but
the state’s still focusing on getting
access here and okay i don’t want to put
the state down cuz they are working hard
but they don’t you know they’re not
helping us any we’ve had a lot of people
ask that the woman uh that’s got the
chimney over there she said she’s super
happy with fema so far is that the case
for most people or what do you think or
it depends who you talk to it’s mixed
it’s mixed yes i’ve heard of some people
you know getting $30,000 offers on a
half million dollar home they lost and
then you hear some people that you know
i think it’s it’s hit and miss as to how
they filled out the paperwork and how
they worked it you know my life’s
changed you used to i nobody’s thought
about politics down here it doesn’t
matter what kind of person you are i
mean if if somebody needs help we’ve
helped them i don’t care if it if it’s
been an airbnb you know i’ve been
criticized for that but that’s
somebody’s income as well so they need
you know they need help too everybody
needs help only time i i hear about
disputes and stuff is when i go home and
turn on the news or look on facebook but
down here it’s everybody’s getting along
everybody works together nobody cares
who anyone voted for nobody cares like i
i you know i’ve helped both sides
clearly both sides and uh you know it
doesn’t matter all that stuff goes away
right yeah bigger problems it wasn’t a
worry of mine anymore so and i don’t
think it ever will be again it’s just
north carolina definitely proved that we
can come together in a catastrophe cuz
we certainly did and you know people
helping people is what this has been
about since day one it evolved from
tears and just a lot of working and then
now it’s it’s just you know who else can
we help you know does that person if i
see somebody walking around out here and
i can tell that you know they live here
or lived here you know i’ll go ask them
hey i’m jake can i help you you know
what can we do for you or or what can
god do for you cuz this is definitely a
changed me in that direction too you see
things that you can’t explain otherwise
and things come together that you would
never think that would and it just the
pieces of the puzzle fall into place you
know every single person out there has a
job they’re good at i happen to be good
at grading and this was a big grading
need but you know your job could be used
no matter what it is you doing what
you’re doing right now brings skills
everybody’s little skills whether you
think you can help or not the pieces
fall together right on jake we got to
help nice to meet you yeah you too jake
appreciate it respect
yeah it’s really hard to capture the
feel here guys i’m doing my best with
the camera and with who we can talk to
but i got to say it’s a special thing
all different types of people such a
massive effort to bring this place back
and while it’s a huge travesty and i’m
literally a couple hours in haven’t
talked to anyone who lost somebody so
that’s going to be a different story
obviously but as terrible as this all is
there’s a certain energy and positivity
and room for no [ __ ] that comes with
bringing a town back like this and it’s
really a cool feeling to be
in take
care this business is still open yes so
we’ve actually done a lot of work here
you can drive down by the beach this is
the smoky mountain cowboy they have
salvaged a lot of stuff that’s come down
through the river and they have it on
display down in the basement here which
was completely flooded and it’s a museum
of sorts and they have their art for
sale and like the arches over here to
the right jake pulled them out of the
river they buried them you know they’re
basically making artwork out of storm
debris they have such a positive
attitude and you start to see things
start to come back together and it’s
never going to be the way it was before
but it’s a rebirth i guess
so it’s almost the entry of the lake
right this is the flowering bridge right
here to the left you can see that it was
destroyed a lot of people familiar with
the area visited there quite often
they’re draining the lake aren’t they
the i think i saw wow look at this
operation this is wild it’s massive so
they’re draining the lake is that what
you said yeah they were draining it to
like remove all the surface debris so
basically you know much of the debris
like homes came down the river into lake
lure oh yeah right everything just sort
of ended up here yes okay you know the
infrastructure was damaged as far as
like septic and that kind of thing so
gas pump i mean there had to be some
serious ecological damage here too in
the beginning on like kane river and
other places the amount of toxins that
were in the water from like bleach and
just house memories and all kinds of
other chemicals they were like melting
workers boots like the bottom of it oh
jeez well this looks like a fun place i
mean give it a year or two right a
couple years maybe this would be packed
in the summer just absolutely packed oh
this is nice yes that’s actually where
dirty dancing was oh yeah it’s a classic
lake lure what is it inn and spa 1927
yes so people can’t come here right now
or can they i’m not positive yeah okay i
just don’t want to hurt any businesses
you know what i mean so if you’re look
maybe the in’s open maybe it’s not look
the facebook page is really how people
are updating things are always getting
updated right it’s a lot of change so
what’s true today in a month’s time
might be a different reality definitely
yep okay definitely
you know what and again i’m going to a
positive which might be out of place but
a positive i see too is it just levels
everything like if there was a class
divide let’s say someone’s really
wealthy and they look down on say a
certain you know dump truck driver now
the dump truck driver is your hero yes
right and i’m not clowning anyone saying
people of money look down on everyone
but you’re just saying giving an example
right you might be like “oh the trash
guy he’s the trash guy.” but the trash
guy is making your life a million times
better you know definitely there you
know people you can see from all of the
signs that we’re on that one house and
multiple houses here along this road
they need the workers they need people
to come in who have the trade skills who
are able to help repair this area and
then right up here they were fine
they’re totally fine
sir how have you been doing out here how
are things going they’re going pretty
great um just making sure that everybody
has a job to do being reminded that it
takes one brother to a sister by having
god in your heart and to know that we
all in it together so when you look
around and you see the reset is
basically within yourself too to reset
and try to make it right for yourself
what you’re going through as well as
others are here that are just as much as
um not fortunate and don’t get a hand so
this is where we got to stand and we we
give that hand and if not we make and we
create a hand or we be the hand
beautiful
thank you with all my eyes you’re always
you’re always smiling
i have to smile because i’m just i’m
just reminding everybody like you one
way or the other we’re going to build
this back up yes sir but even better yes
with with um peace love respect
happiness and nothing but you know
nothing but god chances in us you know
yes sir you got to remember we’re
americans man we always step up to the
plate and make it right that our back is
made out of us steel yes and we’re not
going nowhere smile have it in here and
somebody’s down pick them up you know
dust them off let them know let’s keep
moving forward we’re not going to have
no excuses yes sir we appreciate you
thank you brother thank you very much
thank you god bless take care god bless
you he’s made for this stuff i know he
just got me all charged up like i want i
i feel like running through a wall right
now go right so go down there yeah that
way you can kind of get a different
perspective here oh yeah like i said
we’ve done the banks here from this
house all the way down yeah what a
perspective oh those banks right there i
see it yeah the beautiful rock walls and
then you can see that this community
here is so grateful for the help and
this house you can see at the bottom the
stairs they were missing i mean that
house was almost a loss and the houses
all to the right are a loss
looks like they’re bringing that one
back there’s the wall yeah so they’ve
been like sourcing the boulders and
these boulders
are extremely abrasive you can see
they’re not flat and it it takes a lot
of work just to get one of them in place
and it is very hard on the equipment um
we’re constantly repairing the buckets
it’s very common to see like the
homeowners in the area watching the work
occurring and then they’ll use a lot of
the sand and smaller rocks to fill
in you should see some of the work in
these buildings we’ve had the amish from
pennsylvania yeah i heard the amish are
down here you should see the workmanship
and and they do great work awesome work
before a building is demoed usually
spokes of hope and the amish will go in
and pull out everything usable yeah and
they use that in the rebuilding for
their next project you know it’s funny
i’ve done many videos with the amish
before the pandemic so many people were
like “the amish they’re crazy they’re
they’re living in weird ways.” during
the pandemic when i shot videos they’re
like “oh that’s so great they’re not on
tv they’re not on social media they’re
all hanging out together and growing
their own food that looks awesome i want
some of that and now they’ve come to
rescue which is so cool shout out to the
amish they’re not most of them won’t see
this right but actually a lot will
believe it or not because it’s more
complicated like everything in life than
we think it is so some of the amish like
the schwarz and truber they’re off
technology that’s what we think of but
the beachy amish on the other side of
the spectrum they have microwaves
they’re driving around they’re on the
internet and then of course there’s the
rebellious youth that are going to get
online no matter what so amazing amount
of work being done here this is a
campground on the left very popular for
people visiting this area we’ll be doing
work here as well how are you going to
build a retaining wall for that that
seems tough yes we want to go over here
a lot of work to be done jake has got
his work cut out for him he’s basically
at work till he’s retired if he wants
yes so keep jake going keep this thing
going in the right direction air force
veteran he enlisted the day after 911
just a servant’s heart and you’ll see
he’s been working very closely with the
batcave fire chief steve’s the fire
chief he was here during the storm he
airlifted people out he worked search
and rescue we cleared like two miles of
a mudslide about three weeks ago they
had no access for seven months we
cleared two miles of mudslide it’s over
here in batcave what do you mean they
had no access the the people living up
there right the mudslide had taken out
all road access we had a volunteer from
wisconsin who came down for three or
four weeks beautiful old home it’s all
about elevation with this situation
seems to be for the most part right
being next to the river or not this
guy’s looks like a business or
apartments phew tree went right into it
yeah look at that
went all the way up
here look at that still here and still
standing
batcave just a quick note before we
continue my wife and i are donating
$50,000 to several of the organizations
you’ll see in this video these links are
down below in the description in the pin
comment and money isn’t the only way to
help many of them still need volunteers
that said if you’re thinking about
donating i suggest doing a bit of
research about these organizations so
you feel comfortable about where your
money is going also i want to thank
ground news for supporting this video
noah is predicting an above average
hurricane season this year but if we’ve
learned anything from helen we never
know where these hurricanes are going to
land and we never know what destruction
they’re going to bring that’s why i
think my partners at ground news are
best at helping you navigate big events
like this the rapin website pulls
together world and local media on
today’s most complex issues so you can
understand what’s at stake the facts
being ignored and how to move forward go
to
groundnews.com/peter to see different
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but crown news can really help you make
sense of it all now back to the story
for your low carbs you’re in the south
right
oh those are pork rind pork rind
brownies oh there we go that’s my
language you have to pack your snacks
out here it’s a serious survival thing
oh this is great little caramel in there
too nice yes and there there are walnuts
in there so hopefully little little
protein thank you okay so we’re going up
to the fire chief we’re going to talk to
him the batcave volunteer fire
department okay uh the chief is steve
freeman he’s amazing as good as these
brownies all right you should have two i
should i will what’s it say never be a
prisoner of your past it was just a
lesson not a life sentence nice man
that’s the truth huh i kind of forgot
the ice but please help yourself oh
thank you i always joke i am the food
pantry lady so i always have food you’re
one of those prepared types i can i get
that vibe i am
all right so a few more places for you
guys
[Music]
hi steve how are you
how you doing sir how are you good to
meet you nice to meet you all right so
batcave why is it called batcave because
we have the two largest fisher caves in
north america just right over here on
this hill and there’s just a ton of bats
in there there used to be that’s why
they now control it because of uh some
diseases that’s that’s going on with
them so they limit the access to the
caves okay gotcha you’ve been in charge
of your town pretty much since this
happened i’ve been here 35 years fire
department i’ve been the chief for the
last four or five how are things going
right now chief it’s getting better
every day better every day it’s just
going to be a slow slow process okay we
had the roads wash away and all that
sort of thing i saw a bit of that unlike
down more closer to chim rock and all
that it’s narrow gorgees here and what
is happening is we keep one lane open
and they’re going to have to be working
on the roads while they do that okay so
do you feel like you’ve gotten enough
help too little help or just depends the
day and whatever we it’s been terrific
with dot and uh duke power getting us
power back here okay we were the hardest
hit in the county we were without power
for 33 days oo okay and uh phone service
dropped out 911 everything when hela hit
okay so we didn’t have even phone
service and stuff like that for a couple
of weeks till we started getting
starlinks dropped in here and stuff like
that okay that was a big help that was a
tremendous help and so as a newbie here
the very basics you lived up there or
you were fine pretty much you lived over
there you weren’t is it that simple nope
it’s more complicated than that okay
we’ve got this
gorge coming down highway 9 and one
coming down 64 so it makes basically a
cross right here it all comes together
right down there at the bridge okay and
we’re on a waterhed we’re a continental
divide that goes all the way around so
it’s like a big bowl and all this water
was coming these three ways and
converging to go down through chimney
rock when the hurricane come in it come
down 64 and you see all the trees down
on the mountains and stuff that’s where
all the wind and the tornadoes and stuff
came down and tore that up and a little
bit down toward chimney rock we got wind
but not as bad going up 74 here okay so
what we had happen was the landslides
coming off the top of the mountains down
because when that wind come through we
had two or three days worth of rain
before the hurricane it was just all
saturated it was saturated when that
wind come it took trees roots and all
they would go a third of the way down
the mountain side and stop up and then
the water would build behind it break it
loose it go another third of the way
when it hit the bottom it come down the
gorge uh-huh and was doing the same
thing making little mini lakes till it
build up the pressure and break loose so
that’s why the further you go toward
chimney lock the wider the
it’s washed out and that was what was
causing that effect okay do you uh do
you feel like i’m sure everyone has a
different opinion with this one that’s
why i ask many i try to ask many people
i just got here so i asked a lady with a
just a chimney left and she said she was
happy with fema what’s your take from
sort of like if you can take the
temperature of the community because you
know everyone here what what’s the take
on that my personal story all right yeah
let’s do it my house got hit yep
landslide came into the backup
i didn’t let anybody know we had other
things to do i was lucky blessed enough
to
be able to stay in the house i just had
to shut off half of it so i spent all my
time rescuing and doing that sort of
thing well when fema came in you apply
for it and all that right off the bat
the first thing was “oh we’ll get you a
place to stay and all that.” three
counties down that was the first place
couldn’t do that because you needed to
be here for the recovery right yeah okay
and didn’t leave y what happened though
was after that my house had basically
$20,000 worth of damage to it to fix
fema come in and looked at it and they
gave me
$2,000 and everybody kept saying “keep
appealing keep appealing.” i’m 7 months
later i’m on my fourth or fifth appeal
and i still ain’t got no more than the
$2,000 out you did all the paperwork
right thank god for the christian
organizations spokes of hope and all
that cuz they have come up and helped
get me back but if i was waiting for
fema i would be screwed
okay so you’re not as blunt as it can be
you’re you’re not happy obviously okay
so it just depends who you talk it just
depends why would someone get
preferential treatment versus
we have no clue it has got better since
the uh politics changed after the
election okay but before that it was
terrible really and now a lot of more
people are getting helped but there’s
still some falling through the cracks
and i think it’s just the bureaucracy of
how big the agency is okay so if you’re
to do a pie chart right you had agencies
like united cage and navy come in you
had like you’re saying relig religious
organizations
the federal government yep right the
army came in the army came in sheep dog
came in so they all like played a
somewhat equal part or is there someone
that’s really like they all needed each
other to make this happen or what what
what is your take on that uh my take on
it from the early days on was
samaritan’s purse was in here right off
the bat along with cinjun navy they were
here at the start trying to get united
cinjun navy united cinjun
they were here from the start just
trying to get us through here we also
had people that had heavy equipment such
as jake jarvis with precision grading
ethan fowler which had another business
kind of like
jake’s they grew up here they lived here
they took their time equipment money and
everything and cut their way in here so
the dot and everybody else could get in
here to work too okay so what do you
guys need now i know you need more than
two grand to rebuild your home uh but
what do you need now would you say right
now it’s kind of transitioning we need
the roads back quicker okay everything’s
put off and i don’t know there’s
anything can be done better because
they’re not cleaning up the creeks and
the rivers yet because you got to get
the road structure back in we’re just in
a really bad position not having the
real estate to be able to do kind of
like what you just saw down around lake
lure and chimi rock back up well they
put the road back in i know it’s a temp
road but that’s been done pretty well
right back to a two-lane road up 74 okay
64 and 9 we’ve got one lane roads still
that don’t even have guardrails with red
lights on them oh yeah i’ve been through
a bunch of that so far today and it’s
going to take a year to get two-lane
road back in on all three of these ways
where are you living now are you living
in your home or i’m still living in my
home i had spokes of hope with the amish
and everybody came in and they repaired
my home and everything amish to the
rescue absolutely i cannot say enough
about you love them i love them to death
i’m actually going up next week to speak
to them in pennsylvania that’s so cool
sh i’ve made videos with the amish
they’re they’re they’re a cool bunch
they’re unreal the ones that come in
it’s called uh their kids before they
rumer rumspringer they come down so
there was 18 of them come to my house
and they put the roof back on the house
and fixed the back wall on it and worked
on the barn and everything else all in 5
days there were teenage kids doing rum
18 to 21 years old so rumringer is when
they can go off old order amish and do
their thing right they go off into the
world and they use all the tools and
equipment and stuff and then there’s
different sexs of them some’s more
strict than others yeah yeah but before
they’re 21 they got to decide whether
they want to stay in the family or if
they want to go out into the world yeah
from my understanding most go back to
the family
yeah they they i mean the rumringer can
be pretty hardcore they can go in
drinking [ __ ] or do something like
what they did with you yeah what they’re
doing here is a lot like mission trips
for like baptists and stuff like that
they’re coming down here and they’re
working hard the whole time here but i
mean you talk to them it’s unreal i i’ve
got 18 best friends up there and i’m
going up there next week to speak to
more of them so that is awesome i love
the amish story absolutely all right i’m
going to take a you got a great water
truck over there i’m going to take a
shot of that do you want me to pull it
out so you get a better yeah let’s do it
right up here yeah sure okay
steve you want to stand right in front
of it sure you can cross your arms you
look like the badass you are i don’t
know about that
i’ve got something else for you to look
at and the amish are fell in love with
this we had kawasaki donate us utvs oh
that’s cool and that’s what samaritan’s
first gave us oh you’re loving that huh
it has a stretcher on it just like uh
you have in the back of a regular
ambulance and everything else so it’s
just a mini version of ambulance that we
can get to rough this is a snowcat isn’t
it i’ve got tires that will go on it
also yeah so you’re getting more amish
coming yeah shane’s going up there with
me next week they’re coming and going to
have a base camp just right out here
they’re going to be our neighbors so
shane’s turning amish is that what you
said no he’s amish in all of us he’s the
most amish yeah he’s got the beard with
his beard he’d be an elder he’s confused
amish cuz he’s got his mustache with no
beard he don’t know what to do yep but
um we’re close there mid june end of
june okay probably a state park bridge
will be done the temporary bridge
they’re doing a roundabout in front of
smoke house there but what’s he doing
steve he’s over spokes of hope we’re
just he’s the founder of it and spokes
of hope is another it’s a religious
organization that doing all the help
here they’re they’re actually rebuilding
chimro rock they’re moving in the back
cave to help rebuild all these houses
and stuff around here if you got
resources because the labor’s strong
i’ve got i’ve got a a guy i have a bus
coming every week still with about 60
you’re still bringing labor in oh yeah
there’s still a need oh yeah talk to us
we’re making a video on the situation if
you don’t mind telling your thoughts
well this just uh i’m going to go
straight jesus on you okay go for it at
the end of the day god tells his people
he’ll never leave us or forsake us and
if we’re going to come to a town and say
“our god will never leave you or forsake
you,” and we leave in a couple weeks
then we forsake them yep and what’s the
last thing jesus said on the cross it’s
finished
we got to finish yes that’s the way we
do it or we take people’s faith away we
come in here almost taking god’s name in
vain when we think we’re not going to
stick around and grab a donation and
button hitting the road that’s not the
way that’s not way god works he took it
to the cross all the way if jesus would
have stopped twothirds of the way and
said “that’s it i spent enough.” that’s
right so you’re going to the pain all
the way dude why not he did it for us do
do it right or don’t do it at all right
if we’re talking interview and and out
to the world and the media yeah wake up
church we need a capital c we don’t need
a bunch of small c’s we need capital c
okay what do you what do you mean by
that capital c small c psalms 133 the
first verse says “how god delights in
the union of brethren.” second verse
talks about how beautiful it is it’s
like the oil running down aaron’s beard
to glisten off the mountains and the
third verse sums it up it says within
the unity god commands the
blessing he don’t say maybe i’ll think
about it i’ll spend down to 100,000 and
keep the rest for my oper no he says
within the unity i command it i command
the blessing when we unify when we unify
we unify and we we unify and god
delights in that he just says bless that
town do you think there’s a lot of small
c out there is that what’s going on if
you want to look what separation looks
at like count the churches there’s
thousands and thousands of churches and
god when he created mankind and humans
he said “this is my body.” he didn’t say
body body body body body body body body
body to the fact where we beat each
other theologically but at the end of
the day we got to stay focused on god’s
command let me ask you this if someone
has skills if someone has skills they
want to come out here and help work and
they’re not religious is that cool
absolutely okay okay listen when that’s
who you want the most you you want the
broken you want the lost everybody that
comes here to work with folks of hope
twothirds of them are broken seeking
purpose and they leave here they find
purpose ton of purpose in this ton of
purpose in everything we do
we just got to walk it out for the lord
he’ll put it in front of us he’ll do
what we need to do he’ll line up the
people we’ll line up the relationships
the materials the finances if we would
just be obedient to god and say “yes
lord send me i’ll do it.” work with each
other with no limitations we could
rebuild this whole valley in a year’s
time it’s over
good to see you all right now enter colt
is in the video colt where are we going
so we’re going to go to lower flat creek
road lower essentially a hauler it’s
been washed out holler for those don’t
know uh is a is a road up a valley a
tight valley where a lot of people could
be a lot could be a little right but
usually tightknit usually pretty tight
yeah you’re going to run into a car okay
i’ll go with you guys i want one of
shannon’s brownies too those brownies
are fire
get the protein bar shannon you’re
exiting i am okay well thank you that
was awesome appreciate it it’s been a
pleasure yeah yeah i don’t you have big
shoes to fill here colt big shoes
shannon shannon is really good brownies
yeah colt’s not replace that thank you
all thanks thank you so much i’ll be in
touch
woodpin there was another body found
from the flood today in the french broad
or the french broad river still is
happening said it was uh discovered by a
local fisherman it said the man was
wrapped in debris you could tell the
body would have been there for quite
some time so they don’t know the total
death toll no they’re it’s going to be
happening for i don’t colt will probably
agree with me what years to come yeah
because if you think about it this was
also during the uh leaf season which is
very it’s a very popular tourist time
here nobody really knew how many people
were actually here
the storm it could affect one property
completely decimate it and then the
adjacent property right next door could
be untouched looked like nothing ever
happened yeah this is what steve the
fire chief said was the big problem just
the one lane stuff up here yeah it’s
looked like this really since god that’s
so much rebuild yeah it’s enormous
what’s up with that guy all his sighting
is gone is he rebuilding or it got just
the well the water came off the water
ripped it off yeah debris in the water
you got to think the water was moving at
like probably 40 m an hour or so 20 ton
trees and boulders look at the landslide
right there oh covered so colt what
brought you out here i don’t know it was
just it felt like i needed to be here
the first time i i i saw how bad it was
i just got involved and i guess at first
it was just me doing whatever i could by
myself i found other veterans that were
up here doing the same thing and we kind
of clicked up and then from there i
found myself in batcave it was the one
place i could go where each day i could
make the most difference okay tell me if
you think uh my theory is right here i’m
meeting a lot of veterans today
when you’re in the army or in the armed
services right you have that that
cohesion you have that purpose you have
that brotherhood yep and when you get
back to normal society that goes away to
some degree and something like this
brings that back is that fair to say
that’s accurate yeah okay yeah it’s
accurate the camaraderie being in a a
place that uh is probably uncomfortable
for most for me and probably a lot of
guys like me it feels like almost like a
deployment a lot of us that have skills
and experiences and then on top of that
we just tend to come together and work
as a team very well were you in iraq or
afghanistan afghanistan yeah three times
what’s up man how are we doing one car
one car is coming thanks brother
you’re waiting on the bus how is
everything up here now insane
so we’re now up a small hauler right
and you’re saying every bridge was
washed out every single bridge so these
people were totally removed they were
either stuck on their property or they
were unable to access it afterwards if
they weren’t there okay
gotcha how you doing sir hi how are
things going fine kind of just picking
up trash from people leaving trash out
here who’s leaving trash from the
construction workers for somebody i
don’t know i mean there’s just water
bottles all over the place and you live
here mhm how’s it going now other than
the trash it’s going my road’s been
pretty much rebuilt
but hoping they paved this soon we’re
making a video on the area want to show
what you guys are going through how
things are yeah well it’s not pretty but
going in the right direction though yes
yeah i i think so
thank you
take care
this is a nice road if you would have
seen it 2 months ago you would have
question whether you wanted to drive
down it okay so with reconstruction it’s
like some people will think it should be
done in two days right and some people
are fine with it being done in three
years i’m sure it depends who you talk
to correct yeah how do you feel you guys
things are coming along here in an area
like this well our expectations at first
were that there isn’t enough effort to
repair the infrastructure so that more
people can come in and help okay but
after a couple months up here and
undertaking large jobs to rebuild
driveways and bridges and so on we
understood a little bit better how
impossible it was to feel like this
could be repaired in any quick amount of
time okay this might seem silly but i’m
going to go for it ready you’re in the
armed services
we could go into baghdad really quickly
if we wanted to right oh yeah or
afghanistan like the military wants to
move it moves
and so i was thinking from the outside
why don’t we put that effort on
something like this but are you saying
it’s just sort of even impossible in
that sense or what are your thoughts on
that i think i don’t think that it’s
impossible i just believe that it’s too
big of a misunderstanding what needs
attention for instance if a road’s
destroyed and everybody down that road
except for one just has a vbo or a
rental there then they’re losing income
because they can’t have guests there but
if that one person out of all the rest
is actually a resident then it’s their
life they can’t live in their home okay
let me ask you this then i mean do you
think like as a country to situations
like this we could do way better as in
bringing the resources more so or it’s
so complicated just the scale of it is
so huge that it’s the scale i don’t
think that america has ever you know at
least in in modern times had to deal
with damage on this level someone in
florida is going to you know yell at you
in the comments but yeah but they’re
prepared they have the infrastructure
down there to respond to they’re not
dealing with these these hollers
okay what’s up here so if you wanted to
get out i want to show you a picture of
what this looked like before this was
essentially a lake
if you don’t understand heavy equipment
you know then you may not understand how
much work it is to back fill an area
that was washed out just like this area
just like this area came right up here
they couldn’t come across here they used
a ladder to get up i mean it’s just yeah
so i want to let the audience know that
the scale is impossible to show on
camera because the camera’s off a lot of
times in between the destinations so you
guys don’t want to watch a million hours
of footage of just driving and the
topography in this part of the country
in appalachia hill hauler hill hauler
hill hauler valley it’s just there’s a
lot of detail oh yeah a lot of texture
so there’s a hauler here there’s
probably like over that hill another
hauler right and it just keeps going and
going and going yep so this is a project
you were on yeah i started the initial
conversation with the family and i told
them we were going to do everything we
could for them and we figured maybe a
natural bridge and a driveway to get to
their house so they didn’t have to park
across the river and it turned into
this i haven’t seen them in a while cuz
there was an accident and moving debris
and chimney rock and an excavator
dropped a tree on my foot i had surgery
in february and i’m just now getting
back on my feet up here
how you doing ma’am i’m good you good
peter unami hello tyler unisami your
name is unisami oh that’s an interesting
name very nice sounds japanese well it’s
not all right unisami how are things for
you right now
well as far as the place goes it’s
really really
well but i’m going in the 15th of having
hip complete hip replacement surgery oh
i’m sorry without these guys we wouldn’t
be where we are today okay they’re the
most compassionate loving caring people
that i have ever met in my life and so
when the flood happened when the
hurricane happened you waited out or you
got out of here well we were stuck here
you were stuck here yes how wild was
that out helicoptered out yes by who i
believe it was uh operation hilo yeah
operation hilo this happened on friday
morning and we left monday morning so
when you’re watching the river rise and
start to take away the river bank and
come close to your house what’s going
through your head at that time oh lord i
was scared to death i was really scared
have you ever um listened to croquet
balls hit when people’s playing
croquette i have yeah well that’s what
it sounded like and that’s just the big
bowlers slamming against one another
coming down the river uhhuh how fast was
it going just super fast it was flying
but the cousin and my husband was
standing on the front porch and the
waves was i mean the water was going up
above top of the house going over like
that it uh knocked over this house yes
over the front oh wow uh down through
that part there that was all trees and
uh it was like somebody took a machete
and was just chopping and the yard was
just falling off just leaving we had a
rock wall that come across here well the
bridge come across the driveway then we
had the rock wall where our yard went
out and uh it just left my mother-in-law
and father-in-law built those walls she
laid the rock
when did she build them
they built the house in
1958 the first people that came up from
batcave
disaster i was sitting here and i was
just looking out and i was about to cry
i
mean it was awful and jane told me he
said “uh in about 30 45 minutes they’re
going to start working out here.” i said
“who?” he said “well i don’t know who
they are but they said that they were
going to get their equipment and they’re
coming back to work.” they worked until
dark when we looked out all we saw was
trees we looked like we had a sawmill
down there at the end of our property i
mean it was up higher than this ha
house and it’s gone
her septic tank was completely washed
away and i think their current bid to
have a new septic tank dug installed
perk test all that it’s in the low
$30,000 range and it’s just i mean it’s
it might as well be $30 million because
they just they don’t have it where does
their septic go now they don’t have one
they don’t have septic they don’t have
they’re using a bucket seriously yeah it
we just don’t have 30 something thousand
to build them you know to have it
installed and they’ve had other groups
there’s a group from asheville that was
like “oh yeah we’re going to come do it
for you.” and they just disappeared
that’s not a fema come in federal
government thing i don’t think they did
much for him if anything so just like i
thought about ahead of time getting into
this i’m like i’m going to hear
everything it just depends who you talk
to there’s no consensus yeah and anyone
that’s telling you there is just
cherryick info right
and then one thing i want to mention
with that too is like i’ve
been to lahina and in east palestine i
thought everyone would have been pissed
at the federal government the majority
of people i talked to weren’t they said
they did a great job
so it was totally the opposite and when
i was in lahina the information i got
there was more like “what’s taking so
long we’re pissed nothing’s being
rebuilt so it just like it’s so hard to
understand really with every person it’s
different and with every person it’s
different because some people like they
believe the world owes them everything
that’s true right and they think like
you should do everything for me always
and then some people are like “oh i
don’t deserve anything i don’t want
anything.” right so it’s like the
mindset too determines how they’re going
to look at this thing yeah well and then
it’s like these folks here when i met
them i was at the entrance down where
this holler begins i was at the entrance
they were just driving out and i just
stopped them i said “hey i’m trying to
get up there and meet everybody here
that you know just to see if you need
anything.” and they said “oh we lost our
entire front yard and our house is about
to fall into the creek.” and so i got
his number uh a week later i came up
here and you know i walked inside just
like we did and his wife was in tears uh
and it was just it’s too much for her
and he this is childish childhood home
you know the trauma from this i mean
they were in shock you know for the
first couple months if not a lot of
people probably still are but yeah the
wonderful thing is that to go from what
happened here to have people come from
all over the country and to put in a day
a week two weeks here and volunteer and
help they paid us nothing not a single
dime and we’ve been able to give them as
much as we could you know and for those
folks they’re simple and that’s more
than they could have ever asked for
[Music]
[Music]
it’s crazy look at the guard rail on the
other side of the river we’re following
colt now he’s going to show us some
homes they’re rebuilding right yep and
then we’re going to where so then we’re
going to go to our warehouse it’s called
better together it’s um adventures and
mission operation blessing united cage
of navy and excel college and
everything’s on donor based so all of
our lumber that comes in our insulation
that comes in our drywall our drywall
mud it’s all staged there so we have it
set up from beginning of a rebuild and
then you walk around the you know you
make a 360 of the warehouse and it’s
from start to finish and as long as this
video is going to be it’s just such like
a little surface level oh tour today i
could take you around for the next two
weeks and every day i could show you
somewhere different that’s just
devastated and have you seen anything
like this online at this stage of the
game showing like a wide range of of
what’s going on not at all no not at all
no it looks like a lot of repetition
guys uh everyone who’s watching but it’s
all new different roads different
machines this must be it huh yeah this
is
hey colt let me put this back on you how
you doing sir good how are you doing
well you might actually want to put this
on mark okay mark because he knows all
about this job mark’s like i didn’t sign
up for this
you’re here right you’re here every day
hold this for a second him and his wife
i got to put this on you’re the man the
volunteer hub our volunteer hub is on
and they are okay leading the charge in
our group they i mean it’s they’re
operation and we’re all part of it nice
mark yeah well we do what we can you
know neighbors helping neighbors let’s
check it out so it was uh four
households three of them were totally
destroyed we’ve helped um half of them
go through the property try to save any
personal items valuables stuff like that
can we walk up there yeah we’ve got the
third one ben up there with his buddy
and patch and i are up there we’re
trying to help him dig out his stuff
they’re musicians
seven over seven months later yeah yeah
and we just heard about this like 4 days
ago 5 days ago that we’re actually had
to build pads to get the equipment
around on so the the property owners are
up here uh they are rentals our thing is
primary homes and veterans homes are
what we focus on but all this is where
the driveway was all of that came out of
the driveway for us trying to get access
up here yeah the old barrier wall here
and this was all in the driveway okay so
you’re going to get filthy yeah that’s
all right we’re trying to do us a little
ramp up here so that we can haul the
debris out for the roadside pickup we’ve
got a fema contractor that’s following
us okay how how has that experience been
with the fema contractor um hopefully
this one will be good so far up till now
they haven’t really followed through
real well um the county stopped roadside
pickup free
pickup 4 days ago so now you have to go
through the county to get permission
okay so these are like landings we had
to build because it was so wet this is
how we have to get the machines around
up here cuz if not they’ll sink out that
was a house up there you see the trail
down the hill where it ended up over
there
so past seven months and this is this
kid’s first chance to get into his house
why couldn’t he get in here earlier
nobody would help him everything was
buried the back wall is all mud
don’t kill me joey
how you doing sir
but you can see right there is the back
wall of the house where the slug came
down the hill oh wow it’s like an
avalanche oh absolutely it’s a violent
landslide and that’s what affected
batcave and the people that lived here
and in in girtton and like the holler up
there this affected more people and more
properties than the water did okay so
there’s a few things going on living
near the river is obviously dangerous
but near one of these slide paths living
on a slope next to the river around here
you know with the soil composition and
whatnot so you got like batteries and
all sorts of stuff coming everything
that you would have in a home we got
about four guys that are regulars and
they’ve been here since the beginning
hey pat can you take a second brother so
where are you from i am a local and then
my wife and i was the postal contractor
in my family for this area for 47 years
postal contractor meaning like the real
bulk transportation contractor we had 24
foot box trucks that hauled the mail
from asheville to the lake lure office
so i’ve rode this road my whole life i
know everybody on it okay um we ended up
buying the property that the post office
is on and uh i’m a general contractor
and most of my clients were down here so
after the storm we just had to make a
choice on what we were going to do who’s
paying for this donations that gave
disaster relief check us out facebook
backcave disaster relief okay can we
talk to patch
all right i got to take the uh the furry
free thank you you’re great come on
patch how you doing peter yeah nice to
meet you all right you too okay so how
we explain like things are still getting
dug into after 7 months right now i mean
everything kind of comes in phases right
everybody wants to come down and do
first responders and then you have your
second
responders and slowly these people get
forgotten about you know and these
people have been forgotten okay vehicles
are still here
a lot of it’s word of mouth because
without you or social media or whatever
a lot of people don’t know that we exist
even in our own town yeah i mean from
the outside i don’t live in the state
and even people living in the state a
lot don’t have any clue what’s going on
right it’s hard it’s hard to really know
in your neighborhood because we’re so
like everything’s so rural you know that
you don’t see everybody every day right
so patch what do you think has gone
right and what’s gone wrong with this
whole operation since september 27th
let’s just say federal response local
response you take the hell you want
federal i don’t see any you don’t see
any personally that’s my personal
opinion okay i mean there’s some fema
help right some of our people that we’ve
worked with get fema help but nobody’s
out here doing this we’re 100% volunteer
so where’s the government in
that i haven’t seen it been here 7
months almost 8 months i haven’t seen it
do you guys feel like you’re being
forgotten at this point hurricane helen
was forgotten 3 weeks after as far as
the news media goes if you look up that
ridge that’s where all this came from
yeah that’s wild this is not a flood
that people are used to this is a
catastrophic event
that they just forget about the
hillbillies man it’s americans helping
americans and so let me ask you this uh
what happened in palisades in la that
got a lot of attention obviously right
to be fair that’s like in a small
geographic area this is crazy the scale
and scope yeah i mean i i was talking to
the county sheriff and we were trying to
figure out how many square miles was
affected it’s probably 10,000 square
miles because he said
the just this county alone is 100 square
miles so
everything has been county related all
the energy that’s gone in down here has
gone to chimney rock and lake lure
they’re incorporated they have a city
council they had a mayor they have
spokes of hope they’ve had the 101st
airborne they have the united cajun navy
henderson county is bat haven girtton
it’s this little sliver right here if
all the action isn’t going to chimney
rock and lake lure it’s going to
fairview and asheville this is just kind
of like no man’s land right in here that
nobody’s really taken care of gotcha
he’s the one that lived here my house
it’s your house
you’re his friend yeah yeah you’re a
good friend
like a good friend is someone that helps
them move and then this is next level
you know anything else you want to say
patch or you nailed it i mean i can get
on my soap box but that doesn’t need to
go on youtube
are you saying we’re getting a filtered
version right now yes very you’re pissed
you’re pissed off i’m not mad i mean
it’s it kind of expect it it it confirms
everything i believe what’s that
just that most americans are on their
own
if you get into the god thing i think
this was a test in humanity
right and as a whole the united states
has failed in humanity cuz it’s
everybody’s forgotten down here so
it is what it is so you’d want you’d
want federal response coming into your
area here like right away a lot of
attention this is not my area i’m a
volunteer i’m from indiana wow very cool
been down here since the end of october
wow so i’m 100% volunteer very cool so
but
what are these people supposed to do
insurance doesn’t cover
it because it’s
flood if it’s a landslide it’s flood if
mud touches this house it’s flood
doesn’t matter if trees came down on it
first and destroyed it if the mudslide
comes in and takes it out it’s flood
damage what are they supposed to
do
so that’s all i got all right
patch thank you brother these guys are
going to be here on and off the rest of
the week hopefully roland’s going to be
coming out tomorrow and getting our true
degree since the roads closed
see you lived here yeah i’ve been out
here several times uh it’s it was just
pretty much next to impossible to even
do any sort of
uh recovery because it’s just everything
is just it’s just dangerous to even sip
through everything and just even i had
to cut holes into sections of the house
with a chainsaw and a sawzaw as well as
we went the first time we were coming
out here we were helping the the girtton
fire department and the survey teams
just to even like keep cutting to make
you know roadways to come come out here
um my roommate that was uh stay was in
the house at the time uh got airlifted
out in a helicopter um and uh you were
renting out here uh yeah we were doing
like a rent own thing um yeah he was
inside the house when it all burst just
riding a piece of drywall and it kind of
exploded out on this side down here mhm
we did a lot of electronic mods for
video game systems and music instruments
and old keyboards repair and we had a
few bands and recording studio for a lot
of people and what’s your take on the
recovery right now uh i mean it’s it’s
been over 6 months at least i’m trying
to get some whack at it um i’m glad the
backhave disaster reached out and
they’re willing to help me that’s cool
just get a little bit of peace of mind
i’ve been trying to move on from from
this for a minute and it’s it’s hard to
especially when just fema was a pain in
the ass um how so just trying to even
convince them to even take pictures of
my house uh because it was for a while
there was no access to this property
because all the there was a house that
was just right on the tip of the street
um that chick is trying to put make a
lawsuit happen out of the stuff and you
know i don’t really know what what her
her route is with uh or goal in mind
with that was but you know yeah uh just
made it difficult to even get sort of
any anything out here i mean trying to
even get them to go past that and take
the right pictures of and was just a
pain in the ass to me it was just like
five months of even fighting them just
to even get any resemblance of money you
know and when it’s like i’ve built a
list of just like everything that i know
that was in there not even everything
just all the expensive [ __ ] that i know
that i spent money on just 10 years of
my life compiling you know did they did
they give a good amount did they give no
i mean i asked for 47,000 in losses and
damages and they gave me like 10,000
something and you had all this music
stuff yeah we did a lot of music repair
and mods and so you can see some of our
keyboards right here we’d mod and then
we’d add these switches and that’s your
business
cool
and our playstation unit is there we we
we uncovered one of our modded
playstation like modding playstations
and we break out the gpu on the
playstation 2 and break it into a patch
bay with all these switches and knobs so
it glitches out the game but the game
still functions the same it’s it’s
really fun where do you live now um out
of a a camper that was donated to me by
uh divine disaster relief super uh
awesome people that reached out to me
knowing hearing about everything i’ve
been going through so the local
community and people helping out has
been pretty impressive yeah definitely
i’ll say that your neighbors your
friends and friends of friends and you
know people that live right beside you
didn’t even know you know the storm
impacted more than what people think and
i think that the the way the media
covered it the mainstream media really
just blew it off uh to quite a degree to
you know oh let’s now worry about the
next thing or oh yeah you know that’s
how it works some some some other uh
jargon that’s going on that’s you know
but i’m surprised i’m seeing this i
didn’t think this would be happening
there’s a lot of places like this like
batcave and girtton and hot springs area
and uh where where were your buddies
where you got your he adopted a dog uh
from these people that uh burnsville
area and stuff a lot of those areas
really got completely devastated to a
point to where it was it was hard for
the media to even get out there to even
cover it to the to even just now where
the roadways are actually h you know
able to get drive-thru and they don’t
you still don’t even power they’re still
running power lines out here you know
it’s going to be years of recovery you
know it was just beautiful nature and it
is beautiful secluded you know but you
know special part of the for sure
i just came up here from athens just
athens georgia
second trip off nice marty i’m a
carpenter nice okay that’s the one good
thing i’ve noticed today just first day
here brings people together gives
purpose fair to say
what we really work at at our hub is we
do community dinners we think food does
a lot with it said “my wife works hard
with america cares and other donors we
get fresh vegetables in we hand them out
to the community.” but like last week we
had chris come up from south carolina
with mike at sapphire
um we did hamburgers hot dogs community
comes out it’s like watching neighbors
become neighbors again like when we were
kids that’s what we’re trying to promote
here that’s cool you know everybody like
they knew who lived there but now they
actually know them met them okay so
that’s what we’re trying to promote
i will say that if anybody tells me any
crazy story about a disaster zone i
would believe it yep no matter how crazy
it is just believe it what do you mean
it’s like bizarro world down here before
the we’ve seen i never would have
believed but after going through this
for seven months next time i’m watching
tv and somebody says some off-the-wall
crap about a disaster it’s got to be
absolutely
true cuz what we’re seeing on the news
and what we see every day it doesn’t
even resemble each other i mean it’s not
even close
we just wonder where they get their
stories from
they’re not doing a good job you’re
saying oh no hell we don’t even get any
local coverage down here local doesn’t
this is the biggest story obviously oh
no no they hit lake lure and chimney
rock a lot because that’s where their
affiliates are you know it’s household
income per capita chimney rock and lake
lure is the richest community in the
gorge batcave and girtton aren’t we’re
in an unincorporated area so we have no
leadership so where are our leaders well
i’m glad he brought me in here guys
because uh i want the stories that
aren’t being told so thanks guys thank
you
it’s insane destruction
it’s just it’s it’s a bit mindboggling i
got to say that we’re over 7 months and
i’m going to reiterate that a few times
but like this this far that that this is
just being touched right yeah oh yeah
for the first look at that propane tank
right there i would feel really left out
if that if this was my place you know
over 7 months months yeah it’s so much
new information today but what i’m not
like i talked to a lady this morning
right she had just a chimney left to her
house right she was in good spirits
she’s like
feeling good about everything that’s the
vibe i got
then i’m here help me understand the
recovery like how this is unacceptable
in my view like over 7 months later like
we should have whomever if the local
population can’t take care of it which i
totally understand if they couldn’t
which they are up here but seven months
later we’d have a federal yeah
government intervention here or or the
military or something just putting their
whatever up here to remove all this out
of the way there’s there’s just not
enough readiness and i don’t think
there’s anything that we have in our
country that that can come here and
deploy for as long as it’s going to take
to make a difference here and sustain
okay we’re so put a man on the moon okay
some people are going to say you didn’t
and the earth is flat okay but we went
into you you saw afghanistan you saw
that infrastructure that was rolled out
there right you know what happened in
iraq how quickly we’re in there like
it’s within the capability of the
country it is i think i think the big
difference is that what we train our
forces for yeah for instance when the
national guard deployed here when the
governor of north carolina deployed the
national guard here i think on day two
or three or four they had and i’m sure
there were some here within 24 hours but
and and everywhere but they had no idea
how to respond to this they had no they
had no equipment they had no idea what
they needed because you could drive a
mile and see a completely different type
of disaster every mile almost you know
right but we’re we’re mofo america true
we can make happen we can make stuff
happen but i think that what we’re doing
is what that looks like now could it be
done better and paid for by the federal
government yeah and it should be okay
don’t you think this is a point in time
where like it can get this bad yeah so
we we’re gonna take all the information
from this catastrophe learn from it
because something will happen again
obviously yep and then so next
time we’re going to be set up as much as
we can to make sure this doesn’t happen
over 7 months later yep and i think that
whoever leads that development records
what happened here and in the military
we call it a afteraction review y i
think whoever leads that needs to bring
in folks like us and other great
volunteers that have successfully
navigated right everything here to
remove people from the disaster that
they’re trying to figure out how to get
out of yep you know so well there’s not
enough resources for folks like this
that just don’t exist you know
they exist they probably if we want if
we want it bad enough as a country they
exist i just don’t think they exist here
okay yeah
[Music]
okay all right guys we’re now following
tyler cuz we got to go separate
directions at the end of this but look
at this just over the hillside it’s
total normal life or at least it looks
like it you know unless their work was
affected seem to be totally normal here
you come into a town like this and you
would never know anything
happened it is such a trip to be in
those haulers that have been devastated
and then going past gas stations and
being on a highway and it’s just totally
normal feeling life those people over
there can be in the rebuild phase and
these people might have never had
anything happen just a heavy rainstorm
with some strong winds and then the next
day they could be on the highway and
driving wherever
[Music]
this is uh this is colt with batcave
disaster relief hey this is jack good to
meet you what’s jack doing here so he’s
the the warehouse manager you can tell
them a little more about manager um
pretty much manage all the supplies that
come in and out also helping out uh just
sort of run all of the base camp
operations so let’s check it out yeah
thank you so much for coming down and
doing what you no thanks for getting me
in because it would be really hard to
get in what i got into well some of it
impossible cuz you need you needed
clearance to get through so this is like
the dining hall area so this is where
they feed everybody and then this is
where volunteer housing sleeps oh
volunteer housing open up the garage
okay cool yeah there’s all it’s all bunk
houses through here um so is there
anyone in there now i don’t think so
right now on the weekends they usually
kind of rotate in and out but there’s
showers here bathrooms here these are
all bunk houses it sleeps like 74 i
think is it 74 uh it sleeps 86 in there
86 serious operation
we have groups every week of about 150
volunteers per group oh that’s cool
150 people come through each week and
we’re rebuilding i think we’re on track
by the end of the year we’re going to
have functionally completed 300 homes so
300 homes you guys okay operation
blessing is different than united k
we’re we’re partnered we’re all doing
the same thing so actually uh what this
place is is the better together
coalition and so it’s a bunch of
different partners that came together
and said we can actually make a bigger
impact if we work together let’s walk
let’s walk around yeah okay so the
biggest players are operation blessing
excel college and adventures relief and
world vision and mercury 1 kinjun navy’s
been playing a big part we got valley
hope church is playing a huge part so
there’s a bunch of different
organizations that have come together
and each one’s kind of managing
different aspects of the project are
stacked up with drywall stacked up with
shingles tons of flooring over here tons
of insulation tons of wood and then we
have all the things to outfit houses
jack what’s your story where do you live
so i actually live um with excel college
about 2 minutes up the road from here
and when the hurricane hit we turned our
campus into a distribution center okay
then as time went on we’re like “oh my
gosh we can actually help long term.” so
we partnered with everyone to rebuild
all the homes and so excel college is
the one sort of hosting on this property
that’s like your normal four-year
college it’s it’s actually a very
different kind of college experience uh
it’s uh 3 years and it’s a small
christian college that is pretty much
seeking to everything that people find
bad about the typical college experience
excel is trying to reverse all that so
you mean exams they’re getting rid of
exams yeah they do still have exams but
it’s things like no debt focus on the
holistic person teach them how to
actually live life i just keep walking
and i’m guiding you back here so so i
mean i mean yeah we got kitchen trailers
back there we got shower trailer here
bathroom trailer oh that’s the shower
for the volunteers yeah so this week we
planned as like a rest week for the team
because all summer long there’s going to
be no rest so it’s 150 people in and out
every six days do you guys want more
people we definitely want more leaders
we want people who can be here longterm
committed not just the in-n-out but we
always want more in-n-out as well but
especially leaders so colt is styling
with the batcave sweatshirt who knew
they made those oh yeah i wish i had one
of those
so this tent’s split in half we got male
on this side female on that side pretty
much just loaded up with as many people
as possible do you have any crossover uh
no not in here not that you know about
not well yeah when you have a bunch of
college kids you never really know right
like that’s not the story of like six
months later you can sort of like you
know do a little of that but hey i bet i
bet i bet relationships are formed
through this experience oh i bet like
we’ve already seen a couple like this
guy right here you met his
yep can i say that on camera yeah it’s
fine yeah you met your lady here right
okay not here but in in western north
carolina okay so this is the so this is
kind of our dining room meeting area
where we go over the plants the coolest
part about this whole thing kind of
debrief at the end we’ll do prayer and
worship in here can i show my favorite
part totally
is there a secret door what’s going on
oh it spins to the office so there’s our
war room in the back where we come up
with all the the plans for the day and
then we can rotate that out to share
with the whole group so i didn’t even
get into that today but i can’t imagine
the logistics especially in the
beginning like the organization of all
of this and like how people don’t get in
each other’s way and step on everyone’s
toes and they’re like log jamming a road
with a million trucks and it just it
still happens yeah we have a
we have a big team doing logistics and
data and planning and nothing else takes
a lot of things on the back do you love
doing it i love it yeah i quit my job a
few months ago cuz i just saw how much
need there was and i was like i i was
working a desk job as an engineer i’m
like i can’t stand to not be helping
people and so so that came full time
with operation blessing and that’s the
the unifying theme today is everyone
finds a lot of purpose in this oh my god
for sure yeah unbelievable yeah and it’s
fun too i mean we’re seeing like
miracles like every single day every
single day it’s unbelievable so okay so
is it just because i’m with you guys
today that i see religion everywhere or
is it pretty much most people helping
out like with whatever group are like
religious based groups most of the
groups helping out long-term are
religious yeah it’s churches and vast
majority based organizations yeah okay
cuz i’m seeing the window through
through my view through tyler so i i
don’t know how it works okay one of my
favorite one of my favorite quotes from
a homeowner is “i love me some good
sweaty christians.” so
right here at the end of the property
they found nine fatalities this is miss
amy this is her property the united c
navy has donated her this um this one
right here yes this apex this is
actually the christmas tree we bought
her at christmas that i think she’s
trying to keep alive do you guys still
want campers yeah oh yeah so we’ve
helped them with you know building
supplies and generators and fuel
throughout the winter we brought all the
hay to to underpinning there um so this
is for the people that still need their
homes to be rebuilt yeah absolutely and
they’re getting the temporary housing
yes sir and united cajun navy provides
that yes sir is everyone addressed or is
there a long waiting list for this stuff
there’s no long waiting list i mean
there was 184,000 homes that were you
know either completely damaged or no
longer there or minor damages but that’s
the the number of affected homes from
hurricane elen okay so right here this
is a their actual their house used to
sit right on this side you can see where
the the power meter was it sat right
here on this back side so when will miss
amy’s home be rebuilt here do you think
so next project we have we’ve dumped
dirt there so we’re going to grade out
more there’s another load of truckload
of dirt coming tomorrow okay we’ll
remove this tree and then they can start
the foundation planting but it’s to plan
to be done by december december yep and
you guys are doing it yeah we’re well
not all of us but it’s three
organizations that are doing it together
to help okay and then she’ll that will
be fully covered by yep all the
organizations some fema money probably
yeah yeah yeah cuz i know they got
fema’s money as well does fema so she
she’ll get money from fema and then
she’ll pay you guys so she’ll get money
from fema not really sure how that works
i know they can use it for certain thing
i think they have to send their receipts
to fema when fema okay gives them the
money but a lot of so a lot of the work
that we’re doing we’re just we’re
donating the lumber we’re donating the
concrete we’re donating the supplies to
build the home and then actually come
out and help assist with the general
contractor to build the home okay i met
miss amy she used to walk cuz you the
road and the bridge and stuff weren’t
open at first she would walk a half a
mile over to what’s called blunt
pretzels and she would get food for her
family every day and then walk back and
bring it to it so i met her i met her
over there y so like you just said off
camera we could be gone for days and
weeks doing this yeah days and weeks
well i think we gave a good overview
today so guys i’m going to leave all the
links down below of the organizations i
met up with the united cajun navy not
cinjun navy or one of the million other
names but united cajun navy right is you
guys yep um and they were the ones that
brought me around today through tyler so
thank you man that was awesome yes sir
colt appreciate it absolutely and lastly
i’ve been here a day i’m no expert on
the situation i try my best to get
different perspectives and angles and it
was interesting from one woman saying
she loved fema to the fire chief saying
you look pretty pissed at fema and so
it’s not an easy answer to any of this
and it’s very complicated and the the
the stretch of territory today is insane
and that’s only a small part of it small
part of it y yeah and guys i’m going to
be doing my next video going on a solo
mission as far out as i can get in one
day and coursing through many of these
towns and and try to talk to as many
people to get more information awesome
yeah so cool good stuff guys love it
thank you so much thank you guys for
coming on this journey until the next
one
[Music]