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Speaker 1: Officials say they have already distributed three hundred and forty

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Speaker 1: four million dollars worth of assistance to victims of Hurricane

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Speaker 1: Helene in six states. FEMA has also shipped more than

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Speaker 1: seventeen million meals and nearly fourteen million liters of water

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Speaker 1: to the disaster area. As a result, FEMA is plowing

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Speaker 1: through its disaster relief budget and the Small Business Administration

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Speaker 1: could run out of money for low interest home rebuilding

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Speaker 1: loans by the end of the month.

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Speaker 2: Well, we're glad we're talking to somebody who's on the

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Speaker 2: ground in those areas, because it's hard to tell from

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Speaker 2: national stories how hurricane relief is actually going. We're talking

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Speaker 2: about the first big Hurricane Helene and specifically North Carolina.

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Speaker 3: And I think the attention being paid to what the

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Speaker 3: federal government is doing is fine and good, and they

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Speaker 3: certainly have a role, But as anybody who's lived through

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Speaker 3: this sort of thing knows, it's the state and then

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Speaker 3: local entities that provide a tremendous amount of the humanitarian

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Speaker 3: relief and the assistance when times are dark, which is

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Speaker 3: why we're held to raise money for the good folks

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Speaker 3: at the United Way of Ashville and Bunkcom County and

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Speaker 3: their president, CEO, Dan Leroy, joins us. Now, Dan, how

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Speaker 3: are you, sir?

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Speaker 4: I'm doing all right.

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Speaker 5: Thanks for having me today.

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Speaker 4: Busier than heck, I'm sure. Yeah. How are things in

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Speaker 4: your area at this point?

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Speaker 5: Well, things are still pretty crazy, still pretty dire. You know,

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Speaker 5: this hurricane hit us so much harder than we ever

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Speaker 5: could have imagined. And I'm sure your listeners have seen

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Speaker 5: all of the images and it is just as bad

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Speaker 5: as folks have seen it. It has just wiped out

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Speaker 5: infrastructure across our region and certainly here in Bunkcom County,

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Speaker 5: some of the smaller towns like Swannanoa, Barnardsville, Black Mountain.

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Speaker 5: We're just so hard hit that in many cases, you know,

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Speaker 5: whole neighborhoods are gone and having.

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Speaker 4: To be rebuilt.

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Speaker 5: And so the good news is a lot of our

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Speaker 5: infrastructure is starting to come back. A lot of folks

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Speaker 5: have power now. Dell service is pretty ubiquitous, which was

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Speaker 5: not the case even a week ago, and so that

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Speaker 5: helps a lot with communication. But in our county specifically,

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Speaker 5: the biggest problem that we have is water. The municipal

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Speaker 5: water system was basically wiped out, and we have what

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Speaker 5: I would describe as a heroic effort not just by

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Speaker 5: our Public Worse Department, but by partners from across the

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Speaker 5: Southeast that have come into support and rebuilding this because

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Speaker 5: it's so critical for our business community, it's critical for

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Speaker 5: our schools, and you know, you can't do anything without

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Speaker 5: running rod. So that's the biggest issue for us right now.

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Speaker 2: So before we get into some of the relief stuff,

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Speaker 2: Joe and I worked in North Carolina for a couple

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Speaker 2: of years, and I was foot loose and fancy free

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Speaker 2: and single and chadless. So I did a lot of

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Speaker 2: travel on North Carolina, spent a lot of time Nashville area.

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Speaker 4: I really really enjoyed it.

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Speaker 2: But was he even on your mind most of you

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Speaker 2: around there, that this hurricane was going to be a

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Speaker 2: big deal? At what point did you realize holy crap.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, you know it.

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Speaker 4: I'll tell you.

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Speaker 5: One of the things that we have thought about ourselves

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Speaker 5: and talked to other folks about ourselves here in western

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Speaker 5: North Carolina is just how resilient this area is and

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Speaker 5: and sort of the kinds of natural disasters that were

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Speaker 5: used to thinking about, whether it's the you know, the

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Speaker 5: big fires that they have out west or you know

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Speaker 5: the huge hurricanes that you see on the coastlines, or

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Speaker 5: even the you know, the tornadoes that you see in

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Speaker 5: the Midwest. We've been pretty well insulated from all that

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Speaker 5: for a long time. And so this storm was truly

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Speaker 5: unique in that we got thirteen inches of rain that

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Speaker 5: you know that two days before the hurricane even came

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Speaker 5: this way in a single day, right, And so it

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Speaker 5: was a very unusual weather pattern that basically soaked every

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Speaker 5: we had. We had flooding, you know, like you wouldn't

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Speaker 5: see for you know, in the last decade before the

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Speaker 5: hurricane hits. Oh, and so that was really what made

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Speaker 5: it so unique. And so no, we were not I

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Speaker 5: don't think anyone could have imagined the level of impact

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Speaker 5: here because it's such an unusual weather event.

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Speaker 2: And then a quick one before we move on, how

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Speaker 2: long will we all without self service? So all this happens,

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Speaker 2: it wasn't even on your mind all of a sudden,

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Speaker 2: things are just devastated, homes are gone and roads are covered,

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Speaker 2: and wondering how long were you without self service? You

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Speaker 2: couldn't even talk to anybody.

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Speaker 5: Well, it's you know, to sort of answer your first

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Speaker 5: question from before, I think it was probably Tuesday that

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Speaker 5: the tuesday before the hurricane hit on Friday morning, essentially

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Speaker 5: where folks were starting to kind of look around at

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Speaker 5: the radar and say, Okay, this could be a big problem,

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Speaker 5: and so you know, and to just give you an idea,

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Speaker 5: I was actually got a conference in Salt Lake City,

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Speaker 5: so I was not on the ground. So I had

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Speaker 5: information that nobody in our community, and certainly none of

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Speaker 5: my colleagues or teammates or partners had because they couldn't

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Speaker 5: talk to each other really for about two days.

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Speaker 2: If you were part.

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Speaker 5: Of some kind of emergency response operations, they were able

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Speaker 5: to stand up in different places, access to self service

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Speaker 5: and Wi Fi and those kinds of things. But for

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Speaker 5: the first couple of days, I couldn't even talk to

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Speaker 5: my family who was in town to make sure that

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Speaker 5: the folks here in our house and everything else was okay.

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Speaker 5: So it was pretty much like in the dark for

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Speaker 5: most people within the affected region. And for about forty

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Speaker 5: eight hours.

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Speaker 3: Wow, And then you were talking about the catastrophic damage

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Speaker 3: to the water treatment system. It could be weeks before

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Speaker 3: there's running water correct or even longer.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, And it's not the treatment system, it's the distribution system, okay,

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Speaker 5: and so they have, like I said, they have been

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Speaker 5: able to get the mainline inter recon which is pretty incredible,

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Speaker 5: but there's a lot of time that it's going to

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Speaker 5: take to actually work through the entire system. They say

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Speaker 5: that the linear feat of our water system here is

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Speaker 5: the equivalent of the distance between here and Miami and back,

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Speaker 5: So you can imagine it's a lot of line that

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Speaker 5: needs to be cleared out. And so they aren't giving

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Speaker 5: us estimates, but you know, it's interesting. We do a

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Speaker 5: lot of work in partnership with our schools, and you.

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Speaker 4: Know, we have we have schools.

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Speaker 5: That are drilling wells right now in their in their

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Speaker 5: ball fields because they want to make sure not just

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Speaker 5: for this getting water back, but in the future because

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Speaker 5: obviously it's everything. So we don't have a clear estimate

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Speaker 5: for when it could be back, but it's definitely in

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Speaker 5: the order of weeks and not in the order of days.

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Speaker 3: So for what it's worth for folks who haven't been there,

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Speaker 3: you know. And I spent a week in Ashville slash

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Speaker 3: Waynesville does past July. I have family there and I

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Speaker 3: love the area.

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Speaker 4: It's not only.

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Speaker 3: Beautiful geographically, but it's just so interesting because you have,

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Speaker 3: you know, conservative retirees and kind of your traditional we've

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Speaker 3: lived in the mountains for generations conservatism. You've got tattooed

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Speaker 3: and pierced waitresses and artists and just the most amazing

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Speaker 3: mix of people in that area. And it's fun and funky,

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Speaker 3: and it's very very American, and it's just the devastation

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Speaker 3: is astounding. So anyway, if folks listening get a chance,

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Speaker 3: if you can spare a couple of bucks or more,

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Speaker 3: go to Armstrong and Getty dot com. The banner is

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Speaker 3: you can't miss it. Donate what you can to help

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Speaker 3: out your fellow Americans, and.

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Speaker 4: It's going directly to you. What can that money do

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Speaker 4: for you?

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Speaker 2: If we can get our listeners to throw a couple

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Speaker 2: of bucks your way and you get a pile of money,

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Speaker 2: what can you do with that short term? Sure thing?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, And I just want to echo what you just

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Speaker 5: said in terms of the incredible diversity of our communities here.

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Speaker 5: And what's been so beautiful to watch is the way

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Speaker 5: that you know, those barriers have been broken down and

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Speaker 5: we have people just working together, neighbors helping neighbors, organizations

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Speaker 5: to meet organizations helping, you know, whoever is out there

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Speaker 5: in their community without regard to any of that affiliation.

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Speaker 5: So that's been beautiful. Our focus really is right now.

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Speaker 5: We are recruiting thousands of volunteers and working with our

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Speaker 5: community organization partners to identify where are the volunteers most

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Speaker 5: needed and being able to connect those volunteers to those

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Speaker 5: organizations doing the work on the ground. We also have

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Speaker 5: created a disaster relief fund which will go to these

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Speaker 5: community organizations who are directly impacted by the hurricane itself.

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Speaker 4: And the other thing that.

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Speaker 5: We're doing that this would support is that we're working

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Speaker 5: really closely with our partners at the City of Asheville

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Speaker 5: and Bunco County to help coordinate the thousands of tons

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Speaker 5: of supplies that are coming into our region through these

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Speaker 5: donations and to make sure that they are a safe

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Speaker 5: place to go to be sorted, and then to get

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Speaker 5: out the door to our community partners who are most

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Speaker 5: proximate to the neighborhoods, you know, the folks that were

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Speaker 5: most impacted by the storm.

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Speaker 3: Dan Leroy of the United Way of Ashville, Bunkom County,

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Speaker 3: you guys are doing what is so sorely needed when

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Speaker 3: it's most needed, and you're all heroes. Keep at it.

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Speaker 3: We'll see what we can raise for y'all, and good luck.

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Speaker 3: We're thinking of you.

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Speaker 5: Well, thank you for shigning a spotlight on this. It's

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Speaker 5: going to be a need for a really long time,

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Speaker 5: so all the support that we can get from your

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Speaker 5: listeners is very much appreciated.

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Speaker 4: Excellent point, you got it. Thanks Dan, great to talk

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Speaker 4: to you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's going to be a problem for a while obviously,

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Speaker 2: and they'll run out of money quick if they don't

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Speaker 2: have a big parliament. And if you're the sort of

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Speaker 2: person listening to the show, you probably believe in local, small,

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Speaker 2: over giant far away, and this is a way to

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Speaker 2: get money, like to the source or where they're actually

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Speaker 2: you know, the people getting the money or their families

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Speaker 2: are dealing with this, as opposed to bureaucrats somewhere far

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Speaker 2: away who lives are comfortable and they don't really care

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Speaker 2: right exactly. This goes directly to the need and the

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Speaker 2: number of news pieces I've seen on how many people's

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Speaker 2: insurance doesn't cover this for all kinds of different complicated reasons,

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Speaker 2: like well, you had flood insurance, but flood insurance caused

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Speaker 2: by a river rising, not by a hurricane, so sorry,

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Speaker 2: it doesn't count. Or you just all kinds of different caveats, right,

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Speaker 2: and then you got to get into the lawyers. Well

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Speaker 2: it rained thirteen inches two days before. Well we think

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Speaker 2: it was the hurricane. So it's a nightmare. But before

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Speaker 2: you even get there, the roads are gone. It's not

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Speaker 2: that they're flooded, they're gone. The bridges are gone, the

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Speaker 2: water distribution system doesn't work.

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Speaker 4: And what for weeks?

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Speaker 3: I mean it's like civilization, modernity was blotted out for

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Speaker 3: a huge swath of you know, one of our most

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Speaker 3: populated states.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, as I saw one guy say, the houses aren't

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Speaker 2: are gone, but so's the land the houses used to

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Speaker 2: sit on. So you can't build a house there again

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Speaker 2: in Sohi, what does insurance do for replacing your house

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Speaker 2: that you would have to get somewhere else or bring

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Speaker 2: in two hundred truckloads a dirt time.

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Speaker 4: I have no idea, No anyway, give what you can.

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Speaker 3: Armstrong e getty dot com, Armstrong and