Hurricane Helene is long gone from the headlines, but flood victims in North Carolina are still struggling to return to their homes and the normal life they lived before Helene.
From their own home hundreds of miles away, two thousand Amish volunteered to come and work to restore homes and businesses:
(cont'd from last week's posts)
Just days after Hurricane Helene carved a path of wreckage into the eastern U.S. interior, Hurricane Milton swept across central Florida (photo).
It was expected and prepared for. Over 50,000 linemen from multiple states volunteered to come fix the massive problem of fallen power lines. The Florida governor says they were "pre-staged" so they could get to work as soon as Milton was gone.
Volunteer linemen also came to Georgia to restore power after Helene. Residents of one community gathered to say a grand "thank you" complete with their local high school band. You'll enjoy it, so go here to see them express their appreciation (posted on X last week).
Legacy ("old") media has lost the trust of many Americans, demonstrated by declining subscribers and declining influence. Some are trying to face that fact, to "right the ship," and to regain trust. Surging in the gap is "new media," including podcasts and X and independent videos/reports.
For example, there were hundreds of authentic videos (like yesterday's) published on X of real conditions last fall after Hurricane Helene created chaos in western North Carolina. They challenged some misleading legacy media reports in newspapers and on TV.
We learned not to trust "old" media's version of reality. Now there's an alternative that seems more trustworthy. As Konstantin Kisin says, "what could go wrong?"
Hopefully, new media will prove more reliable. But it will still be produced by flawed human beings, like the "old."
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
How important is internet access to us all for communication, news, banking, etc.--and it was lost for a while in hard-hit regions. Starlink is internet access operated by SpaceX, a "crucial lifeline in parts of southern Appalachia that were devastated by Hurricane Helene." It was donated and delivered freely to hundreds of survivors as you may have seen in yesterday's videos.
Satellite-powered, it works even in remote and devastated communities if there's a good view of the sky. Instructions for making it work are pretty basic: "Plug it in and point to sky."
Another difference maker is Samaritan's Purse, a Christian international relief organization of 1600 employees run by the family of evangelist Billy Graham. "At our sites across North Carolina, we are doing tree work, mudding out homes, removing debris, and tarping roofs. Heavy equipment is being used to clear private driveways and private roads. In some areas, we are also offering water and potable water to the community."
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
Bat Cave NC and Chimney Rock NC, where Amish volunteers from Pennsylvania are working, are in Hickory Nut Gorge. The flooded river scoured out landscape and buildings resulting from Hurricane Helene last fall.
One young man says (yesterday's video), "It fills my heart with joy watching people get their life back again."
Someone commented: "Absolutely incredible. While career politicians hold press conferences and fundraisers, the Amish are out here swinging hammers, rebuilding a town brick by brick, no spotlight, no selfies, just service. God bless the Amish, the backbone of real America, showing us what it means to love thy neighbor."
Drone footage clearly shows the scar:
We have relatives in western North Carolina, where it's been twelve days since Hurricane Helene brought destructive flooding. Unable to reach them by phone, we finally got an email reply eight days later. They had no electricity for five days and "internet is sketchy." A friend brought them a camp stove and some water.
My X (Twitter) account is full of residents in the region (who have more internet access) reporting on their roads and bridges destroyed, neighbors' homes damaged, local details. They show supplies that private individuals and churches brought in. They show private helicopter pilots looking for survivors. They often claim that they have not seen help from FEMA, and even that FEMA hindered rescuers and seized supplies.
CBS and other legacy media seem like the voice of the government. Their "fact-checker" reports simply that all those claims are false and FEMA is good: categorically the opposite of reports on the ground, those videos submitted by locals and private rescuers.
How hard is it to learn what's going on in the US now? People on site report what they see, and media call it "damaging disinformation."
(cont'd tomorrow)
