Volume 25, Issue 8
WisconsinChristianNews.com
Page 13
Hurricane Helene — Another 9/11 For Southern Appalachia
By Clay Parker, Salt & Light Brigade I wonder how many of you are truly aware of the immense tragedy that oc- curred in the Southern Ap- palachian region on 9/27/2024. I’m sure the coastal regions further south experienced de-
ple who could not get to higher ground in time lit- erally had to be rescued from the roof! An internet search on this matter revealed the following infor- mation: “The Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Ten- nessee was notified to evacuate at around 9:30 AM local time on Friday due to flooding from the Nolichucky River: The flooding was caused by heavy rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane He- lene. The Nolichucky River was flowing at a rate of 140,000 gallons per second, which is twice the rate of Niagara Falls.” Some folks are not aware that prior to the hurri- cane arriving, the Southern Appalachian region had experienced much rain during the preceding three days, and then, as the storm brought all that warm moisture with it up from the Gulf of Mexico, it traveled quickly inland, but then it kind of stalled a bit as it crossed over the mountainous areas. That warm moisture arrived at the tall mountain peaks which rise upwards of 4000 feet above sea level in places, causing the warmer air to be pushed and forced up into the higher elevations, causing it to rapidly condense, and resulting in massively dense and heavy amounts of rain to fall into the already well saturated mountainous re- gion. There are many dams in the region which the Tennessee Valley Authority oversees. The TVA is responsible for controlling water levels best that they can. Apparently, the extremely heavy amounts of rain falling in such a short time span must have caused this to be an uncontrollable and overwhelming chore, for eventually the water began to over-top the dams. The high winds downed massive amounts of trees in the areas of higher elevations. Way up toward the tops of mountains, so much water was falling from the sky that the underground springs overflowed and burst forth, resulting in massive landslides. The land of the forest became too saturated, causing the soil to “give way” or “let loose” from the bedrock, along with the trees, shrubs, boulders, and rocks that were also present. Once the flow of debris started down the mountain, it pulled everything it it’s path down with it. Imagine a giant locomotive engine formed of water, mud, rocks, boulders, trees, and logs com- ing down the slope from a steep mountain top, roaring down toward the river bottom at high speed, and taking everything out that happens to be in its path; leaving a corridor of destruction be- hind, that in some cases was wider than a football field! Whether it be a roadway, a bridge, a train trestle, a home, or a building; whatever was in its path was destroyed! Many landslides occurred. Some homes that were not even flooded or harmed by wind, were “taken out” by some of these landslides. There were people who were re- portedly swept away and buried by the debris. Sur- vivors report that they could hear a massive roar approaching, and then the devastation would sud- denly and swiftly come upon them! Those who were in homes that took a direct hit from a land- slide had very little chance of survival. In many cases, the debris would find its way right into the river, causing the waters of the river to not only rise suddenly, but with all the debris added would cause the waters to become much more destruc- tive. Continued on Page 16
Hallelujah! I was mighty thankful for this blessing. At that time, I had no idea that just 29 miles away, nearly unimaginable devastation had occurred. Many lives were lost, and a great many lives were changed forever. It was not until much later in the day that I discovered that devastation had oc- curred in areas nearby. Now, understand as we go forward that there is just too much information to cover here in regard to the extent of devastation; so, in order to prevent this article from being too lengthy, I’ll continue by providing some pertinent details, and insert some
to higher ground, along with any livestock that you may have enclosed in pens located in low lying areas. Making sure that the tractor was out of the lower field, and that the firewood was off the ground and covered, along with the feed and fer- tilizer. And if the water should rise to levels signif- icantly higher than normal, that’d mean that the lower field might be underwater by an inch or two, and the chicken pen might flood and cause the chickens to be stuck up on their roosts for a while. The roads and bridges in the lowest places might be impassible for a maybe a day or so. The corn-
struction as well, but, I’m here to tell you, the extent and amount of devastation that occurred in areas of the Southern Appalachian region is “of nearly biblical proportions.” The destruction was so terrible and extreme that it causes one to wonder whether “supernatural phenomena” might have occurred. In other words, this was a life altering event in both scope and scale, and in my opinion, the long term effects that this will have on the survivors will have much in common with the people who survived the attacks on the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001. Let me explain. Understand that I grew up in the coastal city of Mobile, Alabama, located at the entrance to Mobile Bay, which is just “a stone’s throw” from the Gulf of Mexico. Some folks consider this region as “Hur- ricane Alley.” Dealing with hurricanes down there is, for the most part, just a normal burden of life that is expected and anticipated to occur every so often. I spent nearly three and a half decades of my life down there, and during that time I’ve ridden out my share of hurricanes and storms. Hurricane Frederick of 1979 was the worst to hit Mobile during my lifetime, for it was a category 4 storm, and the eye of the storm passed directly over the city. The home which we lived in at the time of Frederick was located across the street from an 18-hole golf course and just down the street from a large city park. I was only a child at that time, but I remember being told that there were approximately 5,000 mature southern pine trees that were downed from the storm just in the area of the city park and the golf-course. I don’t doubt that to be true, for I still have a photo some- where of that golf course after the storm, and the fairway of the course is mostly covered in multiple layers of fallen trees, one upon another. But that is another story. I only mentioned that to provide you some background information before reporting this… that the extent of damage caused by Hurri- cane Frederick, especially in regard to water dam- age, is not even comparable to the extent of damage that I have witnessed here in the Southern Appalachian region following Hurricane Helene. So, let us now attend to this story. After moving from south Alabama almost 18 years ago, I relocated to upper-east Tennessee where I live today. In this Southern Appalachia re- gion, we never worry about having any significant storm damage from hurricanes or tropical storms. For the most part, we are extremely blessed not to have many significant weather events to worry about; this is a region where even damaging tor- nados are a rarity, and any significant earthquakes have been nearly non-existent since the days of Tennessee’s favored son, David Crockett. So when the people around here got the news of Hur- ricane Helene heading our way, our biggest con- cern was “how long will our power be out?” — mainly because it seems that most anytime the wind blows through the mountain hollers, many folks always seem to lose power for a time. For the most part, we were thinking that we needed to make a run to the store to get some extra food supplies. Make sure the generator was operable. Fill propane tanks or bottles and any spare fuel cans. Bring the plastic lawn chairs in close to the house, and park the car in a place where it might be safe from any random tree limb that might come down as the storm blows over. In regard to worrying about flooding that could occur as a result of heavy rain… even if you lived on the upper banks of the river, the main things that you’d worry about was stuff such as having to move the boat a little further up into the yard, a good ways from the water’s edge, and making sure it was tied-off to a tree or post. Bring the round bales of hay up from any fields along the low areas
of my own thoughts along the way. I’ll refer to some cities and locations by name, but for the most part, much of the destruction reported here represents what has occurred in many and various locations within the devastation area which gener- ally extends from Asheville, NC to the south, to Jonesborough, TN to the north, to Chilhowie, VA to the east, and to Newport, TN to the west. Please, kindly pardon me if I left any devastated areas out of this specified region. Most of the dev- astation occurred in the low lying areas along the creeks, tributaries and rivers within the mountains. This was mostly due to flooding, but massive land- slides were also a major contributor to the devas- tation. The towns of Jonesborough and Embreeville, TN are located within 30 miles of my home; it troubled my soul to find out that lives were lost there, and that human bodies displaced from other areas up- stream had washed into and through the area. On Sept 26, the day before the storm arrived, it had already been raining for the most part of two days, and the rain continued; the water levels in some of the rivers had already risen above the normal high water levels. By that evening, and as night time approached, the water levels began to rise to a level of major concern. Those who didn’t already have water lapping against their porches, went to bed wondering just how high the water would get. By morning, in the mountainous areas of the re- gion, the water in the rivers had not only risen many feet in depth, the water had risen to levels which had not been witnessed during the lifetime of the folks who are alive today! By the end of day on September 27, the water level of the Pigeon
field would be too soggy for the locals to come visit the corn maze until it dries out. If you live on a hill and have a gravel driveway, a big nuisance that often occurs during flooding conditions is that the heavy rains will likely wash a lot of your gravel down the hill, causing you the painstaking work of having to replace it after the storm, and compact- ing it back into place. It’s definitely no fun to have a big storm come through, but for most, it’s not a significant worry around these parts. Most times you are even expected to report to work as normal; this was indeed the case for many on the morning of 9/27/2024. Here in southern Appalachia, at day break on the morning of 9/27/2024, the day started off fairly normal for most of us that lived well away from the river. As for myself, I live about 29 miles from the river. On this day, I had an appointment to take my vehicle to the local Ford dealership to have a safety recall performed. My appointment was at 10 AM, so with it raining and the forecast indicating more rain and wind on the way, I figured I’d better call the service center and see if they still planned to be open for business. I called, and they con- firmed that my appointment remained on schedule for 10 AM. I looked at the forecast and decided that I’d drive on over there, tough it out through the rain, and get the work performed. En route, I saw that there was already a power outage in one part of town, but this wasn’t unusual for a stormy day. When I arrived at the service center, I was in- formed that the mechanic assigned to perform the work, had not arrived; he was stranded at his home due to waters flooding the area where he lives. As it turns out, he lives up in the mountains near the border of upper-east Tennessee and western North Carolina. I was told that we’d have to reschedule the repair for another time. Little did I know that it would be several weeks before that mechanic would be able to return to work. I left out from there and elected to run a few er- rands in the area of Kingsport, while the rain con- tinued. Eventually, the rain passed. On the way home, I drove through some low lying areas near Horse Creek, and found that even the lowest of roads in my route weren’t flooded. That was a bit surprising, but not completely unexpected, for I could tell by looking at the clouds, that the outer bands of the storm were passing overhead. We’d not taken a direct hit. When I arrived home, I found our gravel driveway to be in good repair, our home was undamaged, and even our plastic lawn chairs were still in place up against the side of the house.
River running through New- port, TN report- edly rose to a peak level of 29.72 feet; that is 5.5 feet higher than the previ- ous record set in 1904! Sixty miles to the east, in Erwin, TN, the Unicoi County Hospital was massively flooded, and had to be evac- uated. The peo-
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