Officials say they have already distributed three hundred and forty four million dollars worth of assistance to victims of Hurricane Helene in six states. FEMA has also shipped more than seventeen million meals and nearly fourteen million liters of water to the disaster area. As a result, FEMA is plowing through its disaster relief budget and the Small Business Administration could run out of money for low interest home rebuilding loans by the end of the month.
Well, we're glad we're talking to somebody who's on the ground in those areas, because it's hard to tell from national stories how hurricane relief is actually going. We're talking about the first big Hurricane Helene and specifically North Carolina.
And I think the attention being paid to what the federal government is doing is fine and good, and they certainly have a role, But as anybody who's lived through this sort of thing knows, it's the state and then local entities that provide a tremendous amount of the humanitarian relief and the assistance when times are dark, which is why we're held to raise money for the good folks at the United Way of Ashville and Bunkcom County and
their president, CEO, Dan Leroy, joins us. Now, Dan, how are you, sir?
I'm doing all right.
Thanks for having me today.
Busier than heck, I'm sure. Yeah. How are things in your area at this point?
Well, things are still pretty crazy, still pretty dire. You know, this hurricane hit us so much harder than we ever could have imagined. And I'm sure your listeners have seen all of the images and it is just as bad as folks have seen it. It has just wiped out infrastructure across our region and certainly here in Bunkcom County, some of the smaller towns like Swannanoa, Barnardsville, Black Mountain. We're just so hard hit that in many cases, you know, whole neighborhoods are gone and having.
To be rebuilt.
And so the good news is a lot of our infrastructure is starting to come back. A lot of folks have power now. Dell service is pretty ubiquitous, which was not the case even a week ago, and so that helps a lot with communication. But in our county specifically,
the biggest problem that we have is water. The municipal water system was basically wiped out, and we have what I would describe as a heroic effort not just by our Public Worse Department, but by partners from across the Southeast that have come into support and rebuilding this because it's so critical for our business community, it's critical for our schools, and you know, you can't do anything without running rod. So that's the biggest issue for us right now.
So before we get into some of the relief stuff, Joe and I worked in North Carolina for a couple of years, and I was foot loose and fancy free and single and chadless. So I did a lot of travel on North Carolina, spent a lot of time Nashville area.
I really really enjoyed it.
But was he even on your mind most of you around there, that this hurricane was going to be a big deal? At what point did you realize holy crap.
Yeah, you know it.
I'll tell you.
One of the things that we have thought about ourselves and talked to other folks about ourselves here in western North Carolina is just how resilient this area is and and sort of the kinds of natural disasters that were used to thinking about, whether it's the you know, the big fires that they have out west or you know the huge hurricanes that you see on the coastlines, or even the you know, the tornadoes that you see in the Midwest. We've been pretty well insulated from all that
for a long time. And so this storm was truly unique in that we got thirteen inches of rain that you know that two days before the hurricane even came this way in a single day, right, And so it was a very unusual weather pattern that basically soaked every we had. We had flooding, you know, like you wouldn't see for you know, in the last decade before the hurricane hits. Oh, and so that was really what made
it so unique. And so no, we were not I don't think anyone could have imagined the level of impact here because it's such an unusual weather event.
And then a quick one before we move on, how long will we all without self service? So all this happens, it wasn't even on your mind all of a sudden, things are just devastated, homes are gone and roads are covered, and wondering how long were you without self service? You couldn't even talk to anybody.
Well, it's you know, to sort of answer your first question from before, I think it was probably Tuesday that the tuesday before the hurricane hit on Friday morning, essentially where folks were starting to kind of look around at the radar and say, Okay, this could be a big problem, and so you know, and to just give you an idea, I was actually got a conference in Salt Lake City,
so I was not on the ground. So I had information that nobody in our community, and certainly none of my colleagues or teammates or partners had because they couldn't talk to each other really for about two days.
If you were part.
Of some kind of emergency response operations, they were able to stand up in different places, access to self service and Wi Fi and those kinds of things. But for the first couple of days, I couldn't even talk to my family who was in town to make sure that the folks here in our house and everything else was okay. So it was pretty much like in the dark for most people within the affected region. And for about forty eight hours.
Wow, And then you were talking about the catastrophic damage to the water treatment system. It could be weeks before there's running water correct or even longer.
Yeah, And it's not the treatment system, it's the distribution system, okay, and so they have, like I said, they have been able to get the mainline inter recon which is pretty incredible, but there's a lot of time that it's going to take to actually work through the entire system. They say that the linear feat of our water system here is the equivalent of the distance between here and Miami and back, So you can imagine it's a lot of line that needs to be cleared out. And so they aren't giving
us estimates, but you know, it's interesting. We do a lot of work in partnership with our schools, and you.
Know, we have we have schools.
That are drilling wells right now in their in their ball fields because they want to make sure not just for this getting water back, but in the future because obviously it's everything. So we don't have a clear estimate for when it could be back, but it's definitely in the order of weeks and not in the order of days.
So for what it's worth for folks who haven't been there, you know. And I spent a week in Ashville slash Waynesville does past July. I have family there and I love the area.
It's not only.
Beautiful geographically, but it's just so interesting because you have, you know, conservative retirees and kind of your traditional we've lived in the mountains for generations conservatism. You've got tattooed and pierced waitresses and artists and just the most amazing mix of people in that area. And it's fun and funky, and it's very very American, and it's just the devastation is astounding. So anyway, if folks listening get a chance, if you can spare a couple of bucks or more,
go to Armstrong and Getty dot com. The banner is you can't miss it. Donate what you can to help out your fellow Americans, and.
It's going directly to you. What can that money do for you?
If we can get our listeners to throw a couple of bucks your way and you get a pile of money, what can you do with that short term? Sure thing?
Yeah, And I just want to echo what you just said in terms of the incredible diversity of our communities here. And what's been so beautiful to watch is the way that you know, those barriers have been broken down and we have people just working together, neighbors helping neighbors, organizations to meet organizations helping, you know, whoever is out there in their community without regard to any of that affiliation. So that's been beautiful. Our focus really is right now.
We are recruiting thousands of volunteers and working with our community organization partners to identify where are the volunteers most needed and being able to connect those volunteers to those organizations doing the work on the ground. We also have created a disaster relief fund which will go to these community organizations who are directly impacted by the hurricane itself.
And the other thing that.
We're doing that this would support is that we're working really closely with our partners at the City of Asheville and Bunco County to help coordinate the thousands of tons of supplies that are coming into our region through these donations and to make sure that they are a safe place to go to be sorted, and then to get out the door to our community partners who are most proximate to the neighborhoods, you know, the folks that were most impacted by the storm.
Dan Leroy of the United Way of Ashville, Bunkom County, you guys are doing what is so sorely needed when it's most needed, and you're all heroes. Keep at it. We'll see what we can raise for y'all, and good luck. We're thinking of you.
Well, thank you for shigning a spotlight on this. It's going to be a need for a really long time, so all the support that we can get from your listeners is very much appreciated.
Excellent point, you got it. Thanks Dan, great to talk to you.
Yeah, that's going to be a problem for a while obviously, and they'll run out of money quick if they don't have a big parliament. And if you're the sort of person listening to the show, you probably believe in local, small, over giant far away, and this is a way to get money, like to the source or where they're actually you know, the people getting the money or their families are dealing with this, as opposed to bureaucrats somewhere far away who lives are comfortable and they don't really care
right exactly. This goes directly to the need and the number of news pieces I've seen on how many people's insurance doesn't cover this for all kinds of different complicated reasons, like well, you had flood insurance, but flood insurance caused by a river rising, not by a hurricane, so sorry, it doesn't count. Or you just all kinds of different caveats, right, and then you got to get into the lawyers. Well it rained thirteen inches two days before. Well we think
it was the hurricane. So it's a nightmare. But before you even get there, the roads are gone. It's not that they're flooded, they're gone. The bridges are gone, the water distribution system doesn't work.
And what for weeks?
I mean it's like civilization, modernity was blotted out for a huge swath of you know, one of our most populated states.
Yeah, as I saw one guy say, the houses aren't are gone, but so's the land the houses used to sit on. So you can't build a house there again in Sohi, what does insurance do for replacing your house that you would have to get somewhere else or bring in two hundred truckloads a dirt time.
I have no idea, No anyway, give what you can.
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