Floodgates of three dams at North Fork River opened during Hurricane Helene

When you live in the disaster area, you can’t help but have questions…how did this happen? Why did this happen?

When you live in the disaster area, you can’t help but have questions…how did this happen? Why did this happen? Facts are facts…here’s a few to consider….what conclusions should we draw?!

0:10 / 6:19

Transcript

0:00

this is what I think I know and I think

0:01

they're facts fact number one there's

0:04

over $300 billion worth of lithium in

0:06

Western North Carolina there's a mining

0:09

company that's been trying to restart

0:11

mining operations since 2021 and they've

0:13

been embroiled with Community protest to

0:16

not begin mining Spruce Pine provides

0:19

the quarts for 90% of the semiconductors

0:22

made in the world it is the purest form

0:25

of quartz that exists hurricanes lose

0:28

steam Overland you can't get a death

0:30

certificate without a recovered body if

0:33

you don't have a recovered body it takes

0:35

seven years to get said death

0:37

certificate without a death certificate

0:39

it is difficult to establish the

0:41

transfer of assets people on the top of

0:44

mountains like it Lake Lure were

0:45

airlifted out and told that they

0:47

couldn't get back in for at least a year

0:49

that's a lot of time to explore the area

0:52

if someone were interested in doing so

0:54

US military uses the mountains of North

0:56

Carolina regularly as a training ground

0:58

for troops apparently is very similar to

1:00

the mountainous region of Afghanistan so

1:03

our military is quite familiar with the

1:05

terrain in the land in Western North

1:07

Carolina our lieutenant governor tried

1:09

very hard to get resources to help save

1:12

the people of Western North Carolina our

1:14

governor wasn't to be found for 3 days

1:17

into the disaster and then there's this

1:19

this woman from Kentucky had a warning

1:23

for the people of Western North Carolina

1:25

I'm from Katie's Kentucky I'm they're on

1:27

the tip where the water is and this

1:30

hurricane situation going on just brings

1:34

the memories of the stories my

1:36

grandparents told me about Golden Pond

1:39

Kentucky my family lived there they were

1:41

pushed out of there

1:43

JFK signed a bill and land grabbed

1:47

Golden Pond my grandparents told me when

1:50

the water had went down a little bit it

1:52

was just like Helen the water come it's

1:55

such a force it split the land they were

1:58

pulling the bodies from the roofs cuz

2:00

people had nowhere to go and they had to

2:02

get up on that roof to save themselves

2:05

and they starve to death I'm going go

2:07

off what my grandparents told me happen

2:10

before I go off what the damn internet

2:12

tells me my mama still got the book they

2:15

made a book a history of Golden Pond and

2:18

my mama still got it she takes real good

2:20

care of it she treats that thing almost

2:22

like the Bible I was raised on top of

2:24

silom hill my whole life my family still

2:26

owns it I never thought there could be

2:29

somewhere as pretty

2:31

until this

2:32

happened and watching them mules and

2:34

them horses walking through them trees I

2:37

even messaged my mom I said Mom I never

2:39

thought there'd be anywhere pretti as

2:41

where we're from until I saw them mules

2:43

walking through them Hills and to

2:48

think that these some

2:51

wanted their

2:53

land and just drowned them out and y'all

2:56

think that hurricane came in and did all

2:58

that the damn bro

3:00

broke that's what happened and a wall of

3:04

water and trees FL come come and took

3:06

him out that

3:08

wall that big wall of water and debris

3:12

was because the dam broke but y'all

3:14

ain't going to tell

3:16

me that if y'all go look at that Dam and

3:20

investigate y'all won't see stuff left

3:22

behind because of somebody tampering

3:24

with it y'all need to be down there

3:27

investigating y'all need to get on your

3:28

four-wheelers and your horses and you

3:30

need to go to that Dam and you need to

3:32

investigate it now because the second

3:35

them Sun get down there and

3:36

they're able to remove you'll never

3:38

have the proof y'all need to load up and

3:41

go help the people who are still at home

3:43

because the second the government gets

3:45

through them trees they're going to be

3:47

taking people's property and people are

3:49

going to need help they're going to need

3:51

help fighting for their land it's

3:54

absolutely

3:55

gut-wrenching to witness the dams of

3:58

North Carolina according to a official

4:00

report were in need of much repair and

4:03

maintenance but I couldn't find anything

4:04

specifically about this until a couple

4:06

days ago the city of Asheville has known

4:10

since

4:11

2004 that the dam at the North Fork

4:14

Reservoir was decrepit an inadequate and

4:17

a lethal danger under flood conditions

4:20

they had 20 years to fix it when the

4:25

moment of the test arrived they told us

4:28

that they had no choice

4:30

but to open the flood gates and let the

4:32

water sweep away lives and homes and

4:36

Futures in the swoa river valley and

4:39

then there was this in in that shell

4:43

three dams up in the mountain three

4:46

different lakes were at flood levels

4:50

before the storm hit and they had to

4:53

open the flood gates um in order for the

4:55

dams not to break because if the dams

4:58

would have broken

5:01

it would have wiped the bulk of that

5:03

part of of North Carolina and Tennessee

5:06

off the map they said the water came

5:08

down so hard and so fast in that

5:13

holler and it was so deep 30 to 40t

5:19

deep that they were

5:21

finding people in the trees the tops of

5:26

trees but after it happened there were

5:29

um little kids walking around asking for

5:31

their mom and dad and I don't think what

5:35

the rest of the country doesn't

5:36

understand is there are hollers like

5:39

that all over Western North Carolina

5:41

Eastern Tennessee

5:45

Virginia whole communities of people

5:48

just wiped off the

5:50

map he said families of 10112 living on

5:54

family land god um I said well do you

5:58

know of a account he said no he said I

6:00

venture to say in the thousands he said

6:02

but I don't know if we'll ever know he

6:04

said one guy from here in Swan NOA they

6:06

found over in Tennessee the river ran so

6:09

hard and so fast I think we deserve to

6:13

know the details of why these three

6:16

dams the floodgates were opened

English (auto-generated)