#North Western

[federer7]

Chicago, Illinois. Locomotive over the ash pit at the roundhouse at a Chicago & North Western railyard. December 1942

Photo by Jack Delano - Office of War Information

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[renarots]

The ability to evacuate is a privilege and I’m sick of people applying Florida logic to the Appalachians right now. Yes it is horrible for those who couldn’t in Florida but the people in the Appalachian’s had no warning. People still have “dial up” there, 55.9% of the population is under the poverty line. “I’ve been seeing warnings for a week” no you haven’t the warnings were for Florida and Georgia, even then it wasn’t supposed to hit the apps like this at most flooding but they would recover. When hurricane helene took that turn it was too late to even warn others before dams broke. The infrastructure is not meant to take this beating especially given the storm they had the week before causing all of the waterways to be full already. Towns are wiped out, towns that relied on tourism and coal mining to bring in revenue are gone. My great aunt and uncle lived in a trailer off a plot of land and were so happy they finally got a clean running water system hooked up two years ago. They have one tiny little old android that they have to travel about an hour in town to use so they can call us up. They lived off a fixed income because any sort of job was two hours away at least and they’re getting older they can’t just travel that much anymore. My great uncle can’t walk without his cane and my great aunt is getting there too. They always joked about taking me home with them and I would always say when I got older they would come live with me because I knew how rough it was for them but they couldn’t just leave. I haven’t been able to contact them in over 48 hours and the highways leading out after the one hour evacuation notice was given was shut down. Most places are air rescues only because there is no other way for them to be rescued. To add on as well that they deployed FEMA in many of the places affected but yet there is barely any coverage and radio silence from our government. No national guards are here to rescue them they are left to fend for themselves. People are drowning, being electrocuted, some didn’t even stand a chance. These are human beings who have been prayed on for generations the least you can do is show some fucking sympathy. I don’t care what you have to say family’s are being devastated. I wouldn’t wish anything like this to happen to anyone so if you find yourself in your bed at night I hope you know that out there, there are families who are grieving all they have lost and you are cozy at home with running water, electricity and a warm bed and you feel an ounce of guilt for even thinking that.

A link to ways that you can help. Keep Appalachia in your minds do not look away.

[moved-to-slayfk]

posting here because this just doesn’t feel right to talk about in the horseimagebarn voice but this is extremely important to talk about.

my partner and i have returned to our hometown to stay with her family and my own has gotten a hotel here too (they moved to the town we currently live in after we did) so we are all safe and out of the thick of it

however there are tens of thousands of people who are not both in my own town and in the many surrounding it. appalachia will take an extremely long time to recover from this and there are more storms on the way. all i see on social media right now is people asking for shelter because their homes have been destroyed, or people asking for help searching for family members who are missing. hundreds of trees have fallen. hundreds of homes have flooded. roads are literally falling apart. preexisting sinkholes due to shitty pipes are opening up and consuming land. dams are on the verge of bursting and the only way to stop it is to release water so quickly it floods whole towns. all but one of our cell towers are down, so only people with at&t have service and the rest can’t contact anyone. over half the town still doesn’t have power. a major water supply issue occurred and the entire town is on a water boil order with no electricity to boil with. people are trapped in their homes and workplaces or out on the street because they have nowhere to go. law enforcement is blocking off roads but trapping people in the process. people have to be rescued by helicopter. our animal shelter has no water or power and boarding facilities have been flooded. entire villages like chimney rock nc are gone, and entire cities like asheville are cut off from the rest of the state and are completely inaccessible. ALL OF THE ROADS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ARE CLOSED. 400+ roads are closed because they are unsafe . that is INSANE!!!

when people say that climate change isn’t real, they don’t know what they’re talking about. climate change and its father capitalism are only going to continue to worsen lives in every way possible. i live in the mountains and our infrastructure is completely unprepared to handle hurricanes and it’s only going to get worse. it’s such a strange and eye-opening experience to live something like this when you think that it could never happen to you because that type of weather shouldn’t reach you in your environment. climate change doesn’t care where you live. it’s real.

western north carolina and the rest of the southeast that has been hit by helene need help. more people need to be talking about this so that the government DOES SOMETHING because the government historically fucking hates appalachia and it still does!!! the major state institution near me took DAYS to respond despite being the only place in town with power and wifi connection because they had to wait for the state to approve their response—they could have allowed thousands of people to evacuate days prior to the hurricane hitting us but they didn’t do anything before or after until it was too late!!! it’s bullshit!!! PLEASE get talking about this because something has to be done. climate change is going to continue happening and our mountains and the people in them are going to suffer immensely. hundreds if not thousands are now homeless. please talk about this look at the footage online of the wreckage and look how quickly our infrastructure crumbled. we need better. the people of appalachia deserve better.

i’ll get back to posting horses soon. but for now this is a lot. my friends are homeless and my family had to get off the mountain or be trapped there without power and water for days. we’re all safe but exhausted. i hope everyone who has been affected by this is staying safe. if you are in western nc, dm me. when i come back, if you’re in my area, im happy to bring supplies. stay safe everyone

[houseofwolves-v1]

updated post! western north carolina is very much still recovering from the effects of hurricane helene, we’re almost five months past when the hurricane hit at this point and there’s still roads in my area that only reopened for the first time last week, there’s still roads with mud caked along the sides that somehow still hasn’t washed away yet, there’s still debris stuck in the trees and along the riverbanks, still abandoned cars trapped in mud. and while a lot of areas that weren’t hit quite as hard have been able to mostly return to “normal” the landscape is forever changed, and so many people lost their homes and jobs and livelihoods. we’ve come a long way these past few months, but there’s still a long way to go.

so here are some mutual aid collectives to check out if you want to continue to help aid in our recovery!

•Pansy Collective

•Asheville Survival Program

•Rural Organizing and Resilience (also known as ROAR WNC)

•Holler Harm Reduction

•BeLoved Asheville

and if you want to stay up to date on recovery efforts, government assistance, etc, check out Blue Ridge Public Radio! they have given continued detailed reports on the hurricane and all the effects since then and continue to do so now, and they can offer a much more comprehensive view of the situation than i can

[timeisancestral]

bee tree christian church, swannanoa, nc, january 2025. photo by me. we’re still recovering from Helene, months and months after the fact. please don’t forget about us.

[kimberly40]

[yitexity]

Ash Tray

[shinyasahalo]

"A guy on Twitter told us that North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has banned everyone in the country from expressing tears or vomiting. So, we're just going to print it right here in the f***ing paper of record lmao. No one ever lost their job at a newspaper for not bothering to confirm whatever weird shit they heard about North Korea so why not lol."

[trexalicious]

4 MONTHS after Hurricane Helene living in SUBFREEZING temps...Thank God for President Trump!

[vintagepromotions]

Cover of the menu at the dining car of the famous '400' (c. 1950s).

The '400' was an express train named for its scheduled 400-minute trip between Chicago and the Twin Cities, and was operated by the Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) from 1935 to 1963.

[federer7]

December 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. Switching and classification freight yards. Engineer and fireman thawing out air compressors on a cold morning at a Chicago and North Western railyard."

Photo by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.

View full size

[inefekt]

Milky Way at Gilgering, Western Australia

Nikon d810a - 85mm - ISO 6400 - f/2.8 Foreground: 16 x 25 seconds Sky: 62 x 30 seconds iOptron SkyTracker - Hoya Starscape filter

[moved-to-slayfk]

I just saw your post about western North Carolina. I've been following the situation (mostly through social media) and I'm devastated. This part of the country has always been one of my very favorites to visit (I'm in Georgia) and I want to help if you know of any mutual aid or organizations? I donated to the Red Cross but thought I would ask if you had any suggestions. I'm so sorry this is happening to y'all

i included resources and donation links at the bottom of this post

the great smoky mountains (appalachians) are the most visited national park in the united states, having received over 13 million visitors in 2023. despite this, its residents are hated or at least largely ignored by the majority of the united states. they are portrayed as hillbillies and conservatives that deserve nobody’s time. this is far from the truth. appalachians have been mistreated by the government and general populace for generations. they are given next to nothing and expected to be able to survive that way. it’s disgusting.

everyone who is not from appalachia , i recommend reading more about just how much it and its residents has been abused by the united states government. even reading through the wikipedia article on the social and economic stratification in appalachia can be helpful in understanding how fucked up this area has become due to the abuse of capitalism. i urge everyone to do some research on the coal mining industry when you have the time. not many people know just how bad it really was, and just how much it’s affected the mountains and the people in them.

here are some interesting articles i found on a quick search:

“Coal Mining in Appalachia” by The Moonlit Road

“A History of Appalachian Coal Mines” by Kenneth Lasson

“Coal’s Legacy in Appalachia: Lands, Waters, and People” by Carl E. Zipper and Jeff Skousen

“Nearly 60 years after the war on poverty, why is Appalachia still struggling?” by Dr. Abigail R. Hall Blanco

“Human Rights in Appalachia: Socioeconomic and Health Disparities in Appalachia” by Evan Smith

“Passive, Poor, and White? What People Keep Getting Wrong About Appalachia” by Elizabeth Catte

“Culture, Poverty, and Education in Appalachian Kentucky” by Constance Elam

[televangelist666]

𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚊𝚗 𝙰𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚛 ♡

[folkfashion]

Sahrawi Amazigh girl, Western Sahara, by Paul Borhaug

[kimberly40]

The House of Mugs in Collettsville, North Carolina is located in Caldwell County. The House of Mugs (AKA the Collettsville Cup House) is a true labor of love created one nail and mug at a time.

At the very end of an unpaved country road stands a cozy home, completely covered in coffee mugs. The owners, Avery and Doris Sisk, created their quirky attraction almost by accident. It started over 15 years ago with a box-lot of 15 mugs picked up at a flea market. It seemed like a good décor decision at the time, so they hung them up.

More and more have been added over the years, and now – at least 20,000 mugs later – Avery and Doris have created a destination. Their cabin in the woods is dripping in cups and mugs of all kinds, the gates and fencing too.

The Sisks are both artists as well as collectors, welcoming and happy to show off their home. If you catch them on the porch you’ll likely be invited inside to see their other collections of dolls and police memorabilia too, but it’s the cups and mugs are what draw people in. Most have been collected by the Sisks themselves, but some have been added by the tourists who stop, something the Sisks encouraged. If you can find an empty nail, you’re welcome to leave one too.

Know Before You Go:

There's no charge to see the Sisk's collection, but donations are welcome. To see the Cup House, follow NC Route 90 north/west out of Collettsville for about half a mile and turn left onto Old Johns River Road. Follow for about 2 & 1/2 miles to a gravel road turn-off on the right. Bear right onto the gravel road and follow all the way to the end. No GPS out there, but locals will generally know where the Cup House is, in case you need to ask for directions.