Helene

[NWI_Irish96]

Seeing reports on the bird app that I-40 is projected to be closed until the end of 2025.

We have very competent people running the USDOT until at least mid-January, so we'll have to wait and see how this plays out long term.

[kalvado]

Seeing reports on the bird app that I-40 is projected to be closed until the end of 2025.

We have very competent people running the USDOT until at least mid-January, so we'll have to wait and see how this plays out long term.

Just wonder what makes you think "very competent"?
For one, I remember frequency allocation fiasco culminating in the end of 2022, when FAA - part of federal DOT - acted as a crowd of kindergarten kids without a responsible  adult in charge.
And as far as I know, FAA hires college grads with GPA of at least 2.1
Not too high of a bar I should say

[roadman65]

The media doesn't seem to report the other paces that got destroyed. My sister lives in Bradenton, Florida and her house is near Perricio Sound and her neighborhood got a massive storm surge which not only flooded her downstairs destroying her floors and furniture, but both her cars are totalled. Holmes Beach, Florida suffered big losses being directly on the Gulf.

The media instead acts like Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina are the only places devastated by this storm.  Just like Katrina didn't only destroy lives in NOLA, but the Mississippi Gulf Coast got hit hard by the storm.

How about Perry, Florida that got hit with three storms in 13 months? What about Tallahassee or Atlanta.

This media needs to report the actual facts and not give some of them.  Katrina I would expect that due to NOLA being a major US city and a Republican sitting POTUS for that city area only to be considered the damage of that storm, but not the areas only being talked about now.

Plus why are floods now totalling cars when my 85 Mustang got into a flood and all the insurance did was force me to a car detailing place and take out the carpets and seat covers and just let them dry out in the sun. They never wrote my car as a loss and gave me blue book value to buy a new car costing more than that crap. They let me keep my car and repaired the damage.

[JayhawkCO]

The media doesn't seem to report the other paces that got destroyed. My sister lives in Bradenton, Florida and her house is near Perricio Sound and her neighborhood got a massive storm surge which not only flooded her downstairs destroying her floors and furniture, but both her cars are totalled. Holmes Beach, Florida suffered big losses being directly on the Gulf.

The media instead acts like Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina are the only places devastated by this storm.  Just like Katrina didn't only destroy lives in NOLA, but the Mississippi Gulf Coast got hit hard by the storm.

How about Perry, Florida that got hit with three storms in 13 months? What about Tallahassee or Atlanta.

This media needs to report the actual facts and not give some of them.  Katrina I would expect that due to NOLA being a major US city and a Republican sitting POTUS for that city area only to be considered the damage of that storm, but not the areas only being talked about now.

Plus why are floods now totalling cars when my 85 Mustang got into a flood and all the insurance did was force me to a car detailing place and take out the carpets and seat covers and just let them dry out in the sun. They never wrote my car as a loss and gave me blue book value to buy a new car costing more than that crap. They let me keep my car and repaired the damage.

I think part of it is, if you live in Florida, sucks to be you, but you live in Florida. It's not shocking when Florida gets heavy damage from a hurricane with almost the whole state being near the coast and being as flat as a pancake. Living 300+ miles away from the coast, at least to my recollection, has never been as impacted by a hurricane as has been with Helene.

[jeffandnicole]

The media doesn't seem to report the other paces that got destroyed. My sister lives in Bradenton, Florida and her house is near Perricio Sound and her neighborhood got a massive storm surge which not only flooded her downstairs destroying her floors and furniture, but both her cars are totalled. Holmes Beach, Florida suffered big losses being directly on the Gulf.

The media instead acts like Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina are the only places devastated by this storm.  Just like Katrina didn't only destroy lives in NOLA, but the Mississippi Gulf Coast got hit hard by the storm.

How about Perry, Florida that got hit with three storms in 13 months? What about Tallahassee or Atlanta.

This media needs to report the actual facts and not give some of them.  Katrina I would expect that due to NOLA being a major US city and a Republican sitting POTUS for that city area only to be considered the damage of that storm, but not the areas only being talked about now.

Media coverage sucks, and rolls into only the most heavily damaged areas, or those with lots of money.  When we had a tornado cut thru 12 miles of Gloucester County, NJ, the media centered on where the tornado first started, in a fairly ritzy area where a few homes were destroyed. Only after I started driving around did I realize the path of destruction destroyed several other areas that were never mentioned.

To expand on this:  GoFundMe Pages.  For that tornado, several sprang up immediately.  I always suspected some of these were spam accounts.  People donated.  Yet, I never, ever heard anyone ever saying they were recipients of some funds from these campaigns. Nothing was ever posted, such as on several Facebook pages that were being used to help recruit volunteers (of which I did help out some people clearing trees and limbs and such).

Plus why are floods now totalling cars when my 85 Mustang got into a flood and all the insurance did was force me to a car detailing place and take out the carpets and seat covers and just let them dry out in the sun. They never wrote my car as a loss and gave me blue book value to buy a new car costing more than that crap. They let me keep my car and repaired the damage.

Simple:  Electronics. 

[vdeane]

The media doesn't seem to report the other paces that got destroyed. My sister lives in Bradenton, Florida and her house is near Perricio Sound and her neighborhood got a massive storm surge which not only flooded her downstairs destroying her floors and furniture, but both her cars are totalled. Holmes Beach, Florida suffered big losses being directly on the Gulf.

The media instead acts like Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina are the only places devastated by this storm.

Because inland places that are cut off from the rest of the world are newsworthy.  A few homes flattened in Florida from a hurricane is Tuesday.  Guess what?  Even if the devastation was limited to the Florida damage, it would not have gotten this kind of attention.  The media would instead be reporting on something completely different.

[Scott5114]

The media doesn't seem to report the other paces that got destroyed. My sister lives in Bradenton, Florida and her house is near Perricio Sound and her neighborhood got a massive storm surge which not only flooded her downstairs destroying her floors and furniture, but both her cars are totalled. Holmes Beach, Florida suffered big losses being directly on the Gulf.

The media instead acts like Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina are the only places devastated by this storm.

Because inland places that are cut off from the rest of the world are newsworthy.  A few homes flattened in Florida from a hurricane is Tuesday.  Guess what?  Even if the devastation was limited to the Florida damage, it would not have gotten this kind of attention.  The media would instead be reporting on something completely different.

Or to use the commonly used aphorism as applies to journalism, "When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news."

Same reason the freak hurricane that hit Southern California and Las Vegas (well, Mt. Charleston) last year made national news. Las Vegas is not well known for getting hurricanes. And why you don't hear much about Oklahoma tornadoes unless they're EF4 or better.

[Rothman]

Floridians have hurricane parties.  The Smokies don't.  Therein lies a key difference.

[SectorZ]

Plus why are floods now totalling cars when my 85 Mustang got into a flood and all the insurance did was force me to a car detailing place and take out the carpets and seat covers and just let them dry out in the sun. They never wrote my car as a loss and gave me blue book value to buy a new car costing more than that crap. They let me keep my car and repaired the damage.

Because too many insurers tried to have people repair badly flood damaged cars with disastrous results.

Case in specific point that I adjusted from Hurricane Dennis in 2005. Insured had a garage-under flooded with two cars in it. One of my company's appraisers totaled one out right away with $15K damage on a $25K vehicle value. The other car, worth $40K, had $15K in damages as well and was rendered "repairable". Poor owner had the car repaired, and over two months the repair shop sunk $15K plus another $21K in supplements (approved by the appraiser) to eventually hit $36K in repairs on a $40K car, that by the end they could not successfully repair. By the end, my company paid out $76K to not repair a $40K car, along with having a trusted appraiser that feared for his employment thru the debacle because he followed company guidelines.

TL/DR, total it and let some dummy buy it at Copart, and hope someone down the road knows the used car they bought was drowned in a storm.

[D-Dey65]

The media doesn't seem to report the other paces that got destroyed. My sister lives in Bradenton, Florida and her house is near Perricio Sound and her neighborhood got a massive storm surge which not only flooded her downstairs destroying her floors and furniture, but both her cars are totalled. Holmes Beach, Florida suffered big losses being directly on the Gulf.

The media instead acts like Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina are the only places devastated by this storm.  Just like Katrina didn't only destroy lives in NOLA, but the Mississippi Gulf Coast got hit hard by the storm.

How about Perry, Florida that got hit with three storms in 13 months? What about Tallahassee or Atlanta.

This media needs to report the actual facts and not give some of them.  Katrina I would expect that due to NOLA being a major US city and a Republican sitting POTUS for that city area only to be considered the damage of that storm, but not the areas only being talked about now.

Plus why are floods now totalling cars when my 85 Mustang got into a flood and all the insurance did was force me to a car detailing place and take out the carpets and seat covers and just let them dry out in the sun. They never wrote my car as a loss and gave me blue book value to buy a new car costing more than that crap. They let me keep my car and repaired the damage.

Local media is reporting this quite a lot. The thing is Tennessee and North Carolina are getting the worst of it, so they're getting more of the attention.

[CtrlAltDel]

The media doesn't seem to report the other paces that got destroyed. My sister lives in Bradenton, Florida and her house is near Perricio Sound and her neighborhood got a massive storm surge which not only flooded her downstairs destroying her floors and furniture, but both her cars are totalled. Holmes Beach, Florida suffered big losses being directly on the Gulf.

The media instead acts like Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina are the only places devastated by this storm.  Just like Katrina didn't only destroy lives in NOLA, but the Mississippi Gulf Coast got hit hard by the storm.

How about Perry, Florida that got hit with three storms in 13 months? What about Tallahassee or Atlanta.

This media needs to report the actual facts and not give some of them.  Katrina I would expect that due to NOLA being a major US city and a Republican sitting POTUS for that city area only to be considered the damage of that storm, but not the areas only being talked about now.

Unfortunately, Florida will soon be back in the hurricane-damage news.

[rickmastfan67]

Well, progress at getting 'some' of I-40 reopened.

The damaged TN segment between exits 447 & 451 is being converted to 2-way, and will reopen sometime next week.

[JayhawkCO]

A drone shot of the Blue Ridge Parkway with Helene damage.

https://x.com/matt_vanswol/status/1845913514814140427