Wal Mart disaster relief.

[ultrarunner]

That's the way that it should be. Relying on the Feds should be a last resort if local resources are overwhelmed. I feel the same way about government replacing local help and churches to support underprivileged... It turns people in need into a faceless number, rather than being recognized as your neighbor who hit hard times and needing a hand up again.

I can agree with that but by the same token the government should not get in the way either.

Can’t have it both ways.

During the pandemic hospital regulators disappeared… it was almost magical because the focus shifted from endless forms and record keeping to serving the population the best we could with what we had… and waste went way down…

Expiration dates were extended, single use could be resterilized, trained individuals could be brought in without a month long onboarding process watching sensitivity videos, retired nurses welcomed back.

Only shows what can be accomplished when everyone has the same focus…

 

[newbury]

Red Tape?

No, more a matter of division of Government by numbskulls. We were able field a company to Haiti or Somalia quicker than we could field a company to Florida or New Orleans.
9-11 was a little different because a lot of us "peons" basically told management to punish us later.
But "common" things like Hurricanes, Blizzards, Forest fires tend to be handled such that the States have to start the action.
I think of the term "red tape" as excessive bureaucracy. There is a lot of that and often the "managers" decide to cut the red tape lengthwise.

 

[EddieWalker]

Back to Walmart. A friend here in Tyler just got to Ashville yesterday with his semi truck loaded with donations from everyone here in Tyler. He has been posting live video on FB of the drive into the area. It's been shocking to see what it's like from his point of view, in is truck. He's driving, his wife is filming.

They drove past the Walmart and the parking lot is full of pallets of water and other supplies. Just a massive amount that just about fills up the entire parking lot!! It was really amazing to see how much Walmart had out there for everyone!!!!

 

[2manyrocks]

Mark Huneycutt walked to Chimney rock and posted a video to his youtube channel. In places, the road needs clearing of debris. In other places, half the road is washed away. In still other places, the road is gone. Looks to be local contractors working on the clean up. Some police presence. But no way for vehicles to get in and out.

 

[5030]

FEMA is managed by Mayorkas, the professional deflector. Need I say more?

 

[2manyrocks]

most of these roads were built decades ago. The cost of rebuilding them today after what the federal government has done to the dollar in the last few years will be astronomical.

 

[EddieWalker]

I just saw an interview with Ron DeSantis, the Governor of Florida. He seems to have a solid plan to prepare for Hurricanes, and getting people to work to fix the damage. Georgia also seems to have prepared for it and is working at fixing things as quickly as possible.

North Carolina appears to have been totally unprepared for this. I get that, it's never happened before. But what I don't get is why everyone is blaming FEMA, which I'm not a fan of, but what is the Governors doing? Has he called out the National Guard? Is he cutting red tape and making things happen?

The finger pointing from the State and Federal Government, and waiting for somebody else to fix it, is overwhelming!!!

 

[Eagle1]

most of these roads were built decades ago. The cost of rebuilding them today after what the federal government has done to the dollar in the last few years will be astronomical.

Living in terrain similar (not as extreme) as the Blue Ridge. When the creeks destroy roads it not a matter of rebuilding the road, it matter of creating enough flattish ground to build a road. The sides of the hills become vertical (near enough anyway) and just fill will not fix the problem for long. I've bartered hundreds of truck loads of red clay for some minor fixes on my land to allow the county to build up another road along our creek enough to get the people back their homes after flash flooding (more than once). Long term it takes lots of boulder and rock removal to begin construction. Dozers and Excavators can only do so much. Often you now need new land to build on that is already owned by others.
Nothing is easy in the hills.

 

[ponytug]

Living in terrain similar (not as extreme) as the Blue Ridge. When the creeks destroy roads it not a matter of rebuilding the road, it matter of creating enough flattish ground to build a road. The sides of the hills become vertical (near enough anyway) and just fill will not fix the problem for long. I've bartered hundreds of truck loads of red clay for some minor fixes on my land to allow the county to build up another road along our creek enough to get the people back their homes after flash flooding (more than once). Long term it takes lots of boulder and rock removal to begin construction. Dozers and Excavators can only do so much. Often you now need new land to build on that is already owned by others.
Nothing is easy in the hills.

Great example!

Sometimes, it is hard to swallow that the best rebuilding might not be down in the flats any more, meaning starting over with a new road elsewhere. Plus, there have been lots of landslides as well.

Some folks out here in California did the post earthquake disaster preparation work, including actually building test bridges, of designing replacement bridges that could be rapidly assembled from railroad flat cars. Their idea was that rail cars are readily available, standard size, and high strength. It seemed like a good idea to me. Since then, I have often wondered what the cost savings to highway agencies might be if there was a catalog of bridge plans and components, in standard, mass produced sizes and stockpiles. Society gave up on handmade screws some time ago for good reasons.

All the best,

Peter

 

[2manyrocks]

Local church took supplies to Irwin TN this weekend without any reported issues other than posting pictures of destroyed bridges.