Louisiana can relate to disaster in the mountains

“Drive Faster. The Mountains are close by”. That’s a bumper sticker I’ve seen on a number of cars throughout western North Carolina. Yes, living in the mountains is special. A lot of people are beach groupies or mountain devotees. I’d like to think I’m both.
North Carolina has become a second home for us. I graduated from Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina back in 1962. We have had a home in the Blue Ridge Mountains as far back as I can remember. In recent years, we’ve been at our mountain retreat generally from end of May to the end of October. There is nothing prettier than to see the leaves change as the fall season arrives. It’s like an artist taking a brush and painting each individual leaf a different color. Simply spectacular.
And one thing you never had to worry about. Hurricanes. We lived through hurricane alley in Louisiana and concerns about tropical depressions in the Gulf makes us pay close attention. History has taught us well. When the hurricane warnings go out, anyone with a bit of common sense stocks up on supplies, boards up windows and doors, and has a disaster evacuation plan if necessary.
Hurricane Katrina was a real learning experience. Don’t count on the government for immediate help. In 2005, both state and federal officials dillydallied for days. Our governor, Kathleen Blanco set on Air Force One with President George Bush, and they argued with each other over who would lead the relief program. Neither could agree, and delays that hampered the recovery effort lasted for several days. Let me tell you how bad it was. My brother-in-law at the time was sheriff of Plaquemines Parish, the lowest part of the state stretching into the Gulf of Mexico. He told me that the Canadian Mounted Police made it to his part of the state before the first federal official arrived. Simply unconscionable. We learned some hard lessons about looking out for one another back then.
None of those problems affect you when you stay up in the mountains. Flood insurance? Who would possibly need it? The occasional heavy rain just rolls down the cliffs and boulders, and into the numerous streams below. Most people carry high deductibles or just bare-bones basic insurance coverage. Many buy no insurance at all. They roll the dice that nothing damaging is going to happen to their homes, and most of the time they are right.
Then the unbelievable, the unthinkable happened. It’s starting to rain. And it rained. And it rained. This went on for days. Folks in these uplands love to live right by a mountain stream were they can fish and boat ride from their own backyard. Fly fishing is way of life in the mountains. But those streams began to overflow. And before they knew it, not only with their homes being flooded, but the massive downpours throughout the mountains cause mudslides and huge rocks to come loose and begin plunging down these high cliffs.
People that live in most of these mountain areas around western North Carolina only have one road in and out from there mountain retreats. As rainwater kept pouring down and mudslides roared into mountain valleys, roads washed away and there was no way to make a retreat. All the basics shut down. No electricity, no water, no phone service. So many were caught in the crosshairs of gushing water, mudslides and boulders tearing down the mountains. As I write this column, several hundred rural residents are still accounted for.
It’s too early to judge the federal and state response although criticism has already started. FEMA, the federal agency in charge of disasters, were apparently late in arriving on the scene. So what’s new? Remember during the Katrina days when George Bush praised then FEMA Director Michael Brown saying: “you’re doing a heck of a job Brownie.” He was fired a few weeks later for being, with full justification, incompetent. We know all about FEMA here in the Bayou state. They generally have a hard time getting it right.
I’m hoping to get up to my Blue Ridge Mountain retreat in the next week. Many of the roads are still impassable, and there’s no utilities of any kind to our home. Here’s what I’ve learned. No place in America is safe from natural disasters. We all need to learn a lesson here and realize the implications of higher insurance rates and protecting our homes. And none of us are going to be happy about it.

Peace and Justice
Jim Brown