I live just outside of Asheville. The devastation here is unfathomable. The things I’ve seen are unspeakable. The stories I can tell from this are endless. It’s wild to see this channel covering what we’ve been through is awesome considering I watch this channel daily. Thank you for covering this.
The regime found money ($400 million) for Ukraine and Israel to fight their wars with though and that's all that matters to these criminals in Washington D.C. don't you realize that?
True but it is their jobs. Also the TVA doesn't want anyone to see what's at the bottom of some of those lakes. Nothing scary just sad. Lots of old towns that people were forced out of back when the TVA was formed.
I am supremely impressed by the fact that they managed to keep those dams from failing (several previous famous dam near-failures taught us that it isn't luck that keeps a them from failing - it's the people running them, their hard work & ingenuity/out-of-box thinking under pressure). They deserve high praise.
Thank God and TVA that my niece, future nephew, and their two children did not face in Gatlinburg a dam failure like the poor souls elsewhere. Me cousin Carol didn't even know if she had a home to go to when it failed in Newport. My Aunt and Uncle are safe as well in their N.C. area.
7:56 As someone who has lived on the east coast of South Carolina their whole life, I can personally attest that WAFFLE HOUSE CLOSING FOR A HURRICANE MEANS S*** IS ABSOLUTELY HITTING THE FAN, WH is 99% of the time your best bet for getting food outside your house in the times of a hurricane.
Native Texan living in North Carolina here. Can confirm. Years ago, my former boss and I were in Galveston, TX less than a week after Hurricane Ike made landfall. We were driving through town and there were still boats which had been washed ashore by the storm surge sitting off to the side of the road. Debris everywhere, power was out in some places, and so forth. But Waffle House was open! We stopped for a bite.
Texans also have the HEB index. It makes some sense because companies are usually willing to take more risks than the government in terms of shut down decisions. But like with the companies that stayed open and ended up finding out (including big companies like amazon during the tornado), they don't always make the right call either. I would wonder if the decision is coming from an in house meteorologist at corporate headquarters or if they leave it up to the district manager or even store manager. That's a terrifying responsibility.
As someone in the restaurant industry, we all shake out heads at this. A buddy managed one in College Station back in the late 70's while in school. Their reputation has been decades in the making. I cannot remember the last time I ate at one, guessing it was the mid '80s. Give me a Shoney's, IHOP or Denny's (pretty much no difference between any of these really). I could at least get a table, pre tip $10, for a cup of coffee and study in a quite location (for a University of 25k+, only one library that was not open 24 hours...).
What is missing is that the two-three days before Helene, we received a really bad and heavy rain storm in NC which saturated the ground. So when Helene hit, there was no where else to absorb the new rain. Already the day before Helene, the rivers and streams were high. What happened wasn't infrastructure failure, it was geology in our lifetime. There is a geologist in west NC on youtube under the moniker TheGeoModels who has been doing detailed analysis of mountains he knows well, which I recommend if you want to learn more about what happened to Chimney Rock and others.
@@Oleandra-13it eclipsed the 1916 flood with ease unfortunately. Between the continental divide & drastic changes in the topography all the debris ran through the valleys to the basin bottoms wiping the surface clean. Maps will be redrawn due to this event.
I saw that video!! I live near Shelby, and will miss Chimney Rock. I'm praying for you all out west and the recovery. All I got was downed power lines, a tree on the house (nothing bad happened other than a few shingles lost), and a dented fence.
@@sarahcantrell9821 if you’re semi local you know everything is already in the process of being cleaned up & ready to rebuild. Chimney Rock isn’t “gone”. Stay out of the way long enough for there to be a safe & easy way in/out. Then go enjoy the places you love. The towns, small businesses, & people NEED the area’s economy back to normal as soon as possible.
I live in Western NC. The damage is quite literally earth-changing. Landslides and flooding have changed where rivers are flowing. Entire mountainsides have shifted. Even newer infrastructure would've failed because the earth itself was moved. Yes I believe infrastructure needs to be updated everywhere. But nothing would've stood up to what Helene brought. It erased solid ground from under our feet and foundations that have stood for decades. At some point, people need to recognize that the weird weather patterns are the normal. And if we don't prepare, nature will continue to humble us over and over.
There were images of metal beams bent around themselves like soda straws in debris piles and in the bottom of the refashioned stream beds. There were images of concrete block buildings being shifted off their foundations and carried away. Not much would have stood up to some of those rock slides, not steel or concrete. The earth moved and we and our creations are but ants in this cycle.
Every now and then stuff like this is going to happen at various places. It might be every 150-200 years, more or less but it's going to happen. In NJ its all Sandy, Sandy, Sandy and if lived somewhere especially vulnerable to wind damage then I would have had much more difficult time of it than I did you were screwed. Nobody talks about Irene, the hurricane that occurred one year earlier. The ground was soaked with water from the previous 2 weeks of heavy rainfall so when the Hurricane came along we had incredible flooding. Of the two Hurricanes, for me. Irene was much more damaging. Nevertheless, I was without power for 2 weeks straight after each hurricane. So they were both bad. What people are talking about with a lack of updating infrastructure is unfortunately very true. Right now the power company is replacing telephone poles that have been standing there for the better part for 60+ years, at least. What should be done is the relocating of power lines underground. This would cost a lot more money no doubt but it's something we should have been doing for a very long time. Well, we are some $35 trillion in debt (that they will admit to) and a bunch more in unfunded mandates and liabilities, like Social Security and Medicare (that's another $175 trillion) which keeps getting looted and treated like a like a slush-fund and not the trust-fund it was set up to be. Where did all of the money go? The biggest part of it IMO are these stupid, endless wars since 1989-90 that are honestly nothing less than criminal. Add to that the unlimited immigration going on since Biden became President. There is nothing in these policies that benefits Americans and the reasoning for them is all based on lies. We had better figure this out quickly. Best wishes and a very quick recovery to my fellow Americans ravaged by Helene.
Thank you for your accurate explanation of what’s going on here. I’m a paramedic in Black Mountain and I live in the community of Broad River just a few miles from Chimney Rock and Lake Lure. Fortunately my family and home are safe however, there is a tremendous amount of damage out here. I had to work 48 hours during the worst of the aftermath without being able to get home or have any contact with my family. I walked 8 miles up the mountain through the devastated area home to make sure my family was safe only to return back to work after setting my wife up to live without power and water.l for the following month. I’m extraordinarily grateful for all the out of state first responders and linemen who came to take the burden off of our personnel and aid and the rescue of my community.
Thanks for stating this fact: regardless of why these extreme weather events happen - it's happening before our very eyes. We've got to get ready for them.
No we should say it's climate change. Man made, cO2 causing climate change. If we dont recognize that we are putting the cart before the horse. There is no fixing the problem if we don't fix that fundamental issue, it will only get worse and less viable to do anything
*Helene, not Helen. All these heavy rain events and storms like Hurricane Helene show that many local and state governments have been stingy with the budget when it comes to infrastructure maintenance...and we are paying for it.
From Scotland, lived in Houston for 16 yrs. The place is falling apart, houses are built using what is basically UK post WW2 prefab techniques. Like a chipboard tent nailed to a slab.
(Greater) Houstonian here, can confirm. Also, too much housing added is making it flood worse and worse every year. I currently live in a no flood zone but for how much longer as they plan on adding something like 10.000 homes in the next 10 years in this area. Not looking forward for the future of my home/town.
Seriously, looking at the states, I think our homes here in Sweden, which are built to withstand cold and heavy snow, not hurricane force winds, are better suited to survive such winds than an American house built in actually hurricane territory.
@@TurtleCat3000is that because they’re building them in areas that are flood plains? It happened here in California. They built a bunch of retail in those giant area that the rain would just fill up there and preventing the streets from foooding. Now the roads flood.
Austin area here! And the same exact things can be said. We keep hearing how many more homes are coming. But where are you putting them? Not to mention the TRAFFIC IS HORRIBLE and it’s just gonna get WORSE! Texas is the only state I’ve lived in that has as many “electrical issues”. That alone is ridiculous. A state this damn big should have a lot better roads, homes, electricity, water omg don’t even get me started on drinking water. Yeah it’s bad in the states and that is sad to say.
Western North Carolina here. I have known our infrastructure is pathetic for years. When you drive across a busy bridge, look down into a pothole and see the river running beneath the bridge, that bridge is not safe. When I complain I am told that bridge is on a list to be repaired "eventually." The worst part is I know of more than 1 bridge around here like that. It's common for bridges to have huge gapping holes in their road beds. It's a someday problem that is left for some unknown person in the future to take care of. 🤬
welp what do you expect after congress passed a massive "infrastructure" bill a couple of years ago and only about 20% of the funding went to actual infrastructure.
@@kaori_hyacinthus4409 Road and bridge repair costs money. Lots of money which requires the political will to spend it through state and federal government. Too many politicians have been content to kick the can down the road when it comes to these issues. That road is a dead end and it's within sight.
The entire South is like this (Tennessee here). Our politicians don’t use state tax on infrastructure, schools, or anything that benefits the people in my state. Not sure what they do with any of it quite frankly, other than stuff their pockets.
I live in Swannanoa. A few of your video clips were from just down the road from me. I'm super fortunate that I live well above the Swannnoa River. Normally, the river is about 1/4 mile from my house. I can hear it when it's running high. But after Helene the flood brought the river to about 100 yards from my house. My only damage was three huge oak trees coming down. They are all near my house, but none of them did any damage. The community around here has really come together to help each other. We have well water. As soon as the power came back on we had clean water and let people come over and fill up their buckets, take a shower, do laundry.
Thank you, Simon. This is an excellent breakdown of what happened, why it happened, and the serious gaps in physical and political infrastructure. I work in disaster planning and relief, and rarely comment on social media, but you've done fantastic work here and it is worth highlighting. Your segment about the prison infrastructure is incredibly important and an oft-overlooked section of disaster management, even in areas of the field which work with underserved communities. It would be worthwhile, if extensive, to do a piece on the vulnerability of the aging prison infrastructure and the increased risk faced by the populations (both inside and around the complexes) which rely on said infrastructure for life, security, and economic activity.
I live just outside of Laurens, South Carolina. I lost power at maybe 5:30am and i swear for the next 3 hours, it sounded like someone was testing a jet engine just outside my house. I'm most thankful, though that my Grandma, who has dementia, never lost power at her apartment. Hell, she slept through the whole damn storn! When we asked her about it, her response was, "Oh, that's probably why i had a little bit of water by my porch door."
I live in Asheville, NC. We still have folks without power and water, and roads from the mountains down are still washed out. One of the pharmacists at my wife's CVS was swept away by the storm surge from the Swannanoa River, and he was confirmed dead three days ago. I-40 just inside the Tennessee line is completely washed out and needs to be rebuilt. And FEMA is stepping to the plate bigtime to get aid to everyone that needs it. That said: The US has an infrastructure more closely resembling a developing nation than an industrialized powerhouse. Water and power systems are WAY below the level they need to be, and TPTB seem to be content to just let it go.
From what most are saying , either you or hundreds other about ole FEMA . Oh honestly after seeing the unmarked military helos are doing then my money is on you haven't had any help from them if your in the affected area
My wife is the acting store manager at the swannanoa cvs. Her store in Hendersonville was a total loss. It's still really bad there. I hate seeing her going to work there each day. And with the cold starting to set in people are going to get desperate. Anyways small world I guess. Our wives have probably worked together at some point.
I am so sorry that on top of the living hell you're in, you havetellingmaking things worse for selfish gain. You have a beautiful place and it will be again. Coming from Oklahoma, we have had to rebuild a few times. This country is with you, I don't care what party you're in. The only question that matters is whether you ok, and what do you need?
From the Appalachian foothills in SC. We got wrecked, but Asheville NC will never be the same. It’s wild to think we got this much damage an 8+ hour drive from landfall.
Over in Powdersville I had power out and leaves in the yard. Just leaves. My wife's fall wreath was still on the door. I can see the Saluda from my front door; it flooded, but not abnormally so. Nearby there were trees down & homes damaged. And then the mountains got slammed. It was like Helene was picking her targets. I trust you and yours are all okay. As we say in the Upstate: How's your momma and them?
Unfortunately, one problem with Hurricane Helene in North Carolina is the fact people's memories clear out after a generation or three. Some of the damage in Asheville was in area near a river that had severely flooded in 1916 during very similar circumstances where a hurricane (this time from the Atlantic) followed a tropical depression that had saturated the soil days before. I'm not denying climate change nor it's impact, I am just saying that people were allowed to do a lot of development in a previous flood plain. I've also read that less than 1% of people with houses damaged by floods have flood insurance.
It doesn't matter if they remember or not, people have to live in those places because they have no choice. That's where the infrastructure and jobs are, and corporations would rather spend to rebuild once every few decades than to move somewhere safer but more expensive. To some degree, they're right to do so. San Francisco, for example, _will_ get destroyed by an earthquake eventually, but the shipping its natural and artificial harbors support is worth many times the cost of rebuilding it when it does. Same for the oil industry on the Gulf coast of Texas. The cost of moving all those refineries somewhere better, then having to transport the gas to the coast for shipping, is far greater than the damage from floods and such.
i was lucky. i have flood insurance. we lost our house to helene. still waiting on the adjuster to come. been living in ohio and commuting to work as i have no family in NC.
Yep, there was "Potential Tropical Cyclone #8" which was soaking on 16Sept, then another bad unnamed rain storm on Monday-Tuesday, THEN Helene. The ground was already thoroughly saturated and squelchy.
Hearing this , which was done very well, seeing and hearing the personal stories are far much worst. Many of the missing, were the homeless, many are buried in the piles of debries, or silt from the mud slides. It is beyond heart breaking.
Thank you for covering this. As a native of Tampa Bay, the research has indicated for years just how bad a direct hit could be, but complacency was so ingrained that nothing got changed. As destructive as it was, Milton was only half as bad as the predictions, and I just hope Tampa Bay finally wakes up. If Milton was the “best” case scenario, how devastating would the worst case be? I really don’t want to find out the hard way.
Remember how DeSantis signed a bill that removed Climate Change from most law and prevented officials from saying the words? Remember how insurance companies are fleeing Florida? It isn't complacency. It's wanton destruction.
A good friend made it more clear by pointing out to me about 20 years ago, "Think about it, simply raising the average temperature of the oceans of the world by half of a degree... that's one hell of a lot of energy!" He told me then that we could be expecting more and more powerful storms. Shortly after that conversation, Katrina happened.
I went into hendersonville to take supplies to my grandmother right after the storm. Spent 3 days helping out with a chain saw and my old jeep Comanche running supplies. Wish i could have stayed longer
I was doing runs from Columbia SC to family and friends in Hendo. It was insane just driving up I-26 past Spartanburg and seeing all the downed trees and power lines, then NC was a mess.
@Oleandra-13 yeah after giving stuff to my family in went east towards bat cave. Seeing whole house smashed to bits in a river that's normally only a dozen feet or so wide was nuts
I’m so sorry. I feel your pain - Helene destroyed my cousin’s home and Milton made my parents evacuate for the first time in the 25 years they’ve lived in Florida. We will recover together. You can do this :)
I'm in central NC, and we caught about 20 minutes of hard rain. I lived in Texas during Beryl and that was scary as hell. I thought it was funny how everyone was freaking out in my area of NC until I heard what happened to Chimney Rock. I camped in Swannanoa and had breakfast in Black Mountain this summer while I was moving. I even called my dad while I was there telling him we should visit together sometime because I thought he would love it and feel right at home in the mountains. To hear that those communities were devastated and some outright destroyed breaks my heart.
i went to South Tyrol in September this year for vacation... with my motorbike! after Italy, i drove to Slovenia and Croatia... at my breakfast one day in Croatia, i watched the news, heavy rain in the Alpes... i saw how a stone avalanche took away a bridge, i had been standing on at a break driving around in Tyrol... after leaving Croatia, i drove 3.5 days in rain going home! i got snow at the Tauern highway at 1400m....unpleasant if you ride a motorbike!
Keep in mind part of the reason Helene's rains were so devastating to that region was because that area had been getting decent rain the days leading to it moving into the area, and the area was far from being in a drought. Many of the rivers, lakes, and reservoirs were already at capacity. It's sad to think about how many may have lived and destruction avoided if the area had been somewhat drier.
Western NC resident here. We really didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. We expected to lose power for a day or two, but that was it. We bought a generator *just in case* the day before the storm hit. We ended up being without power and internet for a week. It was honestly the worst experience of my life so far
Never thought I would see the area I grew up and so many places I recognized in a Megaprojects video. I'm from Old Fort the small town next to Black Mountain, and my family is still lives there. They're some of the lucky ones, but both towns have been devastated and permanently changed. However, just like Simon said the communities have pulled together and rallied to push forward as a whole. The road to recovery is long, but I know they'll pull through.
Something else to touch on are the aquawalls that the tampa hospital put up before the flooding. Watching them work is amazing, kept the hospital from needing to evacuate and possibly costing lives. Truely amazing videos to watch
I live in Columbia, SC. This was my first major hurricane since moving here less than 2 years from California. My home was without power for 7 hours. I can deal with earthquakes, but hurricanes are scary. Traveled to Georgia shortly after and the damage was tremendous.
By average per capita income, US is 6th. Behind Monaco, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Ireland. But, everyone should remember, an average doesn't necessarily present an accurate reality. If there are 10 people at a company and 9 of them make $10 a day, and 1 person makes $10,000 a day, the AVERAGE salary at the company is $1,009 a day. Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Ellison, Buffet, Gates are worth a combined $973 Billion. What's that do to the average?
The fact that you're aware of how we use Waffle House being open or closed as a metric of danger is hilarious because that's not even standard across the country.
@@cathyb1273 correct. Waffle House is one of those places that tries to stay open no matter what. Waffle House locations are even capable of operating without power for a period of time.
Oh no, that's a standard. Blizzards in the north, hurricanes in the south and east, twisters in the Midwest, earthquakes and wildfires out west. There's two things to watch for anywhere in the country: if WH is closed and if Jim Cantore shows up, you need to be ready.
@@Sh4dowgale You don't understand the Texas ice-storm. It is a local phenomenon. Pretty rare and kinda difficult to harden power lines against it, unless you bury all of them.
NC resident here, even where I am just west of Charlotte, we also still lost power for a day and half (we were lucky, my dad down the road was out for 4 days) and high water from a lot of local creeks that feed into the lake and Catawba River kept us stuck at home. We had friends who had trees down, property damage, standing water all over their yards... It was surreal. I spent a lot of time with family in Florida as a kid, been through hurricanes and depressions, but this was so vastly different.
@@gmari3343because it didn't happen to you and you've never faced any struggle in your entire life. I'm sure you could be diagnosed with something, but im no medical professional so I'll just refer to you as "privileged, ignorant, and disgraceful."
That's like running from a tornado that's tracking in the same direction you're heading. It's even worse when you consider that unlike tornadoes, hurricane movements are much easier to predict and their forecast cones are easy to pull up.
Florida building codes require fairly strong wind protection, but the main damage comes from flooding. Floods are not that difficult to mitigate, just build taller. This puts more units above the storm surge, and allows more units to share the cost of ground level flood infrastructure. Unfortunately mandating tall buildings would be antithesis of the florida dream of having your little detached home in paradiss, so floridians will continue to have their homes get totaled by flooding.
Speaking of which, NYC did manage itself fairly well after Sandy all factors considered. The flooding could've been way worse. A crippled subway system is outright devastating.
I know far too many people whose houses have ended up underwater; my aunt and uncle just moved back up north near me again because of it. Scary stuff. Also I wish more money would go to helping with these issues instead of to wars, but that's another topic.
Thank you for this. I have lived through hurricanes and tornados but Helene was not the normal- although in the coming years it probably will be considered normal.
I'm currently in the N Ga mountains where my family owns a cutting horse farm. I'm a retired sailor who lives in Tampa on my 30 ft sailboat anchored in Tampa Bay. Helene was bad but my boat managed it well. 2 weeks later Milton took down my main mast. My nephew's getting married on the 26th so I don't even know what I'm returning to. Be what it's gonna be. Capt.Bob, SV ( Sailing Vessel ) 27th Chance, Tampa Fl, USA 🇺🇸
Drove down for a vacation to the Smokey mountain national park with my wife just a few weeks before. Stayed in Cosby area. Drove 32 across the border, caught us 40 south and then turned through Maggie valley to catch the newfound gap back into the park. Lots of these roads are simply closed until further notice. These areas were built up without any expectation of that kind of water to fall.
As a SC resident that went 8 days on a generator, and who went to volunteer to help move and distribute supplies in the Asheville area; thank you Simon for covering this with your channel. This is the last video I'd expect to watch here!
This is true everywhere in the West. We’ve allowed ourselves to become complacent with and disconnected from the people responsible for maintaining our local infrastructure. Get out to your local township/county/whatever meetings!
I'm a resident of FL. One of the things FEMA dose not do is replace toys. It is also one of the last things on survivors list. If any one feels compelled to help the kids in Spruce Pine NC. The community leaders have asked for toy donations. Every Saturday all donations are given out at the local park. 263 Oak Ave Spruce Pine NC. 28777. Thanks so much
Hello. American from North Carolina here. It’s simple really. Yes our infrastructure hasn’t really been updated since it was built however it’s also not quite that simple either. I live about 100 miles inland which sounds like a long ways from the coast but the reality is it’s a little less than 3 hours away so when they get hit we do too however the mountains rarely get storms like this. They haven’t had a storm this bad since the 80’s. That added on to a dam breaking and it was absolutely devastating. It hurts me honestly. Not just because it’s my state but also because I love the mountains. I have friends and family up that way and my wife and I got married up there.
It became a cat 5 just before it hit. Most people don’t talk about that and think it was only ever a cat 4 but the NOAA classified it as a cat 5. It’s not just a made up number.
Im watching this two weeks after publication. My aunt lives in Asheville NC. She says they still don't have safe water. That huge numbers of businesses can not reopen due to numerous issues. Power is back for most, internet is still unreliable, if you can find it. The surrounding communities are suffering worse. If you can, please help the folks in all the areas that have been hit by this disaster.
@@CaptainCataractss The US is the first to assist other nations in times of need. Canadians have always been able and willing to assist the US. We don't even think twice about it.
The DANA floods recently in Spain, Italy, have also been horrendous particularly Valencia where local authorities held off issuing the red alert. The Mediterranean sea is also extremely warm, more than normal!! Politicians still denying climate change 😢😢
1:40 - Mid roll ads 2:55 - Chapter 1 - The hurricane 9:05 - Chapter 2 - In Helene's wake 13:00 - Chapter 3 - Damning failures 23:50 - Chapter 4 - A sign of what's to come
Great content Simon =) Hurricanes (and weather in general) are a bit of a passion/hobby of mine so in case anyone is browsing I wanted to add some context on hurricanes specifically on your last section around climate change: 1) We don't know if hurricanes will increase in frequency, as you alluded to by saying this hurricane was going to form. While warmer waters would, in isolation, increase hurricane formation you also have shifting trade winds, intensity of those winds, and a few other factors that can hinder hurricane development that might negate the increase expected if only water temps changed 2) What we do know is that when these hurricanes form they'll intensify quicker due to the increased energy in the atmosphere, as you mentioned, and will likely hold more moisture. That likely means, combined, that when a hurricane impacts the US that it will be stronger on average but more importantly will dump significantly more rainfall. And tho those still reading that last part is a big impact. In general, storm surge and flooding are the big problems with hurricanes. While the wind gets the headline for many landfalls the areas they impact can handle the wind. Water though.... well... there is only so much that can be done to handle the volume of water that rain and storm surge brings.
There was an interesting video a few years back showing the minute-by-minute devastation a nuclear strike could do to a major city. At the end of it the narrator stated that no world government has a plan in place to handle such an event because it is incalculable. I think the same goes for here, these storms are so bad that no amount of funding or prep could hope to see better outcomes.
We're just not willing to prepare because it would change our way of life. We could prepare today by moving more people to major cities, and building up major cities. Tokyo is basically New Orleans with more earthquakes, both are basin cities vulnerable to floods. Tokyo is actually poorer than New Orleans per capita, yet Tokyo has better flood infrastructure because of the higher population density. So there are more citizens to share the cost of levies and drainage systems, and buildings are taller so more people live above the storm surge, and there is a smaller area to protect.
@@FullLengthInterstates I think what makes Tokyo stand apart from NOLA is that we have to create new land in which to build on. The problem now is no one wants to build. In fact we have a housing shortage because no one is building.
As someone in Houston who watched this storm over the couple of days before landfall because I have friends around there, there *were* some people who were trying to warn about how bad this was going to be. It was simply too massive to not have a ridiculous storm surge, at least, and the water was too hot with too little wind shear to not explode into the nearly cat 5 landfall (I say nearly because there were some reports of sustained winds that did match that, but of course, 140 is nothing to sneeze at). Even with the warnings though, so many people were adamant that they'd been through worse, that this couldn't possibly be more than they could deal with, etc. There were videos of people having to wade away from cars and move to safety before evening had even fallen. The videos and images from landfall and after are sobering, as is the fact that Milton came chugging along just after, and still had enough energy to hit cat 5 TWICE.
People forget that the rain softens the ground before the wind and then makes the large trees easier to blow down...I remember sitting in a 69 Ford pickup loaded with tools, heavy mechanic tools, after midnight to 3 am when the hurricane was worst here, and watching cars being blown across the parking lot and trees four feet across blow over and the wind was like being sandblasted with the debris and sand in it... try as it might it couldn't move that truck an inch 😂 they aren't made like that anymore, I drove it through water up to the carburetor no issues it didn't care at all 😂 be safe everyone and best of luck, I never leave I'll be standing outside watching like a nut 😊
Florida resident here If you compared the turn around of repair from both Helene’s and Milton’s hit on Florida versus 2004 hurricane hits you would see a considerable improvement in infrastructure hardening. In 2004 I lost power for 2 weeks from Hurricane Francis and then hit by Jeanne and lost for another week. Following Helene and Milton nearly all power was restored in days to the hardest hit areas. The local power companies have hardened their infrastructure (burying lines, cement poles, pre deploying personnel…) so saying we have neglected infrastructure is not accurate- but this is FL not other states that see such things once in a hundred years. Population boom in the South eastern US is relatively new - past 4 decades before that very few lived in many of these areas hit so loses weren’t calculated the same.
On September 2017, Puerto Rico was impacted by two hurricanes, Irma and Maria, causing significant damage to the island. Hurricane Irma made landfall on September 6, 2017 as a Category 5 storm with winds up to 100 miles per hour. Trump ignored it almost entirely. Trump officials blocked hurricane aid for Puerto Rico.
How far inland it went really is hard to express. It hit areas that would be often considered good distances to travel for hurricane evacuation routes from the coast.
I live even further inland in Indiana, and even I saw a couple days without power when the storm winds took out a large tree that took down the lines and damaged a pole. My heart goes out to those that suffered far worse earlier in the path.
The people are stepping in where the government has failed us yet again. We need help from the inside and I hope it comes soon. Thank you for your perspective Simon, and keep up the good work!
Maybe this will be a wakeup call to those voting for people who want to slash taxes and only focus on the flashy election issues. Biden was one of the few politicians who made infrastructure a priority - at it still wasn’t even close to enough. State governments need to keep their houses in order as well.
Your local governments are responsible for infrastructure upgrades. The Federal government has been doing a great job during the recovery efforts. Those folks that stand up at town meetings voting down infrastructure projects are the ones to blame for these disasters.
@@chrisworthen1538 FEMA has done next to nothing for those affected based on what I've seen and heard from people on the ground. Local governments have been doing okay (from what I've heard) but since the local area is destroyed, it's harder for them to operate. All in all, the federal government is failing the citizens again, and the local government is too weak or preoccupied to help. And im sure the citizens themselves have hurt the local government, but I don't have much beef with municipals. Most of the flak is going towards the feds cause they're messing things up again.
@@chrisworthen1538you are a 🤡 and don't know what you are talking about. Let me guess, you are parroting information you've read from the FEMA website? Or are you parroting what you've heard from CNN/MSNBC?
Completely skipped over the fact that it was supposed to hit atlanta, but instead turned and came directly over us here in Augusta wiping my town out of all services for 2 weeks. 3 weeks without power and internet still off here
Fantastic video🔥🔥! I have incurred so much losses trading on my own....I trade well on demo but I think the real market is manipulated.... Can anyone help me out or at least tell me what I'm doing wrong??
Trading on a demo account can definitely feel similar to the real market, but there are some differences. It's important to remember that trading involves risks and it's normal to face looses sometimes. One piece of advice is to start small and gradually increase your investments as you gain more experience and confidence. It might also be helpful to seek guidance from experienced traders or do some research on different trading strategies.
If you are trading without a professional guide... Ah, I laugh, because you will stay where you are or even suffer huge losses that will prevent you from trading, this has been one of the biggest problems for new traders.
I live in WNC, have my whole life, my area was hit by Helene. Yet, the ting a lot of people are missing, it wasn't Helene that was solely to blame here. We had 2 days of rain, hard rain, prior to Helene ever coming north, and once it did it just brought even more rain. As I have told others, we can handle, huricanes, we can handle rain, flash floods, wind but what we could not handle or prepare for was all of that hitting us at once.
Even though there's a lot of people trying to go in to help, due to the risk of someone trying to go into the disaster zone with ill intentions they have to go throghh a bureaucratic process to be allowed in. If people weren't so prone to looting then this wouldn't be an issue.
It would still be an issue, not the least of which reasons include having more people in a dangerous situation doesn’t often help - it just creates more need for ambulances and confusion.
This is a concern. The biggest concern is about not losing more people. The people that go in to help need to be accounted for. They don't want you to roll up like Rambo thinking you'll be a big hero, only to have to rescue you too. The guy with the helicopter was brave and a nice person, but foolish. Don't fight with the people. They're trying to fly their own copters or planes. Just follow the process.
Y'all 3 sound like good democrat sheep. Licking the boot of federal bureaucrats from your powered, intact homes, while people are still dying because of the lack of FEMA response.
I cannot thank you so much for bringing this to light. So many people I care about in north carolina have lost literally everything because of this hurrican. I know it's not politically correct to go into some of the details you went over, but thank you, Seriously, thank you. I went to unc asheville and everything where I used to live is literally ....just...gone
Living in southeastern North Carolina, my family alone has had two trees fall completely through two different houses we lived in, as a result from two different hurricanes. We've been homeless and having to find housing during the middle of the storm. Having grown up raised by my mom and grandmother helping us, my mother was simply doing the absolute very best she could in said situation. Without getting into details of our lives lived so far...my mom is by far the strongest-willed person (much less strongest woman) I've ever known and/or come across in my lifetime.
1. We have a bloated defense budget. 2. We put giving taxe cuts to rich over infrastructure spending. 3. The money we are spending on these end less war's. Could be better spent on infrastructure spending
Cool video but wrong title. It had almost nothing to do with infrastructure and more to do with climate change and its impact. I'm a storm water engineer and was hoping for a little more attention 😅
When you criticize the emergency management response, my first question was how big of an area did hurricane Helene effect? A quick google search says hurricane Helene’s devastating effects were 500 miles wide. And the distance from Big Bend, FL to Asheville, NC is 650 miles. So that is 325,000 square miles. For comparison, the area of the entire UK is 94,000 square miles. Can you imagine what would happen if a cat 4 hurricane ripped through the center of England, dumping 24 inches of rain all the way up through Scotland? The entire country would be in chaos. The damage would be way more than $250 billion because the UK doesn’t have any hardened infrastructure for these types of events. Every person in the UK would be affected. The damage would be 10% of the UK’s GDP. That would be comparable to the US having a $3 trillion dollar single natural catastrophe. In a hotter global warming world, these types of events will eventually start reaching places like the UK. It is going to be a world wide shit show like humans have never experienced before.
People are literally still dying right now because of the lack of FEMA response but keep on defending them. FEMA is still a no show in many hard hit communities, evidenced by outside civilians bringing in aid and recording the events. FEMA can release all the numbers they want, put up whatever "disinformation" websites they want to, but the bottom line is, they are more worried about dolling out hundreds of billions of dollars to the tens of millions of illegals than they are in helping people in primarily conservative areas get their life back in order. Threatening the arrests of civilians who are bringing in aid and saving lives(where FEMA failed to do so) because they didn't get permission from some federal bureaucrat to do so is peak democrat power complex and everyone sees it for what it is.
You do realize we survived the Ice Age right? Humanity will be fine, modern civilization might collapse depending on how bad it gets, but humanity will survive and rebuild like it always has.
The difference is that the US is no stranger to large natural disasters in certain regions, so one may expect it to be at least somewhat decently prepared for them. Even if the next disaster is bigger than expected, they'll at least have saved yourself a lot of damage repair and misery.
@@Kaiserboo1871 A second ice age is much further off than the north atlantic becoming warm enough to sustain strong hurricanes repeatedly hitting Europe.
Grindstone Ministries is a privately funded non profit disaster relief organization. This is their 46th time responding. They are boots on the ground helping. TJ Morris, the CEO, is an incredible man.
We have hit the point where people no longer trust expertise because of party loyalty. It is utterly dystopian. That's shit that usually requires an iron handed dictatorship. Fear. Squads. And yet here, people choose to obey without the threat of punishment.
The US government spent $126.3 billion on infrastructure in 2023. Sources cite $44.8 billion directly, and $81.5 billion transferred to states. In 2023 the US government spent $820.3 billion on military. The government is essentially letting the country fall apart in favor of funding defense, which yes we absolutely need a strong defense, but what good is a strong defense when there's nothing left to defend because your country collapses from within, without a single other country having to intervene or attack us? We could cut military spending in half and still be one of, if not, the most dominant military forces on the planet. That extra roughly $410 billion could be used on infrastructure, public programs like schools and parks, homeless shelters, rehab clinics, a whole slew of beneficial programs to increase internal stability.
I live in Upstate South Carolina. An hour's drive from Asheville, it was bad here. Bad there. Alot of people don't really realize how bad it was, and don't realize no Appalachian would have ever believed this could happen.
For a country that rakes in a historically unprecedented figure in taxes, we sure do have broadly crappy infrastructure. I wonder where all of it is going… 🤔
That historically unprecedented figure in taxes has not grown with the size of the country though. It should be a lot higher, but decades of cutting taxes for the wealthy was going to have an affect at some point.
A close family friend's daughter came to visit after Helène, she went back to NC to help lead a horse/mule team to get much-needed supplies where it was desperately needed.😊💛🔥
America's infrastructure isn't neglected. The reason it is the way it is is due to lobbying. That's why you have no real public transport in most places and driving is terrible yet still the only option. That and (natural) disasters are a feast for investors. Just creates lots of cheap land that people that lost it all are forced to sell. It's the American dream!
Yes it is. Demonstrably so. 1/3 of our bridges are in a state of disrepair. The lack of public transportation IS infrastructure neglect. Don’t even get me started on power grid failures, lack of earthquake reenforcement or poor water management. Natural disasters only expose neglect. America is great at building things, but not maintaining them very well.
as an addendum to FEMA's response to helen it has come to light recently that parts of FEMA was telling employees not to bother at properties showing signs supporting a certain republican presidential candidate. at least one fema employee has been fired for telling folks that and the fema director is getting called before congress oversight committee to answer questions concerning this
The reason FEMA is running low on funds is because the speaker of the house refused to bring a vote on a funding bill for FEMA prior to going on recess and has continue to refuse to call congress back in order to vote on a funding bill for them.
No the reason they are low on funding is the director of homeland security has been shipping and housing illegal immigrants as part of progressives way to create super majorities in swing states... But go ahead and keep blaming the speaker of the house... Fema had the funding and somehow the suddenly didn't when the disaster happened. That flat out admitted they were using the funding for housing these people. But if you go look around at hotels and look for apartments there's a bunch of south americans sitting in places where low income americans used to live... use your eyes and stop watching msnbc/cnn actually look around your town and notice it doesn't look very "american" lately?
No 🤡, the reason FEMA is running low on funds is because they've spent hundreds of billions of dollars helping out the 20,000,000+ foreign invaders that your party has freely let into the US. No other reason. If Congress appropriates even more money to FEMA, they will continue to use the vast majority of it on non-citizens. Evidenced by politicians with a (D) in front of their name not allowing money to ONLY be appropriated for hurricane victims. You simply want another blank check to blow on non-citizens.
This is crazy watching this! I live in western nc and I am a lineman. The damage has been undescribable! As a lineman I worked 16hrs a day 28 days straight after the hurricane trying to get power back on and am still working 16hrs a day but they finally gave us a couple days off to rest. I hope I never see a storm like this again.
Same thing happened in the Northern mountains region of Vietnam last month. Landslide due to Yagi wiped out a while village. Don't understand people still insist that climate change isn't a thing
Upstate SC here. After Helene there was no power at all. Even the traffic lights were completely dead. And hearing you talk about my Alma Mater (Clemson), really didn't make things easier. All things considered, Helene was a disaster of Hollywood-level proportions.
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But the Ukraine and Israel!!!!
The best way to get more viewer's is to let your TDS show just before an election
Another way to get more subs is to lie by omission about the weather
The hurricanes name was/is Helene, not Helen!!!
The sad thing with the whole (climate change/global warming) bit is that no one is talking about the source of said energy IE the sun.
I live just outside of Asheville. The devastation here is unfathomable. The things I’ve seen are unspeakable. The stories I can tell from this are endless. It’s wild to see this channel covering what we’ve been through is awesome considering I watch this channel daily. Thank you for covering this.
The regime found money ($400 million) for Ukraine and Israel to fight their wars with though and that's all that matters to these criminals in Washington D.C. don't you realize that?
I live north of Asheville. I think I’m still in shock with everything going on around me.
I hope you both are doing as well as possible. Im just east of asheville and this is absolutely insane
How are you all doing there?❤ Don't see this on the news.
I think of you all all the time, and I hope you’re able to find moments of calm. I cannot imagine what you’ve been through. 🫂❤️
Lot of unsung heroes among the TVA staff who stayed through the storm to keep those dams intact.
True but it is their jobs. Also the TVA doesn't want anyone to see what's at the bottom of some of those lakes. Nothing scary just sad. Lots of old towns that people were forced out of back when the TVA was formed.
I am supremely impressed by the fact that they managed to keep those dams from failing (several previous famous dam near-failures taught us that it isn't luck that keeps a them from failing - it's the people running them, their hard work & ingenuity/out-of-box thinking under pressure). They deserve high praise.
Thank God and TVA that my niece, future nephew, and their two children did not face in Gatlinburg a dam failure like the poor souls elsewhere. Me cousin Carol didn't even know if she had a home to go to when it failed in Newport. My Aunt and Uncle are safe as well in their N.C. area.
What's the TVA?
@@ironboy3245 taken from Wiki:
"The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States."
7:56 As someone who has lived on the east coast of South Carolina their whole life, I can personally attest that WAFFLE HOUSE CLOSING FOR A HURRICANE MEANS S*** IS ABSOLUTELY HITTING THE FAN, WH is 99% of the time your best bet for getting food outside your house in the times of a hurricane.
Makes sense to me but i'm from Southeast Kentucky.
i’m canadian and i know about the waffle house index
Native Texan living in North Carolina here. Can confirm. Years ago, my former boss and I were in Galveston, TX less than a week after Hurricane Ike made landfall. We were driving through town and there were still boats which had been washed ashore by the storm surge sitting off to the side of the road. Debris everywhere, power was out in some places, and so forth.
But Waffle House was open! We stopped for a bite.
Texans also have the HEB index. It makes some sense because companies are usually willing to take more risks than the government in terms of shut down decisions. But like with the companies that stayed open and ended up finding out (including big companies like amazon during the tornado), they don't always make the right call either. I would wonder if the decision is coming from an in house meteorologist at corporate headquarters or if they leave it up to the district manager or even store manager. That's a terrifying responsibility.
As someone in the restaurant industry, we all shake out heads at this. A buddy managed one in College Station back in the late 70's while in school. Their reputation has been decades in the making. I cannot remember the last time I ate at one, guessing it was the mid '80s. Give me a Shoney's, IHOP or Denny's (pretty much no difference between any of these really). I could at least get a table, pre tip $10, for a cup of coffee and study in a quite location (for a University of 25k+, only one library that was not open 24 hours...).
What is missing is that the two-three days before Helene, we received a really bad and heavy rain storm in NC which saturated the ground. So when Helene hit, there was no where else to absorb the new rain. Already the day before Helene, the rivers and streams were high. What happened wasn't infrastructure failure, it was geology in our lifetime. There is a geologist in west NC on youtube under the moniker TheGeoModels who has been doing detailed analysis of mountains he knows well, which I recommend if you want to learn more about what happened to Chimney Rock and others.
It's almost the exact same circumstances that caused the 1916 flood. Heavy rainfall before a hurricane.
@@Oleandra-13it eclipsed the 1916 flood with ease unfortunately. Between the continental divide & drastic changes in the topography all the debris ran through the valleys to the basin bottoms wiping the surface clean. Maps will be redrawn due to this event.
I saw that video!! I live near Shelby, and will miss Chimney Rock. I'm praying for you all out west and the recovery. All I got was downed power lines, a tree on the house (nothing bad happened other than a few shingles lost), and a dented fence.
@@sarahcantrell9821 if you’re semi local you know everything is already in the process of being cleaned up & ready to rebuild. Chimney Rock isn’t “gone”. Stay out of the way long enough for there to be a safe & easy way in/out. Then go enjoy the places you love. The towns, small businesses, & people NEED the area’s economy back to normal as soon as possible.
That man does fantastic work!
I live in Western NC. The damage is quite literally earth-changing. Landslides and flooding have changed where rivers are flowing. Entire mountainsides have shifted. Even newer infrastructure would've failed because the earth itself was moved.
Yes I believe infrastructure needs to be updated everywhere. But nothing would've stood up to what Helene brought. It erased solid ground from under our feet and foundations that have stood for decades.
At some point, people need to recognize that the weird weather patterns are the normal. And if we don't prepare, nature will continue to humble us over and over.
There were images of metal beams bent around themselves like soda straws in debris piles and in the bottom of the refashioned stream beds. There were images of concrete block buildings being shifted off their foundations and carried away. Not much would have stood up to some of those rock slides, not steel or concrete. The earth moved and we and our creations are but ants in this cycle.
Every now and then stuff like this is going to happen at various places. It might be every 150-200 years, more or less but it's going to happen. In NJ its all Sandy, Sandy, Sandy and if lived somewhere especially vulnerable to wind damage then I would have had much more difficult time of it than I did you were screwed. Nobody talks about Irene, the hurricane that occurred one year earlier. The ground was soaked with water from the previous 2 weeks of heavy rainfall so when the Hurricane came along we had incredible flooding. Of the two Hurricanes, for me. Irene was much more damaging. Nevertheless, I was without power for 2 weeks straight after each hurricane. So they were both bad. What people are talking about with a lack of updating infrastructure is unfortunately very true. Right now the power company is replacing telephone poles that have been standing there for the better part for 60+ years, at least. What should be done is the relocating of power lines underground. This would cost a lot more money no doubt but it's something we should have been doing for a very long time. Well, we are some $35 trillion in debt (that they will admit to) and a bunch more in unfunded mandates and liabilities, like Social Security and Medicare (that's another $175 trillion) which keeps getting looted and treated like a like a slush-fund and not the trust-fund it was set up to be. Where did all of the money go? The biggest part of it IMO are these stupid, endless wars since 1989-90 that are honestly nothing less than criminal. Add to that the unlimited immigration going on since Biden became President. There is nothing in these policies that benefits Americans and the reasoning for them is all based on lies. We had better figure this out quickly. Best wishes and a very quick recovery to my fellow Americans ravaged by Helene.
We rather spend on wars and rebuilding other countries than contracts for infrastructure here😢
@@karlheinzvonkroemann2217completely unhinged
@@AL-lh2ht What?
Thank you for your accurate explanation of what’s going on here. I’m a paramedic in Black Mountain and I live in the community of Broad River just a few miles from Chimney Rock and Lake Lure. Fortunately my family and home are safe however, there is a tremendous amount of damage out here. I had to work 48 hours during the worst of the aftermath without being able to get home or have any contact with my family. I walked 8 miles up the mountain through the devastated area home to make sure my family was safe only to return back to work after setting my wife up to live without power and water.l for the following month. I’m extraordinarily grateful for all the out of state first responders and linemen who came to take the burden off of our personnel and aid and the rescue of my community.
Thank you for your service.
The volunteers helping in SAR operations is incredible
Thanks for stating this fact: regardless of why these extreme weather events happen - it's happening before our very eyes. We've got to get ready for them.
No we should say it's climate change. Man made, cO2 causing climate change. If we dont recognize that we are putting the cart before the horse. There is no fixing the problem if we don't fix that fundamental issue, it will only get worse and less viable to do anything
*Helene, not Helen.
All these heavy rain events and storms like Hurricane Helene show that many local and state governments have been stingy with the budget when it comes to infrastructure maintenance...and we are paying for it.
From Scotland, lived in Houston for 16 yrs. The place is falling apart, houses are built using what is basically UK post WW2 prefab techniques. Like a chipboard tent nailed to a slab.
(Greater) Houstonian here, can confirm. Also, too much housing added is making it flood worse and worse every year. I currently live in a no flood zone but for how much longer as they plan on adding something like 10.000 homes in the next 10 years in this area. Not looking forward for the future of my home/town.
Seriously, looking at the states, I think our homes here in Sweden, which are built to withstand cold and heavy snow, not hurricane force winds, are better suited to survive such winds than an American house built in actually hurricane territory.
@@matteste Same here in the Netherlands. If a hurricane force storm ever hit here, I'd feel perfectly safe in my flat.
@@TurtleCat3000is that because they’re building them in areas that are flood plains? It happened here in California. They built a bunch of retail in those giant area that the rain would just fill up there and preventing the streets from foooding. Now the roads flood.
Austin area here! And the same exact things can be said. We keep hearing how many more homes are coming. But where are you putting them? Not to mention the TRAFFIC IS HORRIBLE and it’s just gonna get WORSE! Texas is the only state I’ve lived in that has as many “electrical issues”. That alone is ridiculous. A state this damn big should have a lot better roads, homes, electricity, water omg don’t even get me started on drinking water. Yeah it’s bad in the states and that is sad to say.
Western North Carolina here. I have known our infrastructure is pathetic for years. When you drive across a busy bridge, look down into a pothole and see the river running beneath the bridge, that bridge is not safe. When I complain I am told that bridge is on a list to be repaired "eventually." The worst part is I know of more than 1 bridge around here like that. It's common for bridges to have huge gapping holes in their road beds. It's a someday problem that is left for some unknown person in the future to take care of. 🤬
welp what do you expect after congress passed a massive "infrastructure" bill a couple of years ago and only about 20% of the funding went to actual infrastructure.
that sounds absolutely horrifying, wtf. I do not understand how people aren't being more urgent about bridge issues over in the US.
@@kaori_hyacinthus4409 Road and bridge repair costs money. Lots of money which requires the political will to spend it through state and federal government. Too many politicians have been content to kick the can down the road when it comes to these issues. That road is a dead end and it's within sight.
Same in West Virginia
The entire South is like this (Tennessee here). Our politicians don’t use state tax on infrastructure, schools, or anything that benefits the people in my state. Not sure what they do with any of it quite frankly, other than stuff their pockets.
I live in Swannanoa. A few of your video clips were from just down the road from me. I'm super fortunate that I live well above the Swannnoa River. Normally, the river is about 1/4 mile from my house. I can hear it when it's running high. But after Helene the flood brought the river to about 100 yards from my house. My only damage was three huge oak trees coming down. They are all near my house, but none of them did any damage.
The community around here has really come together to help each other. We have well water. As soon as the power came back on we had clean water and let people come over and fill up their buckets, take a shower, do laundry.
Thank you, Simon. This is an excellent breakdown of what happened, why it happened, and the serious gaps in physical and political infrastructure. I work in disaster planning and relief, and rarely comment on social media, but you've done fantastic work here and it is worth highlighting. Your segment about the prison infrastructure is incredibly important and an oft-overlooked section of disaster management, even in areas of the field which work with underserved communities. It would be worthwhile, if extensive, to do a piece on the vulnerability of the aging prison infrastructure and the increased risk faced by the populations (both inside and around the complexes) which rely on said infrastructure for life, security, and economic activity.
My dear chap, I believe it's Hurricane HELENE, not Helen.
I didnt wanna be that guy, the video is informative... but yeah, this. 😂
We say aluminum right
Ha-lean
@@codegame027 In America, yes. But it's a French name.
@@codegame027 in English it's Hel-ene or h-el-en with silent e
I live just outside of Laurens, South Carolina. I lost power at maybe 5:30am and i swear for the next 3 hours, it sounded like someone was testing a jet engine just outside my house.
I'm most thankful, though that my Grandma, who has dementia, never lost power at her apartment. Hell, she slept through the whole damn storn! When we asked her about it, her response was, "Oh, that's probably why i had a little bit of water by my porch door."
I live in Asheville, NC. We still have folks without power and water, and roads from the mountains down are still washed out. One of the pharmacists at my wife's CVS was swept away by the storm surge from the Swannanoa River, and he was confirmed dead three days ago. I-40 just inside the Tennessee line is completely washed out and needs to be rebuilt. And FEMA is stepping to the plate bigtime to get aid to everyone that needs it.
That said: The US has an infrastructure more closely resembling a developing nation than an industrialized powerhouse. Water and power systems are WAY below the level they need to be, and TPTB seem to be content to just let it go.
I am in East Asheville, just a few miles from Swannanoa, parts look like a warzone.
From what most are saying , either you or hundreds other about ole FEMA . Oh honestly after seeing the unmarked military helos are doing then my money is on you haven't had any help from them if your in the affected area
My wife is the acting store manager at the swannanoa cvs. Her store in Hendersonville was a total loss. It's still really bad there. I hate seeing her going to work there each day. And with the cold starting to set in people are going to get desperate. Anyways small world I guess. Our wives have probably worked together at some point.
When people try to get funding for social projects we are called commies. LMFAO sucks to suck
I am so sorry that on top of the living hell you're in, you havetellingmaking things worse for selfish gain. You have a beautiful place and it will be again. Coming from Oklahoma, we have had to rebuild a few times. This country is with you, I don't care what party you're in.
The only question that matters is whether you ok, and what do you need?
From the Appalachian foothills in SC. We got wrecked, but Asheville NC will never be the same.
It’s wild to think we got this much damage an 8+ hour drive from landfall.
Over in Powdersville I had power out and leaves in the yard. Just leaves. My wife's fall wreath was still on the door. I can see the Saluda from my front door; it flooded, but not abnormally so. Nearby there were trees down & homes damaged. And then the mountains got slammed. It was like Helene was picking her targets. I trust you and yours are all okay. As we say in the Upstate: How's your momma and them?
Unfortunately, one problem with Hurricane Helene in North Carolina is the fact people's memories clear out after a generation or three. Some of the damage in Asheville was in area near a river that had severely flooded in 1916 during very similar circumstances where a hurricane (this time from the Atlantic) followed a tropical depression that had saturated the soil days before. I'm not denying climate change nor it's impact, I am just saying that people were allowed to do a lot of development in a previous flood plain. I've also read that less than 1% of people with houses damaged by floods have flood insurance.
You can’t get flood insurance if you’re not in a flood plain. That insurance is from the federal government.
It doesn't matter if they remember or not, people have to live in those places because they have no choice. That's where the infrastructure and jobs are, and corporations would rather spend to rebuild once every few decades than to move somewhere safer but more expensive.
To some degree, they're right to do so. San Francisco, for example, _will_ get destroyed by an earthquake eventually, but the shipping its natural and artificial harbors support is worth many times the cost of rebuilding it when it does. Same for the oil industry on the Gulf coast of Texas. The cost of moving all those refineries somewhere better, then having to transport the gas to the coast for shipping, is far greater than the damage from floods and such.
i was lucky. i have flood insurance. we lost our house to helene. still waiting on the adjuster to come. been living in ohio and commuting to work as i have no family in NC.
Yep, there was "Potential Tropical Cyclone #8" which was soaking on 16Sept, then another bad unnamed rain storm on Monday-Tuesday, THEN Helene. The ground was already thoroughly saturated and squelchy.
Well then it's a good thing that it's likely to happen again within a generation lol
Hearing this , which was done very well, seeing and hearing the personal stories are far much worst. Many of the missing, were the homeless, many are buried in the piles of debries, or silt from the mud slides. It is beyond heart breaking.
Thank you for covering this. As a native of Tampa Bay, the research has indicated for years just how bad a direct hit could be, but complacency was so ingrained that nothing got changed. As destructive as it was, Milton was only half as bad as the predictions, and I just hope Tampa Bay finally wakes up. If Milton was the “best” case scenario, how devastating would the worst case be? I really don’t want to find out the hard way.
Remember how DeSantis signed a bill that removed Climate Change from most law and prevented officials from saying the words? Remember how insurance companies are fleeing Florida? It isn't complacency. It's wanton destruction.
⛎🏖 Tampa / Sarasota was hit ~low tide, could have been 3-4 ft more surge with high tide, going far more inland...🦟
A good friend made it more clear by pointing out to me about 20 years ago, "Think about it, simply raising the average temperature of the oceans of the world by half of a degree... that's one hell of a lot of energy!" He told me then that we could be expecting more and more powerful storms. Shortly after that conversation, Katrina happened.
dont worry, Trump will build a wall to keep climate change out of the USA and your god will pay for it!
2064 joules per liter per half degree C times 393 million cubic miles of water. Im not the best at math but your friend is indeed right
I went into hendersonville to take supplies to my grandmother right after the storm. Spent 3 days helping out with a chain saw and my old jeep Comanche running supplies. Wish i could have stayed longer
I was doing runs from Columbia SC to family and friends in Hendo. It was insane just driving up I-26 past Spartanburg and seeing all the downed trees and power lines, then NC was a mess.
@Oleandra-13 yeah after giving stuff to my family in went east towards bat cave. Seeing whole house smashed to bits in a river that's normally only a dozen feet or so wide was nuts
My home just got destroyed by Helen and then hit by Milton. Just my luck. May u all have a beautiful life.
I've been through three Cyclones , almost got squashed be a falling tree during one of them . Best of luck and prayer's from Australia 🙏
I’m so sorry. I feel your pain - Helene destroyed my cousin’s home and Milton made my parents evacuate for the first time in the 25 years they’ve lived in Florida. We will recover together. You can do this :)
I'm so sorry
Very sad... But nothing compared to the suffering of people in Gaza
some people learn, you don't. thats not unfortunate but stupidity
I'm in central NC, and we caught about 20 minutes of hard rain. I lived in Texas during Beryl and that was scary as hell. I thought it was funny how everyone was freaking out in my area of NC until I heard what happened to Chimney Rock. I camped in Swannanoa and had breakfast in Black Mountain this summer while I was moving. I even called my dad while I was there telling him we should visit together sometime because I thought he would love it and feel right at home in the mountains. To hear that those communities were devastated and some outright destroyed breaks my heart.
I've been through three Cyclones , almost got squashed be a falling tree during one of them . Best of luck and prayer's from Australia 🙏
i went to South Tyrol in September this year for vacation...
with my motorbike!
after Italy, i drove to Slovenia and Croatia...
at my breakfast one day in Croatia, i watched the news, heavy rain in the Alpes...
i saw how a stone avalanche took away a bridge, i had been standing on at a break driving around in Tyrol...
after leaving Croatia, i drove 3.5 days in rain going home!
i got snow at the Tauern highway at 1400m....unpleasant if you ride a motorbike!
Keep in mind part of the reason Helene's rains were so devastating to that region was because that area had been getting decent rain the days leading to it moving into the area, and the area was far from being in a drought. Many of the rivers, lakes, and reservoirs were already at capacity.
It's sad to think about how many may have lived and destruction avoided if the area had been somewhat drier.
Western NC resident here. We really didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. We expected to lose power for a day or two, but that was it. We bought a generator *just in case* the day before the storm hit. We ended up being without power and internet for a week. It was honestly the worst experience of my life so far
Never thought I would see the area I grew up and so many places I recognized in a Megaprojects video. I'm from Old Fort the small town next to Black Mountain, and my family is still lives there. They're some of the lucky ones, but both towns have been devastated and permanently changed. However, just like Simon said the communities have pulled together and rallied to push forward as a whole. The road to recovery is long, but I know they'll pull through.
hey neighbor. lost my home in morganton. i work in marion.
Hello from Fairview.
@Megaprojects the name of the dtorm is not Helen but Helene! and yes it does make a difference!
Something else to touch on are the aquawalls that the tampa hospital put up before the flooding. Watching them work is amazing, kept the hospital from needing to evacuate and possibly costing lives. Truely amazing videos to watch
I live in Columbia, SC. This was my first major hurricane since moving here less than 2 years from California. My home was without power for 7 hours. I can deal with earthquakes, but hurricanes are scary. Traveled to Georgia shortly after and the damage was tremendous.
Hope your politics stayed in california. That's a major part of the problem.
It’s so sad what happened and the media just brushed over this
The richest country in the world, and yet spending a few dollars on damage prevention seems far fetched....
By average per capita income, US is 6th. Behind Monaco, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Ireland.
But, everyone should remember, an average doesn't necessarily present an accurate reality.
If there are 10 people at a company and 9 of them make $10 a day, and 1 person makes $10,000 a day, the AVERAGE salary at the company is $1,009 a day.
Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Ellison, Buffet, Gates are worth a combined $973 Billion. What's that do to the average?
'Cause, ya know, that would be socialism..
The USA is the poorest country in the world. They are 35 TRILLION dollars in debt. Totally bankrupt.
Well to be fair the government gave it all for Ukraine and Israel wars.
America is not the richest. They're trillions of dollars in debt.
The fact that you're aware of how we use Waffle House being open or closed as a metric of danger is hilarious because that's not even standard across the country.
I am not american but for what I heard Waffle House stay open during rough weather, is this correct ?
@@cathyb1273 correct. Waffle House is one of those places that tries to stay open no matter what. Waffle House locations are even capable of operating without power for a period of time.
@@nerdy_crawfish
Wow, that’s kind of impressive to be honest.
Psh, it is now!
Oh no, that's a standard. Blizzards in the north, hurricanes in the south and east, twisters in the Midwest, earthquakes and wildfires out west. There's two things to watch for anywhere in the country: if WH is closed and if Jim Cantore shows up, you need to be ready.
I mean, if Texas gets the slightest amount of snow, the power plants have issues. That should say something.
Straight bullshit
It says that Texas doesn't get much snow.
They should still have some kind of safeguard. Texas' powet grid is notoriously bad.
@@Sh4dowgale You don't understand the Texas ice-storm. It is a local phenomenon. Pretty rare and kinda difficult to harden power lines against it, unless you bury all of them.
@@MrTexasDan no. You do not need to bury power lines to protect them from snow and ice storms. The NE regularly has both and above ground power lines.
That good sir, was a great breakdown for us no USA residents.
Canada 🇨🇦
NC resident here, even where I am just west of Charlotte, we also still lost power for a day and half (we were lucky, my dad down the road was out for 4 days) and high water from a lot of local creeks that feed into the lake and Catawba River kept us stuck at home. We had friends who had trees down, property damage, standing water all over their yards... It was surreal. I spent a lot of time with family in Florida as a kid, been through hurricanes and depressions, but this was so vastly different.
i live in morganton, we lost our house and everything in it.
The real unfortunate irony? Some who fled Florida to find a safer location, died in North Carolina.
Why do I find this funny?
@@gmari3343because it didn't happen to you and you've never faced any struggle in your entire life. I'm sure you could be diagnosed with something, but im no medical professional so I'll just refer to you as "privileged, ignorant, and disgraceful."
So sorry to hear that.
That's like running from a tornado that's tracking in the same direction you're heading. It's even worse when you consider that unlike tornadoes, hurricane movements are much easier to predict and their forecast cones are easy to pull up.
One of your best presentations. Thank You
This is the best coverage on the situation I have seen
Remember, we had a governor who initially refused help from FEMA, asking his people to have a day of prayer. That's what we're dealing with.
maybe stop voting in republicans? they are literally insane
Don't forget the massive infrastructure bill that only had about 20% of its funding go to actually infrastructure.
@@MrPlummer10 old talking point that was debunked years ago, the actual % is around 70%.
@@unyieldingsarcasm2505 False 500billion of the 3T went to hard infrastructure that is the BBBA 1.85t combined with the infrastructure bill 1.2T
And also republicans were the only ones opposing a fema budget increase just recently
You have no idea how much I appreciate you translating American things into kilometers
Florida building codes require fairly strong wind protection, but the main damage comes from flooding. Floods are not that difficult to mitigate, just build taller. This puts more units above the storm surge, and allows more units to share the cost of ground level flood infrastructure. Unfortunately mandating tall buildings would be antithesis of the florida dream of having your little detached home in paradiss, so floridians will continue to have their homes get totaled by flooding.
Speaking of which, NYC did manage itself fairly well after Sandy all factors considered. The flooding could've been way worse. A crippled subway system is outright devastating.
I know far too many people whose houses have ended up underwater; my aunt and uncle just moved back up north near me again because of it. Scary stuff.
Also I wish more money would go to helping with these issues instead of to wars, but that's another topic.
Thank you for this. I have lived through hurricanes and tornados but Helene was not the normal- although in the coming years it probably will be considered normal.
What really made it bad was the rain storm causing flooding before the hurricane ever showed up
I'm currently in the N Ga mountains where my family owns a cutting horse farm. I'm a retired sailor who lives in Tampa on my 30 ft sailboat anchored in Tampa Bay. Helene was bad but my boat managed it well. 2 weeks later Milton took down my main mast. My nephew's getting married on the 26th so I don't even know what I'm returning to. Be what it's gonna be. Capt.Bob, SV ( Sailing Vessel ) 27th Chance, Tampa Fl, USA 🇺🇸
We hope you can repair your boat.
While that storm was tearing up the Carolinas, we had 50+ mph winds from the NW here in Illinois! It was that powerful. Godspeed my fellow Americans.
Drove down for a vacation to the Smokey mountain national park with my wife just a few weeks before. Stayed in Cosby area. Drove 32 across the border, caught us 40 south and then turned through Maggie valley to catch the newfound gap back into the park. Lots of these roads are simply closed until further notice. These areas were built up without any expectation of that kind of water to fall.
As a SC resident that went 8 days on a generator, and who went to volunteer to help move and distribute supplies in the Asheville area; thank you Simon for covering this with your channel. This is the last video I'd expect to watch here!
Thank you for doing this special megaproject. Continue your get work ❤
As someone from the area, thank you for the coverage. You've done an incredible job putting this into words when so many of us can't. Thank you again.
This is true everywhere in the West. We’ve allowed ourselves to become complacent with and disconnected from the people responsible for maintaining our local infrastructure. Get out to your local township/county/whatever meetings!
20:49 it’s now been confirmed that FEMA crews were instructed to skip over houses with Trump signage.
Thanks for covering this one good content as usual.
I'm a resident of FL. One of the things FEMA dose not do is replace toys. It is also one of the last things on survivors list. If any one feels compelled to help the kids in Spruce Pine NC. The community leaders have asked for toy donations. Every Saturday all donations are given out at the local park.
263 Oak Ave Spruce Pine NC. 28777.
Thanks so much
Hello. American from North Carolina here. It’s simple really. Yes our infrastructure hasn’t really been updated since it was built however it’s also not quite that simple either. I live about 100 miles inland which sounds like a long ways from the coast but the reality is it’s a little less than 3 hours away so when they get hit we do too however the mountains rarely get storms like this. They haven’t had a storm this bad since the 80’s. That added on to a dam breaking and it was absolutely devastating. It hurts me honestly. Not just because it’s my state but also because I love the mountains. I have friends and family up that way and my wife and I got married up there.
I've been through three Cyclones , almost got squashed be a falling tree during one of them . Best of luck and prayer's from Australia 🙏
It became a cat 5 just before it hit. Most people don’t talk about that and think it was only ever a cat 4 but the NOAA classified it as a cat 5. It’s not just a made up number.
If only there had been some sort of _infrastructure week_ to fix the problem ....
Im watching this two weeks after publication. My aunt lives in Asheville NC. She says they still don't have safe water. That huge numbers of businesses can not reopen due to numerous issues. Power is back for most, internet is still unreliable, if you can find it. The surrounding communities are suffering worse.
If you can, please help the folks in all the areas that have been hit by this disaster.
Sad you didn't talk about the thousand lineman and first responders who came in from Canada. Trucks, equipment and generators in hand.
Linemen and first responders are the best!
America appreciates the help. We are very lucky to have such a generous and great nation above us. Thank you 🇨🇦
And then were threatened with violence in some of the more right wing inbred areas. lol
@@CaptainCataractssAgree 100%
@@CaptainCataractss The US is the first to assist other nations in times of need. Canadians have always been able and willing to assist the US. We don't even think twice about it.
The DANA floods recently in Spain, Italy, have also been horrendous particularly Valencia where local authorities held off issuing the red alert. The Mediterranean sea is also extremely warm, more than normal!!
Politicians still denying climate change 😢😢
20:40 with hindsight, we know this *did* happen.
Disaster relief supervisors sent out orders to not help Republicans
1:40 - Mid roll ads
2:55 - Chapter 1 - The hurricane
9:05 - Chapter 2 - In Helene's wake
13:00 - Chapter 3 - Damning failures
23:50 - Chapter 4 - A sign of what's to come
Great content Simon =) Hurricanes (and weather in general) are a bit of a passion/hobby of mine so in case anyone is browsing I wanted to add some context on hurricanes specifically on your last section around climate change:
1) We don't know if hurricanes will increase in frequency, as you alluded to by saying this hurricane was going to form. While warmer waters would, in isolation, increase hurricane formation you also have shifting trade winds, intensity of those winds, and a few other factors that can hinder hurricane development that might negate the increase expected if only water temps changed
2) What we do know is that when these hurricanes form they'll intensify quicker due to the increased energy in the atmosphere, as you mentioned, and will likely hold more moisture. That likely means, combined, that when a hurricane impacts the US that it will be stronger on average but more importantly will dump significantly more rainfall.
And tho those still reading that last part is a big impact. In general, storm surge and flooding are the big problems with hurricanes. While the wind gets the headline for many landfalls the areas they impact can handle the wind. Water though.... well... there is only so much that can be done to handle the volume of water that rain and storm surge brings.
Please cover the recent floods in Valencia, it has broken all records and is a truly frightening wake up call for the Mediterranean coast of Europe...
There was an interesting video a few years back showing the minute-by-minute devastation a nuclear strike could do to a major city. At the end of it the narrator stated that no world government has a plan in place to handle such an event because it is incalculable. I think the same goes for here, these storms are so bad that no amount of funding or prep could hope to see better outcomes.
We're just not willing to prepare because it would change our way of life. We could prepare today by moving more people to major cities, and building up major cities. Tokyo is basically New Orleans with more earthquakes, both are basin cities vulnerable to floods. Tokyo is actually poorer than New Orleans per capita, yet Tokyo has better flood infrastructure because of the higher population density. So there are more citizens to share the cost of levies and drainage systems, and buildings are taller so more people live above the storm surge, and there is a smaller area to protect.
@@FullLengthInterstates I think what makes Tokyo stand apart from NOLA is that we have to create new land in which to build on. The problem now is no one wants to build. In fact we have a housing shortage because no one is building.
20:56 they weren't wrong. Days later FEMA fired a supervisor for exactly this
As someone in Houston who watched this storm over the couple of days before landfall because I have friends around there, there *were* some people who were trying to warn about how bad this was going to be. It was simply too massive to not have a ridiculous storm surge, at least, and the water was too hot with too little wind shear to not explode into the nearly cat 5 landfall (I say nearly because there were some reports of sustained winds that did match that, but of course, 140 is nothing to sneeze at). Even with the warnings though, so many people were adamant that they'd been through worse, that this couldn't possibly be more than they could deal with, etc. There were videos of people having to wade away from cars and move to safety before evening had even fallen.
The videos and images from landfall and after are sobering, as is the fact that Milton came chugging along just after, and still had enough energy to hit cat 5 TWICE.
Thank you for covering this when our own media did not nothing but love and respect to you sir!
People forget that the rain softens the ground before the wind and then makes the large trees easier to blow down...I remember sitting in a 69 Ford pickup loaded with tools, heavy mechanic tools, after midnight to 3 am when the hurricane was worst here, and watching cars being blown across the parking lot and trees four feet across blow over and the wind was like being sandblasted with the debris and sand in it... try as it might it couldn't move that truck an inch 😂 they aren't made like that anymore, I drove it through water up to the carburetor no issues it didn't care at all 😂 be safe everyone and best of luck, I never leave I'll be standing outside watching like a nut 😊
Florida resident here If you compared the turn around of repair from both Helene’s and Milton’s hit on Florida versus 2004 hurricane hits you would see a considerable improvement in infrastructure hardening. In 2004 I lost power for 2 weeks from Hurricane Francis and then hit by Jeanne and lost for another week. Following Helene and Milton nearly all power was restored in days to the hardest hit areas. The local power companies have hardened their infrastructure (burying lines, cement poles, pre deploying personnel…) so saying we have neglected infrastructure is not accurate- but this is FL not other states that see such things once in a hundred years. Population boom in the South eastern US is relatively new - past 4 decades before that very few lived in many of these areas hit so loses weren’t calculated the same.
On September 2017, Puerto Rico was impacted by two hurricanes, Irma and Maria, causing significant damage to the island. Hurricane Irma made landfall on September 6, 2017 as a Category 5 storm with winds up to 100 miles per hour. Trump ignored it almost entirely. Trump officials blocked hurricane aid for Puerto Rico.
How far inland it went really is hard to express. It hit areas that would be often considered good distances to travel for hurricane evacuation routes from the coast.
infrastructure has been bad for a very long time now. roads are bad and bridges are all falling down without any influence from storms.
I live even further inland in Indiana, and even I saw a couple days without power when the storm winds took out a large tree that took down the lines and damaged a pole. My heart goes out to those that suffered far worse earlier in the path.
The people are stepping in where the government has failed us yet again. We need help from the inside and I hope it comes soon. Thank you for your perspective Simon, and keep up the good work!
Maybe this will be a wakeup call to those voting for people who want to slash taxes and only focus on the flashy election issues. Biden was one of the few politicians who made infrastructure a priority - at it still wasn’t even close to enough. State governments need to keep their houses in order as well.
Sad but true.
Your local governments are responsible for infrastructure upgrades. The Federal government has been doing a great job during the recovery efforts. Those folks that stand up at town meetings voting down infrastructure projects are the ones to blame for these disasters.
@@chrisworthen1538 FEMA has done next to nothing for those affected based on what I've seen and heard from people on the ground. Local governments have been doing okay (from what I've heard) but since the local area is destroyed, it's harder for them to operate. All in all, the federal government is failing the citizens again, and the local government is too weak or preoccupied to help.
And im sure the citizens themselves have hurt the local government, but I don't have much beef with municipals. Most of the flak is going towards the feds cause they're messing things up again.
@@chrisworthen1538you are a 🤡 and don't know what you are talking about. Let me guess, you are parroting information you've read from the FEMA website? Or are you parroting what you've heard from CNN/MSNBC?
Completely skipped over the fact that it was supposed to hit atlanta, but instead turned and came directly over us here in Augusta wiping my town out of all services for 2 weeks.
3 weeks without power and internet still off here
Fantastic video🔥🔥! I have incurred so much losses trading on my own....I trade well on demo but I think the real market is manipulated.... Can anyone help me out or at least tell me what I'm doing wrong??
Trading on a demo account can definitely feel similar to the real market, but there are some differences. It's important to remember that trading involves risks and it's normal to face looses sometimes. One piece of advice is to start small and gradually increase your investments as you gain more experience and confidence. It might also be helpful to seek guidance from experienced traders or do some research on different trading strategies.
If you are trading without a professional guide... Ah, I laugh, because you will stay where you are or even suffer huge losses that will prevent you from trading, this has been one of the biggest problems for new traders.
I think l'm blessed if not I have met someone who is as spectacular as expert mrs Janet..
Highly recommended🙌
Wow, I'm surprised to see Janet mentioned here as well. I didn't know she had been kind to so many people
I'm also a huge beneficiary of her..
I thought myself and my family were
the only ones enjoying Janet
trade benefits...
I live in WNC, have my whole life, my area was hit by Helene. Yet, the ting a lot of people are missing, it wasn't Helene that was solely to blame here. We had 2 days of rain, hard rain, prior to Helene ever coming north, and once it did it just brought even more rain. As I have told others, we can handle, huricanes, we can handle rain, flash floods, wind but what we could not handle or prepare for was all of that hitting us at once.
Even though there's a lot of people trying to go in to help, due to the risk of someone trying to go into the disaster zone with ill intentions they have to go throghh a bureaucratic process to be allowed in. If people weren't so prone to looting then this wouldn't be an issue.
It would still be an issue, not the least of which reasons include having more people in a dangerous situation doesn’t often help - it just creates more need for ambulances and confusion.
This is a concern.
The biggest concern is about not losing more people. The people that go in to help need to be accounted for. They don't want you to roll up like Rambo thinking you'll be a big hero, only to have to rescue you too. The guy with the helicopter was brave and a nice person, but foolish. Don't fight with the people. They're trying to fly their own copters or planes. Just follow the process.
Y'all 3 sound like good democrat sheep. Licking the boot of federal bureaucrats from your powered, intact homes, while people are still dying because of the lack of FEMA response.
I cannot thank you so much for bringing this to light. So many people I care about in north carolina have lost literally everything because of this hurrican. I know it's not politically correct to go into some of the details you went over, but thank you, Seriously, thank you. I went to unc asheville and everything where I used to live is literally ....just...gone
Living in southeastern North Carolina, my family alone has had two trees fall completely through two different houses we lived in, as a result from two different hurricanes. We've been homeless and having to find housing during the middle of the storm. Having grown up raised by my mom and grandmother helping us, my mother was simply doing the absolute very best she could in said situation. Without getting into details of our lives lived so far...my mom is by far the strongest-willed person (much less strongest woman) I've ever known and/or come across in my lifetime.
I'm glad you are safe and I hope for the best for you and yours.
1. We have a bloated defense budget.
2. We put giving taxe cuts to rich over infrastructure spending.
3. The money we are spending on these end less war's.
Could be better spent on infrastructure spending
Cool video but wrong title. It had almost nothing to do with infrastructure and more to do with climate change and its impact.
I'm a storm water engineer and was hoping for a little more attention 😅
This is well written and presented, Simon. I like the focus on preparing for the future rather than simply replacing what was there.
When you criticize the emergency management response, my first question was how big of an area did hurricane Helene effect? A quick google search says hurricane Helene’s devastating effects were 500 miles wide. And the distance from Big Bend, FL to Asheville, NC is 650 miles. So that is 325,000 square miles. For comparison, the area of the entire UK is 94,000 square miles. Can you imagine what would happen if a cat 4 hurricane ripped through the center of England, dumping 24 inches of rain all the way up through Scotland? The entire country would be in chaos. The damage would be way more than $250 billion because the UK doesn’t have any hardened infrastructure for these types of events. Every person in the UK would be affected. The damage would be 10% of the UK’s GDP. That would be comparable to the US having a $3 trillion dollar single natural catastrophe. In a hotter global warming world, these types of events will eventually start reaching places like the UK. It is going to be a world wide shit show like humans have never experienced before.
People are literally still dying right now because of the lack of FEMA response but keep on defending them. FEMA is still a no show in many hard hit communities, evidenced by outside civilians bringing in aid and recording the events. FEMA can release all the numbers they want, put up whatever "disinformation" websites they want to, but the bottom line is, they are more worried about dolling out hundreds of billions of dollars to the tens of millions of illegals than they are in helping people in primarily conservative areas get their life back in order. Threatening the arrests of civilians who are bringing in aid and saving lives(where FEMA failed to do so) because they didn't get permission from some federal bureaucrat to do so is peak democrat power complex and everyone sees it for what it is.
You do realize we survived the Ice Age right?
Humanity will be fine, modern civilization might collapse depending on how bad it gets, but humanity will survive and rebuild like it always has.
Of course, UA-cam and/or this channel couldn't handle my comment so they deleted it. Grow up 🤡s
The difference is that the US is no stranger to large natural disasters in certain regions, so one may expect it to be at least somewhat decently prepared for them. Even if the next disaster is bigger than expected, they'll at least have saved yourself a lot of damage repair and misery.
@@Kaiserboo1871 A second ice age is much further off than the north atlantic becoming warm enough to sustain strong hurricanes repeatedly hitting Europe.
I live in florida and im very impressed at how you explained what happened thank you
Grindstone Ministries is a privately funded non profit disaster relief organization. This is their 46th time responding. They are boots on the ground helping. TJ Morris, the CEO, is an incredible man.
FEMA did try taking credit for Grindstone Ministries work... 😆
We have hit the point where people no longer trust expertise because of party loyalty.
It is utterly dystopian. That's shit that usually requires an iron handed dictatorship. Fear. Squads.
And yet here, people choose to obey without the threat of punishment.
The US government spent $126.3 billion on infrastructure in 2023. Sources cite $44.8 billion directly, and $81.5 billion transferred to states.
In 2023 the US government spent $820.3 billion on military.
The government is essentially letting the country fall apart in favor of funding defense, which yes we absolutely need a strong defense, but what good is a strong defense when there's nothing left to defend because your country collapses from within, without a single other country having to intervene or attack us?
We could cut military spending in half and still be one of, if not, the most dominant military forces on the planet. That extra roughly $410 billion could be used on infrastructure, public programs like schools and parks, homeless shelters, rehab clinics, a whole slew of beneficial programs to increase internal stability.
That sounds sensible
I live in Upstate South Carolina. An hour's drive from Asheville, it was bad here. Bad there. Alot of people don't really realize how bad it was, and don't realize no Appalachian would have ever believed this could happen.
For a country that rakes in a historically unprecedented figure in taxes, we sure do have broadly crappy infrastructure. I wonder where all of it is going… 🤔
money is for war, social spending is branded as communist/socialist... LMFAO sucks to suck
America Last.
That historically unprecedented figure in taxes has not grown with the size of the country though. It should be a lot higher, but decades of cutting taxes for the wealthy was going to have an affect at some point.
@@williamreynolds2475 SPOT ON !!
Hey our gold plated, lobbyist infested military isn’t going to pay for itself
A close family friend's daughter came to visit after Helène, she went back to NC to help lead a horse/mule team to get much-needed supplies where it was desperately needed.😊💛🔥
America's infrastructure isn't neglected. The reason it is the way it is is due to lobbying. That's why you have no real public transport in most places and driving is terrible yet still the only option. That and (natural) disasters are a feast for investors. Just creates lots of cheap land that people that lost it all are forced to sell. It's the American dream!
Yes it is. Demonstrably so. 1/3 of our bridges are in a state of disrepair. The lack of public transportation IS infrastructure neglect. Don’t even get me started on power grid failures, lack of earthquake reenforcement or poor water management. Natural disasters only expose neglect. America is great at building things, but not maintaining them very well.
as an addendum to FEMA's response to helen it has come to light recently that parts of FEMA was telling employees not to bother at properties showing signs supporting a certain republican presidential candidate.
at least one fema employee has been fired for telling folks that and the fema director is getting called before congress oversight committee to answer questions concerning this
The reason FEMA is running low on funds is because the speaker of the house refused to bring a vote on a funding bill for FEMA prior to going on recess and has continue to refuse to call congress back in order to vote on a funding bill for them.
That's impossible. They need to campaign and sun themselves at the beach. Where are your priorities???
They also spend money on illegal aliens instead of citizens hence the shortfall in funds.
No the reason they are low on funding is the director of homeland security has been shipping and housing illegal immigrants as part of progressives way to create super majorities in swing states... But go ahead and keep blaming the speaker of the house... Fema had the funding and somehow the suddenly didn't when the disaster happened. That flat out admitted they were using the funding for housing these people. But if you go look around at hotels and look for apartments there's a bunch of south americans sitting in places where low income americans used to live... use your eyes and stop watching msnbc/cnn actually look around your town and notice it doesn't look very "american" lately?
No 🤡, the reason FEMA is running low on funds is because they've spent hundreds of billions of dollars helping out the 20,000,000+ foreign invaders that your party has freely let into the US. No other reason. If Congress appropriates even more money to FEMA, they will continue to use the vast majority of it on non-citizens. Evidenced by politicians with a (D) in front of their name not allowing money to ONLY be appropriated for hurricane victims. You simply want another blank check to blow on non-citizens.
This is crazy watching this! I live in western nc and I am a lineman. The damage has been undescribable! As a lineman I worked 16hrs a day 28 days straight after the hurricane trying to get power back on and am still working 16hrs a day but they finally gave us a couple days off to rest. I hope I never see a storm like this again.
Same thing happened in the Northern mountains region of Vietnam last month. Landslide due to Yagi wiped out a while village. Don't understand people still insist that climate change isn't a thing
Nobody, not one person, ever said "climate change isn't a thing".
Upstate SC here. After Helene there was no power at all. Even the traffic lights were completely dead. And hearing you talk about my Alma Mater (Clemson), really didn't make things easier.
All things considered, Helene was a disaster of Hollywood-level proportions.
In American English this storm was called Helene "huh lean" xD
Spartanburg SC here. The damage was amazing. Nowhere near Ashville. Anyone in NC , shout , of there's a way to help, we will