KOA Headlines
10 03 24 Asheville NC resident Blake Swoveland on devastation from Hurricane Helene
If you put aside $0.25 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 $0.25 a week for your first year. This is a Black Friday sale, so it won't last long. 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! 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. Stream 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 Charlie's Angel starring Drew Barrymore, 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. Zumo is easy. Clean up, recovery, and rescue operations still underway. In areas affected by the recent flooding caused by Hurricane Helene. And for areas like Asheville officials there are warning that efforts to return to a semblance of normalcy are weeks away not days. Joining us now from the ground near Asheville, he's working right now to help clear debris. He's my nephew. It is Blake Swoflin. Blake, great to catch up with you. I know he had a hard time connecting because the phone lines were down. I just want to start by asking how are you doing? Give us an update on what's going on with you. I'm just weary. I guess this is the best way to put it. I mean, we're trying to work as much as we can, and we're trying to get as much clear, but it just doesn't stop. And then when you try to get sleep, you just can't rest. There's so many people, so many people that you know, friends, family. How can you rest? Blake, we only see -- I'm sorry, go ahead. No, no, no, go ahead. We only see the videos, the photos, the little glimpses of the aftermath, which I know doesn't even show the extensive damage that you're dealing with in Asheville. Can you describe to us what you see on the scene there? Heartbreaking devastation. There's people that are kids that they're finding in trees that they can't get to. I mean, there's families that watched away. There's a lot of news coverage of the Swan and Ola River Road about how devastating it is. But what people don't know is that there were supposed to be a house there, and it's not just a house. It's -- that was a tree house. You know, that was a man -- these are people that set up my table. These are -- I mean, there's so many people that we still can't find. It's insane. There's the eluding that's getting crazy that I never would have imagined would have been what people are going to. But, I mean, it's a war zone down here. There's people who still are trapped. We just found out a little bit ago. There's people over in Hooper's Creek that they're actually having to get medical supplies and food and water airlifted to them. There's a table for communication. So if there's somebody that's missing, they're just leaving a note. I mean, it's such a third world country. I can't even put it into words. Are any services getting through Blake at this point? Are you seeing any resources or help physically people being their Red Cross, whoever it is? FEMA dropped down in a helicopter one house over because there was room there. So there was some people coming in at the site that I was at yesterday. National Guard finally showed up. So we are seeing some help. I think the big problem now is that although there is help that's coming, there's just so many places that's just so remote. We're still finding out that there's communities that have still been cut off. So when you're there and now you know that there's a whole community that hasn't been touched, it's kind of hard to say that the help is coming because it's not right there when you need it and everybody's just so laser focused on what tasks they've got in front of them. Blake, from neighbors that you know and friends and family in the area, what was the preparation like ahead of the storm? Places like Florida, obviously they know for days that it's coming and it's coming and it's coming and they know ahead of time to prepare to evacuate. What was your mindset? What was just the overall environment going into this devastation? We were told to expect four to six inches of rain. It was just supposed to be another day. We had no idea that anything like this was going to happen. No clue. There wasn't any preparedness. How could you be? So there was no warning, I don't know if the governor, there was no warning even hours ahead of it that more was coming because you say four. You got 28 inches of what we understand of rain which obviously led to what you're dealing with now. Somebody said that it was more than Niagara Falls was how much water was coming through. Like I said, there's neighborhoods, there's towns that they're not there anymore. Are you cut off from local information like do you have AM radio or some sort of way to get information? Because I know when the cell service was down, how did you all, if you even could communicate? You know, I certainly don't mean to offend when I say this, but I've never truly appreciated the impact of a DJ until this. There's a local DJ who, him and a couple other guys were trapped in the radio station. And from my understanding, even now that the debris has been cleared, they haven't left because they truly are. Some people's only means of information with no cell phone signal, no internet, no communication whatsoever. If not for the people on the radio saying, hey, there's water here. Hey, there's medicine here. Head is food here. Hey, where do you need help? And somebody can finally find a way to call in. I mean, it's saving lives. Thank God that my aunt June gave me a little cassette AM FM radio. And it saved my life. Blake, what would you like listeners to know here in the Denver area? There are a lot of efforts in our area from the American Red Cross in order to help try to deliver essential services to the Asheville area. But what's maybe just, I don't know, some words that you would like to give to our listeners regarding all this? Thank you for the help. We need the help. I've never been somebody who wants to ask for help like this, but when I tell you that there are children dying, there's people that, because of medical issues without power, there's people dying. There's chemicals that are spilled into some of the mud and the water. So even some of the cleanup relief efforts, you have to have hazmat and respirators to get through to some of this. If I could say anything to the people in Colorado, please, we need help. Please, we need help. My friend, I just, have you been able to connect with all your inner circle and people that you know that you're close to at least know that they're okay or out there doing what you're doing, trying to help with the efforts? There's a few people that I still haven't been able to get in touch with. There's, there's some lists that we've been, that have been coming out about the missing. And I've found some of them, some of them did make it, but we haven't been able to find everybody yet. What are you literally doing right now? And then I'll let you go. I know you're, you're busy, but what are you doing at this moment? At this moment, I'm sitting in a staging area. I'm getting ready to finish dropping my saw and I'm getting ready to go back into it. There's, there's roads. There's, like I said, there's the National Guard trying to help, but there's still places that they are trying to get to. This isn't something that we ask, you know, for FEMA to help or Red Cross to help. This is one of those situations where you go help your neighbor. Nobody's coming to save us to a certain degree because by the time they get there, it might be too late. Blake, I love you. All right. Stay safe. And you know, your Aunt Jo Lynn is worried to death about you. So I'll let her know that, that we caught up and I know she's on the text chain, but I love you. Be careful. Okay. I love you too. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for everything that you're doing for all the help that you're helping to get here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. That's my nephew Blake Swiveland. He is in Swananoa in Asheville, right in the heart of things, trying to recover and help. It's 826. It's Colorado's morning news. 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. WashingtonPost.com/BF24. 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! 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. Stream 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 Charlie's Angels starring Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz, and Looper starring Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt, all streaming free on Zoomo Play. to play.zumo.com now. Life is hard. Zumo is easy.