[X] If you are wondering why citizens are being turned away that are coming to help NC and TN - you'll want to hear my experience as someone who has been doing this as a private citizen for almost a decade.
I was able to get into, and out of Asheville. We brought food, water, fuel and other supplies as well as helped people affected by the floods, but there are reasons why they are not allowing outside help.
I cannot confirm the reasons why in NC, but i can tell you the reasons in other storms i have worked - i'll explain below.
Let me share with you the first disaster area that i finally realized that this was all about money.
In the FL Keys with Hurricane Irma, after Texas got hit with Harvey, we finished our efforts in Texas and were the first citizen team to make it to Key Largo.
The federal agencies had US1 shut down just South of Key Largo and wouldn't let anyone in or out, even though the road was okay to pass.
We explained to them that we had boats, Jet skis, food, water, chainsaws and fuel to bring these people.
They didn't care and wouldn't let us in.
It was night by that point and you rarely saw the lights of vehicles in the distance on the individual keys, meaning the emergency response teams from FEMA weren't even working, it was all quiet.
We decided that we would go in anyways.
We filled up the boats and jet skis with all that we could reasonably carry and went by water, around all their BS blockades and around their law enforcement presence on the water.
It was 87 miles by water to get to our first stop, Cudjoe Key and Sugarloaf Key.
When we arrived there we were greeted by a homeowner (for privacy, I won't name him, though we have video) who was elated to see us and all the supplies we brought, his house was in shambles.
We started offloading supplies on the shoreline and helping to get them into what was left of his house.
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