On Friday September 27th the storm surge from Hurricane Helene struck the east side of Tennessee. Hurricanes don’t usually affect Tennessee. But Hurricane Helene is one of the strongest to come ashore in many years. There is a town 30 miles south of us named Hurricane Mills, but it is only known as the home of Loretta Lynn.
There had been a couple days of warning about the impending storm as the weather forecast predicted where it would be heading, but the storm stalled out and dumped over twenty inches of rain in one day at the end of a week that had already seen almost a foot of rain. The mountainous terrain created a deluge of water through the valleys. This was the worst flooding the area had experienced since 1916.
Local efforts to rescue families cut off by the destruction began with private helicopter pilots flying stranded people to safety aided by independent drone operators scouring the hills for signs of life. One man signaled with a large bathroom mirror to flag down help. Tempers flared when FEMA showed up and told the helicopter pilots they would be arrested if they refused to cease the flights. The airflight issue was resolved a day or so into the disaster but the fiercely independent locals had already had their fill of the feds. Private donations were brought in and dispensed from a school building until FEMA arrived and confiscated the inventory. Then the donations were redirected to churches, which were allowed to distribute freely to the needy. Church group t-shirts were handed out to all volunteers as workers wearing the garments of a religious organization were not hassled. Reports of trailers full of water, food, sanitation items and clothing being told to turn around a leave by FEMA officials fueled the public distrust. Some started using four-wheel drive trucks to take the supplies to four wheelers which could reach farther into the hills where the natives resided. From there horses and hikers with backpacks pushed on even further. For some reason many Gen 5 smart phones went into SOS mode and wouldn’t communicate when the power grid failed. A few of the residents already owned Starlink Internet systems and were able to communicate with the outside.
Mules were used to haul whiskey into the affected areas for those who were suffering from DT’s which was reminiscent of hundreds of years prior when mules were hauling moonshine out of the Tennessee hills.
In our hometown of Dover, Tennessee three large trailers were filled with donations in a couple days during a friendly competition between out friend Madison Campbell and Sheriff Frankie Gray. Madison has a 1977 black Trans Am and the Smokey and the Bandit challenge was underway. They were East bound and down, loaded up and truckin’ supplies to Marshall, North Carolina loaded with bottled water, baby formula, diapers, blankets, non-perishable food items, can openers, garbage bags and work gloves.
The Cumberland Power Cooperative sent some local linemen and trucks to help restore power to east Tennessee and the western Carolinas. One thing the linemen were requesting was Benadryl because the wasps had been displaced as well and were very aggressive and stinging workers trying to do their jobs.
My wife ordered some 10-gallon handheld sprayers from Harbor Freight to be sent to a guy near the flood area who was painting them black and distributing them with bottled water to be used as portable shower units for those with no running water. The sun would heat up the water for a primitive hot shower. Based on the scale of the destruction it may be months before power is restored in the mountain communities.
