UPDATE: Hurricane Recovery Resources and Intel

Shorter post, more solutions, viewer discretion advised

I have resources here for all states affected - Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia. To see the prior post with intel and more resources, including community groups and deployment information, click here.

If you cannot deploy and if you cannot donate, PRAY. Never underestimate the power of your focus, your intention, your word. There’s a reason why the “system” we live in is so hell bent on monopolizing it. Remember this. ❤️

Urgent/Time Sensitive Notices:

Remember the story I told you about a friend of mine who tried to send aid to 8 families trapped in NC by air, and was shut down by the FAA?

Well, he got in yesterday. And he’s going back in Friday first thing in the morning.

I know him personally. Once upon a time, he helped me out a great deal. A bunch of us donated to his delivery last round, and he put in a ton of his resources and supplies in as well. He’s driving back and forth from Ohio.

I’ll show you the pictures from his drop yesterday. If you want to donate to him, his name on both Venmo and CashApp is BobLesterOhio - he’s one person with a small group, he’s not a non-profit, just people helping people:

If you want to contribute to Bob Lester’s team, yeah it’s not a 501c3 so if you’re not comfortable doing it, I get it. He’s someone I know personally, someone who is part of the same preparedness communities I was in when I lived in Tennessee, and I know he’s doing what he’s doing.

Below is another friend who some of you might know as “Nicole Sauce” from Living Free in Tennessee, she also runs the Self Reliance Festival.

I heard them say this SO many times, and they still do - because not everyone has gotten the memo:

“No one is coming to save you”

That was true in 2020 when engineered total fucking chaos and violence was unleashed in a small area in Los Angeles, along with a host of other things, and you were on your own. It was like being in a can of sardines because when shit first hit the fan, no one could get in and no one could get out.

Also, if you didn’t live in that area, likely no one else knew about it, and because the media didnt talk about it, no one believed you.

And no, no one was coming to save me - any “men” who talked a good game before shit hit the fan were NOWHERE to be found, because they all ran away from the area. Too afraid to use the gun they carried I guess.

Well, now I carry guns, so I don’t have to worry about relying on someone else, and I try to reduce my areas of reliance as much as possible, but we’re all human, we all still need each other. Just don’t make friends with cowards.

SHTF scenarios show true colors.

So I’m personally familiar with the statement for several reasons. That’s why it resonated and that’s why forming communities like this is so important.

CONTINUED:

Grindstone Ministries is on the ground in East TN and West NC / SC.

They have an amazon wishlist of everything they need (besides the 30,000 packs of water the state of TN asked from them, which is only enough to last 3 days) - if you want to help them complete what they need, which goes direct to them on the ground, please do so here: https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/12WGWRY70DGQU?ref=gr_search_page_result

Crossroads Christian Church in Gray, TN: They will be collecting and distributing donations every day from 9a to 8p, they are working with Grindstone Ministries. Helping either organization helps both. You can donate to them here: https://crossroadsgray.org/

If you want to donate directly to Grindstone Ministries (in the event their amazon wishlist is fulfilled) - you can do so at https://grindstoneministries.com - they will be on the ground for months.

I have other resources that are larger organizations, including a statement from another fellow substacker who can personally vouch for the ones I cannot.

We’re going to take an intermission for the people who don’t believe this is happening or isn’t as bad as it is.

***If you already know, scroll past this area as I doubt you need to be reminded of this***

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If you live in this area, or have loved ones in this area, please do NOT watch the footage below.

This is being included for the people who seem to think this “isn’t happening” because the media talking heads aren’t telling them to care (or talking about it at all).

The following video was shared by Jeffrey Fuller in Elizabethton, TN. This is EAST TN and guess what, that water ain’t just from the storm. I saw this video Friday Night and burst into tears. This was the area where everyone was told to shelter in place for the rain, then the dam “failed”, and then this happened.

I have no idea what happened to him or his family. The video has circulated far and wide since - algorithm depending, of course. I’m glad I was at least able to find it for the sole purpose that there are people in this country who don’t believe this is happening right now.

A few glimpses into the Florida aftermath:

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RESOURCES CONTINUED

ALL FIVE AFFECTED STATES:

Let us listen to the words of fellow substacker

Yarrow

who can personally vouch for United Cajun Navy, Salvation Army, Mennonite Disaster Service, and Samaritan’s Purse (which is at ground zero in Boone, NC).

Our town was basically a postapocalyptic wasteland after hurricane Michael.

I can highly recommend the United Cajun Navy: After Michael, those guys were in town, set up in a vacant lot cooking jambalaya and taking search-and-rescue requests, and sending crews with chainsaws out to locate your great-aunt that nobody's been able to get on the phone because all the cell towers are down. Those guys are legit, and they've learned a lot since Katrina. They probably have better disaster-zone coordination and communication than law enforcement, these days, since they specialize in situations where there's no power and all the cell towers are down. For immediate basic-needs (food and water) relief and search and rescue, there's nobody better, at least for the Gulf Coast area.

Let me also put in a good word for the Salvation Army. I know they're uncool fuddy-duddies, but like UCN, they were on the ground, set up, and serving hot meals within hours of the hurricane passing. Aid work is their religion, and they don't wait around. They were on the ground after Katrina before anybody else.

I can't say enough good things about Samaritan's Purse, and the Mennonite Disaster Service. Those guys were still working in our county A WHOLE YEAR after Michael. MDS replaced my parents' roof, at a time when they couldn't even pay someone to do it, because all the roofing services were waitlisted for more than six months out. Not even taking new names.

I have seen on the MDS website that they've got people on the ground, right now, in NC, with skid steers clearing debris to enable transportation, which is IMO the most urgent need. If you need an ambulance, or food, or water... roads have to be passable.

Samaritan's Purse is based in Boone, NC, so they are *right there* in the thick of things anyway, and deploying medical help, chainsaw crews, airdropping supplies, and probably everything else humanly possible:

https://samaritanspurse.org/article/pray-for-those-in-helenes-path/

-Yarrow

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continuing:

To hear TJ Morris AKA Bear Independent discuss the situation on the ground with Grindstone Ministries, please see this video.

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Florida:

Here’s Matt Taylor in Hillsborough County - the GoFundMe for these mentioned areas is at this link. 🌟

Aside from that, the initiatives in Florida (that I’m seeing on the Gulf) are mostly person to person direct donation deliveries, direct assistance with getting back into homes or pulling out the now molding everything in their house, cleaning up, etc - Meaning, you have to be here to help in those situations.

Volunteer initiatives are coordinated unbelievably - I got an email from Manatee county asking for volunteers - they needed 300 people a day to get trained, then go door to door in pairs finding out people’s needs.

I typed in my information and clicked “Register” to sign up for one of the days, and in the time it took me to receive the email, open it, fill in my information, that day had ALREADY filled up with 300 volunteers. Holy shit.

So SALUTE to manatee and sarasota county volunteers - i was registered with sarasota county and they forwarded us to manatee. wow.

I know the panhandle got hit really badly. The United Cajun Navy is up there, if you want to help the panhandle area, UCN I know has a station in Perry, FL and surrounding areas.

If you want to donate to a person who is DONATING supplies to local initiatives in the Gulf Coast (see two posts ago re: Hurricane Helene Community Support Group) what is most needed is:

baby formula, diapers, baby wipes, hygiene items, toilet paper, food, water, socks, shoes, baby clothes, adult clothes, non-perishable food items, water.

For my locale, I’ll include this. I believe there are more donation sites now but I don’t have another flyer as right now the push is deliveries (not all drop points are pickup points)

Go to the facebook group (Hurricane Helene Community Support Group) and join it and find out who you can help. There are people in all 5 affected areas in there, and subgroups/mini chats for your immediate locale and to offer or ask for help. That’s where a lot of shit is actually getting done.

PSA:

I don’t care how you feel about a meta platform. Unless you yourself need help, if youre in the area and want to know where the hell things are happening so you can donate your TIME and energy, you need to be connected to where people are communicating.

No one cares about transferring thousands of people to an alternative social app IMMEDIATELY because someone has a moral conflict with facebook.

It’s also not gonna happen and insane that I’ve been asked this question. Run that campaign when millions of people aren’t in a crisis - not now.

And if you’re worried about using it because its spyware, hey, so is your literal phone WITHOUT ANY APPS AT ALL, as is everything else around you - so don’t ask me that question again.

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Okay, continued:

The great

Derek T

told me this:

“The real healing in these scenarios occurs by neighbors helping neighbors.”

I’m not going to put his personal info on blast, but he knows what he is talking about, more than most.

I can’t tell you the amount of incredibly complex “life” situations people are begging for help for in local facebook groups that require a lot of problem solving, community resources and again - more problem solving.

They are not things I’d ever foresee in the aftermath of something like this.

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Then there are people who have lost their loved ones.

There is so much grief right now. We are already in the middle of a mental health crisis, a suicide crisis, an overdose crisis.

PLEASE, CHECK ON PEOPLE AND ASK IF THEY WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT. DO NOT WAIT FOR THEM TO COME TO YOU.

They are already dealing with so much and can barely think straight. This is something LIFE SAVING that you can do for FREE. It might be more helpful in some cases than throwing money at the problem. Devastation, grief, isolation and loneliness kill the same as anything else.

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Okay, let’s all take a breath. 💜

Friend, don’t let this happen in silence.

Thousands of people are still missing. Bodies are being found in trees 30 to 50 feet up in the East TN / West NC area. I am not kidding.

I doubt we will have any real idea of the casualties from this storm for a long time. A lot of the really small towns in East TN / West NC still haven’t had relief and some are underwater.

Pray. Be good to one another, and do not let them bury the fact that the Southeast is in a state of emergency and people are dying.

Do not forget that people are still alive either. They are. And hope is NOT LOST.

There has NEVER been a more critical time to practice the principle of Love Thy Neighbor.

No one is coming to save us, except US !!

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XO