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10 04 24 Rock Hill SC resident Lizzy Huffman on devastation from Hurricane Helene
It's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays. The Roku Channel, your home for free and premium TV, is giving you access to holiday music and genre base stations from iHeart all for free. Find the soundtrack of the season with channels like iHeartChristmas and North Pole Radio. The Roku Channel is available on all Roku devices, web, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung TVs, and the Roku mobile app on iOS and Android devices. So stream what you love and turn up the cheer with iHeartRadio on the Roku Channel. Happy streaming! If you put aside 25 cents every week for a year, what could you get at the end? A few cups of coffee maybe? A candle? Or you could get a year of the best reporting from all over the world. Go to washingtonpost.com/bf24 right now. You'll get a Washington Post subscription for 25 cents a week for your first year. This is a Black Friday sale, so it won't last long. Washington Post.com/bf24. The sighting on what to listen to is hard. Using Zuma to stream music from iHeart90's radio is easy. Or play iHeart Country, or hip-hop beats. Your choice, all for free. Stream easy with Zuma Play. Get live and on-demand entertainment with no logins, no sign-ups, no accounts, no hassle. This December, get cozy on the couch with Charlie's Angels starring Drew Barrymore of Lucie Lou, Cameron Diaz, and Looper starring Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt, all streaming free on Zuma Play. Go to play.zuma.com now. Life is hard. Zuma was easy. The death toll from Hurricane Elene, still rising, has searched and rescued crews are continuing their work across the hardest hit areas. At least 215 deaths have been reported so far. Devastation from that storm spanning hundreds of miles after making landfall to Florida's Big Bend area over one week ago. And as we all know, areas like Asheville experiencing the worst of the flooding, and we head to that region right now, at least where you get to catch up with my niece, Lizzie Huffman. Lizzie, I appreciate you joining me this morning. I know you have made it a little further north though, or at least, it would be east. You're in Rock Hill, right? You have your in-laws live in that Charlotte area? Yes, I do. Yeah, I'm traveling back and forth, just trying to make it back to, like, Swananoa area right outside of Asheville to help out the community and collect supplies and stuff for those who are in need. Lizzie, what is that travel bend-like? Are roads starting to reopen? Are there still many flooded out blocked streets? What is just the scene doing that commute back and forth? So it's pretty straightforward as of right now, and a lot is opened up. It's easy to get from, like, Rock Hill to, basically, you have to take, like, you have to get into, like, Blacksburg, South Carolina, and then hop onto, like, 26, and then you've got to go to 240, and then it is a little bit of a detour, for sure, but they are starting to open up a lot more, and they're cleaning up major roads, for sure. Lizzie, your neighborhood, do you have a home to return to? We didn't even get a chance to ask you that. How's your home if it's there? My home is actually fine. Just no water, no electricity, and we're hearing rumors that it could be months before we get our water. We spoke with Blake yesterday. He described a little bit of pretty much a war zone. He called it a third world country in some areas with the devastation that they saw. What have you seen so far? Is there any other, I mean, just poor description words that you can add to the devastation that we're seeing? It's horrible. I personally know people whose homes have just washed away. Absolutely horrible, but really small towns also just unimaginable. Deaths just lost. There's reports of children who can't find their family. I know people who are missing, and there's no words to actually describe how horrible this is and how heartbreaking it is to just see my community, my friends and family just lose everything. It's also heartwarming to see a lot of them are just coming together and we're helping each other. I was going to say, Liz, you, Blake alluded to that too. He felt like just right now, it's hard for people to come in and you're going to have to be a party to your own rescue. Are you starting to see resources in people, whether it's FEMA, National Guard, just local authorities to come in and start helping with what you already have been doing amongst the community? So, most of the donations and help that we are seeing are coming from everyday people and/or like charity organizations. There's not a lot of outside help when it comes to government or anything in our area at the moment. When we talk a little bit about the community, the environment, just the atmosphere of what you're seeing right now, is it? What is the reaction from the community and are you seeing more just joining together of the community or shock from the community? I mean, Blake even alluded to some looting that they're seeing in the community. It's just a double-edged sword when you're dealing with these devastating incidents and these disasters. Yes, we're seeing all of it, all of it. It's overwhelming. There's just so much to sort through. People are acting very crazy and looting, especially small businesses that are even trying to help are getting looted. And then you have the people who really care and they're trying with everything they have to help. And then there are some who are just so broken down that it's taken everything that they have, just the function on a daily basis. Lizzie, I think about the vulnerable people. I mean, you're young and you're able-bodied. What about those that are vulnerable? I think about nursing homes, older people. As you mentioned, some of the kids that can't find where their families are. And at the same time, this may be an odd question. Is it because of what's going on, the tumult and the cast? Is it safe in Swannanoa right now because of everything in the disconnect? So I personally feel like it's definitely not stable and I personally am not bringing my children there. I personally know parents are sending children to be with relatives for a little while because it's no place for children at the moment, but unfortunately there are. I personally know of a few elderly people that we've tried to help out. One lady in particular went two days without food and water before we found out she was up there and she needed help. So there are people out there, like elderly couples who just can't get out. There are trees everywhere you turn and we just need help cleaning out so that we can get to people. And people are just stuck in their houses still. Lizzie, a lot of people here in Denver almost feel helpless in a way of they want to assist, but obviously where many, many states away from the devastation, you have an open mic here. You have an opportunity to speak to the community. What do you want listeners here to know? I would like for everyone to know, yes, actual needs a lot of help, but we also need donations and volunteers to come help in the surrounding small areas. There are a lot of people hurting like banner elk, there's Marshall Rutherford County. It's just everywhere and I really would like to shine a light for people to really go to the small areas as well. Lizzie, I won't keep you any longer and we won't keep you. I know you're trying to do stuff and make that commute back and forth, but we love you. We're thinking about you and I know you said before, you said it feels like it's going to take a lot of years to recover. Yes. Absolutely. It's definitely going to. All right. Stay safe. Love you. All right. 526. Lizzie Huffman there and part of Charlotte, but she lives in a small outer ring of Asheville, Swananoa, one area that needs a lot of Hope 526 Colorado's morning news. It's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays. The Roku channel, your home for free and premium TV, is giving you access to holiday music and genre based stations from iHeart all for free. Find the soundtrack of the season with channels like iHeartChristmas and North Pole Radio. The Roku channel is available on all Roku devices, web, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung TVs, and the Roku mobile app on iOS and Android devices. So stream what you love and turn up the cheer with iHeartRadio on the Roku channel. Happy streaming. If you put aside 25 cents every week for a year, what could you get at the end? A few cups of coffee maybe, a candle, or you could get a year of the best reporting from all over the world. Go to washingtonpost.com/bf24 right now. You'll get a Washington Post subscription for 25 cents a week for your first year. This is a Black Friday sale, so it won't last long. Washington Post.com/bf24. Deciding on what to listen to is hard. Using Zoomo to stream music from iHeart90's radio is easy. Or play iHeart Country or hip-hop beats. Your choice, all for free. And easy with Zoomo Play. Get live and on-demand entertainment with no logins, no sign-ups, no accounts, no hassle. This December, get cozy on the couch with Charlize Angel starring Drew Barrymore of Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz, and Looper starring Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt, all streaming free on Zoomo Play. Go to play.zumo.com now. Life is hard.