Weather tragedy: Yes, there is great determination in the rugged spirit of starting over after Helene, but can life ever return to normal in the mountains of North Carolina and elsewhere? in Daydreaming on the Porch
- Oct. 16, 2024, 4:12 a.m.
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I’ve watched a lot of videos of the destruction all over the mountains of NC, but this is down-to-earth one of the best. This man and his neighbors have a strong spirit, but I simply don’t know how they’re going to build back. Most don’t have flood insurance.
Even two weeks later it’s difficult to comprehend the scale of the destruction. It reminds me of scenes in New Orleans, but over a much larger area.
What are these countless thousands of people in Asheville and surrounding g mountain towns and cities going to do? Are there livelihoods completely gone?
The people up there in that tragically devastated areas are tough and resilient. I’ve seen that time and again in the videos, but fierce determination to clear away the wreckage and begin again is fueled by adrenaline, lingering shock and disbelief, and a sense of unreality. Their entire worlds have changed. The landscape they now inhabit and navigate must surely seem surreal. I know I would be in a very disoriented state of mind fighting off depression and despair.
I’ve been in so many of the areas affected, the mountain towns and cities so I know what it was like before.
I think the folks up there will next face a prolonged grieving period for all the friends, relatives and neighbors they lost to Helene, as well as the homes and communities many grew up in and lived in all their lives.
gypsy spirit ⋅ October 16, 2024
all horrific for sure, but I am convinced most people will bounce back in a few years. I am witnessing the example of the city where I now live that had a horrendous deadly earthquakes right underneath the city just 13 years ago, the devastation and losses for almost every citizen were very distressing to watch from my TV ( I was up on the island at the time) but visited down here just two years later and saw the fortitude and determination of most citizens. Since I moved down 7 & half years ago the city is almost in full repair and many people and places looking better than ever. My point in mentioning this is to show that healing does happen, lessons learned and people not only will survive and eventually thrive again. Nature also can heal itself.
I am glad your immediate area was safe. hugs p
Oswego gypsy spirit ⋅ October 17, 2024
Places devastated by natural and man-made disasters like Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 do come back. But the destruction from Helena was far more widespread and has impacted many more people than in your city with its terrible earthquake damage, as well as New Orleans. With Helene we are talking about huge impacts over six states. It will take many, many years for those people and their families and descendants to restore those areas. One reason alone tells how long it will be if it even occurs: only about 1 percent of the people affected had flood insurance. The government is not going to fund rebuilding of all those uninsured homes and businesses. So this disaster is unprecedented in terms of the scale of destruction.
But you are right that determined people will find a way to bring back their communities. It’s just going to take a long time, maybe even a generation or more. A lot longer than in all previous natural disasters. So tragic.
gypsy spirit Oswego ⋅ October 17, 2024
I understand, thankyou. However the sad fact is that such extreme events as that are not really 'natural disasters' are they? That human behaviour influenced climate change to such extremes is not natural...and even sadder still things are only going to get worse if major changes to behaviour are stalled. p
Oswego gypsy spirit ⋅ October 18, 2024
They are indeed human-caused or at least enabled or made much worse — these extreme, far-out, science fiction types of monster weather events. We are responsible, but can we undo the damage before it’s too late?
Jinn ⋅ October 16, 2024
I wonder too ; especially as many of them had very limited resources to begin with and have an inordinate suspicion/ distrust of government on any level( even if getting help). Many are extreme conservatives, militia types. They don’t much care for outsiders. We are still hearing that the numbers for the casualties have yet to be figured out. I imagine the estimates for damage are not figured yet either as they have to be secondary to casualties and stabilizing the living.
My heart hurts for them and I know we are all just one disaster away from being where they are now. I read that we have breached the last climate tipping point so we can expect these occurrences to become common. It makes me glad I do not have grandchildren and I fear for those people with littles now and who plan to have more. What kind of world are we leaving them ? 😢
Oswego Jinn ⋅ October 17, 2024
I am totally in sync with you on these thoughts. The entire tragedy is on one level unfathomable, and yet also entirely explainable based on what climate scientists have been saying for decades. Yet the scale and severity of the damage was “unexpected.” Given the fact that Cat 5 hurricanes are becoming so common, this type of rain and flooding event is not surprising at all. In fact, nothing, no amount of rain is theoretically impossible these days. People are simply in denial and unprepared for any type of flooding even approaching what occurred in late September.
Understandably, people are desperate up there, which feeds the vile impulses of the right-wingers and various militia types who are exploiting the tragedy in countless ways. They are “helping” people while sowing more seeds of misinformation via dozens of conspiracy theories. It’s quite repugnant.
You’re right about people having children these days. IMHO, we’re pretty much toast now, as our pollution blows us past the last tipping points. But the great mass of climate deniers are eternally wedded to their ignorance. The truth is right in front of their eyes with storms like Helene. But do they see it? Of course not. They’re too ill -educated and ignorant of science.