patrick.net

wookieman, People in the area said that they had no advance warning. The storm was 400 miles to the south, with a mountain range between (which usually damps the hurricane, not accelerates it). Sounds like they went to bed expecting some rain and were dumped on until 10am, 30” in some places. They’d normally worry about storms from the Carolina coast, not gulf coast, for flooding. Sounds like a freak event.

Florida panhandle was told to evacuate, but how much northward should have done similarly? The storm track took out hundreds of miles. Should GA, western SC, NC, WV, and east TN all have evacuated for a Gulf coast hurricane?

Is the civil war on? Is this the Duke Ferdinand moment?

The funny part is that area of NC is hippie town and they were sooooo ill prepared.

Is the civil war on? Is this the Duke Ferdinand moment?

Yesterday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted about a massive, new, fast-tracked aid package for surging essential aid to the unfortunate displaced residents of Lebanon. Not Lebanon, North Carolina. Lebanon, the war-torn country in the Middle East:

@SecBlinken • 13h
The U.S. is at the forefront of humanitarian response to the growing crisis in
Lebanon, announcing nearly $157 million in assistance today. We are
committed to supporting those in need and delivering essential aid to
displaced civilians, refugees and the communities hosting them.

As Blinkey’s tweet ratio suggests, the comments were lit. I would add only that Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, which is what has displaced Lebanese civilians in the first place, began on Monday — after Hurricane Helene tore through American states. So … they can rapidly surge hundreds of millions in aid to unfortunate, displaced citizens in Lebanon, but struggle to find a few dollars for unfortunate Americans displaced by the storm.

But in just the 3 decades since the Cold War ended, we have $37T in debt, can't make a TV or Toaster Oven domestically, imported tens of millions of unneeded mostly turd worlders, and can't provide emergency aid to a section of the country located less than half a day's drive from the Capitol and other major metropolitan areas. Yet in that time we had the fax machine, microcomputer, internet, cell phone, smart phone, and that's just the communications and data tools, not counting the explosion of medical, manfuacturing, etc. technology.