After hearing claims coming out of the Hurricane Helene disaster zone of houses flipped upside down, neighbors helping neighbors, and zero help from the federal government, Glenn had to see it for himself. Glenn recounts the shocking things he saw while in Asheville, North Carolina: Many of the stories are TRUE! The destruction was unbelievable and people are still trapped in the mountains. But instead of relying on authorities, these communities proved that the American Spirit is still alive and well.
The government isn't coming to save these people, Glenn says. Instead, it's generous donations from people like YOU that are making a real difference for the Americans of Appalachia. 100% of the funds go directly to the people in need when you donate at https://MercuryOne.org
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Hello, Stu with, how are you?
STU: Good, Glenn. How are you?
GLENN: Really good. Really good.
STU: Big trip. I saw some of the pictures that were posted.
GLENN: Yeah, I haven't yet. I haven't.
I saw stuff in North Carolina I've never seen before. I saw houses that had been washed down the river. And were upside down, on the train tracks.
I saw train tracks. Where, you know, those things are built pretty strong.
You know, they build a real strong foundation. The foundation completely zero reported away from underneath the train tracks. And just, the train tracks just kind of suspended over nothing.
I mean, everything in this place is going to have to be redone. Everything. I -- I just saw things I didn't expect to see.
The power of the water coming down these creeks, and then rivers.
Literally, like the power of the Mississippi.
I saw a house, I think we have a picture of this.
I saw a house with a bunch of mobile homes.
All stacked up, next to this house, that seemed to be somewhat still on its foundation.
Okay?
And all these mobile homes, stacked and then right behind that house, was another house, that was right on the back of that house. And I said, wow. Look at that. All those kind of washed up next to the house. And he said, no. Those are actually from about five blocks, down the streets.
And the house -- that house stayed kind of on its foundation enough. To where it just -- all these mobile homes were kind of slamming against it. And stopped. Because the house was in the way.
He said, what's really interesting. The house right behind it.
That house, we don't know where that came from. We think that was two towns up river.
Towns!
STU: Towns?
GLENN: Two towns up river.
The water was above -- oh, it's crazy, Stu.
It is nuts. I saw a house upside-down.
I saw semi-trucks, that were like, just tossed by the water, upside down, had rolled, were in the streets.
Had been rolled by the river several -- semi-trucks. Rolled by the river.
And 100 feet away. Maybe 200 feet away.
From the road, upside down.
It was -- it -- this was crazy.
Bridges, just completely washed out. And they -- the water in some places was like 6 feet above the bridge.
I don't know how long it's going to take -- I mean. It will take years to put these towns back together. And, you know, I've never been to the smoky mountains before.
I went -- and it was really strange. Because the only time, I've been in Asheville, is when I went to go visit Billy Graham, like ten years ago. Eleven years ago.
And it's just this beautiful town. Beautiful town.
And he lives right outside of town, up on one of these mountains.
And I remember thinking how beautiful it was, when I was there. But I didn't really -- you know, I wasn't thinking about the mountains or anything else.
And except going up to his house, I wasn't in the mountains. And especially because we were doing Life Flight yesterday. I was on the helicopter a lot, and I was above these mountains.
Two things come to mind. First of all, in my Miami, because I'm from the west coast. And, you know, we have the cascades and the Rocky Mountains I've always joked with my family. Oh, the Smoky Mountain bumps. Oh, that's really. You know, it's not like -- it's not like a mountain range to me, jokingly.
But it actually is. It was the first time I was there. It is stunning. I would live in this area.
Not just for the beauty. But the people are amazing.
This is -- I witnessed yesterday, 9/12. I've talked about 9/12 forever.
That that's the people we need to be.
When -- when nobody cared about who you voted for.
Nobody cared what party you were -- nobody cared about anything.
You would just stop people on the street and go, are you okay?
You didn't know them.
But you could look at them. And see the suffering in their eyes. Because you were suffering as well.
And you would just stop it.
Are you okay, brother?
Can you I do anything for you? That was the most amazing days I have ever lived. That's what this is in North Carolina.
And I bet you it's the same in Tennessee and Georgia.
They know nobody is coming. They know nobody is coming. The -- the mountain range in Asheville, it -- we had to fly over the mountain range. We had airlifted this. She must have been 80-year-old. 85-year-old woman. She had broken her hip and her knee. And she didn't have any insurance.
And she was up north. This was like a month ago.
And she was up north, and she came down to be with her family, in North Carolina, and was supposed to go back up.
But they had her on antibiotics, as they did the surgery. But because they didn't have insurance, they just pushed her out as past fast as they possibly could.
Give her any antibiotics.
Well, now, she was riddled with -- she needed antibiotics.
Her -- her leg was absolutely on fire. It was really infected.
And she was in trouble.
And we flew her. It was 20 the leap minutes, from her place, to the airport.
Or, to the hospital.
And I'm flying with the -- I'm flying with the pilot. And I said, how far do you think -- how long would it take if you had to drive this?
He said, from there, which was just over a couple of mountain peaks. He's like, maybe two hours?
He said, and now, maybe five?
Because how do you get out of here?
Because all of the bridges, and some of the -- I mean, just landslides, coming down.
It's incredible, and then kind of like a tornado.
I've seen ground zero in Oklahoma of a tornado.
There's nothing like that. There's nothing like the damage that I saw here. It -- it -- because it didn't grind everything to a pulp like a tornado does. It just moved everything.
And I just don't know how -- I mean, it's going to take years, to restore this.
But because of the location of it. It's almost impossible. You have to have helicopters to help people.
And the government is doing everything they can, to shut down -- I mean, yesterday, I was calling at the Cajun Air Force.
Because -- or not Cajun Air Force. The hillbilly Air Force.
You know, they had the Cajun Navy.
This is the Hillbilly Air Force.
The guy at the Asheville Harley-Davidson place. I met him yesterday.
That place was wiped out.
And, but it still was standing.
The bikes are all -- he just lost everything. But they shoveled the mud out of that place.
And he said, I've got a field here. You can use that as a landing place.
There were helicopters coming in and going out. And the government tried to shut them down.
And said, you know, this is -- nobody from the FAA is involved here. You're going to have to shut this down. And Adam Smith, who is retired Special Forces who was running it, was like, really? Yeah, you know what you are going to do. You're going to leave. Because I have a helicopter landing and one taking off in a few minutes. They were just pissed.
You know, you're not here. If you had all of the assets here. If you had called one of the, oh, I don't know.
Many forts, bases, and Special Forces, that are sitting on bases in North Carolina, maybe we would shut this down. But you're not sending anything to help people.
So get off our land.
That was a common theme, yesterday.
When we picked up this guy, it was. You know, I just don't think of me as -- you know, as somebody.
I think of me as me. Not the Glenn Beck, radio guy.
And we show up with the helicopter. We land in this field, and we go to pick up this lady. And we're right at the front stairs.
And the son of this -- this -- or grandson, I think of this woman. He turned to me, and he's like, you -- you look familiar.
And I said, hi, I'm Glenn.
And he said, oh, hi, Glenn.
And then he looked at me again. Glenn Beck?
And I said, yeah.
And he's like, that's unexpected. And he's like, you know, you've got to see my -- my cousins. Tom!
Jethro. You know, come up here. No. Don't walk. You run up here. And then he said, don't look directly at them. They're bad runners.
And the whole family. The whole neighborhood didn't call 911.
The son called somebody in the military that he knew. That was retired, and said, hey. Do you know anybody with a helicopter?
Because the -- the -- while they have two helipads at the airport, in the -- you know, city over the mountains. They don't have -- the helicopters, they're out of commission. So nobody can be flown in. So we're doing the LifeLock. And it's -- it's incredible.
What this audience has done is incredible. But he didn't call. And then he called a friend.
And he said, you know what, I think I know. And he called another friend that was formerly in the military.
And then called another friend that was in the military.
And he said, yeah.
They have helicopters right here.
Mercury One is flying the helicopters right now.
I know Adam Smith who is who running this.
So they didn't call 911. It's not that community. And as we were leaving, I said to one of the cousins. I said, hey, you tell everybody you know, that you haven't been forgotten.
That there are millions of Americans that care about you and love you guys. And want to help, and are helping. And he said, that's very kind of you.
Now, will you tell everyone you know, something from me?
And I said, sure. And I expected thank you or something. And he looked at me and he said, you tell everybody you know, that even if they don't care, we'll take care of our own damn self if nobody shows up.
And I was like, I gave him a hug. I'm like, I love you. It is America. And all I could think of yesterday was, this is God's army.
This is exactly what Billy Graham told me would happen.
That people -- I talked to people. And they were like, I don't know. I just felt this calling to come here and help. And now I'm doing this and this and this.
And the people have taken care of it. Now, I mean, they need a lot of help. But wait until I tell you about FEMA. I found a FEMA truck.
And we were driving from seeing some, you know, bad areas. And I said, wait. Wait. Turn the car around. I think I saw a FEMA truck. And everybody is like, no.
Wait. I saw a FEMA truck. It's behind that building.
All right. I turned around. And there, lo and behold, is one FEMA truck with a giant satellite on the top of it. It was a communications truck. So we pull up.
And a lot of them are sitting under a tree at a card table, with folding chairs. All in their FEMA vests.
And I looked at Congressman Cory Mills. And I said, oh, brother, I don't think I can go talk to those people alone.
And he said, come on. I'll go.
So we went. We have it on tape. And Cory said afterwards, he's like, pretty early on, you just shut up. And he said, I could tell, you just wanted to walk away.
I was like, oh, I was doing he went I can to not just go ape on those people.
So I was listening to my mother.
If you don't have anything nice to say. Don't say anything at all.