Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

I did not have this on my fuck 2024 bingo card.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

The revolution will be supervised.

Come on, man.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Report from Beckley, WV

Report from Beckley, WV

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We arrived in Beckley, WV (see here for why) Thursday night. On Friday, we delivered our donations to the United Way; then filled up with another vanful and convoyed north with another van to Summersville, WV, closer to the main flood area. There was a BIG donation center there in a strip mall.

wv floods 1Then we continued on our trip east through the mountains to Roanoke, VA, and onto Davison (NC) (where I’m writing from). It was on that drive that we saw some of the flood damage: many dozens of miles of homes with their ruined possessions piled outside. (See pic.) It seemed endless and surreal, and I’m sure things were even worse off on the side roads that we didn’t see.

We also saw lots of roads with the lee side washed out, lots of electrical lines down, etc.

It wasn’t all bleak. The people we met in Beckley and Summersville were GREAT, and wow, they really had their act together. Everything was super well organized, and there were tons of volunteers an

at Beckley UW

d a constant stream of people showing up with donations. (I’m the one holding the sign, btw; my partner, the Car Tetris champ, is

on my right. Go Hornets!)

Also, I had never been to West Virginia before and the terrain (the drive through the mountains) was outstanding.

Finally, we spent part of the time following these guys:
nasa robot truck

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a Mars crawler, and they (and we, behind them) crawled on those twisty mountain roads for ages, but being an astro fan girl I didn’t mind! (See also: NASA Robotics Alliance Project.)

More to report from our trip shortly. Hope you’re all having a great holiday weekend!

If you want to donate cash to WV, I believe the link in John’s post still works or here’s one to the Beckley United Way. If you’re local and want to deliver stuff, they seem to most need baby supplies, pet supplies, cleaning supplies, electric fans (to help dry things), and those big plastic storage tubs (like Rubbermaid) so people can protect their dry stuff.

Reader Interactions

25Comments

  2. 2.

    Hillary Rettig

    Thanks! Sorry for the poor photo formatting; I don’t have time to do better. i can hang around for just a few minutes this morning but then will have to split.

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    Good work, and thanks for updating us. It’s so easy to lose faith in humanity due to all the hatred, violence and meanness in the world. But then people like you show up to help strangers in need, demonstrating that there is beauty and kindness too.

  6. 6.

    Hillary Rettig

    thank you all! just to remind everyone, I got the original inspiration from John’s postings, and JR in WV offered valuable advice before we set off.

  9. 9.

    laura

    Direct action, hand to hand caring matters! Good for the giver as well as the getter. Good on ya!

  10. 10.

    Denali

    Good work Hillary; we’ve been through Summerville many times on the way south; did not realize the flooding impacted tht area.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    I wish all you people would stop making me look bad, or I’ll have to find a more misanthropic blog to hang out at.

    Three cheers for Hillary!

  13. 13.

    Cat48

    Well done, Hillary Rettig. Did you see if FEMA workers were there? Or Did they say FEMA had taken applications for aid? Just curious.

  16. 16.

    Hillary Rettig

    @Cat48: It sounded like they were expecting FEMA and the military to show up in the next week or so. I was surprised it would take so long but perhaps the system is that local operations show up immediately while FEMA and the military get their bigger operations organized. Maybe someone here has more info on how that works.

  17. 17.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    Great job Hillary! You’re an inspiration. Thanks for the report.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  22. 22.

    J R in WV

    Both FEMA and the National Guard are already in place, video of Guards shoveling mud and carrying wet furniture to the trash piles on TV every night. FEMA taking applications for aid at offices scattered around the area.

    Thanks for your effort Hillary, that was a good thing to do!

    On your way home, you should stop at Tamarack in Beckley, it’s the arts and crafts place in this half of the country.

  24. 24.

    RealityBites

    Wish I had known you were in Roanoke. I would have liked to meet you and say thanks in person.

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