Hurricane Helene

kenny thomas · Oct 23, 2024

I dont see FEMA bringing any supplies. They come to see how much damage there is. Hope i am wrong but it never seems to happen.
Maybe close to 20 years ago there was a hurricane came ashore near Beaumont TX. CB can tell us more.
Anyway i was at the Ford Center outside of Beaumont working command helping the state of TX. We had a lot there where we could park close to 100 truckloads of food, ice, water. We could get out 90+ trucks out to the counties per day.
FEMA had a lot that would hold probably 500 trucks. Dozens of generators were brought to their lot. They might get out 5 trucks a day. FEMA ordered 4 fuel trucks from Virginia to fuel our 10 pickups.
After a few days they set up sleeping tents. Kitchen tents, portable bathrooms, portable showers. All for the 12 of us and FEMA workers. I was told the company got 1 million for sitting up plus so much a day.
We slept in 2 person tents and traveled several counties each day seeing what the needs were and ordering supplies for them. Never seen a FEMA person out in the counties.
Southern Mens Baptist Association from Sullivan County TN was set up in one county by the morning after the hurricane. They had saw crews working and were feeding several hundred people a day. They supplied everything they needed. No FEMA there either.
I also worked south TX near Brute after Hurricane Harvey. FEMA showed up and told people they needed to drive to them to apply for help. Some of the most damaged areas were close to 80 miles away. Old people who had lost everything including a way to drive to apply. Plus no gas. Never seen FEMA where it was really bad.
The community's and people from all over TX responded to help. Cajun Navy helped near the TX border. Hook that was once a CT member hauled loads of supplies from Florida. Never seen FEMA get their hands dirty.
FEMA employees are not bad people but some are very restricted in what they are allowed to do.
This year is probably my 12th hurricane and people helping people is the strongest it has been. Help the groups that help the people. And not Red Cross.

greybeard · Oct 23, 2024

That, would probably have been Hurricane Rita, in Sept 2005, about a month after Hurricane Katrina.
Cat 3, made landfall just (barely) over the border in Louisiana in Cameron parish. I was living out in San Angelo at the time but had planned to be North of Houston the weekend after it went thru. Dad told me to hold off, as they still had no electricity and even after I moved back full time in May 2006, the damage was still clearly evident. Luckily we were on the NW side there in San Jacinto county, far enough away not to recieve the brunt of it.

cfpinz · Oct 24, 2024

kenny thomas said:
I dont see FEMA bringing any supplies. They come to see how much damage there is. Hope i am wrong but it never seems to happen.
Maybe close to 20 years ago there was a hurricane came ashore near Beaumont TX. CB can tell us more.
Anyway i was at the Ford Center outside of Beaumont working command helping the state of TX. We had a lot there where we could park close to 100 truckloads of food, ice, water. We could get out 90+ trucks out to the counties per day.
FEMA had a lot that would hold probably 500 trucks. Dozens of generators were brought to their lot. They might get out 5 trucks a day. FEMA ordered 4 fuel trucks from Virginia to fuel our 10 pickups.
After a few days they set up sleeping tents. Kitchen tents, portable bathrooms, portable showers. All for the 12 of us and FEMA workers. I was told the company got 1 million for sitting up plus so much a day.
We slept in 2 person tents and traveled several counties each day seeing what the needs were and ordering supplies for them. Never seen a FEMA person out in the counties.
Southern Mens Baptist Association from Sullivan County TN was set up in one county by the morning after the hurricane. They had saw crews working and were feeding several hundred people a day. They supplied everything they needed. No FEMA there either.
I also worked south TX near Brute after Hurricane Harvey. FEMA showed up and told people they needed to drive to them to apply for help. Some of the most damaged areas were close to 80 miles away. Old people who had lost everything including a way to drive to apply. Plus no gas. Never seen FEMA where it was really bad.
The community's and people from all over TX responded to help. Cajun Navy helped near the TX border. Hook that was once a CT member hauled loads of supplies from Florida. Never seen FEMA get their hands dirty.
FEMA employees are not bad people but some are very restricted in what they are allowed to do.
This year is probably my 12th hurricane and people helping people is the strongest it has been. Help the groups that help the people. And not Red Cross.

That's pretty much spot on from what we gathered in TN the other week. We were there around the 1.5 week mark after Helene hit, and I didn't hear a single good word from any local regarding FEMA or any other government agency. One family we spoke with said that some representatives from FEMA had showed up around that timeframe to access damage, but that was it. I remember seeing one National Guard convoy and multiple helicopters following the river, but never saw any of them actually do any work. Nor did I see a single vehicle with anything to do with the Red Cross associated with it.

What I did notice was the number of local churches and fire houses with supply drop-off/delivery setups, and offering free meals and showers to those in need. I also noticed the utility companies who had ran new poles and service lines faster than I had ever imagined possible, and the countless local and non-local volunteers who showed up with what they had to work with and did whatever they could. Also met some local folks that had helped to rescue their neighbors as well as their neighbors' animals, and had displaced folks living in their camper as their house had washed away - just a couple hundred yards away. Your neighbors and first responders are the ones who are going to be there when you need something, not any government agency.

I've heard good things about God's Pit Crew and Samaritan's Purse, but never had any actual dealings with either organization.

simme · Jan 10, 2026

It has been well over a year since Helene poured out its devastation. Probably most of the country has moved on. But the work and the needs continue. There is this guy Jake Jarvis that I keep hearing about. You might find this story interesting and inspirational.

Jake owns Precision Grading in Western NC. When the devastation occurred, he felt the need to respond. He has apparently been working full time in the Bat Cave and surrounding area for 470 days putting things back together. Operating off donations! His labor, his employees, his equipment. For no charge to the people he is helping. Lots of retaining walls, bridges, roads and driveways, cleanup and whatever is needed.

Rugged terrain, steep slopes, very limited access. Has to be very rough on the equipment, mind and body.

His work is well documented on FB, very interesting, like a good book that you can't put down. Not everyone has FB, so I will post a few pictures.

A few pictures don't do justice to the work he has done. Here are some links that include his work.
https://www.facebook.com/gradinghendersonville

The Long Road Home Documentary exploring Helene one year later

https://wlos.com/news/local/local-w...-honda-pioneer-recovery-equipment-competition

Here is his post from 2 days ago as he completed one project to save a home.

"Thursday day… who knows. I’ve lost count and I’m exhausted.
Today we FINALLY completed all of the boulder work and landslide repairs at the Miller home. I’m not going to lie, this project exhausted me mentally, financially, and physically more than any other project yet. I bet I carefully placed and positioned over 500 boulders, each weighing between 4,000 to 12,000+ lbs, on the steepest slopes you could imagine.
The boulders were all purchased by the Millers from The Rock Man in Canton NC, but the dedication of our equipment and nanpower from the beginning of October until today hurt financially as the donations have all but stopped coming in… The homeowners were looking at possibly abandoning the home as they couldn’t begin to afford to repair and stabilize the home, so what choice did I have. I committed myself and my crew to fix it, and see it through until the end. They are sweet elderly people and this is their only home on a fixed income. The boulders cost them a fortune, but it was a fraction of what it would have been to hire a contractor to do what we did. I may go broke, but I can’t turn my back on the sweet residents still suffering in WNC.
It came out absolutely gorgeous and gave them three different levels of walls that will be there longer than the home itself. They are very proud of their property again and most of all SAFE from future storms. I guarantee all of my boulder walls for life, and even though the post Helene walls are donated, they are still

under warranty.
I’ll post drone footage as soon as we get it, as that’s the only way to truly appreciate the size of this undertaking. I definitely am looking forward to a mental break after this one and hopefully some type of financial break.
Hope everyone has had a great week!
God bless you all.
Jake