(Transcript) In the Path: Surviving Hurricane Helene

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[00:00:00] Gabriel: Hey, what’s up everyone? Gabriel here. I felt like I should make a brief introductory statement before you listen to this episode, considering just how insane a lot of the discussion on WX social media, particularly Twitter X, whatever the hell you want to call it, has been lately.

[00:00:18] There are a whole lot of opinions about what and what is not considered acceptable discourse around the subject of Hurricane Helene, government assistance, and everything in between. So I just wanted to head off any people who might be inclined to pick up their phone and start typing out some well actually BS in the replies section. This is one person’s experience with the absolutely tragic events that unfolded in Western North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

[00:00:48] And if you happen to dislike what they’re saying, disagree with their opinions, hell, even if you don’t trust the experience that they say that they’ve had, do what adults do. And move along. You can always turn the podcast off if it bothers you that much, but under no circumstances do I want Rosie or her guest to be hassled on social media.

[00:01:08] Now for the majority of you who are probably wondering what the hell I’m talking about, bless your heart. Don’t even worry about it. But for those of you who do know, then you understand. And to everyone, I hope you enjoy the episode.

[00:01:20] Rosie: Hello, everyone. It’s Rosie. I am back with a special episode of “In the Path with Rosie” with a very special guest. His name is Ben from Swannanoa, North Carolina, who wrote out the flooding in his mobile home, which was a total loss, on September 27th when the remnants of Hurricane Helene hit portions of the Appalachians. I’m here to share his story and also provide his GoFundMe information for anyone who is able to help him.

[00:01:52] Rosie: Okay, so hi Ben and thank you a lot for taking the time out to do this.

[00:01:59] Ben: Yeah, definitely.

[00:02:00] Rosie: I know there’s probably a lot going on. To share your story, maybe the first question, maybe start by sharing a bit about yourself and what life was for you before the flooding happened.

[00:02:13] Ben: Sure. I actually work for a landscaping company. I’m an administrator for Natural Escapes of Asheville, Natural Escapes Asheville there. I live on the lot where we keep a lot of our equipment. So our trucks and tools and, plant supplies, things like that. So I live in one of the trailers there because I watched a lot and I worked for the company. So it was just a really convenient situation. I actually moved from Hickory about six months ago to Asheville to work for this company. And everything was going pretty good. Everything was real nice. It was a nice job. Good people. I was getting used to Asheville and, everything was going pretty smooth. So it was a nice situation.

[00:02:56] Rosie: Right. Sounds pretty convenient as well.

[00:02:59] Ben: Yeah, it was real convenient for me and the company and everything. Yeah.

[00:03:04] Rosie: So can you just walk us through the day of the flood? What do you remember most about that day? And do you remember did you know that the flooding was going to happen before it happened?

[00:03:15] Ben: That’s the thing. That’s one of the biggest questions that I get like on my TikTok and everything is that, why didn’t you evacuate? Why didn’t you leave? Why’d you stay in the trailer? And it’s it, a lot of it was a flash flood. So we were getting rain two days before the actual flood, and we knew the hurricane was coming, but that, that, that day on Friday the 27th, the day before that, they were like, we’re gonna get 9 inches of rain on Friday the 27th and I’m like so we’re all thinking okay, yeah, it might be a little flooding here and there, there was nothing serious. There was no major warnings. They weren’t stressed in the seriousness of the storm, nothing. And maybe I here’s… I heard from some people that some areas, they did get a little warning that maybe said, you might want to go to, I don’t know, higher ground or something, but there was only a few areas that got that kind of warning, and we didn’t really have any serious warnings for our area. No one said anything. So over overnight, literally overnight, by the time I got up at around 6, 6:30 in the morning I, and I got up previously throughout the evening just because, you get up in the middle of night sometimes and it was raining, I didn’t notice anything different. It wasn’t like torrential downpour or anything, but when I finally got up at 6, 6:30, I could… it was dark and you could barely see water on the ground, so as I was trying to wait to see what happens as the sun started coming up, like around 7-ish or something like that, 7:10, it’s like, all of a sudden you could see where it was flooded and there were certain areas I was letting my boss know Hey man, there is some flooding down here. And he’s just let me know what’s happened. Keep me posted. I was like, all right. And then it was just raising so fast. And within a half hour, it had raised considerably, and it got to where the tires on the truck, we have a little, we have a little like a Ford truck pickup truck down there on the lot, and it was already at the tires, and he’s man, Ben, we gotta, we gotta move those, we gotta move our work trucks right now and I’m like, Oh, okay. Yeah, sure. Okay. Rodrigo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’m on it, and he didn’t say anything. So I was like Rodrigo. I thought maybe you were joking. Are you serious? I need to move the trucks. He’s yes, we need to move the trucks now. He’s I’m on my way down there.

[00:05:30] Ben: It was already in some areas, like it was almost up to my knee in some areas, but it actually, when I got out there in some areas that were low, it was almost up to my waist. On the lot where you could actually see some of the cars were already getting flooded in. So I was like, geez, so so I went out there. I finally got to move the trucks and it was already picking up, rough wise, the water was getting faster and faster because I had to like, really spread my legs and, take baby steps just to get out to the trucks. And then I finally got moved up to the top of the yard near the road and that’s where everybody was out that morning. Everybody was moving their cars up to higher ground wherever they could. And it was raining. It was windy. And we’re just talking to everybody there and they were just all going to be going back in their trailers. We didn’t have anywhere else to go because my car where my car was in front of my trailer and the water was already so high that I couldn’t even move my car if I wanted to. Right up to the point that we noticed that it was actually flooding to a serious nature. I couldn’t even go anywhere anyway. They had Black Mountain blocked off and they had Exit 59, that area blocked off. My boss couldn’t even get to the lot. He like tried to drive and he went all the way down to Black Mountain, tried to circle around and they wouldn’t even let him come over to the lot to get me. So we were just stuck there. So I went back in, I’m like, there’s no way that this is going to get that high. To go from the river up to my trailer, that’s 20 feet, so I’m like, there’s no way it’s going to get that much water. And of course I haven’t been here before, doing this, but… So then as I’m inside, I just see the water going up and I’m taking a call from some of the employees, some of the employees are calling me, and they’re just asking Hey, man, you okay? What’s going on? And I’m like everything’s okay. The water is going up and I was talking to one of our guys, Andrew, and I said, Andrew, do we’ve been talking for seven minutes and I can tell it’s the water’s raised over six inches already. And I was like, this is getting really weird, man. So as the water started raising, I was keeping in touch with my boss and it got up to my deck and it was covering the first step and then it covered the second step on my deck. And I’m like, oh, man then it got over to almost to the top of my deck. And all of a sudden we get a warning and they’re like, and this is man, 8, 8:30 in the morning? Within an hour and a half is already up to my door, on my trailer. It rose fast, so then we get a warning and they’re like, the dam is at critical mass, get to high ground immediately and I was like that’s not good.

[00:08:01] Ben: Like, where, where am I supposed to go? And there was already rushing water on both sides of my trailer. You couldn’t… it was going so fast, you couldn’t walk anywhere, even if you wanted to. And even my boss before it got too bad, like he was suggesting is like, why don’t you just go up to one of the other trailers that are in higher ground and try to, just talk to them and say, look, let me stay with you guys for a little bit, and those are the trailers got wiped away. So it’s if I would have, if I were left my trailer and went up to somebody else’s trailer that was in a little higher ground that I would have been in worse spot because those are the ones that really got pushed around and demolished by the tractor trailer truck trailers and stuff like that. And so I like my trailer and the water’s rising little by little. That’s where I got those videos where all of a sudden I just saw like this giant, like oil tanker, like one of those big silver tractor trailer truck trailers that hold like all the oil just floating down the river. And it was like being in a scene of some crazy catastrophic movie, where they make that eerie music and like stuff flowing down the river, like mass destruction, I’m like… it was just like the weirdest thing seeing all that happened.

[00:09:05] Rosie: When I seen your video that’s exactly what it felt like I was watching. So like in the video, you know the ones that you like had posted on TikTok and stuff, so that was like I seen almost like a dumpster that was like coming towards you. So that wasn’t like a rush of water? That like gradually raised? It wasn’t like a wave?

[00:09:28] Ben: Yeah. So the problem was that is that right up this right up, further up the road from our lot is a place that had like tractor trailers, and it had like dumpsters. It had just had, it was a stone yard up there. Just all kinds of stuff. Ben As the water was raising little by little, it was like, bringing all that stuff right down towards us. It was just like, hurling things just towards our trailer park. And so man, when I saw those tractor trailer truck, the trailers themselves floating down the river, you can just see it coming around the bend and just floating. And it just was coming right at us. And I was like, oh, my goodness. I cannot believe this is happening. It just that my trailer is literally the smallest trailer in the whole lot, and I have no idea how it stayed on, stayed in place because eventually like a tow behind trailer, like a enclosed 12 foot trailer, whatever, got stuck behind my trailer and then and then like a trailer got stuck on that and then all the water was pushing on that. So I’m like, how on earth does this trailer even staying in place with all that pressure on it?

[00:10:33] Rosie: Yeah. I know it’s amazing that it did stay intact with how much other things. Yeah, that’s destroyed.

[00:10:40] Ben: So the scariest part, I think, was when I when I see that we were about to get flooded in and the water was getting up to my door and I was like okay, we’re gonna get flooded. I need to get everything off the floor. So I went to go get like my clothes and just, just boxes and stuff off the floor, put it on my bed. As I went into my bedroom, all of a sudden that trailer or whatever hit the back of the hat, hit the back of my trailer and busted a hole and just water just started flooding right in. And I was like, Oh, my goodness. And I just ran out of the bedroom. When that happened, all the water rushed in and blocked my door and I couldn’t even open my bedroom door. There was like a foot and a half of water behind the door that and I couldn’t even open the door. And I was like, man, and so we just got, it just got worse from there. And it just kept. That’s when I eventually I saw my neighbor, a couple of times on his deck. And so I tried to yell to them and just to see how they’re doing, but we couldn’t really hear each other, and my voice was just not great. I couldn’t really yell, and just because it just, it was over the rushing water. I just couldn’t hear anything, but he went back inside and that was the last thing that was the last time I saw him was on that video that I had. When he was walking on his deck and the water was already up to about his knees on his deck, if you look at the water and and the water got so high, eventually it came up to my countertops in my trailer. And in his trailer, it was about up to probably his chest. If you look at the waterline on the trailer, it was up to their chest and they’re like 70 years old.

[00:12:11] Rosie: How are they today? Have you heard from them?

[00:12:15] Ben: Unfortunately by now they’re, they didn’t, they more they’re just, they didn’t make it. They, there’s no way. We haven’t seen them. None of the shelters have seen them. We I’ve gotten several calls from different police agencies or whatever, departments that are searching for them and they can’t find them. After 2 weeks, you just have to assume that they probably didn’t make it. And I did talk to the daughter, a couple of times and talking to her. And we come to that realization that, if we haven’t found them by now, then they probably, they didn’t make it, but everyone else in the trailer park had checked in ‘ cause my boss actually owns some of that trailer park. So everyone checked in except for that family.

[00:12:57] Rosie: Okay. Within your trailer park, how many trailers are there?

[00:13:02] Ben: There’s 17 addresses total because some of them, one of them’s like a little mini house, and one of them’s like a two bedroom, three bedroom house. And then and then there’s several trailers. So there’s 17 addresses altogether and the whole park is just wiped away. There’s nothing there except for just a couple demolished trailers.

[00:13:23] Rosie: So like in your video and like, when things started to progress, what were you, what were your thoughts going through your head? Obviously at some point when something like this is happening you’re gonna get scared.

[00:13:35] Ben: Yeah.

[00:13:35] Rosie: At what point do you think you’re like, this is-

[00:13:39] Ben: I’ve always been the kind of person that can think through a situation. I don’t usually, everyone gets scared but I usually can be pretty rational, and so as the water was rising, I was just thinking okay, if this trailer goes, or if I got to get in the river, I need some kind of flotation. So I get, I ended up getting the the mattress out of the bedroom and got it near the door. Because if I had to, I was going to throw the mattress out the door and use it as a flotation device.

[00:14:04] It’s the only thing I could think of. But eventually the water got high when it got up to the countertops and I didn’t know if it was going to keep going or what it was doing. I knew that, I had called 911 twice, I just, I didn’t know who else to call, and both my decks had ripped off, and I couldn’t get to the roof, I didn’t know what I was going to do, I ended up calling my parents, my mom, my stepdad, and I just told them, I was like, hey, listen, I just want you to know that I’m in a very bad situation right now, and I’m up to water, in my waist, up to my waist, in the middle of a flood, and I might have to jump into the water, and they were like whoa, what are you talking about? What are you saying? And I’m like, they hadn’t even heard that we were flooding or that we were having some kind of catastrophe. That’s what kind of blew my mind is that nobody was even aware that this stuff was going on. How does that not get any kind of coverage? They, so they didn’t even know, so I had explained to them what was going on and then I just I’m being serious. I’m not joking with you. This and I said, I’m not really sure what I’m trying to tell you guys. I just I just wanted to let you know I love you, and I’m just saying that if I go jump into this river, this is the kind of stuff that people don’t usually survive. But I was like, but if anybody survives it, I said, it’s going to be me because I am a survivor. I was like, trust me, I will survive, if I can, and but. But that was a hard conversation to have, tell your parents that hey, by the way, I don’t know about 10 minutes. I got a big decision to make and I’m probably not going to live. It’s that was pretty tough.

[00:15:31] Rosie: I can’t even imagine either ends of making that phone call. Even, being a parent, just getting that phone call. I just can’t imagine. I… I’m sure I couldn’t imagine unless I was in that situation. Did you didn’t, did you lose cell phone service at some point or was it after?

[00:15:52] Ben: Yeah, I actually lost it pretty much after that phone conversation I had with my parents. They, it was shortly after that we lost cell tower and then I wasn’t able to get in touch with them for about I would say almost 48 hours. After I made that call I waited until the very last minute because I wasn’t going to jump unless I absolutely had to. If the trailers went off and started floating down the river, I was going to have to get out of the trailer. But I was going to wait until that happened. I would say maybe 20 minutes later, half hour later, it actually started to calm down. And I could literally hear the river quieting. It stopped raining a little bit and it just got quieter. So I was like, I was actually able to relax a little bit because I knew it wasn’t getting worse. The water wasn’t going to raise anymore, but that’s what caused the water to raise so fast with those dams. Supposedly the dams broke and there’s rumor that Duke Power opened up one of the dams. I don’t know. There’s so many different rumors. I think overall, I think they’re just with mass media and everything I think they’re just trying to keep us confused and not really know what the whole story is. You know what I mean?

[00:17:02] Rosie: Yeah, unless they really… I’ve heard, because, being on the outside of it, I’ve heard so many different things. I’ve heard that the dams actually didn’t break, that they were breached. And then, there’s some people that are saying they were, it’s just it’s a mess right now, obviously.

[00:17:20] Ben: Yeah. It’s all over the place. They don’t, you can’t get a straight story out of anybody.

[00:17:23] Rosie: Immediately after how would you say your community responded? Personally for you. How did your community respond? Were you like immediately able to get help? Was there any kindness from anybody that stood out to you specifically?

[00:17:40] Ben: When I first, once the water started to subside, after a while. And then eventually it got down to the ground where I could walk out of the trailer. I did. I walked out and there were people all around walking around. There was some police officers there, firefighters, things like that. And they were very nice, but there were also very… there was a lot of confusion. There was a lot of nobody really knew what to do. There was no cell towers. So they’re like, we can’t communicate with this department, that department so they didn’t really know where to go. There was no, we didn’t know what shelters were set up for us and things like that. So they actually suggested, I saw a family that lived in the park, and I don’t remember their names. I’m so bad with names but they had come back to the park looking for looking at their trailer and their belongings and stuff like that. Met up with them and me and them went to the fire station down at at Black Mountain. That’s where the officer directed us to go down to Black Mountain, the fire station. And I went down to the fire station and I hadn’t had a drink of water for I don’t even know how long at least, that whole morning in the afternoon, I’d gone to the flood, all that situation and the night before. So I hadn’t had water for at least 24 hours or so. But so I get down to the fire station asked one of the men down there, I’m like, Hey man, do you have a, do you have any water? I’m just so thirsty. I haven’t had water for a while. And he’s Oh man, no, we don’t have any water here.

[00:19:03] Ben: We’re short on supplies, blah, blah, blah. And I’m just like… I see people walking around with water bottles, so you’re telling me there’s no stinking water here? So then I see the family that I went to the fire station with, and they’re walking around with a plate of food. And I was like, wait, God, where’d you get the food, man? You know what I mean? I’m starving. So they were like talk to this officer over here. So I was like, okay, so I went and talked to him. Man, he brought me back out. He’s yeah, come on, follow me, man, follow me. And they had water, Gatorade, up to the ceiling. They had fresh fruits, grapes, strawberries, granola bars, hot food, food they got delivered from a catering company. And they’re all like eating it there in the back, like in private. And there’s, we’re out there like in just got lost everything we own and they’re frigging hiding food. You know what I’m saying? And I was like, I was, I just was appalled by that one guy, I was thankful that the other officer offered that to us. So I was very thankful that we got it. But that kind of crap happened a lot. There was a lot of secrets. There was a lot of little secret circles and very limited information when it came to what we were trying to find out. And eventually we, we got to the shelter, but it was disorganized. And I know it’s I know it’s a, it was a, it was a flash flood. It was a very drastic situation, but there’s got to be some kind of something set up for stuff like this. You know what I mean? I thought it was a little hard to believe that the firemen and fire people couldn’t even communicate with each other because a cell tower went down. I was like, how do you not have CV radios or radios that don’t run off cell towers? I don’t know.

[00:20:49] Rosie: Correct. I totally understand what you mean by that. I feel like this year, not this year, but like the past few years, like between the pandemic, like things like this, like you, it just feels like you cannot be prepared. You think that you’re prepared, but like how, I don’t know. I just feel like nobody prepared for how bad that it actually was. Like nobody imagined that would actually get that bad.

[00:21:16] Ben: Yeah. You know we got to the shelter and we were thankful that we had someplace to go because when I walked out to the street all I had was my backpack. And I had one change of clothes because I had some gym clothes in my backpack, and that’s all I had. And so i’ve never been insta homeless like that. I mean i’ve never lost everything in one just a couple of hours. To not know what you’re doing or where you’re going or where you’re going to live or is just a horrible feeling.

[00:21:42] Rosie: I cannot even imagine.

[00:21:43] Ben: So at least we got to the shelter and we had some place to at least hang out where it was dry or whatever. But, and we were eating frozen peach cups. They were frozen. We had to let them unthaw so we could eat them. Granola bars, apples, they did what they could to get food there, but we didn’t have any cops for a little while. And then they finally got cops. So I did have to spend my first night on the concrete floor, which was, hard for me because I’m a big, I’m a big guy, and but at least again, it was some shelter and whatever, but I just was surprised that just, not all of the people were, some people were nice and then some people were stressed out, got a little irritable with some people, but overall they did what they could, I think, to take care of us, which I was thankful for, and we didn’t even get a hot meal till day two about 10 o’clock. They had worked out a thing with it’s not IGA who’s the Ingalls manager, and they gave us a bunch of hot dogs and buns. Ben So at 10 o’clock at night on the second day of being in the shelter, we got a hot dog cooked on the grill and it was like the best hot dog I’ve ever had.

[00:22:51] Rosie: That’s what I was gonna say. It was probably the best thing like ever for you.

[00:22:55] Ben: We were like so thankful to get a hot dog. But so that was really nice and, like I said, they did try and, but it just got, it just kept getting worse and worse at the shelter and worse. Even though we finally got some MREs and some different things, if you were at the back of the line, sometimes they didn’t have enough food. They started off strong, but then you were, if you were in the back of the line, you got a little bit of food instead of a decent amount of food, cause it was hard to ration how many people were there and they just, as we got towards the end of the line, food got less. So it was just hard. And then, just eventually flies, you’re trying to sleep and flies will land on your face, like four to five days in, like they’re laying on your legs, you can’t sleep, we’re getting just an hour or two asleep at a time. And it’s it just got really rough, and I wouldn’t really wish that on anybody, and I got other stories, but they’re not always that great. I was, I just, I was just surprised at Red Cross and FEMA and all them. It took them like a week to even get there. And It just, supply wise, it just wasn’t a lot. It’s the community that’s been doing it. The people that live here, the people that are coming from other states, they’re the ones that have been bringing the supplies.

[00:23:58] Rosie: Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard so many stories and seen so many videos of just citizens that are just, going above and beyond to help you guys.

[00:24:08] Ben: And they’re trying to make it sound like Red Cross and everybody’s got a huge presence down here. And they’re not anywhere to be found. It’s it’s just I just can’t believe it. And now we’re two weeks in and, there’s still people that ain’t gonna have power for months and they’re just like, they’re already brushing under the rug, and and they’re moving on to the next storm. You know what I mean? It’s just man, there’s still a lot of assistance that needs to be here. And I don’t know if you have any more questions. I don’t know if you want me to just keep talking or if you have another question or-

[00:24:36] Rosie: You can talk, just say any, everything that you want to say. It’s completely fine.

[00:24:42] Ben: I learned a lot just being at the shelter, and met a lot of cool people and, and it got to a point where this is one of the messed up things. Like they had eventually, you get tweakers in there, you get homeless people in there, you get all kinds of people in there and they had just thrown like feces all over the bathroom, all over the toilet, people pissing on the floor, peeing on the floor. And it was like one guy was in his bunk, and he was sitting next to another guy and the guy’s dude, what are you doing? And he like peed himself in his bunk, and he’s I’m cold. So I peed myself to warm myself up. And it’s guys, we’re all living in this stinking place. Why do you have to do stuff like that? And, but not everybody is mentally staying right either. These people are on medication. Now they’ve gone 3-4 days because they can’t get their medication from their apartments or they can’t get you know FEMA or nobody’s here to be able to get the medication so they’re going days without medication and it’s just turned into a mess hall. So they set up showers and everything outside, right? Like portable showers and portable bathrooms. We’re like, Oh man, we’re going to finally be able to take a shower. It’s three or four days in, we finally got to take a shower, but they set it up. And like I said, I went to use the bathroom and saw all that feces everywhere. And I went out to use the portable bathrooms and they put on there “Staff Only”.. And I was like, let me tell you right now. I said, I took a picture of it and I was like, that’s not going to fly. I said, he’s what do you what are you talking about? I’m like, no, you are not getting these set up just to be staff. I said I’m not saying I’m better than anybody, I wasn’t, I didn’t come here homeless, you know what I’m saying?

[00:26:17] Ben: Like I had a life, and I said, if you’re telling me that you’re forcing me to use that disease ridden bathroom with nobody taking care of it, nobody cleaning up after anything, and then you’re gonna save these clean ones for just the staff? That’s not gonna fly my man. I was like, we’re gonna have big problems. And they ended up taking it down and open it up I said look I will stay here then and keep after it and make sure it’s clean. But you’re not even you know, you guys haven’t even appointed anybody to take care of bathrooms to keep up on them. I was like, do we even have cleaning supplies? Hello? Do we even have cleaning supply? You know what I’m saying? They’re like, yeah. Okay. So what, guys, that’s not right. I said, you need to take that down. Pretty quick. And they ended up taking it down and we could use them, but I was like, I’m not settling for this now. This ain’t going to fly. I’ll tell you right now. But yeah. It’s just nuts.

[00:27:06] Rosie: At a time of disaster, it’s everybody should be coming together. There should be no separation, especially of resources and like food. I don’t agree with that. That’s not okay.

[00:27:17] Ben: Yeah. And so that’s why like I do… I have a pretty decent support system with my boss and the people that I work with, they care about me and my family, things like that. I’ve gotten, yeah, some assistances, but but I still need to get a car and I still need, I was able to get some help with some clothes, things like that, that I need. So I feel like I’m in a little bit better position than some other people that I know, and I just was going around to some of these places that were offering supplies and that’s when I found out that they’re just getting water, tons of water, canned foods, but they’re not getting the things they need. And that’s why I started that GoFundMe link that for GoFundMe campaign for people in the community. It wasn’t even really for me, it was like, yeah, I just knew like a family of four and they could just get back on their feet if they had a car, but they had no one’s donating cars to people, no one’s helping people get a car. And FEMA Xed them off. They like didn’t get anything from FEMA. And whether or not that’s because of one reason or another, I really don’t know. There’s some people that are in the system. Some people that are, have other state aids, and I think FEMA cancels out those coastal people. But if they could just get to the job, he’d have a job. But if you don’t have a car, he can’t get to his job, then he can’t support his family, then what does he do? That’s why I started that up for, and I knew that there was things like blankets, tents, propane tanks, things that people needed that weren’t getting delivered. So I was hoping that would take off and I could go buy some of those things and bring them to the specific places that needed them. And we did get some donations, which is good. I think it’s up $2,000 or $1800 right now but it’s still, it’s, it is something, which is definitely helpful, but it’s… I was hoping we’d get a little bit more and then I could, we could really, get a few different things that are needed. But, just time will tell. I’m not, of course there’s no pressure, I’m not trying to pressure anybody to donate, just, just whatever we can do.

[00:29:11] Rosie: And I will literally try my hardest to promote your links and I will share it as much as needed. And I’ll spread it to as many people as I can. And the circumstances that happen afterwards, they’re unfortunate. The conditions, how you guys were treated, I’ve heard so many stories, but I’m just, at the end of the day, I’m glad that you’re here.

[00:29:38] Ben: Yeah that’s good. And yeah, some people did complain while we’re in there about what’s going ,on but at the same time we had to be thankful. It’s just listen, guys, the way we had to have talked to them was like, look, it might just be snacks, and then we get one hot meal occasionally, but at least it’s something. We have a roof over our head and people here with some, a little direction anyway, and that’s something at least, and there was a lot of volunteers and we appreciate all the time the volunteers to be there, but there was also a lot of shady stuff going on. And I know that shelter that I was at the agricultural center up there by the airport in Ashville, I got pictures where they started making signs, like we’re no longer accepting donations? And it’s like why are you stopping people from dropping off- these guys still need supplies! And one time I had hot meals that were ready from a restaurant with 400 hot meals, and I knew somebody that lived in the shelters was living there right then. So I said get them my number or get me a phone number so I can get these meals up there for you guys, and they wouldn’t give me their number, but they took my phone number and they never called me. And two days later, a day or two later, they went up to him and just asked did you ever call Ben? And she sent me a text message and was like, listen. We’re busy when we get a chance, we’ll give them a call. That was days ago, like three, at least three days ago now and no call. And I just don’t understand why they would pass up a bunch of free hot meals like that to everybody. It just didn’t make any sense.

[00:31:05] Rosie: It doesn’t make sense. So i’m gonna ask you this if you’re comfortable with talking about it because it’s one of the biggest things right now. The $750 it is literally just that is one thing that the media and there’s just so much rumors and all that about it.

[00:31:21] Ben: Yeah.

[00:31:22] Rosie: Was it easy? Is it easy to access that $750?

[00:31:28] Ben: Yeah honestly, I didn’t even know that we were getting that. And when we were at FEMA, the FEMA guys didn’t even tell us that we were getting a $750 whatever it was. I didn’t even know that, and then somebody else told me about it, and I was like, really? I said okay let’s see what happens, and then all of a sudden, it got deposited into my account. And so they just deposited in there. I didn’t even know it was coming. So that was a big help. Of course, I’ve saved that money because I need to get a car and other things. So I haven’t really touched a whole lot of it, I’ve just been trying to save whatever I can squirrel away because I know I’m gonna need it here when I get, when I have to get things. But there’s a lot of rumors-

[00:32:04] Rosie: So you didn’t even, you didn’t have to file for it? You just immediately got it?

[00:32:08] Ben: I, after my application.

[00:32:09] Rosie: Oh, okay.

[00:32:10] Ben: Yeah, I did fill out the application with a FEMA, because FEMA came right to our site. And that’s why I was there for so long, too, because I wanted to wait for FEMA so I knew what to do next. And so once I got met with FEMA, we filled out the application there on site, and then I didn’t, they didn’t tell us about the $750. And then all of a sudden I just got it in my bank account, which I was thankful for. Now there’s a lot of rumors on whether or not you got to pay it back, whether it’s going to come out of your taxes or whatever. And I posted this on my TikTok that I have the guy’s name and his reference number, and he said that $750 is ours. It’s not taken out of our income taxes, it’s not to be paid back, and that’s on recording, and I have his name and his reference number. Because I specifically asked him, and he said no, that’s ours to keep.

[00:33:01] Rosie: That’s good, and I would believe him, too, because I just I don’t see how they could ever give you $750 and expect it back.

[00:33:10] Ben: Yeah. Especially when they’re given, then I find out like in New York, they have all these like aliens up in hotels and they’re giving them like $1,400 in like foods, like a food card or whatever, and like $3,400 in TANFs or whatever, like monthly income. Like what the heck? That’s like a, that’s a full time job then. You know what I mean? $3,400 a month. That’s crazy. And they’re illegal aliens.

[00:33:36] Rosie: Absolutely, and especially, being an American in your situation, there has to be frustration there. I do not blame any of you for any of that.

[00:33:45] Ben: Yeah. Ben Not to mention all the money we sent over to Ukraine. Millions and millions of dollars. And it’s… you’re telling me that, you can only afford to give us, we lost everything, and, granted we appreciate the $750, but it’s I don’t want to say it’s a slap in the face, but it’s like come on. How are you not going to take care of your own before you take care of somebody else? They even tell you that on an airplane, take care of yourself before you put a mask on somebody else. Like, why would you give millions and millions of dollars to another country when we need it? And, it’s I don’t know.

[00:34:14] Rosie: Trust me a lot, not even just residents, but a lot of us are frustrated with you guys, because, if we pay taxes, we want, we would rather our money go to Americans after something like this happens. So I totally understand. So as you look to the future after this what do you feel like as of right now, what do you feel your future is? Do you feel like positive or are you, do you still have concerns?

[00:34:43] Ben: Yeah, it’s hard to answer because, everyone’s situation is different. I guess for me, we are in landscaping, so fortunately enough, we’ve been able to keep our guys busy with clean up and doing different things. That’s been helpful. And we do have work. So that’s a plus. And I work remotely. I feel like my future will, will eventually get back to the way it was, and I think Asheville will get rebuilt. It’s just, unfortunately, the devastation is so much that it’s going to take three to six months before it’s really up and running the way it needs to be.

[00:35:17] Rosie: For sure.

[00:35:18] Ben: Yeah but I really did enjoy Asheville and I liked being here. I just don’t like all the conspiracy theories.

[00:35:24] Rosie: Final thoughts. Is there anything else that you would like to add or share? Is there anything… maybe just speaking like the people of Appalachia or anything that you would like to mention?

[00:35:36] Ben: No, I guess just don’t stop thinking about it for now. Like it ain’t over, and we still need some assistances and there’s still places up like near Canton, North Asheville, West Asheville that are just starting getting some assistance and clearing of trees and things like that. And just like the news and everybody’s it just feels like they’re starting to brush it under the rug. Like we’re like it’s old news, but there’s still so many people down here that are affected. And, just trying to, just trying to do the best we can to make sure as many people are taken care of as possible.

[00:36:06] Rosie: Yeah. And that’s really sad to hear that you guys are worried about being forgotten. And I promise that not there, we’re not going to forget and we’ll just have to keep posting and you know go along with you guys until the end until things get better and… yeah, I really hope you guys don’t ever think that you’ll just be forgotten especially just by the American people.

[00:36:33] Ben: Yeah, honestly it’s not really the it’s not so much the American people either. It’s it’s Red Cross and FEMA and these government agencies that they’re just not here. Like I’ve heard rumors of them doing news reports and showing a lot of the assistances and people volunteering and then telling them on the channel that it’s Red Cross and stuff helping out when it’s not. It’s actual volunteers from out of state and volunteers from here that are helping and they’re saying like, Oh, look at all the, the Red Cross and the state people that are here helping out and they’re not here. They’re not here. And I don’t know, I just don’t, the support for some reason from those agencies just have not been here and they say they are and they’re not.

[00:37:15] Rosie: I’m really, I’m so glad to actually finally hear that from a first source, talking to you, you were, you went through all of it. It’s not a rumor that I heard on the internet. Now, I know what to believe. And I was having a problem believing cause there’s so many different stories, but I’m just glad that I heard it from you. And I’m glad that I can share that with other people so that we know what’s going on.

[00:37:41] Ben: And I’ve posted some interviews with people that have been helping out and how many interviews do I have with Red Cross or somebody like that? I don’t have any, ’cause, cause, they’re not, they’re just not here. There’s a lot of police officers, firefighters, but they’re looking for dead ones in the river, and they’re still coming up with bodies in the mud, and they’re doing a lot of that stuff, but they’re not really facilitated as far as helping that I’ve noticed and a lot of people haven’t noticed it either.

[00:38:05] Rosie: Yeah. I feel, I really do feel for you guys. Like I cannot imagine like seeing your videos, like I, I just, I don’t know, I don’t have words for that level. You just can’t put yourself, you can’t put yourself in somebody else’s shoes because you just can never imagine being in that situation. You would just have to be there to even fathom-

[00:38:28] Ben: Yeah, and another weird thing, and I know you don’t run out of time, but another weird thing is like the cell reception, right? And it’s I was up there a couple days ago, and I had cell reception, but then I went up there yesterday and I wasn’t even getting cell reception in the same area I was previously. Like my phone was going SOS. And I’m like, why on earth would I have had cell reception a couple of days , and now you’ve got all these people that are set up like savage savage man, I can’t remember who it was, a savage something. But there are organizations that help get food to people up in the mountains and where they, where people can’t get to them. And there’s three organizations down there, and now all of a sudden, there’s no cell service? I don’t know. It’s just really weird some of the things that are happening where we can’t even communicate through phone or text messages anymore. And I don’t know, I just, a lot of weird things that have been happening during the storm, make you wonder what’s going on.

[00:39:27] Rosie: And I don’t really know how like the cell phone service works or the Starlink thing. I’m not sure, but I’m sure that. I would be questioning things, especially because you said there have been some shady things. I would definitely be questioning everything. So I understand. I just want to say that I will share your links, I will share whatever you want me to, I’ll add it to anything that I post this on and-

[00:39:55] Ben: I’ll run that forever that GoFundMe link, of course, but I might, run it for another week or two, just to see what kind of traction I can get. If we can get a few more donations. And then of course, I’m, I’m not going to leave it up for six months but, whatever we can get and then I can go get some supplies and, and like I said, I know a lot of people were saying you got to take care of yourself, too. And I’m like, I get it, but I do have a little bit of a support system and I can go get free food just like anybody else. I use some of those places that are set up distribution centers and I’ll go get some food as well. So that money is really, trying to go towards the stuff that people need, the tents, the light bulbs, the batteries that, you know, all this stuff that people aren’t really able to drop off.

[00:40:35] Rosie: Right. Okay. Just know that I will send you what I’ll send you the interview and everything. And thank you so much for taking this time out, because there’s so much going on. I just feel really grateful that you took the time out and yeah, just thank you. And I really do wish the best for you guys.

[00:40:54] Ben: I appreciate you listening and hopefully shed some light on a few things.

[00:40:58] Rosie: It really did. I really appreciate it, and yeah, just don’t lose hope and don’t ever feel forgotten because you’re, you guys aren’t, I’ve thought about you guys every, you guys are complete strangers. I’ve never even been there. And I’ve thought about you guys every single day since that happened. I just really wish you the best.

[00:41:16] Ben: Thank you so much..

[00:41:20] Gabriel: Thanks for listening. If you’re not already subscribed, hit that button right now and then make sure notifications are turned on so you never miss an episode again. There are lots of ways to show your support for Chaser Chat. You can pick up something from the merch store, leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast app, leave a comment and a like on YouTube, or just share the link to this episode on your preferred social media platform. Thanks again for listening, and I’ll catch you on the next episode.