Hurricane Helene

For those who don’t know, Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday night and has washed away Asheville and Boone, NC as well as Eastern TN (and some parts of SC). Some smaller towns literally are nonexistent now and everything that was once that town is now in a lake debris. This means major electrical issues, shortage of food and water, basic supplies etc. Unlike Florida, Alabama, and Georgia, these places are fish bowls because of the mountains and are not built to handle hurricanes. The storm has also broken numerous of records across NC and SC that have stood for over a century. Currently, this is estimated to be one of the most expensive hurricanes in modern history, costing well over 150 billion dollars as of right now and has claimed the life of 160+ people as of right now. It’s currently also the deadliest hurricane to have affected SC. 

And I’m really not ok. I got lucky to very minimal damage to property and other people are destroyed. Driving west by 20 minutes, you see total destruction to everything, and it’s unlivable now. 40 minutes away is apocalyptic and it will stay like that for many months to come as the locations try to rebuild the area. 

Emotionally, I feel guilt, mad, angry, sadness, and all around just a mess knowing a lot of things are gone. Some favorite trails are washed away, some friends are now homeless because their houses were destroyed in mudslides, the lake I go to every summer to go boating with family is now filled with debris because all the wood and almost all the buildings are now in the lake. 

Im mad that a lot of people have it worse and Im upset. 60% of my area is still without power and no clean up to dreams have begun. While the city is saying that “all roads are cleared”, it’s an actual lie. A lot of roads are still blocked with trees. I feel selfish that I’m mad about how i haven’t had a hot meal in 6 days while other people are dead, homeless, displaced, and suffering. It’s crazy how such a close distance but so much different effects were made. 

Im also mad at the local universities.. and Im aware this was an issue in other areas. One college held a game saturday night, and they allowed visitors meaning they were tailgating by taking all the gas, food, ice, water, and causing major traffic. It got so bad that the people.. who yk were just hit by a hurricane, didn’t have basic supplies to get for their families. 

I also wish i could do more to support WNC and ETN, and it pains me that I can’t do more. 

And part of me feels bad all around that I can’t change anything about this. 

None of this area in SC, NC, and TN.. 400-500 miles away should have been slammed with an almost cat 1 hurricane… It shouldn’t have happened this way. The storm broke multiple flood records by a lot. .. 

All of this.. really really sucks.