Destructive Flooding in Appalachia

There are a lot of YouTube videos covering the destruction caused by flooding during Hurricane Helene. The videos by individual youtubers are generally better than the mainstream media reporting. The youtubers can hike around, ride motorcycles, etc... and show more details. From that, it's apparent that the region will need tens of billions of dollars to repair just roads and infrastructure like power lines and water systems.

We had a severe thunderstorm sweep through northeast Ohio back in August. I rode around through affected areas on my bicycle. A couple of the roads which had many trees down across power lines had at least 10, probably more like 20 utility trucks and crews at work. The areas that were hit hardest cover maybe 10-20 square miles of the western flank of the hills west of Chardon. There was no damage to roads or bridges. Crews worked around the clock for maybe a week to restore the power grid to its pre-storm condition.

We have one bridge in my township that is currently being replaced. The crew has been at it for most of the summer and finally has a bridge-like steel structure in place. They'll probably pour the concrete deck next week. It took at least 100 days to build and was probably several months in planning.

Multiply that one bridge and one little area by 1000 and it's probably some indication of the amount of resources that will be required to restore the area affected by Helene.

Anyway, the videos about Helene offer some good pointers:

• Pickup trucks and vehicles with some offroad capability are very useful;
• Side-by-side type vehicles are potentially quite useful, much moreso than a dirtbike;
• Most households need a backup generator--our whole house generator might not work in a huge disaster because it's natural gas fired;
• Solar panels might be useful, but would probably be destroyed by a hurricane;
• EVs are all but useless in such a wide-scale disaster zone;
• A method to provide your family with clean water in large quantites is very useful;
• Heavy equipment is very useful, things like a tractor with a loader are useful;
• Politicians are worthless, political partisans are worthless people;
• The mainstream media is bad at covering natural disasters compared to rando guys with a camera;
• Adaptability is a key human survival trait and training that is worthwhile.