Hurricane Update: Florida Back In the Crossfire, WNC Still Reeling
The scale of suffering this fall is almost inconceivable
This has been a rough hurricane season to say the least. Helene ran roughshod over Florida and then devastated parts of Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
We’ve been deeply impressed by the people of Western North Carolina and the surrounding areas as they have rolled their sleeves up and just gotten busy rescuing people and fixing things. We saw pictures of people rolling the frames of semis into creekbeds and making simple but highly functional bridges. It’ll do for now and what a testament to ingenuity and perseverance.
It’s still a very difficult situation, with many still unaccounted for and power and water still weeks away, if not longer and cold weather will arrive in the mountains soon. But the spirit of the people is indomitable.
Now Hurricane Milton is roaring across Florida and while it thankfully arrived as a Category 3 instead of a Category 5, it’s still a massive and dangerous storm. By the time you read this, we’ll have some idea of just how bad the damage has been.
Basketball is the smallest concern anyone has in Florida right now but it is having an impact there too: first, Dick Vitale lives in the strike zone and he’s been through so much as he fights against cancer yet again. The irony is that the man has given so much, poured his heart and soul into the fight against that damnable disease, and he’s had to fight it multiple times near the end of his life.
He posted about his worries about Milton on X and it was hard to read. He’s had such a warrior’s spirit as he fights off cancer multiple times and now this? It could be a crushing blow if he loses his home.
The man is 85 now and it would be nice if he had some peace. He’s done so much for so many people. Very few people are as generous as Vitale has proven to be. His heart is immense. We really hope he and his family come out of this okay.
Second, former Blue Devils Wendell Carter and Paolo Banchero, now with the Orlando Magic, may be on the road for a while as the aftermath gets sorted out. Their game Friday has been canceled and things may stay tentative for a while.
Third, Miami stayed home from ACC Tipoff, which was probably smart.
And fourth, the Boozer twins, Cameron and Cayden, may postpone their commitment, which was scheduled for Thursday.
As we say, all of this is trivial compared to what other people are dealing with, but we thought we’d pass it along.
Again, we encourage you to help in whatever way is best for you. A lot of our fellow Americans are suffering immensely and everything helps right now. There are a lot more ways to pitch that might work better for you but here are a few starting points.