Asheville has been isolated after Helene wrecked roads and knocked out power and cell service

Flying Squid@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 178 points –
Asheville has been isolated after Helene wrecked roads and knocked out power and cell service
apnews.com
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Where traffic lights were dark, drivers treated the intersections as four-way stops.

Good job, North Carolinians.

My local experience has been that when traffic lights are dark, drivers -- who have a questionable understanding of "traffic takes turns a car at a time in clockwise order at a stop sign", much less "treat a flashing red signal as a stop sign", much less "treat an out traffic signal as a stop sign" -- just enter a state of total confusion and start randomly driving however.

Where are you from? I've lived all over the US. Texas, East Coast, Northwest, Midwest and in both small towns and big cities. I've never encountered a situation where treating a malfunctioning street light as a 4 way stop isn't just the default reaction of drivers. It's extremely common sense.

In Michigan the law was different until very recently. Before it was treated more like a flashing yellow.

Seen it on the east coast, Intermountain west, and midwest. People are dumb these days. They think Siri takes the wheel.

Heard it's as bad as Katrina there. Lots of flooding, mud slides, and destruction. Lots of people looking for family members.

Heard it’s as bad as Katrina there.

God I hope not. I do know people are lining up in very long lines for water and basic supplies.

There are lines for grocery stores but it's mostly because the store itself is throttling the number of people in the store at the same time, gas is non-existent, no cell or Internet connection, many without power or water or both. I don't know if it's as bad as Katrina but it is certainly pretty bad and way worse than when the area was hit by multiple hurricanes in the late 2,000s.

Am in NC but have family right over the state line in TN. Can tell you they got it as bad if not worse in places. Where the Nolichuckey winds through some of the mountain counties there are areas where all the bridges/roads in those counties are completely washed out. The water isn’t receding fast enough either.

We’ve been in continual contact with friends who are completely stranded. No way in to the area and no drinkable water.

The news is not covering it and what they are is making it sound like there are only a handful of deaths when in reality there are probably dozens of people (or more) missing.

Am afraid this is going to just all get brushed aside for some other ‘News blip’ come next week.

As in, white supremacists and cops murdering unarmed black people that are looking for food and shelter? That kind of bad?

Wow. You went from "hurricane" to "cops sniping citizens" in record time. Are #AmericanCopsAreBastards nuts the new Vegan at a Party ? Lasers don't have that unwavering focus. Kindergartners talking about dinosaurs don't have that focus.

Katrina was notably bad because of the murders that happened in the name of "stopping looting". We don't talk about Hurricane Sandy, for instance, or the Galveston hurricane in the same way that we talk about Katrina, despite the fact that e.g., Galveston killed 4x as many people.

It is. There's a lot of areas completely cut off due to roads being washed out.

If we make it ILLEGAL to Talk about we'll SOLVE the Problem!