While it can seem weird and scary that there are so many road closures between Tennessee and North Carolina, it's not fake. I drove all over in the mountains and on the highways and byways--for about three days, over 900 miles. Everything is as normal as it can be given the extent of the damages caused by Hurricane Helene.
There are a ton of people working on America and it's not about politics. North Care-o-lina has long been expert, or developing expertise, on functioning as a diversity of private and public, volunteer and dedicated, support and lead groups. And each trouble spot has attending processes.
Over the course of re-opening for business, for example, State and Federal and Insurance people have to eyeball and document everything. Like restoring the grids, each clean up and repair is part of a puzzle. Procedures are dictating because in SAFETY that forms the equivalent of chain of command. And there aren't squirmishes between commanders of groups, "regional" work-throughs are worked through.
There's pressure on all of us to hurry up but that creates more danger! A lot of mountain roads, for instance, are both curvy and steep grade, and bucket trucks can only cone so far out from themselves so driving fast can cause serious accident.
Passable roads does not indicate the "all clear". And on many of the miles I traveled I was driving through tree trunks. Up higher in a lot of spots is sliding down. And at water level much has been swept away. There really is debris everywhere. But like preparing for wildfire, people in place have spent the past two weeks focused on clearing immediate areas.
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