dmccarty
Super Star Member
I have posted this before....
After Floyd flooded out Eastern NC I went down twice to help clean up. With the first trip the water had just peaked in some areas and was finally going down.
The first trip was to find bodies.
Thankfully none were found. Nor were their any to find as it turns out. :thumbsup::laughing:
Though I did see what was left of 100 head of dairy cows that had drowned.....
Two towns I visited were both poor. One town was wiped out. Just gone. Now not gone in that the buildings were gone. I only saw two obviously destroyed buildings which happened to be trailers that got hit by rushing waters. They were exceptions and just happened to be in a low spot where the water was going to rush. The town was gone because the water just rose into the houses/trailers and then out again. What the water touched was destroyed.
The town that was wiped out is in a low spot and the town was settled by freed slaves after the Late Unpleasantness. So the land was basically worthless which is why the got it. The town is next to the Tar River and there is a dike protecting the town. But the dike does not encircle the town and if the water rises to a certain point the river can come if from the rear. Which is what happened.
Even the city hall which was built up at least 6-10 feet above grade was flooded out. Going into the town there was stuff in the trees 15-20 feet over our heads.
Somehow the people got out and were else where. They could not even get back into town when I was "visiting." The place looked like a ghost town. Very strange. Which was made worse by the vaults that had popped out of the ground in the grave yards.
The other town had a low area and a high area. The water rose so fast that people barely got out alive. One house had a car out front. Next to the front door was a TV. All they had to do was grab the TV, get in the car and go. They did not have time to do that much.
In this part of the town was a grocery store. It just happened to be barely above the high water mark. By a foot or so. I talked with a few people and they were all related. Grandma's house was here. The other grandma's house was there. Siblings, parents, aunt, uncles all in this little section of town. One of the two trailers that was destroyed was owned by one of the grandma's of a kid I talked too. They were all family and related one way or the other.
That grocery store had big plate glass windows. Not one pane was busted by the storm or the people. Not one.
This was a 2-3 days after the storm. There was no government to help really. The National Guard had setup a kitchen in the train depot to feed people. The Red Cross was running a truck with food. The Mennonites were in town organizing food and clothing donations. Don't have a clue where they came from. :laughing: But dang glad to see them.
The Feds were not in sight.
A week or so later I led a team of people back to this town to help clean up. Simply to carry peoples belongings out of the houses to get picked up and taken to the dump. We met up with a town official in a building the Mennonites had taken over for their work. While we waited for the government official to show up per our agreement, those Mennonite women put me to work! Their men were out working in houses and those women did not like seeing empty hands go unworked. :laughing: So they put us to work. :thumbsup:
Our contact showed up and sent us to see the Baptists. Or maybe I should say the other Baptists. :laughing: They had brought in men and teenagers to clean out the houses. The women were running a kitchen. They had an awesome tractor trailer setup that contained a kitchen and showers. They just drove in to the local Baptist church. Hooked up to power, setup up tents, got organized and got to work. They and the local government were handling the logistics of cleaning out the houses. We got our assignments and off we went. :thumbsup:
We only could clean out three houses. Miserable, disgusting, depressing work. The first house we cleaned out was in a neighborhood that in the first trip was still under water. The only way those people got out was that a neighbor had an airboat. He rescued most/all of the people in that area. The house was down stream of the town. And the towns sewer plant. The water was NASTY when I saw it on the first trip. Now we were in the houses cleaning out what the water had touched. :ashamed: I won't tell you what we saw in the water.
Most of the people got off their fannies and got to work. One house we helped clean out were some of the people who were rescued by the Airboat. The house was owned by an elderly couple who were at least in their 60s. When we showed up they had hired some people to clean out their house. They even had a dumpster on site. When I first saw the hired help I thought they were looting. The couple let the help go since we were free. The lady was recovering from Cancer and was in working in what was left of the belongings she had collected over a lifetime. She should not have been exposed to the air in the house but there she was. She cried when we showed up. She cried when we told her she could keep the N95 masks we had given her. In fact she could have a box of N95 masks.
We all coughed up good out of our lungs for days after the visit..... Not good for someone recovery from Chemo.
Another house was owned by a younger man. He really had not done much before we arrived. Sad thing was that he had just put on a new roof on the house and had bought new furniture. The roof was nice and solid. Held up well. The irony of which we got a chuckle out of. His furniture had swollen up so much we had to bust it up with an axe to get it out of the house.
The neighbors were all out working that day throwing their ruined goods into the street. The city was running a front end loader and trucks to pick up the piles of belongings.
Just as we finished this house an older lady drove up and asked if we would help her friends down the street. They only needed to move some appliances. We were about to head back to the Baptists and get lunch but it sounded like this job would only take a few minutes......
Long story short. Just down the road was 15 minutes. They had chest freezers, fridges, standing freezers, a dishwasher, range, and wood burning stove.
We were late for lunch. In fact my town contact thought we had disappeared. :laughing:
This house was owned by another older couple. They had CLEANED out that house. The only things left were the appliances that were just to heavy to move. Honestly I don't know how they had done the work. They had a nice garden and a green house. They ate what they grew. Unfortunately they froze the food instead of canning. They were just burning the rotten food. The smell of rotten food and 20-30 pounds of butter will never leave me. When smoke from a burning fire smells better than the air you are breathing things are BAD. One freezer was in an old building and we had to shovel the rotting food out of the building. We set up a relay. You would take a few deep breaths. Run in and shovel for as long as you could and then run out to breath. Next man would go in until we were done. :ashamed:
The daughter of the people we were helping got my address and a few weeks later I got a nice thank you letter from them. :thumbsup:
NC has the 82nd Airborne, the 2nd Marine division. An Air Fourch Air Wing just down stream of this town. Another Airwing of Marines to the NE. And there were more Air Force assess to the SW. Not one Federale was to be seen helping. A company of Marines could have clean out that little town in one or two days, the Army would have only needed three days. Shoot. The Air Force could have done it in four.
Lawlessness was not an issue. No need to worry about Posse Comitatus. Just bring in some units to help the initial clean up. With the manpower the Services had in NC they could have cleaned up those houses in two weeks and really put people on a road to recovery.
But NOTHING. I mean NOTHING. The Feds paid for things eventually but the WORK was done by locals or citizens who came into help.
Later,
Dan
After Floyd flooded out Eastern NC I went down twice to help clean up. With the first trip the water had just peaked in some areas and was finally going down.
The first trip was to find bodies.
Thankfully none were found. Nor were their any to find as it turns out. :thumbsup::laughing:
Though I did see what was left of 100 head of dairy cows that had drowned.....
Two towns I visited were both poor. One town was wiped out. Just gone. Now not gone in that the buildings were gone. I only saw two obviously destroyed buildings which happened to be trailers that got hit by rushing waters. They were exceptions and just happened to be in a low spot where the water was going to rush. The town was gone because the water just rose into the houses/trailers and then out again. What the water touched was destroyed.
The town that was wiped out is in a low spot and the town was settled by freed slaves after the Late Unpleasantness. So the land was basically worthless which is why the got it. The town is next to the Tar River and there is a dike protecting the town. But the dike does not encircle the town and if the water rises to a certain point the river can come if from the rear. Which is what happened.
Even the city hall which was built up at least 6-10 feet above grade was flooded out. Going into the town there was stuff in the trees 15-20 feet over our heads.
Somehow the people got out and were else where. They could not even get back into town when I was "visiting." The place looked like a ghost town. Very strange. Which was made worse by the vaults that had popped out of the ground in the grave yards.
The other town had a low area and a high area. The water rose so fast that people barely got out alive. One house had a car out front. Next to the front door was a TV. All they had to do was grab the TV, get in the car and go. They did not have time to do that much.
In this part of the town was a grocery store. It just happened to be barely above the high water mark. By a foot or so. I talked with a few people and they were all related. Grandma's house was here. The other grandma's house was there. Siblings, parents, aunt, uncles all in this little section of town. One of the two trailers that was destroyed was owned by one of the grandma's of a kid I talked too. They were all family and related one way or the other.
That grocery store had big plate glass windows. Not one pane was busted by the storm or the people. Not one.
This was a 2-3 days after the storm. There was no government to help really. The National Guard had setup a kitchen in the train depot to feed people. The Red Cross was running a truck with food. The Mennonites were in town organizing food and clothing donations. Don't have a clue where they came from. :laughing: But dang glad to see them.
The Feds were not in sight.
A week or so later I led a team of people back to this town to help clean up. Simply to carry peoples belongings out of the houses to get picked up and taken to the dump. We met up with a town official in a building the Mennonites had taken over for their work. While we waited for the government official to show up per our agreement, those Mennonite women put me to work!
Their men were out working in houses and those women did not like seeing empty hands go unworked. :laughing: So they put us to work. :thumbsup:Our contact showed up and sent us to see the Baptists.
Or maybe I should say the other Baptists. :laughing: They had brought in men and teenagers to clean out the houses. The women were running a kitchen. They had an awesome tractor trailer setup that contained a kitchen and showers. They just drove in to the local Baptist church. Hooked up to power, setup up tents, got organized and got to work. They and the local government were handling the logistics of cleaning out the houses. We got our assignments and off we went. :thumbsup:We only could clean out three houses. Miserable, disgusting, depressing work. The first house we cleaned out was in a neighborhood that in the first trip was still under water. The only way those people got out was that a neighbor had an airboat. He rescued most/all of the people in that area. The house was down stream of the town. And the towns sewer plant. The water was NASTY when I saw it on the first trip. Now we were in the houses cleaning out what the water had touched. :ashamed: I won't tell you what we saw in the water.
Most of the people got off their fannies and got to work. One house we helped clean out were some of the people who were rescued by the Airboat. The house was owned by an elderly couple who were at least in their 60s. When we showed up they had hired some people to clean out their house. They even had a dumpster on site. When I first saw the hired help I thought they were looting.
The couple let the help go since we were free. The lady was recovering from Cancer and was in working in what was left of the belongings she had collected over a lifetime. She should not have been exposed to the air in the house but there she was. She cried when we showed up. She cried when we told her she could keep the N95 masks we had given her. In fact she could have a box of N95 masks. We all coughed up good out of our lungs for days after the visit..... Not good for someone recovery from Chemo.
Another house was owned by a younger man. He really had not done much before we arrived. Sad thing was that he had just put on a new roof on the house and had bought new furniture. The roof was nice and solid. Held up well. The irony of which we got a chuckle out of. His furniture had swollen up so much we had to bust it up with an axe to get it out of the house.
The neighbors were all out working that day throwing their ruined goods into the street. The city was running a front end loader and trucks to pick up the piles of belongings.
Just as we finished this house an older lady drove up and asked if we would help her friends down the street. They only needed to move some appliances.
We were about to head back to the Baptists and get lunch but it sounded like this job would only take a few minutes......Long story short. Just down the road was 15 minutes.
They had chest freezers, fridges, standing freezers, a dishwasher, range, and wood burning stove. We were late for lunch. In fact my town contact thought we had disappeared. :laughing:
This house was owned by another older couple. They had CLEANED out that house. The only things left were the appliances that were just to heavy to move. Honestly I don't know how they had done the work. They had a nice garden and a green house. They ate what they grew. Unfortunately they froze the food instead of canning. They were just burning the rotten food. The smell of rotten food and 20-30 pounds of butter will never leave me. When smoke from a burning fire smells better than the air you are breathing things are BAD. One freezer was in an old building and we had to shovel the rotting food out of the building. We set up a relay. You would take a few deep breaths. Run in and shovel for as long as you could and then run out to breath. Next man would go in until we were done. :ashamed:
The daughter of the people we were helping got my address and a few weeks later I got a nice thank you letter from them. :thumbsup:
NC has the 82nd Airborne, the 2nd Marine division. An Air Fourch Air Wing just down stream of this town. Another Airwing of Marines to the NE. And there were more Air Force assess to the SW. Not one Federale was to be seen helping. A company of Marines could have clean out that little town in one or two days, the Army would have only needed three days. Shoot. The Air Force could have done it in four.
Lawlessness was not an issue. No need to worry about Posse Comitatus. Just bring in some units to help the initial clean up. With the manpower the Services had in NC they could have cleaned up those houses in two weeks and really put people on a road to recovery.
But NOTHING. I mean NOTHING. The Feds paid for things eventually but the WORK was done by locals or citizens who came into help.
Later,
Dan
