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everyone gives me. It keeps the show going. It allows

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and I'm not going to stop. I'm just going to accelerate.

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So thank you for the support. Head on over to

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Freemann Beyond the Wall dot com, Forward slash Support and

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do it there. Thank you. All right, everyone, I'm here

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with Danny. Danny. Hey, what's going on?

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Speaker 2: Man?

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Speaker 1: How are you hey?

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Speaker 2: I'm doing good, brother. I appreciate you having us all.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, no problem. Who else is there with me with you?

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Speaker 2: Hey, yeah, I'm Wilsome, the swift guy that you got

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the boat for there. Yeah, he's are one of our

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our swift water rescue regards. Yeah, we uh really appreciate

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that boat. That is what I have been using. I

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did prout of the trash. So, yeah, their gear and

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all their refs got swept up in the flood there

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yet slam having pretty hard where they're at Tennessee. So

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they actually pulled the raft out of the trash to

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go rescue people off their rooftops.

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Speaker 1: Man. You know, you you think if we were under

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a different government, if if we were rolled by people

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who were like your neighbors, this would get taken care of.

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You'd have they'd be out there helping you and at

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least providing you with the best possible things. And like

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we were saying before we started to recording, it's just

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neighbors taking care of neighbors at this point.

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Speaker 3: You yeah, yeah, well that's what it's been from the start,

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because go do that.

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Speaker 4: It was just me and a group of my friends

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going to e and and getting getting to work.

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Speaker 2: You know, there was no thought of this or that

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it was just go do work. That's what I didn't do.

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Speaker 1: It let me a lot of that. Yeah, I know,

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when this started, the living we're obviously going to be

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the first priority. And now as I understand it, you're

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at the recovery stage. How's how's that going?

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Speaker 2: Well? You know, he he was here the day of

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the flood, you know, in Tennessee doing the rescue side

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right there with the Star teams. I got here just

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after the flood, kind of just doing my own thing.

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Cowboy ended up basically, and then assisted some guys from

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Fairview far and got roped in as a volunteer alongside

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the U Star teams here in West North Carolina. And

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that switched over to recovery pretty quick, probably about end

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of the first week, beginning of the second week went

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into recovery and it's been that ever since. And then

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the eoc's Emergency Operations centers got stood down on the

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search by the governor here in western North Carolina. So

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then after that point, the entire responsibility of the search

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we fell onto the family's shoulders with no resources. So

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that's when WILL send myself and Rain and all these

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guys here with me, the whole team all came together

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to coordinate and provide resources on the search cine on

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a purely volunteer basis because there was no county resources,

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no public safety. National Guard here in North Carolina wanted

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to help us, so did the one oh first Airborne,

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but the governor here had stood down all emergency management

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in West North Carolina on search, so they weren't allowed

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to help.

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Speaker 1: Before we go any further, canal in your day jobs,

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what you guys do, if you're okay with them As.

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Speaker 2: A Ribor guy, yeah, he pretty much does the same

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thing that he's been doing right now for a living.

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It's just a few less dead bodies. Myself, I did

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the seir instructing thing for a while for they got

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the Marine Corps and right now apparently I'm just doing

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disaster response full time because we've been here for what

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what is it now, twelve weeks straight? All all the

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days are blending together. I'm not even sure how long

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we've been here, but yeah, we have a coalition of sorts,

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it's called the Coalition Project of organizations have kind of

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formed around us seeing what we've been doing, and they

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all came together. They liked our ethos, you know, every

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time Info Wars are somebody who come out here and

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interviewed me, they'd always ask what organization I'm with, and

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I'd always say, you know, I'm just a guy. And

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that whole saying it's caught on. You know, there's got

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people doing a pair of lines about it now because

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we don't have egos. You know, I shoved mind to

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the bottom of a whiskey ball twelve weeks ago and

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it stayed there. Yep. Everything that we saw on the

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first days here a little humble the fuck out of you.

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And Uh, we don't have room for egos out there,

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especially when you're when you're out there looking for someone's relative.

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You know, it's all about a sacred duty to bring

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them closer. There's no room for egos. Yeah, you know,

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we just keep saying doing the right thing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, when Wilson, when Wilson talks, make sure he has uh,

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he's close to the mic because I'm having trouble hearing

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him and we want people to hear him.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, scooting room. Yeah, we're having to share a mic

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off my laptop that's been covered in a silt from

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being out there in the debris piles. So excuse our

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setup here. Being a little bit redneck. Yeah, the big

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thing out here is, you know, we depend on each

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other in every way imaginable. You know, when I'm in

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a raft, I depend on Rain Wilson and keep me alive.

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They're in charge the moment we get in the raft

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until we get out. So it's really tight knit. We

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live together, we work together, we depend on each other.

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And every time that we don't have canines to go

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out there in search, we just ask ourselves what's the

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most important thing that we can do for the people here?

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You know, what's the next right thing to do? So

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getting people in the hot tents they don't freeze to death,

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working to try and do rebuilds, get them supplies. We're

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kind of like triage, you know. Whatever the most important

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need is to keep people alive and to bring them

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home is what we do. And then we'll hand them

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off from another organization to a higher level of care,

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get them into a camper or a tiny home. You

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wouldn't believe how many people are displaced out here. It's

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well over ten thousand. It's an insane number. If you

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count all the folks in all the affected counties in

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western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee. Just on our end, we've

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probably put about seventy families in the hot tents out.

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You're just keeping from freezing today.

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Speaker 1: Describe the first the first days, Describe the storm and everything,

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and well, if you've never been in a flood, you

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don't know what water it can do. So can you

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just describe that?

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Speaker 2: I can't.

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Speaker 3: I can describe it in pretty good detail.

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Speaker 2: Can you hear me?

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Speaker 5: Good?

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Speaker 4: I just want to make sure.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, come in a little closer if you can.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So I woke up on the twenty seventh to some

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of my friends actually called me to ask if I

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was all right because the road behind my house is gone.

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Speaker 2: A bunch of those houses.

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Speaker 3: There they got fully flooded out, destroyed, and just down

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the road down the mountain for me, the end of

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my road there was a small community called Denton, and

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they got hit hard. Like, well, I live right on

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the Pigeon River. Thanks you hard Ford Harper, Tennessee, Newport, Tennessee.

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All that, and and so my friends were calling me

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to see if I was all right, Like, well, yeah,

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I'm fine.

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Speaker 4: Why what's going on? I had no idea that it

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had gotten that bad that fast, but overnight, the foot

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had built to the point were well we started seeing

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the destruction that we see now. But it was starting

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to get to that point.

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Speaker 3: In Hartford, I know, along the Pigeon River, we were

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probably looking about somewhere close to one hundred and forty

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to one hundred and fifty thousand cubic feet of water

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per second.

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Speaker 6: And to give you some perspective, one cubic foot of

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waterways sixty seven pounds, and it's about the size of basketball,

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So one hundred and forty thousand and sixty seven pounds basketballs,

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and that water is going to take everything that's in

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there and shut it wherever it wants.

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Speaker 4: Okay, it's not that the water is pushing, it's what

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the water is pushing because it already has the force momentum.

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Speaker 2: So what it does.

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Speaker 3: It strips entire islands, mountain sides, whatever it wants it takes.

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So get you an idea that there in Harpard, my town,

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I was watching entire giant trees rootball and all that

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have been stripped of, all the limbs off of them.

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You know, we're getting tossed into the side of the

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bridge or tossed over the bridge. Yeah, that that kind

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of force is not to be messed with. It's it's

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definitely something that so it's got a hold of you.

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It's gonna take you.

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Speaker 4: And the last call that I did there on the

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twenty seventh was my actual that little.

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Speaker 2: Town and then that little community. We could not get

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in there. It was coming through.

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Speaker 4: It had just eat the entire mountain sides and you know,

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there's objects in the water, all that kind of stuff

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that we're in the dark.

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Speaker 2: We can't see.

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Speaker 3: We've got like half a flashlight and a trash raft,

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you know. So we rarely risked it on that one.

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Speaker 4: But again it's it goes back to doing the right thing,

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and yeah, you're gonna have to take a risk if

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you have the ability. You know, if you have the

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ability to do something and then you don't, well that's

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on you. No you I can't imagine having to live

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with myself wake up in the morning knowing that I

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could have could have done something better, put into something more.

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Speaker 3: So that's why, you know, like you said, on.

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Speaker 4: Days, so we aren't actually out there looking for people

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who're out here putting people on tents.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the first days and when had about week after

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the flood, and it is like swann Noah a fair

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View Backcave was. I don't think they've invented words for

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it yet, to be honest. People walking around just into

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complete days down the middle of the road because there's

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houses in the middle of the road in some places

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still forty fifty foot high to breed piles in the

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middle of the town like its wanna know. We called

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it zombie land because it just looked like a new

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k had gone off and everyone wandered around like a zombie.

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People were having to get cut out for about two

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weeks out of their homes or to get access to

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their homes to get them out. Fairview Fire Department, you know,

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and a bunch of guys were out there and volunteers

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helping cut that cave fire department out, you know, meeting

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in the middle so they'd come up with four wheelers

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and get supplies and evacuate people out. Areas like that

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like Chimney Rock and Back Cave. All the roads in

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were gone, so you had to hike in for miles

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to get anywhere to get people supplies or to get

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them out. The few people that were able hiked out

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of their towns because there was nothing left chimney rocks

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at the bottom of Lake Lure now communities like Pensacola, Minneapolis.

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It is kind of a running joke up here. All

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these haulers are named after some big city. Those are

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a little holler communities outside Burnsville. They got hammered really hard.

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All the roads were gone covered boulders. You couldn't get

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in there even with four wheeler, so you either had

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to hike in or they had to fly in with

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helicopters to get people out and get them food and water.

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It was intense, and we had martial law here for weeks.

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I want to say it was well over a month

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after the event. We still had martial law because all

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the looting. I never myself saw the looting until more recently.

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Early on, we were too busy running around trying to

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help people. We heard about it all the time. People

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would walk around with guns, mostly out of Staters who

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come in here look like they're invading Iraq with plate

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carriers and long rifles. And we tried to stay low

240
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pro you know, ma cio hoodie concealed carry, tried to

241
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look like we're here to help instead of here to

242
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e g I Joe invade because a lot of it

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here in the early days, it was winning hearts and minds.

244
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You know, we're not from here, We're a guest in

245
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someone else's backyard. So there was no power, there was

246
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no water, there was no cell phone service. So we

247
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would get out far enough to get service on our phones,

248
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and we'd find someone in one of the local groups

249
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on Facebook that had a relative that they needed helped,

250
00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:03,000
and we'd talked to them and then we'd screenshot the conversation.

251
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We'd sneak past the checkpoints that the locals had set

252
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up to keep everyone out, and then we'd find that person,

253
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show them the screenshot because there's no phone service, get

254
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them some food and water and supplies, maybe a generator,

255
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and then have them vouch for the rest of the community.

256
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You know, we were there to help and not there

257
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to loot. That we weren't with FEMA, you know, the FEDS,

258
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because a lot of the locals and the smaller communities

259
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would set up these little checkpoints. The media called them malicious,

260
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but it's not actually true. It was just locals that

261
00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:36,360
had heybale checkpoints set up, and what was left in

262
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the roads that had big plywood signs that said locals

263
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only are emergency personnel. Everyone else to keep out, and

264
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they meant the National Guard too. They didn't want the

265
00:14:44,919 --> 00:14:49,200
National Guarden there. Some of them were concerned that FEMA

266
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and the Army was going to come in and do

267
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things they didn't want to do, so they just kept

268
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everyone out. So we would either dare them to shoot

269
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us and just drive through, or to hike around them,

270
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sneak around them and get in there. So it was

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the Wild West for weeks. Yeah, we're still getting used

272
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to using stop lights and traffic laws and all that stuff.

273
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It's weird.

274
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean basically all infrastructure was wiped out, right.

275
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely, it was all gone. It's still coming back.

276
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Speaker 4: You know.

277
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Speaker 2: There's plenty areas without civil service still, some areas of

278
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that power, a lot of areas that aren't going to

279
00:15:25,679 --> 00:15:29,000
have potable water for a long time, so there's they're

280
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still having these bald water. We joked about the folks

281
00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:34,600
that came in from out of state a little bit

282
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late with all the water. We called them water goblins.

283
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They just show up with water and there's already mountains

284
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of it here, so there was nowhere that wanted it.

285
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So they would just go to a random house, drop

286
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it on the doorstep, take a picture for Instagram, and

287
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then leave. And we made jokes about that for a

288
00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:52,759
long time. But it's going to be a need again

289
00:15:52,759 --> 00:15:54,759
into their future because they're having to use it to

290
00:15:54,799 --> 00:15:56,879
brush their teeth, they're having to use to wash their dishes,

291
00:15:56,919 --> 00:16:00,080
they're having to use it for everything. You know, we

292
00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:03,279
go through gallons of water a day with coffee, so

293
00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:07,039
you imagine what that's going to look like two, three,

294
00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:09,080
four months down the road. For now, those mountains of

295
00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:13,039
water are gonna get small really quick. So all of

296
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the infrastructure was completely gone. You didn't even have public

297
00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:20,679
safety being able to talk to their sister departments in

298
00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:23,639
the next town. In the initial days and first week,

299
00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:29,960
it was all yeah, low things. Yeah, everyone had a

300
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,919
balfing little Taliban radio to talk to each other. The

301
00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:38,559
sheriff's department would have trouble talking to emergency management. At times,

302
00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:42,639
nobody was talking to each other. We actually part of

303
00:16:42,679 --> 00:16:45,320
our job was going out there reconing, getting the volunteer

304
00:16:45,399 --> 00:16:47,919
fire departments linked up with the emergency operations centers so

305
00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:53,360
everyone can start coordinating. And now it's come back a lot.

306
00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:56,679
In the last twelve weeks. But it's actually kind of

307
00:16:56,720 --> 00:16:59,200
spooky how much it hasn't you know. I'm used to

308
00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:02,639
the Gulf Coast. If an entire city gets wiped off

309
00:17:02,679 --> 00:17:04,680
the map, the very next day, waffle house is going

310
00:17:04,759 --> 00:17:09,240
to be open with a generator out here. I think

311
00:17:09,279 --> 00:17:11,240
the nearest waffle house that we had that we could

312
00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:16,759
actually go into is in Marion. And uh, it's still

313
00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:22,240
just really fucked, you know, for lack of better words,

314
00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:29,119
it's just absolutely a mess out here. Still heard in

315
00:17:29,119 --> 00:17:31,400
the water here, we we had uh, what we called

316
00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:33,440
beer water for a long time. That's finally going away.

317
00:17:33,519 --> 00:17:38,000
It's Anheuser bush sink cans of water and beer cans,

318
00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:41,240
and you'll still see those floating around and restaurants and

319
00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:46,160
stuff every once in a while. Yeah, the truck, it

320
00:17:46,279 --> 00:17:46,920
tastes out off.

321
00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:51,319
Speaker 1: As I got chalking it, I had heard that, you know,

322
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,839
water treatment plants like I guess the what the main

323
00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:58,200
water treatment plant for Ashville, you know, big city like

324
00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:01,480
that was just they're just washing down the river.

325
00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:04,440
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the North Fork is just gone. They're gonna

326
00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:08,640
have to completely rebuild it. Swoller Noah and Black Mountain

327
00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:11,000
I think finally got drinkable water. I want to say

328
00:18:11,039 --> 00:18:13,319
a week ago. If I'm a little bit off on

329
00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:18,079
my timeframes. We haven't gone home or really taken time off.

330
00:18:18,079 --> 00:18:20,559
Because everything is kind of blending together. Our memory is

331
00:18:20,599 --> 00:18:25,119
a little bit fragmented at times. You'll have to forgive

332
00:18:25,119 --> 00:18:29,640
me if I get a fact wrong of when something changed.

333
00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:34,119
The locals, you know, will probably be listening to this

334
00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:35,839
and be like, we've had water for a week and

335
00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:40,480
a half, not a week. But it's twelve weeks out.

336
00:18:40,559 --> 00:18:44,359
You know, they finally got drinkable water, maybe two weeks ago.

337
00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:49,279
They're gonna have to rebuild entire treatment facilities, flush up

338
00:18:50,359 --> 00:18:54,880
the sewers and everything, and there's been so many possible

339
00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:58,319
contaminants and all the ground water and everywhere else that

340
00:18:58,359 --> 00:19:00,640
they've been having a test. We have no idea. Everything's

341
00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:05,240
a rumor out here. People are still kind of an

342
00:19:05,279 --> 00:19:09,400
information vacuum here because a lot of folks are so

343
00:19:09,559 --> 00:19:12,079
focused on survival mode they don't have time to find

344
00:19:12,079 --> 00:19:13,599
out what's going on in the news. Like I don't

345
00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:15,519
have any idea what's going on the outside world. I

346
00:19:15,559 --> 00:19:19,640
know Trump won the election. I guess something to do

347
00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:23,920
with Syria, but we don't really know what's going on there.

348
00:19:23,960 --> 00:19:27,519
We never have time and we have to get somewhere

349
00:19:27,519 --> 00:19:30,960
where there's internet. Usually we're too busy working. But the locals,

350
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:32,359
a lot of the them are in the same boat,

351
00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:38,839
especially the more rural areas outside of Asheville, So it's

352
00:19:40,599 --> 00:19:42,759
life is different here. It's kind of surreal when we

353
00:19:42,839 --> 00:19:46,279
go far enough out by supplies somewhere like Hickory or

354
00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:49,720
Winston Salem where things are normal and they think everything's

355
00:19:49,799 --> 00:19:50,400
fine here.

356
00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:55,519
Speaker 1: Let's talk about this. So you mentioned like tents that

357
00:19:55,559 --> 00:19:58,160
you can set up heaters for people, and you also

358
00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:03,200
mentioned like ten thousand displaced people. I mean, yeah, yeah,

359
00:20:03,279 --> 00:20:04,440
what's happening to them?

360
00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:09,039
Speaker 2: I don't know the exact numbers. So you know, it's

361
00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:16,359
just all part for any of the armchair quarterbacks out there,

362
00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:20,359
just the sheer volume of people that other organizations are

363
00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:25,079
having to house that we've had the house with temporary

364
00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:28,759
shelters between East Tennessee and West North Carolina.

365
00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:32,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's still in my own backyard.

366
00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:35,599
Speaker 5: Like I said, we got hit pretty good. We didn't

367
00:20:35,599 --> 00:20:37,839
get hit like these guys got hit, but it took

368
00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:40,839
about four weeks for us to get Suppose they drank

369
00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:43,960
a little water, but it still wasn't right. It wasn't

370
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:48,440
right for weeks and weeks after a number of effected people.

371
00:20:49,599 --> 00:20:51,279
That's a reasonable assumption.

372
00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:53,920
Speaker 2: To make right right there, It's definitely the thousands, you know,

373
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:59,960
maybe I'm guessing somewhere between five and seventeen thousand people displaced.

374
00:21:01,119 --> 00:21:05,480
FAMA puts some of them up in hotels with vouchers. Yeah,

375
00:21:05,559 --> 00:21:08,119
for a while a lot of organizations have been getting

376
00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:11,440
them into campers. United Cajun Navy partnered with us has

377
00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:13,240
been helping us get some of the folks who put

378
00:21:13,279 --> 00:21:15,079
in a hot tents into campers when we're trying to

379
00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:19,039
winterize them. The hot tents is something that a couple

380
00:21:19,079 --> 00:21:22,480
of locals friends of mine cooked up out here. These

381
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:27,000
two ladies, we're looking at long term winter shelter that

382
00:21:27,079 --> 00:21:31,079
would be quick and affordable, and they talked to a

383
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:33,720
guy from Norway and he came with this idea for

384
00:21:33,759 --> 00:21:36,680
the hot tents. The yurts. So it's a large belt

385
00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:38,759
and you can fit probably four to six people in it,

386
00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:41,519
and it's got a little hot stove. It's built to

387
00:21:41,559 --> 00:21:45,880
have a hot stove in it, and it gets real

388
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:49,200
toasty even when you get into these lower temperatures and

389
00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:51,640
the higher elevations in the mountains, it'll keep you warm.

390
00:21:52,359 --> 00:21:55,279
So as a quick fix is a sort of band

391
00:21:55,279 --> 00:21:57,240
aid until we can get them into something little more

392
00:21:57,359 --> 00:22:01,039
durable and stable. It's great. You know, they're not cheap,

393
00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:06,200
like twelve hundred bucks, but they work. And these two ladies,

394
00:22:06,519 --> 00:22:09,559
I think it was Brooks Sullivan and Christina Gray, they

395
00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:11,680
came up with the idea, raised a little bit of

396
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:14,359
funding for it, and then the Red Cross copied their homework,

397
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:19,519
got either donated or bottle of the whole supply pretty much,

398
00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:22,839
and then hoarded it and added all these stipulations to it.

399
00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:25,559
You know, they were telling us when we started running

400
00:22:25,559 --> 00:22:27,000
low on them, we were trying to get him from

401
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:28,400
the Red Cross, and they said, well, don't worry. We

402
00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:30,279
have five thousand we can give to you, and we

403
00:22:30,319 --> 00:22:32,759
have more than enough. Next thing, I knew, it was seven,

404
00:22:32,759 --> 00:22:34,440
and then it was five, then it was two, and

405
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:37,079
then it took four days to get one. And then

406
00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:39,160
they said, well, if they were homeless before the flood,

407
00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:40,880
we're not going to give them a hot tent, or

408
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:43,319
if it's a single individual mail, we're not going to

409
00:22:43,319 --> 00:22:46,000
give him a hot tent. So essentially we had a

410
00:22:46,039 --> 00:22:49,200
conversation with a guy from Red Cross that I literally said, so,

411
00:22:49,279 --> 00:22:52,400
what you're telling me is if a guy's not married

412
00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,359
or with a woman, or he was homeless before the flood,

413
00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:58,680
you're gonna let him freeze to death. And they wouldn't

414
00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:00,839
answer me because it was, you know, a pubexciting, but

415
00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:04,960
they wouldn't say no. It's pretty much a confirmation there.

416
00:23:05,319 --> 00:23:08,480
So we just started kind of using whatever loopholes we

417
00:23:08,519 --> 00:23:10,200
could to get hot tents from them, and then we

418
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:14,000
started doing gofundmes and raising funds however we could and

419
00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:17,160
getting tents donated to us. So one of the side

420
00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:20,799
gigs that we do between going out there doing searches

421
00:23:21,119 --> 00:23:25,000
is doing recon finding out where everyone is that needs

422
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:27,519
a hot tent so they don't freeze to death, and

423
00:23:27,559 --> 00:23:29,319
then going out there and setting it up for them.

424
00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:32,279
And then we circle back and bring them firewood and

425
00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:34,640
reach out to the partner organizations to get them into

426
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:38,519
a camper as fast as we can. I know, we've

427
00:23:38,519 --> 00:23:41,240
put probably eighty families in the hot tents so far.

428
00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:44,039
And then we're like an eight man crew, you know,

429
00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:46,920
we're a little humble organization. We're not some big NGO

430
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:51,000
or like the Red Cross. So the eight of us

431
00:23:51,039 --> 00:23:53,160
have gone out there and put eighty families at least

432
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:54,839
into hot tents, and I think we have a waiting

433
00:23:54,839 --> 00:23:57,359
list of at least twenty more. I put a post

434
00:23:57,359 --> 00:23:59,920
about doing the hot tents out and it it went viral,

435
00:24:00,839 --> 00:24:03,599
So I'm having to go through like five thousand message

436
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:06,119
requests on Facebook to try to filter them all out

437
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:09,000
and see who still needs one. It's become like a

438
00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:10,200
second full time job.

439
00:24:11,799 --> 00:24:14,559
Speaker 1: Have you considered telling FEMA that all of these people

440
00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:16,400
are illegals so that they could put them up in

441
00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:18,279
five star hotels?

442
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:25,559
Speaker 2: We definitely have. You know, I found fourteen illegals freezing

443
00:24:25,559 --> 00:24:28,319
to death in the first week out in Spruce Pine.

444
00:24:28,799 --> 00:24:30,680
They didn't have sleeping bags, they didn't have coats, the

445
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:34,000
didn't have anything, and we didn't have cell phone service.

446
00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:36,680
So I was the one GREENO that could speak decent

447
00:24:36,759 --> 00:24:39,400
enough Spanish, and they were terrified they were going to

448
00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:42,400
get deported because Ice was out there helping with the

449
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:46,359
search and rescue, and everyone in the outside just saw

450
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:48,160
Ice there in the ATF so they made a bunch

451
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:53,440
of assumptions. But the fourteen illegals that I came across,

452
00:24:53,799 --> 00:24:56,640
they were more afraid of getting deported than they were

453
00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:00,799
freezing to death. So that was a complicated situation trying

454
00:25:00,799 --> 00:25:03,680
to figure out how to save them because the few

455
00:25:04,319 --> 00:25:06,400
personal items they had left, you know, all of their

456
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:09,119
homes had been swept out, they'd been looted twice, and

457
00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:11,240
every time they'd go to take a leak in the

458
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:15,440
woods or go find water, they'd get looted by their neighbors.

459
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:18,440
So they refused to leave without their stuff. So we

460
00:25:18,519 --> 00:25:20,480
had to find a trailer for their stuff and get

461
00:25:20,519 --> 00:25:26,119
them into a place with FEMA. It's been interesting and

462
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:28,400
we have to work with them, so it's you know,

463
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:31,880
it's kind of hard. We have to watch a little

464
00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:34,079
bit of what we say because we work with Emergency

465
00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:38,720
Management on the searches. I do know they haven't been

466
00:25:38,759 --> 00:25:40,759
out to a lot of the worst hit places yet

467
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,640
to assess the damage. A lot of the locals that

468
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:46,200
brought that up, you know, people were they're in an

469
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:51,799
area where out of twenty houses, maybe seven or eight

470
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:54,960
er left and FEMA hasn't made it out there yet

471
00:25:55,319 --> 00:25:56,960
to assess the damage so that they can get the

472
00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:02,359
process started. We did meet with the guy from Emergency Management.

473
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:05,440
It's part of FEMA up in Tennessee today about search

474
00:26:05,519 --> 00:26:10,799
related activity, and he was actually awesome. He's the one

475
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:13,359
guy with FEMA that I have respect for. He's just

476
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:17,200
a good old boy, you know, a former firefighter. And

477
00:26:17,279 --> 00:26:18,839
he looked at me and he said, I don't care

478
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:21,119
if these people are missing from North Carolina. I don't

479
00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:23,880
care about imaginary lines between us. There are people and

480
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:26,319
we're going to bring them all home. What can I

481
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:30,680
do to help? And we told him, myself and the

482
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:33,160
family member and every single thing we asked for. He

483
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:36,839
immediately took care of it and he just got to business.

484
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:38,799
You know, what can we do to help? How can

485
00:26:38,839 --> 00:26:42,839
I help the family? What do they need? He was outstanding,

486
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:46,799
But that is a rare okay, you know, he's an outlier.

487
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:50,079
So I don't want to see they're not doing anything

488
00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:52,759
as I have seen FEMA do some good stuff out here,

489
00:26:53,799 --> 00:26:57,119
but there is almost a sense that they are in

490
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,680
some ways afraid of the locals to the point where

491
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:01,119
they are they don't want to go into the more

492
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:05,759
rural comedy and ems like haulers and stuff. I did

493
00:27:05,759 --> 00:27:09,240
watch Bob the constable up in Pogy Road almost arrests

494
00:27:09,319 --> 00:27:12,240
some lady from FEMA that was pretty entertaining. So I mean, like,

495
00:27:12,279 --> 00:27:15,599
I've seen them do some good for the people, but

496
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:20,400
a lot of it's fallen short. And these people didn't

497
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:23,319
have insurance they would cover flood damage. So a lot

498
00:27:23,319 --> 00:27:25,240
of them are getting that six seven hundred fifty bucks,

499
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:27,559
which they get taxed on, by the way, they're getting

500
00:27:27,559 --> 00:27:29,599
that seven hundred fet dollars check from FEMA, and it's

501
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:30,680
just pissing them off more.

502
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:35,319
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that all you have to do is

503
00:27:35,559 --> 00:27:38,519
if you were watching the news before this happened and

504
00:27:38,559 --> 00:27:41,000
you're being handed a seven hundred and fifty dollars check

505
00:27:41,079 --> 00:27:45,359
while you know, Haitians in Springfield, Ohio have you know

506
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:50,880
reportedly like twenty five thousand dollars on their EBT cards. Yeah,

507
00:27:51,039 --> 00:27:53,799
I mean, oh yeah.

508
00:27:54,279 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 2: The locals have had these conversations with us, you know,

509
00:27:58,319 --> 00:28:01,160
and they all they're pretty upset about it. You know,

510
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:04,359
it's mainly a very red state outside of little hot

511
00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:08,279
spots like Asheville and Raleigh, they're blue. So these people

512
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,440
they knew all about that, and they've been bringing that

513
00:28:11,559 --> 00:28:16,440
up repeatedly to local officials and the Senate and the governor.

514
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:21,440
Very few people here have a good opinion on the governor.

515
00:28:22,839 --> 00:28:25,720
But a lot of them have this opinion that Trump

516
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:28,720
and JD. Vans are going to save them come January.

517
00:28:29,519 --> 00:28:31,119
And I, you know, I'm not here to argue or

518
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:34,160
judge or tell them what to believe, so I just

519
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:39,160
kind of nod my head. But they already won the

520
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:41,880
presidency and the vice presidency. They could start turning all

521
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:45,880
their donors towards this place. They could start doing something now.

522
00:28:46,519 --> 00:28:49,279
They don't need to wait to assume office before they

523
00:28:49,319 --> 00:28:51,680
have the power to do something about this. You know,

524
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:54,279
they can come out here and shake hands in glad

525
00:28:54,319 --> 00:28:57,920
hand all day. That doesn't build anyone's house back, That

526
00:28:58,359 --> 00:29:02,799
doesn't keep someone from freezing to death. So I hope

527
00:29:02,799 --> 00:29:05,880
that they're right. I would hate to be I would

528
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:07,599
hate to be proven right in this case. I want

529
00:29:07,599 --> 00:29:09,839
to be proven wrong. I hope that JD. Vance and

530
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:13,559
Trump do poor money and resources and manpower to this

531
00:29:13,559 --> 00:29:17,440
place come January. But I'm not going to hold my breath.

532
00:29:17,519 --> 00:29:20,160
I'll stay out here and Wilson and I and the

533
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:23,200
guys and Melon everyone will do it ourselves. You know,

534
00:29:24,119 --> 00:29:26,440
our motto for weeks out here has been nobody's coming.

535
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:30,000
It's up to us, and we're not going to change

536
00:29:30,039 --> 00:29:34,440
that sop anytime soon, because I just don't see a

537
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:37,519
politician coming out here and fixing this place. I think

538
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:40,440
either the people here are going to do it for themselves,

539
00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:42,799
or the people that have come here for the right

540
00:29:42,839 --> 00:29:44,920
reasons they're going to help them do it. I don't

541
00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:48,359
think Trump and JD. Vans are and to come back

542
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:51,240
here and turn this place around. I just don't see

543
00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:51,720
it happening.

544
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:56,039
Speaker 1: Well, I think the point you made was these are

545
00:29:56,160 --> 00:30:01,480
people who These are two guys who, yep, no billionaires.

546
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:06,039
I mean, you know, Trump's a billionaire, but they know billionaires.

547
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:08,640
This could have been taken care of, the the water

548
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:11,920
treatment plant could have already been rebuilt. I mean, the

549
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:14,240
these are things that could have been could have been done.

550
00:30:15,359 --> 00:30:17,720
Speaker 2: Elon Musk has done a lot more worse than Trump

551
00:30:17,759 --> 00:30:19,599
and JD. Vance. You know, I'm not like a fanboy

552
00:30:19,599 --> 00:30:25,440
of Elon, but those starlinks have been a lifesaver out here.

553
00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:30,599
Billionaires don't become billionaires because they're like, so, yeah.

554
00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:36,960
Speaker 1: We're not going to come up on unt. Yeah, well, Wilson,

555
00:30:37,039 --> 00:30:39,400
come up on the UH on the microphone, because I

556
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:41,799
want to ask you this question and I want you

557
00:30:41,839 --> 00:30:45,480
to answer this since you know this is your business,

558
00:30:45,519 --> 00:30:51,359
you know, River River recovery, things like that in your

559
00:30:51,599 --> 00:30:54,000
just in the area you're working in. How many people

560
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,160
are missing and presumed deceased?

561
00:30:57,319 --> 00:31:02,400
Speaker 4: Yes, get accurate thing, but I would say what he

562
00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:05,880
as many as eight hundred out very high end.

563
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:13,640
Speaker 2: I don't know that's he has that. Okay, a lot

564
00:31:13,799 --> 00:31:19,000
adjacent to the EOC in the early days and uh worked,

565
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:23,119
you know, alongside the USR guys. I know that in

566
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:27,079
the area that we're searching there at least five we're

567
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:32,720
looking for three. I know that what the official figures

568
00:31:32,759 --> 00:31:37,119
are for the areas about two hundred are based on

569
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:40,960
the illegals and the at hikers and the homeless encampments.

570
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:45,640
I would say probably all together four to six hundred.

571
00:31:47,079 --> 00:31:49,200
It's not going to be a thousand or more because

572
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:51,359
the math wouldn't work out it If it was that many,

573
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:54,240
we would have personally been stumbling across more people that

574
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:59,319
are out there that aren't being looked for. Just plugging

575
00:31:59,359 --> 00:32:02,240
in the half of how we do this job, and

576
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:06,160
the sheer number of miles that we've combed of riverbanks,

577
00:32:07,079 --> 00:32:09,920
along the elk, along the toe, the cane, the Nolachucky

578
00:32:11,119 --> 00:32:14,519
the pigeon. You know, we would have found someone by

579
00:32:14,519 --> 00:32:19,039
now that wasn't listed missing if there was some huge figure.

580
00:32:19,799 --> 00:32:22,680
So there's a lot of misinformation from both sides. The

581
00:32:22,759 --> 00:32:26,880
liberal side and some of the local officials out here

582
00:32:27,559 --> 00:32:29,680
downplay it because they want it to seem like everything

583
00:32:29,759 --> 00:32:32,119
is under control, and then on the other side of

584
00:32:32,119 --> 00:32:36,319
the spectrum there's these crazy conspiracies. One of them the

585
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:39,039
guests heard this kind of interesting. So FEMA sent ten

586
00:32:39,079 --> 00:32:43,160
thousand body bags down here, and everyone said, I mean,

587
00:32:43,359 --> 00:32:48,119
ten thousand people are dead. Then what happened was the

588
00:32:48,119 --> 00:32:51,279
firefighters U saw teams were worried about running out of

589
00:32:51,359 --> 00:32:54,839
body bags, so they requested some from FEMA, And I

590
00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:59,519
think FEMA's minimum order quantity was ten thousand, So that's

591
00:32:59,519 --> 00:33:02,440
what you know. I've got like four hundred in the

592
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:04,319
back of my car right now. We're never going to

593
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:08,119
need them, you know, which is a good thing. If

594
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:09,759
I had to put a number on how many you're

595
00:33:09,799 --> 00:33:13,200
actually missing, I'd say probably four to six hundred. So

596
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,279
I hate to ruin it for all the Alex Jones

597
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:18,640
listeners and the people that think there's tens of thousands,

598
00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:20,759
but it's still a considerable number. You know, you're talking

599
00:33:20,799 --> 00:33:26,480
about hundreds of people lost their lives. Hundreds lost their lives.

600
00:33:28,279 --> 00:33:32,839
There's still people missing that only the families and volunteers

601
00:33:32,839 --> 00:33:38,440
are looking for, you know. And we're lucky on Tennessee side,

602
00:33:40,119 --> 00:33:43,720
a lot of local law enforcement there hear more about

603
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:46,480
getting the job done than they do about politics, so

604
00:33:46,519 --> 00:33:49,039
they're helping us out a lot over there. It's a

605
00:33:49,079 --> 00:33:51,960
little different in North Carolina side because of the politics

606
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:55,599
and because of the governor. It's not that local county

607
00:33:55,599 --> 00:33:57,920
guys and public safety don't want to help, that's not

608
00:33:58,039 --> 00:34:00,599
it at all. A lot of them are great guys.

609
00:34:00,599 --> 00:34:03,960
They'd love to be out there. They're just they got

610
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:08,199
to get back to policing and putting out fires. And

611
00:34:08,239 --> 00:34:11,000
the ucs from the governor have been stood down on that,

612
00:34:11,119 --> 00:34:16,840
so it's not their fault. I do think that the

613
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:20,440
number of two hundred is a little bit conservative, just

614
00:34:20,519 --> 00:34:23,679
based on the amount of devastation instruction we've seen out

615
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:27,519
here and the fact that there wasn't a whole lot

616
00:34:27,559 --> 00:34:32,760
of effort put into looking for the many homeless camps

617
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:36,559
in Ashville and Swarnole. You know, there's a lot of

618
00:34:36,559 --> 00:34:38,360
people that we got out there that we've put in

619
00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:41,199
a hot tents that were homeless before the flood that

620
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:43,559
woke up the next day and half their friends were gone,

621
00:34:43,679 --> 00:34:45,400
and no one reported those people missing.

622
00:34:46,199 --> 00:34:50,239
Speaker 7: Okay, you know what I'm saying. It's still the issue

623
00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:52,199
with the homeless encampments and stuff. I know there were

624
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:55,920
several on the side of the Pigeon things like that

625
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:59,480
out there that they're just gone. No one knows that

626
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:01,239
they're still or any of that.

627
00:35:03,199 --> 00:35:07,199
Speaker 8: No one knows if the professionals that were going out

628
00:35:07,199 --> 00:35:10,159
there to try and warn people and get them get

629
00:35:10,159 --> 00:35:13,440
them move, you know, to evacuate, they don't.

630
00:35:13,599 --> 00:35:15,360
Speaker 2: No one knows if they actually got down into those

631
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:18,280
homeless encampments or if they just let them wash away,

632
00:35:18,599 --> 00:35:23,079
or there's there's still a lot of questions. So some

633
00:35:23,159 --> 00:35:26,800
people got an hour to evacuate, some people got three minutes.

634
00:35:27,519 --> 00:35:30,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know down in some of the smaller communities

635
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:34,519
on the Pigeon River that maybe just two guys came

636
00:35:34,599 --> 00:35:36,639
through and try to tell people y'all should leave.

637
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:39,400
Speaker 2: And then no one's going to listen to that. They

638
00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:41,880
didn't tell them that, you know, this is what's coming.

639
00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:44,239
We also didn't know one hundred percent of what was coming.

640
00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:48,079
Where the dams had been at flood level for two

641
00:35:48,159 --> 00:35:54,800
days before the actual flooding happened, and they didn't release

642
00:35:54,880 --> 00:36:01,679
any of that. So on Friday you had probably trillions

643
00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:04,239
of gallons of water come ripper or down those rivers.

644
00:36:04,719 --> 00:36:06,920
Poggy Road I know, had like a sixty five foot

645
00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:10,519
wall water came down. It just channelized. There's a picture

646
00:36:10,559 --> 00:36:12,239
I've got, but it doesn't do it justice. You have

647
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:14,119
to see it to really get the scope and scale

648
00:36:14,119 --> 00:36:18,000
of it. An eighty foot high bridge just got ripped

649
00:36:18,039 --> 00:36:21,199
out and floated down the river by a sixty five

650
00:36:21,199 --> 00:36:26,119
foot wall of water. In one area outside Burnsville that

651
00:36:26,159 --> 00:36:29,800
we're searching for some folks, seven people got swept out.

652
00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:35,599
They had minutes of warning, probably, and they had no

653
00:36:35,639 --> 00:36:37,239
idea what was coming. They didn't know a forty foot

654
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:41,840
wall a water was coming their way, and they had

655
00:36:42,199 --> 00:36:44,960
run off coming down the mountain behind them in one direction,

656
00:36:45,159 --> 00:36:46,760
and then a wall of water to the other direction,

657
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:50,039
so they had nowhere to go. There was no time

658
00:36:50,079 --> 00:36:54,360
to react. Either you were lucky or you weren't, and

659
00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:58,440
most people got lucky and some didn't. There's some pretty

660
00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:01,880
heartbreaking stories out there in that area because they lost

661
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:04,800
so many people in such a small community, a couple

662
00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:10,599
of which still haven't been found, where entire families got

663
00:37:10,599 --> 00:37:12,920
swept down the river while everyone had to watch. And

664
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:17,920
you know, I was going around with a family member

665
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,280
collecting witness videos so that we could use frame by

666
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:22,480
frame rate to estimate the water velocity, so that we

667
00:37:22,519 --> 00:37:26,719
could try to narrow the search corridor using some mathematics

668
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:31,039
of what we're doing. And those videos were tough to watch,

669
00:37:31,199 --> 00:37:35,199
real tough. So one of the old guys that had

670
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:36,480
him on his phone, he's like, you know, I've been

671
00:37:36,519 --> 00:37:38,360
waiting for you, for you to show up to come

672
00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:41,559
see me. I said he had seen on his phone,

673
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:44,519
and he just broke down crying. He couldn't even watch

674
00:37:44,559 --> 00:37:46,360
it again because he's like, you know, these people getting

675
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:48,320
swept out and screaming for me to come help him,

676
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:50,280
and I couldn't because I would have drawn too. And

677
00:37:50,639 --> 00:37:52,039
we've seen a lot of that out there.

678
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:56,119
Speaker 1: How bad is the Has it started freezing up there yet?

679
00:37:56,159 --> 00:37:58,480
Has it started getting to the water start I sent

680
00:37:58,599 --> 00:37:59,159
up yet.

681
00:38:00,519 --> 00:38:03,719
Speaker 2: Opening Spruce Pond In the areas of higher elevation, it

682
00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:06,760
definitely has. We've had snow a few times over the

683
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:11,079
last couple of weeks, So the need for getting people

684
00:38:11,199 --> 00:38:16,280
into some somewhere warm is very urgent right now. It's critical.

685
00:38:17,639 --> 00:38:19,960
While these reporters keep coming out and talking to us.

686
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:24,199
We've been on interview by TV stations numerous times about

687
00:38:24,239 --> 00:38:28,360
hot tents, and it builds awareness, but it doesn't seem

688
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:31,000
to produce any resources. It doesn't seem to change the

689
00:38:31,039 --> 00:38:34,719
situation on the ground as far as hot tents getting

690
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:38,920
donated or fund's coming in or manpowerful volunteers coming in.

691
00:38:40,039 --> 00:38:43,599
So you know, we're getting close to January, it's going

692
00:38:43,639 --> 00:38:46,440
to get even colder than it already is. There's already

693
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:49,679
been people that have died of hypothermia out here in

694
00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:53,559
the last few weeks. And we've got a waiting list

695
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:55,920
right now, people waiting on us to come out there

696
00:38:56,079 --> 00:38:59,480
and set up a hot tent form. So we're getting

697
00:38:59,559 --> 00:39:01,480
as fast as as we can, and we're getting out

698
00:39:01,519 --> 00:39:03,199
there as quick as we can to get them set up.

699
00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:07,159
But you know, there's eight of us, and there's hundreds

700
00:39:07,199 --> 00:39:10,840
of these people. A lot a lot of other groups

701
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:15,360
are trying to help us out, but it doesn't seem

702
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:18,639
like the the urgency of the situation is understood by

703
00:39:18,719 --> 00:39:20,719
anyone outside the affected area.

704
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:27,320
Speaker 1: On that note, what can if somebody wanted to like

705
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:30,440
buy up buy a few of these yurts and send

706
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:33,400
them to you. Obviously we don't want to give the

707
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:36,360
address out on the air and everything. I mean, I

708
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:40,159
have the address that we sent the uh we sent

709
00:39:40,199 --> 00:39:44,440
the raft to. What would you be able to get

710
00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:48,079
me exactly what you would need so we could possibly

711
00:39:48,079 --> 00:39:50,679
get some more ordered and uh and get them sent

712
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:53,239
up there is that? Is that something you'd want?

713
00:39:54,199 --> 00:39:57,679
Speaker 2: Yeah, and i'll uh, I'll get you an updated address

714
00:39:57,719 --> 00:40:00,199
for shipping to a staging area that we have. It's

715
00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:02,519
kind of more centralized because we're having to go between

716
00:40:02,559 --> 00:40:05,079
East Tennessee and all the way down to the south

717
00:40:05,199 --> 00:40:08,239
end of West North Carolina. We don't care where they are.

718
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:11,320
We don't care whether they were almost before the flood

719
00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:14,760
after the flood. You know, the only stipulation that we

720
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:17,239
have is that they be a human being as cold

721
00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:19,519
no matter how far away we got to drive, we'll

722
00:40:19,519 --> 00:40:22,880
get out there. A lot of well meaning people from

723
00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:26,719
out of state started donating the wrong hot tents that

724
00:40:26,719 --> 00:40:29,519
we're actually having the inventory all of those and figure

725
00:40:29,519 --> 00:40:32,079
out what we're going to do with them. So I'll

726
00:40:32,079 --> 00:40:36,000
shoot you the information for the right one and the

727
00:40:36,079 --> 00:40:38,360
address to ship them to. That'd be a huge help.

728
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:44,079
We picked this one specifically because not only is it

729
00:40:44,119 --> 00:40:46,400
big enough for a whole family and not always it

730
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:51,039
actually capable of keeping them warm in the higher elevations

731
00:40:51,079 --> 00:40:53,800
up here in the mountains, but also because it's safe.

732
00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:58,599
You know, it's the manufacturer has been making these for

733
00:40:58,639 --> 00:41:00,519
a while, so they're not going to burn and the

734
00:41:00,599 --> 00:41:03,840
occupants down. Some of the tents that people have seen

735
00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:07,840
us are some TMU brand knockoffs of the tent that

736
00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:13,599
we have, and we can't use them because I wouldn't

737
00:41:13,599 --> 00:41:16,159
feel safe putting a family in it. If I wouldn't

738
00:41:16,159 --> 00:41:17,360
want my kids in it, and I'm not going to

739
00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:18,360
put someone else's in it.

740
00:41:19,039 --> 00:41:22,280
Speaker 1: And I was saying, those yurts, I've actually camped in,

741
00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:26,159
camped in those before in the middle of winter, and

742
00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:28,840
they do heat up, and they do. I understand why

743
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:32,119
you're using them because if they're good Yeah, if they're

744
00:41:32,119 --> 00:41:34,079
a good quality, they will keep people warm.

745
00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:38,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, they get toasty. I actually stay didn't want a

746
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:42,559
couple of nights and while it was snowing pretty hard here,

747
00:41:42,840 --> 00:41:46,880
really cold, and I was warm the entire night. You know,

748
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:48,760
a lot of these people out here, we've been giving

749
00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:52,599
them buddy heaters running on propane are only good for

750
00:41:52,599 --> 00:41:56,920
a few hours and then they're cold again. These yurts

751
00:41:56,920 --> 00:41:59,039
are the easiest solution that actually works. And all we

752
00:41:59,119 --> 00:42:02,119
got to do is supplying with fire wood. And you know,

753
00:42:02,159 --> 00:42:05,159
there's an abundance of that right now. We're surrounded by it.

754
00:42:05,639 --> 00:42:10,239
There's mountains of it in every direction. Anything involving pro

755
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:13,360
paine and kerosene is not sustainable. We can't run every

756
00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:17,280
single family propane every day for ever, but we can

757
00:42:17,400 --> 00:42:20,559
keep sending dump truck loads of firewood to every community

758
00:42:20,599 --> 00:42:22,039
and make sure they have plenty of that.

759
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:26,400
Speaker 1: That's great. How many would you say you need right now,

760
00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:27,639
as far as yours.

761
00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:32,760
Speaker 2: Go, I'd say at least eighteen. That's just to knock

762
00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:34,760
through the rest of our waiting list, on top of

763
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:36,239
the few that we're picking up tomorrow.

764
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:40,599
Speaker 1: All right, Well, if you get me the address, If

765
00:42:40,599 --> 00:42:43,320
you get me that address for the staging area and everything.

766
00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:46,440
When I release this, I'll also put out to my

767
00:42:46,519 --> 00:42:51,760
mailing list information about that and try to get people

768
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:55,239
to you know, if I give them that address privately,

769
00:42:55,639 --> 00:42:57,960
they can have it sent directly there. If I need

770
00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:00,440
to take if I need to take donations for it

771
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:03,280
myself in order to send them, I'll do that too.

772
00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:08,559
So I'll do whatever I can to make sure, because yeah,

773
00:43:08,599 --> 00:43:11,440
I mean, I live in Alabama and it's it's already

774
00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:13,559
getting cold at night, so I can just imagine what

775
00:43:13,599 --> 00:43:14,519
it's like up there.

776
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:16,880
Speaker 2: Same here, man, I live in Enterprise.

777
00:43:20,079 --> 00:43:26,320
Speaker 1: But I mean, I really really don't know, don't know

778
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:29,239
much more to talk about. What's to talk about unless

779
00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:31,039
you guys have anything on your mind that you want

780
00:43:31,079 --> 00:43:32,320
to you want to express.

781
00:43:34,119 --> 00:43:38,800
Speaker 2: I just think it's it's astonunding to me because I mean,

782
00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:41,960
I live down by the Gulf Coast. Some eastern hurricanes

783
00:43:43,039 --> 00:43:46,599
slamming into my backyard every season, and I know what

784
00:43:46,639 --> 00:43:49,840
the response looks like down there. We're prepared for. It

785
00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:54,800
happens every year. The city's down there are essentially designed

786
00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:58,079
to drain quickly, so the water receeds and the logistics

787
00:43:58,159 --> 00:43:59,960
is much simpler down there. You're not in the mountain,

788
00:44:00,159 --> 00:44:04,159
you're not the Hollers, it doesn't get cold, there's plenty

789
00:44:04,199 --> 00:44:07,960
of roads in It's on flat land. Up here. Is

790
00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:13,679
definitely a test, a stress test of our ability to

791
00:44:13,719 --> 00:44:16,400
be able to react and help each other in a

792
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:19,880
time of crisis without very much government intervention, or at

793
00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:26,400
least not with very efficient government intervention. It's astounding to me, though,

794
00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:29,480
to be twelve weeks out and to have so many

795
00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:36,000
families having to look for their dead relatives by themselves,

796
00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:43,719
no resources being committed to this whatsoever. They're just out

797
00:44:43,719 --> 00:44:46,679
there looking on their own. And you know, one of

798
00:44:46,679 --> 00:44:48,920
the family members we work with, Kelly, she's doing what

799
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:54,800
she calls redneck math, where she's calculating where her cousin

800
00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:58,800
might be based on with the river and depth of

801
00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:01,239
the river at the time that her cousin was swept out,

802
00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:03,559
and water velocity and the mass, you know, the weight

803
00:45:03,599 --> 00:45:06,760
of the person, and plotting on a map with me

804
00:45:07,079 --> 00:45:09,320
where all the other people were found, and then plugging

805
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:14,719
that into AI and doing a bunch of math. And

806
00:45:15,159 --> 00:45:17,679
we showed that to emergency management. They were really impressed.

807
00:45:17,719 --> 00:45:20,159
They're like, wow, you've been quantifying the search area with

808
00:45:20,360 --> 00:45:23,960
you know, we're talking like geospatial and geotechnical engineering and

809
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:28,519
hydrology stuff that's way out of my wheelhouse. And she's

810
00:45:28,599 --> 00:45:30,480
having to do this all by herself. She's having to

811
00:45:30,519 --> 00:45:32,480
take off days off of work, every day to go

812
00:45:32,559 --> 00:45:36,320
meet with emergency management with me and go out and

813
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:40,000
talk to local law enforcement and go do site surveys

814
00:45:40,119 --> 00:45:44,920
areas for us to search. And it's strange to me,

815
00:45:45,039 --> 00:45:47,440
like why is she having to do this as her

816
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:51,840
second full time job? Why is there no resources? Now,

817
00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:53,880
it's great when we go on the Tennessee side, there's

818
00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:56,840
some law enforcement partners and a ust our team and

819
00:45:56,920 --> 00:45:59,760
emergency management that are outstanding. You know, they go above

820
00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:03,800
them yon to help us out. But in other areas,

821
00:46:04,639 --> 00:46:06,920
she's just out there doing this on her own. And

822
00:46:06,960 --> 00:46:09,159
some are these other families, And there's plenty of families

823
00:46:09,199 --> 00:46:11,280
that were not helping that we don't have enough resources

824
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:15,559
for that. You know, they are having to rebuild their house,

825
00:46:17,199 --> 00:46:20,719
mourn their lost loved ones, work a full time job,

826
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:23,079
and then around that they have to go look for

827
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:29,239
their missing relative on their own. I've never seen anything

828
00:46:29,320 --> 00:46:29,880
like it before.

829
00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:34,039
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I just I can't tell you how

830
00:46:34,079 --> 00:46:38,280
much I appreciate what you guys are doing, and you know,

831
00:46:38,360 --> 00:46:42,039
allowing our guys like Melon and Everything's come out there

832
00:46:42,039 --> 00:46:45,440
and help you. And you know, I know that he's

833
00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:50,000
he can't say enough nice things about you guys and

834
00:46:51,599 --> 00:46:54,800
you know, he's he's part of a fraternity that you know,

835
00:46:54,800 --> 00:47:00,079
we're all part of a fraternity, and he's, uh, thank you,

836
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:03,719
thank you for allowing allowing us to help. And you know,

837
00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:06,400
if there's any other way, like I said, well, I'll

838
00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:08,079
do as much as I can to get you more

839
00:47:08,119 --> 00:47:12,840
tense and hopefully this will if you need more, if

840
00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:15,559
you need more hands up, there might be able to

841
00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:19,239
might be able to pull that off too. So yeah,

842
00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:21,360
I mean, I just don't know what else to say

843
00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:25,360
at this point. It's I knew when this happened, knowing

844
00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:28,159
what the political climate's been like for you know, the

845
00:47:28,199 --> 00:47:30,679
past four years, that y'all are going to be on

846
00:47:30,719 --> 00:47:35,639
your own, and that you know, Americans, we're gonna real Americans,

847
00:47:35,679 --> 00:47:39,039
We're gonna have to do this for ourselves.

848
00:47:40,960 --> 00:47:44,039
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of same like it. Yeah, well, you know,

849
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:48,119
it's just neighbors, open neighbors. If the situation was reversed,

850
00:47:48,159 --> 00:47:50,000
they would do the same for us. I'm confident in

851
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:52,159
that based on the great people I've met out here,

852
00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:56,079
and Melan's been awesome. I can't speak highly enough with

853
00:47:56,239 --> 00:47:59,239
him and all the guys with OGC that have been

854
00:47:59,280 --> 00:48:01,159
out here helping us. Every single one of them has

855
00:48:01,199 --> 00:48:04,800
been outstanding a huge asset out here to us, to

856
00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:09,559
the community, to local public safety and government. I know

857
00:48:09,719 --> 00:48:13,960
a couple of the OGC guys basically coordinated the entire

858
00:48:14,039 --> 00:48:16,400
town by themselves with a couple of laptops out of

859
00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:20,400
the Visitors Center and Black Mountain and got all the

860
00:48:20,519 --> 00:48:24,079
organizations tied in talking to each other. Probably saved a

861
00:48:24,119 --> 00:48:27,639
lot of lives. To be honest, a lot of the

862
00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:31,400
things happening out here, we wouldn't be where we're at

863
00:48:31,440 --> 00:48:35,000
without guys like Melon. So I know, like we're doing

864
00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:38,320
the shiny cool guy stuff which fizzles out quickly and

865
00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:43,079
doesn't last, but stuff like what he's been doing supporting

866
00:48:43,159 --> 00:48:48,360
us as a huge impact is why we've been able

867
00:48:48,360 --> 00:48:50,360
to stay out here for so long. And it's guys

868
00:48:50,400 --> 00:48:53,320
like you, Pete and your audience, and you're getting us

869
00:48:53,360 --> 00:48:56,920
a raft that wasn't salvage out of the trash. That

870
00:48:57,280 --> 00:49:01,639
thing held up phenomenally, patched and pulled out of the

871
00:49:01,679 --> 00:49:05,920
trash over rivers that are filled with debris and that

872
00:49:06,039 --> 00:49:08,440
have had the railroads pushed into them by cus X.

873
00:49:08,719 --> 00:49:11,920
But we were pushing it beyond the capacity what it

874
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:15,280
was designed for, so that raft you got us. That's

875
00:49:15,360 --> 00:49:18,199
actually for the job that we're doing. That's that was huge.

876
00:49:18,320 --> 00:49:22,039
So we really appreciate that. And we appreciate everything Melon's

877
00:49:22,039 --> 00:49:24,159
been doing out here for us and all the guys

878
00:49:24,199 --> 00:49:28,679
from old Glory Club. They've been a huge help to us.

879
00:49:29,159 --> 00:49:32,639
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to keep trying, and like I said,

880
00:49:32,679 --> 00:49:37,639
we'll only sign off. Get me that information, and you know,

881
00:49:37,760 --> 00:49:40,360
we'll see about getting getting those tents up there. I'll

882
00:49:40,360 --> 00:49:44,239
see we'll try to pull off some magic and get

883
00:49:44,239 --> 00:49:44,599
that up.

884
00:49:45,519 --> 00:49:49,840
Speaker 2: It would be awesome. Yeah, that'd be outstanding. Thank you, Ben. Yeah,

885
00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:51,519
we don't want a bunch of money, We just want

886
00:49:51,519 --> 00:49:52,000
hot tents.

887
00:49:53,199 --> 00:49:56,239
Speaker 3: We appreciate it as to get a raft, that is saying,

888
00:49:56,400 --> 00:49:58,559
and that's all we really needed.

889
00:49:58,679 --> 00:50:01,159
Speaker 2: We're all all everyone in here is already in the

890
00:50:01,199 --> 00:50:03,079
hole in their bank account. We're not working about that.

891
00:50:03,119 --> 00:50:05,639
We just want to make sure we keep everyone warm.

892
00:50:05,679 --> 00:50:10,079
Speaker 1: All right, Well I'm gonna sign off. Don't don't disconnect

893
00:50:10,079 --> 00:50:13,880
because I can get that information from you. But thank

894
00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:16,639
you and thanks for talking to Thanks for talking to us.

895
00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:17,599
Really appreciate it.

896
00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:20,320
Speaker 2: Thanks for having us on. We appreciate you. Man.

897
00:50:24,599 --> 00:50:24,639
Speaker 3: H