The Southeastern US needs you to keep talking about the devastation of Hurricane Helene

Use your words to help the world understand the true destruction on the ground here

This the first time I’m accessing the internet in six days and I’m not going to be running this post through an editor or caring about typos. We have more important things to do — I need you to help people in the southeast get the word out about the true horror of the decimation in Hurricane Helene’s wake.

I am extraordinarily lucky. My farm has been without power or water for six days, but we have generators, access to food and fuel, and one entrance open to our neighborhood. My neighbor’s house, pictured here, was destroyed by a fallen tree. She is still living there because there are no shelters or hotels in the Greenville, SC area remaining that will take pets.

My neighbor’s house. That’s a 100 year old white oak. There are four more down in her back yard that barely missed her house. The white oaks and hickories are what took the full force of this storm in this wooded city in the foothills so far from the coast.

Our community looks like a war zone. There is a fallen tree on top of every fifth house. Greenville is a large, metro area and we have access to supplies and the supply chain in a way that smaller communities around us do not, but six days after the storm the gas stations are only now beginning to consistently have fuel and 300,000 plus people are still without power. Schools are closed. People cannot get to work.

From the moment the storm winds died, it was private citizens who went out with their chainsaws to clear roadways. And it’s still the same today. Massive reinforcements have been brought in from other states to get utilities back up and running, but they’re working around the clock to restore power. Streets are still closed. Sink holes are beginning to form. Damaged bridges are still being used and neighbors are begging public works to close them.

Throughout my area, people have constructed road closure signs from chairs and cardboard.

We’re all just waiting it out.

This post will not be heavy with images because there is now way to capture the true level of destruction from single photos. And I haven’t had time to take photos. We’re down to the basic necessities at the farm. I have 18 horses in my care. Many were flooded in their stalls as the storm raged through. Downed trees took away access to our pastures. Without a generator that I purchased ten years ago in anticipation of a random ice storm, we would not have water as our well is powered by electricity.

The Good Doctor who built this farm installed a whole-house generator before he passed and I know that we were extraordinarily lucky to have that in the first few days after the storm. The propane ran out. I ordered more via an AI operator on the phone. I was told the fuel wouldn’t arrive until next week but like a thousand angels singing, the truck pulled in last night.

So have I power to begin to put my thoughts together this morning. I’m reliant on spotty cell service to power my hot spot so I’m writing this in Notes with the hope that I will be able to post it later. So far this week Facebook has been my primary mode of communication. Find me there.

All that I have just written would be enough to say — HEY, people are really hurting in the southeast. But what I’m about to say is where I need you to pay attention and spread the word to the greater world.

30 minutes up the road from our farm, the true horror begins. People in the western North Carolina area experienced unprecedented flooding. 40 TRILLION gallons of rain fell throughout the region and the Blue Ridge Mountains around Asheville, North Carolina were decimated. It is only now that stories are beginning to flow out of the region. People are still trapped. Bodies have not been recovered. The current count is around 1000 people missing and that number will only grow.

Access to roads are wiped out. Many of the rescues are happening by foot, helicopter, and pack mule. It wasn’t until four days after the storm that any major news outlet began reporting about the wide scale, apocalyptic damage to the region. And many of the first hand accounts are just beginning to trickle out because no one has had cell service. Phones aren’t working. There is no internet.

I live in a major metropolitan area in the foothills and it is private citizens who have worked to clear roadways and driveways. I have not seen a single government organization removing debris. And we have it relatively good down here. I cannot imagine the chaos and confusion in the mountains. Government agencies are beginning to block access to private aid groups — don’t let them do this. Without private citizens taking the initiative, there would be even more people stranded and desperate.

For my community, it was five days after the storm that fuel became accessible. Before then, it was waits of an hour to gather scant resources of gasoline to fire generators and vehicles. Many grocery stores aren’t open yet. The ones that are have slim stock and many only allow a few customers in at a time.

AND THIS IS NOT THE EPICENTER OF THE DESTRUCTION.

I’m looking at posts from people around my community putting out the alert that sinkholes are forming in roads or that bridges are about to fail — there is no government agency to report this to.  Dams are threatening to break in western North Carolina from the carnage and destruction beginning to accumulate from higher elevations.

It is not an exaggeration to say that this storm rivals Hurricane Katrina’s destruction.

If you live outside this region, please keep the people of the southeast in front of the media. Share posts, share stories, help us get the word out. So many of my friends checked in from around the world with no idea of what had truly happened here — what IS happening here.

Use the power of your devices to do what the news media is not doing — sharing the words of people in crisis. Please keep the algorithms on top of this disaster by staying informed, asking questions, and using the power of social media for good.

I’ll be back later with a list of resources for any of you who would like to contribute directly to any rescue or aid causes, but I want to be extraordinarily careful that I’m directing you to groups and initiatives that are truly offering aid.

Keep checking in on your people. They need you.