• @eran_morad
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    12610 days ago

    These assholes are going to vote for Project 2025, which would eliminate NOAA & NWS. Idiots.

    • ZerlynaOP
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      5710 days ago

      I live here and I am not voting that way. I am hoping this wakes some of my ignorant neighbors up.

      • @eran_morad
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        1910 days ago

        I hope it works out okay for you.

      • @[email protected]
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        1710 days ago

        I assure you they will find a way to blame the blue team that is easily defeated with logic and facts but they will have already made up their mind.

        • @[email protected]
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          1110 days ago

          I kid you not, on Xitter they already argued that the increase in flooding is due to the clearing of forests for wind turbines. Also that wind turbines slow down cloud drift so much that much more rain falls in an area. So, wind turbines are the evil cause for all that.

          • @[email protected]
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            129 days ago

            Ugh these motherfuckers get literally every grain of truth wrong. Trees do prevent flooding(studied to be an arborist and utilizing trees in urban environments for cooling and flood control), BUT the amount of trees cleared for wind turbines is negligible compared to what we’ve cut down for parking lots and industrial complexes(pavement increases flooding).

            Besides, no amount of trees is going to take care of that amount of rainfall in that period of time. Even if everything was forest there’s only so much they can absorb. Some of them would uproot and tip over from the ground becoming so water logged. I’ve seen it happening in our forests from an unusually wet summer. Entire portions of forest where the trees just fell over from too much water in the soil after 3 years of drought.

            • @frunch
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              119 days ago

              See how many words and how much energy it takes to properly explain the situation thoughtfully? The morons spreading those falsehoods don’t need to expend nearly as much time/energy because they’re just lying.

              It’s at the point now that conservatives are willing to accept anything in place of the truth as long as it suits their agenda. Guess they could be called “Not-Sees” given their tendency to embrace blatant lies while ignoring obvious and clear truths.

              • @Mirshe
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                39 days ago

                To quote (likely) John Swift, a lie can be halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.

            • @SlopppyEngineer
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              89 days ago

              Repeat a lie often enough and people believe it. Especially if you get then angry first so critical thinking is shut down. Help that along with social media echo chambers and 24/7 “news” broadcasts. Add cult of personality around it and you get this.

    • @Maggoty
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      1710 days ago

      Tennessee and Kentucky are far more purple than conventional thought gives them credit for.

      • @blazeknave
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        39 days ago

        Fr not only do they lose the popular vote… even the red states aren’t all 80/20… there are miserable intelligent Americans everywhere and nobody gives a shit. I’ve lived in blue bubbles my whole life and spent a ton of time in red places with red people (stop, you know what I mean), and there are always normal blue people. And most red people are only a disinformation or two away from being with it. Unfortunately that’s all it takes in a two party system and they game it well. Take away angels and abortion and before the hell cult, most Americans are half decent and not Nazis.

        • @Maggoty
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          29 days ago

          That was the thing about Arizona it took the Democrats realizing it was a purple state and they should vote. That’s why these states seem to flip so suddenly. Then of course it’s a decade or two wait to get a state legislature that’s not gerrymandered to hell and back.

          With the abortion issue there’s new organizing going on in a bunch of previously locked down red states.

      • @lemonmelon
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        010 days ago

        Take away Memphis and see how much the hue of Tennessee shifts towards 0°.

        • @Maggoty
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          10 days ago

          Take away New York, or Baltimore, or Detroit, or any city really. It has long since ceased to be a state level thing. The system however is still running like it’s the 1840’s.

          • @lemonmelon
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            49 days ago

            Tennessee is somewhat of an outlier, as its other major cities skew red, though at least in part artificially so. Nashville, for example, is part of three different districts now, the 5th, 6th, and 7th. It’s been lost to gerrymandering. Knoxville, in the 2nd, and Chattanooga in the 3rd are heavily Republican cities.

            The 4th contains conservative-leaning private universities and suburbs of Nashville and Chattanooga.

            The 9th District, colloquially “Memphis” in my previous statement, is the only district in the state that currently has a significantly strong Democratic voter base. If anything, it became even more blue after the 2023 re-districting moved part of East Memphis to the already conservative 8th district.

            Of the districts other than Memphis, the 5th, which can be thought of as the ghost of Nashville, is the closest to even resembling purple; even so, it has a CVPI of R+9.

            • @Maggoty
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              9 days ago

              Districts aren’t really a good way to measure though. As you point out some of them are pretty well gerrymandered.

    • @niktemadur
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      910 days ago

      The kind that gets struck in the face with a wooden paddle and it seems like they’re saying - “THANK YOU SIR MAY I PLEASE HAVE ANOTHER?”

      • @TotalFat
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        39 days ago

        With Kevin Bacon wielding the paddle

    • @Cool_Name
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      810 days ago

      Good! There wont be as much flooding if we stop measuring it! /s

      • @ladicius
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        10 days ago

        Sorry for the losses but shit like this is caused by ignorance for and/or denial of climate change and its causes.

        Don’t use the victims to silence the solution which indeed is better policies to avoid or at least dampen the impacts of climate change. And it is a political problem that can only be solved by voting for those who take care of the problem and don’t deny it.

        I wish you and all the people there all the best. And as soon as you’re all safe please make sure you all go and fucking vote.

        • Dharma Curious (he/him)
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          1310 days ago

          Unicoi county went for Bernie in the 2016 primaries. It’s a very small town that has gone through a lot of shit trying to claw it’s way out of horrendously bad politics in the 80s and prior. Bumpass cove, where I’m sure some of worst damage was, was the site of nuclear waste dumping, and has been the nucleus of a major swing to the left for a lot of people in the area. Right down the road is Johnson City, a very progressive college town. Dumping on the victims of a disaster because their neighbors, or even they, have shitty politics is a shitty thing to do. Maybe those school kids deserve to get shot because their grandpappy is a Republican? Yes, moments like this should be catalysts for change, but victim blaming isn’t the route to take to that.

          • JaggedRobotPubes
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            1810 days ago

            They’re talking about the area’s average, not everybody in it.

            And if they’re not, then they’re as dumb as the republican cunts they’re lambasting and their stupid opinions don’t matter.

            Either way, you’re not in the blast zone. Hope the flood recovery goes as well as it can and your political efforts are successful!

          • Dharma Curious (he/him)
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            10 days ago

            Hey, fellow Tennesseean anarchist. I lived in Erwin for a while, as well as Kingsport. Closer to Knoxville now. Are you still local?

      • Scrubbles
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        6210 days ago

        NO. I watched rural Republicans laughing that my state was on fire. I saw them saying we deserve it because of “something something heathens”. Nobody deserves it. This is a national spotlight and I’m going to be as clear as day. We have one party who flat out denies climate change, which is directly causing all of this. We have another party who is not doing nearly enough, but at least have some plans. This is absolutely a political problem, because voting for the party who actively denied this is happening is slapping you in the face. You should absolutely be angry at them. People’s houses floated away and that party is shrugging and sending thoughts and prayers. Being active now is the empathetic approach.

        • @randomdeadguy
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          -110 days ago

          if you’re just complaining on Lemmy, that’s not political activism

          • Scrubbles
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            3110 days ago

            Great, I’m 2000 miles away so I’m going to do what I can, advocate against climate change so we can stop having once in a generation storms every year. Seriously why does that piss you off so much?

            • @randomdeadguy
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              -610 days ago

              You are both agreeing that the storm is bad yes, but you are communicating in a way that is generally assumptive and hurtful to an area of human beings who are affected by disaster

              It would be really very nice if you could hesitate blaming them for this unnatural disaster until after this guy (and others) can get the water out of their houses.

              • Scrubbles
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                410 days ago

                You’re right, which is why I stopped. Telling them right now isn’t important. What I have is anger, anger that people in power allow this to happen, but directing it here doesn’t help. So directing it at people who could have done something is what I’m doing instead.

          • @[email protected]
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            10 days ago

            Man, you’re a real insufferable cunt. Lambasting the “high road” while parking your ass firmly in the middle of it. Unreal.

            [Edit] Isn’t it funny when people act like asshokes on the internet, get rebuked for it and then delete their comments?

            If you weren’t willing to stand behind your comments why did you post them in the first place? This is some weak ass revisionist behaviour.

      • @[email protected]
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        10 days ago

        Northerners just assume everyone in the South are ignorant conservatives. There’s no such thing as a red or blue state, it’s all shades of purple.

        • @[email protected]
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          1310 days ago

          I mean, northerners assume that bc on average it’s mostly true. Southern states are absolutely full of ignorant people that prefer to stay ignorant and ignore the world around them. Roll coal baby! Let’s get rid of the dept of ed fuck yeah. Get rid of NOAA what’s it do for me?

          I live in a deep red southern state, with a purplish metro area 150 miles away. 99% of my state will continue to vote for stupid policies that are bad for the state and the world at large. Red states exist bc the constituents vote that way.

            • @[email protected]
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              29 days ago

              This is true. My extended family leans conservative but is from the far north(think border of Canada north.) It’s honestly really weird how the more rural you get, the more republican people are.

              However, my cousins and the younger members are far more left than the older members(are lgtbq friendly, support BLM, acknowledge climate change is real ect) some of them left the area and some stayed, but in general the difference in generations has given me some hope.

            • @[email protected]
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              210 days ago

              At a national level, I think some of it just comes down to resentment at popular policies being blocked, largely because of lawmakers from southern and midwestern states. I’d also wager context plays a part in this. Sure, NY has its share of rural Republican voters, but our dumbfuck GOP voters mostly manage to just mess things up for our own urban areas, appropriating funds from the MTA budget to build bridges to nowhere in their home districts so they can point and cry about those god-damned socialists in NYC not even being able to manage the budget for a single agency (that they actively work to undermine) so they can further gut public services.

              Sure, it’s not ideal, but at least we’re (mostly) only hurting ourselves. GOP Congress-men and -women from southern and midwestern states collectively hold the rest of the nation hostage through their disproportionate impact on the Senate. Whether it’s climate change, student loan forgiveness, universal healthcare, packing the Supreme Court, or any of numerous other issues, these states hold others with vastly larger populations hostage, impeding broadly popular policies in a profoundly anti-democratic fashion.

              It may not be fair to the non-GOP voters in those states, it may be misdirected resentment, but I don’t think it’s all that difficult to understand why people from majority Democrat, northern states might be kind of tired of the south and midwest’s collective shit at this point. If the GOP-leaning demographics in those states could either be dropped into a volcano, or, failing this, soundly beaten at the ballot, it would go a long way towards addressing this stereotype

      • @eran_morad
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        10 days ago

        eh, fuck it. Not worth engaging.

  • @kinther
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    5010 days ago

    Helene was only a category 4 and did this amount of damage. It’s insane.

    • @A_Union_of_Kobolds
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      3510 days ago

      Yeah man-made climate change ain’t real, we get hurricanes in Tennessee all the time

      • Scrubbles
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        4610 days ago

        And durechos in Iowa, and smoke covering the sky for months, and “cold snaps”, and hottest summers on record, yeah these are all normal things that I totally remember having as a child. Keep your heads in the sand people, it’s all just one crazy storm, they couldn’t possibly be all related

    • @nnullzz
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      10 days ago

      “Only” a cat 4? It was one step away from the highest rating of 5…

      • @[email protected]
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        2310 days ago

        I think because we’ve seen cat 5s do less damage across the nation. The category is for wind strength and doesn’t necessarily corelate with flooding /rain fall

      • @SlopppyEngineer
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        69 days ago

        It’s a wet category 4. It’s the type that carries months of rain and looks for a place to dump it all in a few hours. They create a lot of flood damage. A dry cat 4 would do wind damage and storm surges but not the water bombing.

        The scale doesn’t say how wet a storm is, just how fast the wind is. Revising this scale is still being discussed.

      • @kinther
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        -410 days ago

        Last I read this morning it was still a category 4 and never made 5.

        • @nnullzz
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          1410 days ago

          Yes correct. But I’m more pointing that that saying “only a cat 4” comes across like if it was a weak storm that did all the damage. It was about 15mph shy of being the highest rating.

        • @Maggoty
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          410 days ago

          Its winds are well below hurricane strength now. It’s a post tropical cyclone for its spinning nature and it’s prodigious rain.

    • @Maggoty
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      1210 days ago

      This was also a lot more powerful than the Appalachian mountain and westward communities are used to getting. They aren’t set up for it in the same way that communities East of them and on the coast are.

    • @ChonkyOwlbear
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      -810 days ago

      It doesn’t help when idiots keep building in flood plains.

        • @ChonkyOwlbear
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          1110 days ago

          Nature doesn’t ask for consent. It is an uncontrollable force. Flood plains will eventually flood just as certainly as a volcano will eventually erupt or the sun will rise. If you build a house in a flood plains it WILL be flooded. Maybe not this year, maybe not this decade, but it will happen eventually with absolute certainty.

    • @Olgratin_Magmatoe
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      810 days ago

      If we don’t test for hurricanes, the problem will go away. Don’t look up.

  • @[email protected]
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    3910 days ago

    Hi, someone from Asheville checking in. Absolutely devastating here, much like Erwin up the road.

    Biltmore village

    River arts district

    I’ve never been in a hurricane before this but it was absolutely insane. We’re so far inland, and so typically climate insulated. No one expected nearly this and it quickly overwhelmed everything we have. Just got soke cell back, I’ve heard potentially weeks for power for some and same on water.

    • @[email protected]
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      610 days ago

      AB tech has shelter available (near mission hospital), 88.1 has updates at 10 and 4 every day, i26 to the south is the only way in and out for civilians now. Stay safe everyone

      • ZerlynaOP
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        39 days ago

        I have a coworker who lives in Flag Pond and can’t get home since Friday until the roads gets fixed. Must have the interstate open again to get home.

    • @[email protected]
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      410 days ago

      I hope you and yours are safe and healthy. Hopefully no fatalities in your family and friend group on the local area.

      Take care out there.

    • @[email protected]
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      29 days ago

      Glad you are okay. I got out yesterday too and the scenes of the city were just an absolute mess. Glad the cell towers are back online, so many people I saw yesterday were just trying to find a spec of reception to get even a single text out to their loved ones to let them know they were still alive.

      It’s going to take quite some time to repair all the damage and get power back up, but I saw the National Guard rolling in as we left with tree chippers 🙏

  • @Etterra
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    3210 days ago

    Not climate change sure sucks, don’t it, Republicans. Anyway I live up north so I’m fine, at least as far as hurricanes are concerned.

    • tiredofsametab
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      59 days ago

      Anyway I live up north so I’m fine, at least as far as hurricanes are concerned.

      My parents came from Ohio to visit me in Texas just after Ike came through. I was going to show them around Houston the first couple of days, but we just got out of there. About halfway through their visit, the neighbor called to tell them trees were down and there was no power and it was expected to be out for days. Weather (and IIRC tornadoes) from the remnants caused all kinds of damage.

    • @0oWow
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      -8110 days ago

      People have lost their homes. Please keep your political bickering out of this.

      • @[email protected]
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        239 days ago

        Events like this will become more common and widespread due to those politics. But thoughts and prayers right?

        • @0oWow
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          -279 days ago

          People have lost their homes. Please keep your political bickering out of this.

      • @BigBenis
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        99 days ago

        People have lost their lives and homes, and will continue to do so at increasing rates, precisely because of this “now is not the time for politics” sentiment when it comes to climate change. The longer we kick the can down the road, the more people are going to be killed or displaced because of it.

      • @[email protected]
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        9 days ago

        I think feeling frustrated that we’re not doing enough to prevent the next set of people from having to go through this and suffer this bad is a perfectly reasonable reaction to have, actually.

  • snooggums
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    610 days ago

    Getting some Chocolate Factory vibes, but it is the scary boat ride part.

  • @CptEnder
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    610 days ago

    I dunno why but those highway exit designs look really elegant

  • DominusOfMegadeus
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    49 days ago

    Is Tennessee usually hit this hard by hurricanes? I can’t recall ever seeing anything this catastrophic from a hurricane that hit Tennessee before.

    • ZerlynaOP
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      29 days ago

      No. Another problem is that we had a week of rain BEFORE the hurricane came through.

  • @Sam_Bass
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    -110 days ago

    build in a flood plain and that will eventually happen.

  • @[email protected]
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    -119 days ago

    All you dumb flatlanders had to do was build on the hills. They’re right fuckin there and none of you ever think to do it.

    • ZerlynaOP
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      49 days ago

      So the mountains are filled with vacation rentals, skiing etc. all the roads shut down, Banner Elk NC they have to bring food and supplies by air right now.

      • @[email protected]
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        09 days ago

        “Gee that big floodplain at the foot of those hills sure looks nice. Better rebuild my formerly flooded home on this precise exact spot again instead of moving 500 feet to the left and building on that nice hill. That would just be stupid.”