re: Helene - Recovery Begins...Devastating Flash Flooding in Western NC and Eastern TN

The best media coverage has been on “The Weather Channel” and “Fox Weather”…. Their main national news channels (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc.) seem to have dropped the ball which is strange since the weather channels are associated with their main news channels and they could easily use the weather channel coverage.

In 2004 the now River District was a huge warehouse, recycling, and salvage area. It is all in the bottom of the French Broad throughout the city after those storms hit. One big issue the residents had with the city was they never cleaned up the river from the aftermath. They should have never let it reopen the way they did for the so-called arts and breweries. Only restrictions were put on building something new in regard to flooding.

Also it was not a safe to be especially after dark for the things that took place down there prior to 2004.

Truth. Following Katrina, all you saw on the news was the Superdome. Nevermind the landmass that was devastated. I feel so bad and hopeless for all of these people, probably many tucked away in the mountains or little towns we don’t even know about yet. A friend fosters for the national Great Pyrenees rescue and hasn’t yet been able to make contact with an adopter of 2 of her dogs she’d fostered. I pray the gov gets off their rear and gets moving. Haven’t seen a word from FEMA either.

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Correct 95% of field live shots are now transmitted via LiveU. They used both cell from combined all the major carriers, ethernet hard lines and Starlink

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And now there are a few competitors to LiveU. TVU Networks and Dejero are in that game too that I know of. They have also gone from a large backpack size to something the size of a knapsack. Some of them can even be sandwiched between a large form factor shoulder camera and battery depending on the model.

Then also on the news distribution game some networks don’t even send news video back to their affiliates via satellite. I think a few years ago, ABC transitioned their affiliate network news feed to TVU distribution.

So imagine you work for a TV station in Asheville if the town is large enough. No internet or news wire feed because it is all dependent on fiber internet. Now if it is owned by a large TV station group they could put the signal on a satellite to relay it back to the station or tower if it is still functional.

I can remember the days after Katrina. WWL put its signal on Cband to broadcast back to the tower in Algiers when they evacuated to Baton Rouge.

WDSU probably did something similar but they lost their transmitter in the flood. They evacuated to Jackson and Orlando.

Fox 8 too evacuated to Mobile but lost its studio facility and some of its capabilities at the broadcast tower in Chalmette since water got close to the transmitter building. They were elevated just enough not to have major water damage to the transmitter. I think when their signal returned, they piped their signal directly to Directv and used that as a relay to the transmitter until they could return with a more robust connection. I remember one Sunday after Katrina watching a Saints game and it kept switching to a Directv screen saver. Meanwhile a cable system near my house just piped in WGMB’s signal for a few days until Fox 8 resolved their issues.

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I am hearing that the Army may be deploying the Corps of Engineers out of Ft Bragg(Liberty) to help

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That would be very good news if/when it happens……. They need to get a “Mountain” General similar to General Honoré during Katrina who knows the people and place & to kick some butt to get things done and to help his people……..

It’s an area of town by the river that was industrial. Previous floods washed everything in the river. Now it’s a brewery, restaurant and arts district. It’s an area that historically is not really pedestrian friendly and unlit at night.

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The media bastards used Katrina as a weapon against the Bush administration. If this happened under Trump, it would be plastered over every outlet. As such, they don’t want this to negatively affect Kumula, especially in a battleground state.

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I absolutely agree here. Just turned on this morning. Still nothing on CNN or Fox News. Fox Weather is talking to Red Cross in Florida. I live in Orlando and have friends in Lakeland and Tampa as well. Outside of St. Pete and then the Big Bend area which is very sparsely populated, this storm impacted the Carolinas much more than Florida. Even Tallahassee, which many of us thought was going to be devastated, was largely missed.

I do think there are a lot of politics in these decision on what to cover and not cover. Like you said, they don't want this disaster and the slow clumsy Federal and FEMA response to hurt Kamala. I think if Trump was currently President, like you said it would absolutely be on every news channel 24/7 for at least the next week.

I also think there's political angle for them to spin to their advantage. I mean just look at the Georgia school shooting a few weeks ago. The coverage of that dwarfed the coverage of this. And with all due respect to the victims of the Georgia school shooting, this devastation in WNC is impacting far more people, is truly an epic disaster and is far more important than one school shooting.

But with the school shootings they can run with the "gun control" angle. If Helene had devastated a major city like NYC, DC or Boston or even coastal NC/SC, they could run with the "climate change" angle. If this had hit coastal NC/SC, they could also have run with the "minority" angle. Any story that hits more minorities more is going to get coverage.

But WNC outside of Asheville is almost as white rural hillbilly conservative as you get. So as far as the networks go, screw them.

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What are you talking about? This is all over CNN and MSNBC.

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Again I have no clue what you are talking about. I just turned on CNN two more times this morning, still no coverage in the Carolinas. Still all Israel/Hezbollah. I don't watch MSNBC so I don't know about them. Either I'm crazy just missing those segments or CNN isn't covering it as much as you think.

Fox News definitely isn't covering it but that's not shocking. Their coverage of a shell of what it was 10 - 15 years ago.

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I must have missed it then. I checked CNN at least 6 times on Saturday, so easily watched it for over an hour. I never even once heard the situation in Asheville and WNC mentioned. All about the election and Israel/strikes again Hezbollah. The situation in WNC didn't even exist to them. I don't watch MSNBC so I can't comment on them. And I agree that I've checked Fox as well and they have also dropped the ball. Literally next to no coverage on Fox. Again all about the election and the Israel and Ukraine wars. I just remember what the Katrina coverage was like for New Orleans (wall to wall everywhere, you didn't have to search for it) and it just makes me so angry that I feel like the communities in WNC are being ignored. The fact I'm having to try to actively search for coverage and updates (including on this thread) to me says it all. To me it just shows the media only cares about the coasts and could care less about the rest of the country. Sorry but I'm just very angry over this right now. I'm from West Virginia so it always hurts me when a fellow mountain community from another state is in peril, never mind on this scope. I've done hiking and a lot of travel in WNC. A good friend of mine lives part of the year in Lake Lure (Rumbling Bald specifically) and I was just in Chimney Rock/Lake Lure 3 weeks ago, on my way back to Florida from a week and a half up in West Virginia. The devastation has just hit so close to home for me and I feel powerless to do anything to help. And I do feel like it's largely being ignored, and that the rest of the U.S. isn't truly being informed of the scope of the devastation in WNC. :( Luckily my friend finally got a message out last night, he along with his friends and neighbors are safe.

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We have both immediate and extended family trapped in a small mountain town in WNC. We finally heard from them yesterday afternoon when they were able to drive around debris to get a signal. They can’t leave because all roads are washed out or blocked and there’s no gas. But thankfully they are all ok.
Social media has been the only way we’ve been able to get info about their area and also give that info back to them. IMO, if you want actual news, first hand (as much as possible) social media accounts and independent journalists are the way to go. I never turn the “news” on now.