"Starting all over again,"

[contender]

Well, we had some pretty heavy rains again yesterday & last night. And we now have closed roads again.
Major roads.
Ever since Helene,, we've struggled with the FACT that many of our roads were just gone. And that there has been a tremendous effort to build roads back, even temporary ones to allow locals to get through.
There are STILL many, many places where the roads are heavily damaged or just gone,, from Helene,, (21 months ago,) that haven't even been touched to try & repair them. Alternate, temporary routes were put in place until they could get to them.

Well, the rains hit us again, and we have new places of damage, AND some places where work is being done,, new damage to the ongoing repairs.

Once again,, us locals will be burdened with driving well out of our way to get to places.

BUT,, the worst part,, is the *!!*$&#(!!! tourists. Already,, on FB,, (according to Miss Penny,) there are people asking; "When can I get to XYZ?" or,, "Why can't they get this fixed, I want to go see XYZ?"

So many people, have such a narrow mind that they think things can be fixed easily. They want to "come see what happened" or think that roads can be built in a few days or a week or two.

Helene destroyed a massive amount of the infrastructure here. Yet,, the tourists complain about not being allowed in places. OR,, even worse,, they drive right around barricades,, that say; "Road Closed, Local Traffic Only."
And thanks to chicken crap politicians & the greedy merchants in some places,, the local LEO's have been told to NOT stop or write tickets to these IDIOTS!!!

Lake Lure had it's "official" grand re-opening this past weekend. they were making a big deal about it all. Yet,, (2) of the (3) roads that feed into Lake Lure,, from the north or the west have several places that haven't had any repair work done. And the ONE road from the west,, a Federal Highway,, still has a section of one lane only, alternating via a temporary red light, to allow traffic to come from that direction.

Yet,, here we are,, with heavy rains taking out more places in the roads,, closing down roads,, with no estimate as to when they will be repaired,, and more rain scheduled for the next several days.

"Starting all over again,,,"

 

[bedfordboy]

So sorry to hear that, You’re in my thoughts and prayers Tyrone

 

[Paul B]

I hear you. One of my cancer docs office is 32 mile one way and I have to go at a minimum of at least once a month. No problem, just take I-10 to Orange Grove to LaCholla, keep on going until you hit the right street and turn right.Another mile and you're there. They decided to "improve" the Orange Grove exit so it stayed closed for more than three years. I had to take a different exit and it turned out I had to put up with some city traffic but knocked two miles off the trip. Who'd a thunk it?
Paul B.

 

[bobski]

i thought the tourists are the ones bringing in much needed cash to rebuild?

 

[Neon Vernon]

I hear you. One of my cancer docs office is 32 mile one way and I have to go at a minimum of at least once a month. No problem, just take I-10 to Orange Grove to LaCholla, keep on going until you hit the right street and turn right.Another mile and you're there. They decided to "improve" the Orange Grove exit so it stayed closed for more than three years. I had to take a different exit and it turned out I had to put up with some city traffic but knocked two miles off the trip. Who'd a thunk it?
Paul B.

Adventures in I-10 Construction has been a Tucson "feature" for at least 30 years that I'm aware of.

 

[contender]

"i thought the tourists are the ones bringing in much needed cash to rebuild?"

No.

The money to rebuild is not coming from,, nor dependent upon tourist dollars.

In fact,, the area was kept closed to anybody not local, with a permit to be in the "locals" areas for over a year.

State funds, national grant funds, FEMA & volunteer efforts is what has been taking care of the rebuilding.

 

[RoninPA]

State funds, national grant funds, FEMA & volunteer efforts is what has been taking care of the rebuilding.

And we see how that is going (other than the volunteers who try to get things done but are many times stymied by the .gov people). If the damage was in the east part of the state the politicians would probably be falling all over themselves to get things up and running.

 

[protoolman]

Looking at local news there the lake was drained for clean up and had just re opened with one restaurant owner saying tourists were finally returning after 20 months. He stated some of the businesses couldn't survive much longer without tourism returning. I guess they are a necessary evil at this point?

 

[contender]

Actually,, the lake wasn't drained. It was dropped 33 ft. BUT it was totally closed to any activities or boat traffic except for clean-up crews.
The lake has a depth of 80-100 ft normally.

Now,, many do not realize that the Town of Lake Lure is just PART of the local tourist stuff.
The town of Chimney Rock is directly adjoined to Lake Lure. The main tourist areas, from the center of the town beach & water activities,, to the middle of the tourist shops of Chimney Rock,, are basically connected, in a 1.5 mile section.
Where Chimney Rock ends,, the Lake begins.
When Helene hit,, it washed the Gorge from well above Chimney Rock by several miles,, and as it came down,, it took out a LOT of the buildings, (mostly vacation homes owned by non-residents,) campgrounds, bridges, and businesses for about 5 miles before dumping it all into the Lake.
The lake work has been 80% fixed while just 1/2 mile up the road,, a LOT is still just plain GONE.

Compound that with the fact that the roads that are used by the tourists,, mostly,, feed in up river,, or above the Bat Cave, Chimney Rock, and then Lake Lure.
That's where the work is still 3-5 years away from being fixed.

There is access to the Lake Lure area from the South or East,, but the fact is,, a majority of them do NOT want to drive around the bad roads,, and want to go straight through the middle of the bad stuff. It adds miles & time to their traveling.
If they would take a different route,, it would ease a lot of the stress & all of the workers trying to fix things.
But the tourists also want to see the damage & such.
So they drive on a still damaged road,, where in several places there is only one rough single lane,, regulated by temporary red lights.

The Lake at Lake Lure is now "officially" open to boats & swimming. But no water skiing, or any activity where a "wake" would be created.
The businesses,, many have re-opened in Lake Lure now,, and the repaired or replaced ones in Chimney Rock are open. But there are still at least 13-14 businesses that haven't been fixed or opened due to damages or totally being washed away. Heck,, the land they used to be on is totally gone. No water or sewer or the land to bury it under exists.
Most of those are in the Chimney Rock township.

We've had several wrecks involving passenger vehicles and heavy work trucks since this started. Just about 2 weeks ago,, a wreck involved a truck hauling a bull dozer and an out of state tourist happened.
And today,,, a boom truck hit a car that pulled out in front of them.

We've had approximately 8 inches of rain in 2 days as of yesterday.

More fresh damages,, and more damage to places yet to be worked on. And more rain in the forecast.

 

[blume357]

Yep on the rain... not sure about up contenders way but down here at the foot of the mountains it did not rain for close on to a month and now we are getting a week of down pours.... I'd go out back and look at our rain gage but it's too hard with this broken ankle....

 

[Sam Summey]

i thought the tourists are the ones bringing in much needed cash to rebuild?

The "tourists"/"Floridiots" contribute little to the infrastructure, they contribute to the merchandizers, and real estate developers/brokers pockets. Western NC has been fertile "hunting grounds" for the "carpet bagging" real estate developers since the railroad came to Henderson County in the late 19th Century. Standing in the middle of Hendersonville is a partially constructed obelisk called the "Fairmont". It stands as a monument to "partially funded greed" of a Florida Developer and local, gullible, entrepreneur. The cheapest 1-2 bedroom apartment was $1.2 million, the "penthouse" was $6 million. This is not the first time in the history of Henderson County this has happened. As I remember the ruins of the "Fleetwood", when I moved to Hendersonville for work in 1969, on top of the mountain in Laurel Park, started in the 1920s.

 

[Kevin]

Contender, if you are out and about would you post some more pictures?

Man, I bet you and the other locals are sick of the constant construction.

I know here in Dallas it’s construction season, every road going anywhere is being worked on. The 635 project is going on year 6 at least. Actually probably year 12 if you count the time spent on the other end of it. We are about in the middle of both sections.

But @contender can you drive 74 from Ashville or do you still have to go around?

Will they make some improvements before October? That’s the real question.

Good luck.

 

[blume357]

Not really tourist, but what I've always said about the folks coming down from up North is they all just fine as long as they are like Grits and Greens and just 'pass on through'. Florida can have 'em.... I call it the most northern southern state....
yep, I gots some inherited prejudices... comes from being born and raised in South Carolina.

 

[Johnnu2]

 

[contender]

I'll see if I can get some current pictures of things that haven't been touched since Helene.

Kevin, US 74A from Asheville to Lake Lure was damaged again, & shut down completely a few days ago. Another washout of the road.

That ONE place will be fixed in another day or two because it wasn't a huge spot, and once repaired, it'll allow traffic to move through again. But parts of the rest of it are still one lane.

There are other roads damaged as well from the other night. It has the state road repair crews scrambling.

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

"Hit 'em when they're up, hit 'em when they're down." [Don Henley, "Dirty Laundry".]

People complain because the highways/roads are crumbling. Then they complain about the inconvenience while those crumbling roads are being repaired.

Be careful what you ask for. You might just get it.

Bruce Springstein almost got it right. But "Born to Run," should have said, "Born to Whine."

 

[protoolman]

I get what you're saying Contender, I'm from Montana and only part time there for a few more years until I retire and can make it permanent again. It was heaven on earth to me until tourists started pouring in in the late 1970s. Now it's full up with movie stars and federal and rich state retirees. Working class people have to move out because they'll never be able to afford a house. But the tourist dollars drive the economy so what do you do? I'm inheriting a house in a scenic town but I don't even know if I can afford to live there in retirement. Poor people enjoyed their lives until the rich ones took notice and tried to buy their lives out from under them.

 

[t-reg]

Be careful what you ask for. You might just get it.

Anyone who wishes for tourists to bring in money needs to have their head examined.