Hurricane Helene's Devastating Aftermath in Swannanoa

[@StrangeHistoryX]

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[@jubileejennings1413]

My family is from Fairview on Garren creek. One of the hardest hit places. And my home I grew up in washed away in front of their eyes. My brother saved their lives by tying an extension cord around a tree and they all climbed up a bank. They almost drowned but thank God they didn't. They have nowhere to go and nothing left. And Fema is not helping like the news is saying they are. I live here in Swannanoa right off of old 70 highway right where you are filming. The road is called Lower Grassy Branch. And it's demolished. I just got power back on but still no water. I'm very thankful for the power to be back on because it's so cold now. But with my driveway and bridge being washed away I'm having to haul water and supplies up a very steep driveway and it's not easy because it's just me and my 2 dogs. Nevertheless I'm very grateful just to be alive. My area in Fairview where I grew up is far more devastating. It's almost been a month and I still haven't got the courage to go see my parents place. We'll what's left of it. Which is just a field now. No house or cars or anything left. Even the river changed trajectory and it's now flowing through the property is what I was told. Just so heartbroken here in NC. It's hard to process it all. Thank you for caring enough to come and show people how it really looks here. And yes you are correct when you say the videos and pictures don't do it justice. It's far more horrific in person. Safe travels 🙏

[@TinaMarie869]

@jubileejennings1413 I am so very sorry but grateful to God your family made it. Praying for everyone and ask God to please let family and friends find everyone who is missing 🙏😪

[@RendaJane]

I’m on 70 by the VA. I am shocked that we have electricity already. I saw the water with rooftops and cars. The Fairview mudslides were so massive and widespread coming down from all over the mountain. Devastating.

[@lisabrown1620]

I do not understand why FEMA is not helping and doing their job! We need to be putting pressure on our government to do what they are supposed to be doing!!! I am so sorry and praying for you all and have gave money to different places.

[@timkincade9763]

I'm working with hearts with hands ministry, been here for a week delivering supplies to Ingalls. Our group come down from NJ to help.

[@alexandramoody5529]

Hello Swannanoa neighbor. I’m in Beacon Hill across the way from you. ❤️❤️❤️

[@elielliso]

Thanks for making this series. I love that you show places on foot especially, and Swannanoa in particular holds a special place in my heart, as I attended Warren Wilson and know someone who lost a family member in the flood.

[@kathleenburnett3539]

Thank you for helping others see what so many have experienced. There is so much that has been changed forever, the memories and stories are what will honor the past.

[@lorim667]

You’re doing a great thing Scott!

[@jessbrowning8815]

😢please help us with helping our neighbors. My heart goes out to all of these families affected. Faith Families and Hope all prayers are going up for them!

[@lacybrock4805]

I live on Old 70 in Black Mountain basically a road over from Ingles Wearhouse. I filed for individual assistance from FEMA on October 1st and to this day have not recieved any assistance, no call, or even a text. I have checked the status of my application several times and just get told it is pending. This past Monday, Oct. 14th, a FEMA rep in a brand new truck came by to talk to my landlord next door. They wanted to move 10 housing units into our back yard, for migrant famlies. They wanted to bring the units the very next day and set them up, for a minimum of a year. There are people 5 minutes from here living in tents on the land where their homes used to be. Its already cold here at night. So, that is what FEMA is scrambling to get done here.

[@elliotwalton6159]

There are many videos from victims on-the-ground documenting the devastation along with people living in the vicinity or good Samaritans arriving to lend a hand. It should all be collected and archived somehow. The civilian disaster relief has been nothing less than heroic. While many have lost faith in our collective governments, these videos prove our strength remains with our own collective humanity.

[@StrangeHistoryX]

Yep. I am doing my part. Even deviating from my normal content to cover this nightmare so people see what's going on and they don't forget. More help is needed.

[@anniem.4204]

Amen

[@Steve-Cro-Magnon-Man]

This is so sad, and almost $0 is covered by insurance. This situation requires federal grants and subsidies. All funds for humanitarian relief in the federal budget should be directed to victims from Florida to North Carolina.

[@Biker_1991]

I was in Fairview area the week following the storm. My heart breaks for the people here. So much destruction,so long to recover! I’d like to return but not sure in what capacity. Love from Pa❤

[@sparks2spare782]

I lived there from 07-09 in a little house next to the veterinarian office on Hwy 70. Breaks my heart as the way the driveway was it probably got hit hard. Praying for Swannanoa. ❤️😢

[@timme2844]

You are doing a vital job in documenting the aftermath of this natural disaster. Im sure the residents want the world to know what their lives are now compared to how it was before the hurricane. It helps untold thousands viewing it to grasp, in a small but effective way, how massive and life alerting the situation is, thereby giving outsiders the earnest desire to participate in the recovery of this community and so many others, in untold but important ways.

[@beverlybuckhorn9168]

This hurricane made it personal I've been coming here for 16 years my home away from home. Devastated I would have been here Oct 2 that's a close call. So far as I know the people I know all made it. That is a miracle ❤

[@maryanderson3537]

Yurts might be easier to bring in and set up...rather than trailers.

[@cajun1957]

Tents with wood stoves!!!

[@anniem.4204]

Maybe not so good for the cold and wind as winter is coming...gets mighty cold in those mountains!

[@James-mo6ch]

I've been volunteering at Blunt Pretzels two blocks from where this video starts. They have been feeding people from the get go. We haven't seen or heard from FEMA. The people of this community have come together to feed, cloth, and care for one another. Along with the help of World Central Kitchen and donations from all over the country The Blunt Pretzels Relief Team serves 800 to a 1000 meals a day. The devastation is overwhelming but the people's spirits are strong. We will recover.

[@brendabrackett6077]

Thanks for showing this video.

[@StrangeHistoryX]

You are welcome. Thank you for watching.

[@liann3881]

The windows that get pushed out of the home frame, yet don’t break, are so mind boggling. God bless y’all.

[@Bunny-cz5wo]

Thank for sharing and showing the truth God Bless ❤️

[@martyburd6127]

Devastating loss in this area. Its so sad.

[@bonniewalker6340]

I was wondering when someone would wish to document - and I thank you. Appalachia has such a History of the earliest years of America. I read about it because my inheritors moved through there and eventually went further South. In my State, my relatives came here in 1830. So many books, patterns of life, and what about the SONGS, the Music. I signed up!

[@redbullbundy]

I live a little south of Asheville. I lived in swannowa for a wile. I was there not long before the storm. There is a really cool venue there. You are spot on. These small towns are really nice To live in. I currently live Hendersonville and it is a little bigger but still a charming small town

[@cajun1957]

Mayberryish!!!

[@NancyHousing-DeWitt-xn9zd]

I've been watching a lot of videos, there's people all over documenting this. They didn't give as good of a history on the towns but I've seen a lot. Thanks.

[@shannon8461]

So many areas are just devastated. I’m from Henderson County. I drive around 4 counties daily for work. And many people who might still have houses standing, but the floods contained biohazard material, sewage and toxic chemicals, and so they’ve still lost everything.

[@pattscollectons1234]

Femi isn't helping as well as the government, people like yourself and others like you are getting out the word and helping. 😊❤

[@lauriekenneally]

So how would you recommend FEMA get houses to Chimney Rock when you just stated that roads were difficult to negotiate?

[@StrangeHistoryX]

Helicopters?

[@phyllisarrington7436]

The VA Hospital is a very big identity in Swannanoa

[@bloodsugarsexmagikk]

That's more towards Oteen

[@alexandramoody5529]

I live in Beacon Hill (up the hill from Beacon Village so no large damage in our neighborhood) and have footage from Friday morning of 74 completely underwater. It’s a short clip we were all in shock. I can email you my photos and videos from Friday morning if you’d like.

[@liann3881]

Carpet store with no carpets. Those gigantic rolls that weigh more than a human can move, are just gone. Unreal.

[@juanitabirch4928]

Call 211 if person is safe to remove from missing person

[@josiecapps2555]

It’s also a great in the arts district. I still have three of their blankets, sadly, in the back of our truck. It would to nice to build a memorial with some of the debris and maybe even packing to sell. It might even help the economy and the regrothof our small town.

[@monmixer]

My friend bought a nice house close to the ocean in NC. We always used to talk about how lucky we were in the upper Ohio valley because hurricanes and tornadoes are rare. the valley isn't wide enough up here for a tornado to touch down and if it does in one the few wide enough spaces it ends up busting up on a bend in the river some where. Hurricane Ivan is the last time I was flooded. Yup, flooded by a hurricane in the upper Ohio valley. Unreal. Any way every time we have had a hurricane I have called him and asked he had enough yet. Well about 2 years ago he had enough. He moved to Virginia. that didn't go well either and a few months ago he moved back to the area. Right up over the hill from my house.

[@Oldnoitall]

From NY to the Flood Zone ! Tell it like it is ! FEMA not doing anything would be my guess ! Just a day or two after the food the temperature dropped drastically, that had to make it miserable on many!

[@monmixer]

This is all soo very sad. I have seen lots of videos about people going to help and basically being run out of town because they get turned away by police from the rural areas that are way back in those mountains. Crazy. Never though I would see a hurricane in Ohio and I'm sure these people never thought one time about flooding from a hurricane in the mountains. Well mountains have lakes and reservoirs, when their dams breach or fail all hell breaks loose and some debris starts piling up on the bridges and makes lakes and it just continues and continues until that water finds a drain.

[@hossieb4874]

I knew a/b Swannanoa, but nobody covering. Just heard name mentioned!

[@michaeldillon8217]

I feel bad for these guys a hurricane is cruel

[@scottygeiger7475]

There are thousands of people missing. Some say 10’s of thousands.

[@4portadec]

A highly exaggerated number Maybe 1000 or more. But not tens of thousands. It will take time to get the final number

[@homegrownson]

Start a Log, Notate Person you Talk to and date, Organization they represent and what you asked, for, Anything you might have been told or Promised. Save your Receipt's, Takes Photos or videos and look for photos and videos that show Before the Storm condition and Content of what was lost inside when you are able. Document everything from Lost Meds, toiletries, meals as well as Damaged Vehicles, Work Tools, Medical Devices. Submit to insurance everything possible and sometimes when receive a NO, Resubmit at once and ask if reword it how to best do so. Ask For assistance and Don't blow up. people you are asking for help, either are going through same thing as You or came from across America to make sure you were getting relief

[@flyslinger2]

FEMA acronym for Failure to Execute Massive Assistance.

[@edistoisle4906]

where is our federal government? where's the governor of NC? does anyone in DC care about WNC?

[@4portadec]

Do your research. FEMA has hundreds pf workers there and has approved millions of dollars in relief funds. It is paying to house many displaced families in hotels. The governor is working full time to coordinate state rebuilding off roads See his almost daily updates. It is a total myth that WNC people are being forgotten The relief effort is massive supported by many volunteers from all over the country. Instead of whining you can send money to help.

[@StrangeHistoryX]

The dozens of people on the ground who live there disagree.

[@louveniasoul691]

God will clean up when there is so much sin and hate in the world

[@bloodsugarsexmagikk]

are you really going to instinuate that right now?

[@zacharyalexander5079]

apuhlachuh is how you would pronounce appalachia, still liked the video tho

[@StrangeHistoryX]

We can list a lot of words that New Yorkers like me pronounce differently. You should here me see Mirror, Dresser, and Coffee. Just sayin' :)