2024 Hurricane Helene and Aftermath

[R7ehr]

So this Matt Van Swol guy is just flat out lying in his tweets. I get that there are lots of MAGA cheerleaders out there.

He shared he was a lifelong Democrat until Helene.

He is also sharing (or generating) a whole lot of misinformation.

As for being a "lifelong Democrat?" Voting records are public in North Carolina. In the past 10 years it appears he has only voted once and that was in the November 2024 election in which he was registered as "unaffiliated" and not Democrat or Republican. There is no record of him ever being registered as a Democrat or voting in any Democratic primary.

Maybe he is new to North Carolina?

[Ken]

He shared he was a lifelong Democrat until Helene.

He is also sharing (or generating) a whole lot of misinformation.

As for being a "lifelong Democrat?" Voting records are public in North Carolina. In the past 10 years it appears he has only voted once and that was in the November 2024 election in which he was registered as "unaffiliated" and not Democrat or Republican. There is no record of him ever being registered as a Democrat or voting in any Democratic primary.

Maybe he is new to North Carolina?

Voting records show he registered in NC in 2021 as an independent and only voted once...in the Nov 2024 general election.

[R7ehr]

He is also sharing (or generating) a whole lot of misinformation.

As for being a "lifelong Democrat?" Voting records are public in North Carolina. In the past 10 years it appears he has only voted once and that was in the November 2024 election in which he was registered as "unaffiliated" and not Democrat or Republican. There is no record of him ever being registered as a Democrat or voting in any Democratic primary.

Maybe he is new to North Carolina?

Voting records show he registered in NC in 2021 as an independent and only voted once...in the Nov 2024 general election.

Maybe he is new to North Carolina? Do we know how old he is, could he have been registered in a different state as a Democrat? Or voted in a different state as a Democrat?

[Ken]

Maybe he is new to North Carolina?

Voting records show he registered in NC in 2021 as an independent and only voted once...in the Nov 2024 general election.

Maybe he is new to North Carolina? Do we know how old he is, could he have been registered in a different state as a Democrat? Or voted in a different state as a Democrat?

Public records show he is 28 and first registered in that county as an independent (or unaffiliated) in 2021. You'd have to search other states records to see if he was voting in another state before that.

[ohio jones]

Public records show he is 28 and first registered in that county as an independent (or unaffiliated) in 2021. You'd have to search other states records to see if he was voting in another state before that.

Maybe that should be done before tripling down on his voter registration record as if it proves anything.

Also, it is amusing to hear a 28 year old described as a "lifelong" anything.

[Ken]

Public records show he is 28 and first registered in that county as an independent (or unaffiliated) in 2021. You'd have to search other states records to see if he was voting in another state before that.

Maybe that should be done before tripling down on his voter registration record as if it proves anything.

Also, it is amusing to hear a 28 year old described as a "lifelong" anything.

He's been a registered independent since 2021 which would have been when he was 24. So there is no evidence in the voting record to support his claim that he was a "lifelong Democrat" who only switched to Trump after Hurricane Helene.

Of course there is no evidence for most of his claims about hurricane response so par for the course I guess.

[temporal1]

i understand the happiness+excitement of seeing an important highway reopened, EVEN with limited use.
i imagine some may have understandably anticipated being completely forgotten and abandoned.

major road construction takes time. temporary lanes, shared lanes, limited lanes, slow lanes are typical.
frankly, even tho my husband was a highway civil engineer, i still marvel men can work as they do, accomodating traffic whenever possible, literally risking their lives to accomodate traffic while doing hard physical labor in all sorts of weather.

drivers not slowing down, not paying attention, sometimes rear-ending other drvers, or hitting workers is a nonstop fear.

it’s nothing to take for granted. getting a lane or two slow+passable is a major accomplishment.

[Ken]

i understand the happiness+excitement of seeing an important highway reopened, EVEN with limited use.
i imagine some may have understandably anticipated being completely forgotten and abandoned.

major road construction takes time. temporary lanes, shared lanes, limited lanes, slow lanes are typical.
frankly, even tho my husband was a highway civil engineer, i still marvel men can work as they do, accomodating traffic whenever possible, literally risking their lives to accomodate traffic while doing hard physical labor in all sorts of weather.

drivers not slowing down, not paying attention, sometimes rear-ending other drvers, or hitting workers is a nonstop fear.

it’s nothing to take for granted. getting a lane or two slow+passable is a major accomplishment.

Of course not.

But the fact that they managed to get a single lane in each direction re-opened 5 months after the hurricane is most definitely NOT any sort of evidence that they rebuilt this highway 3x faster and cheaper than projected as was claimed in the tweet. If you watch the video it is clear that they are only just getting started and no such claims are made.

[temporal1]

i understand the happiness+excitement of seeing an important highway reopened, EVEN with limited use.
i imagine some may have understandably anticipated being completely forgotten and abandoned.

major road construction takes time. temporary lanes, shared lanes, limited lanes, slow lanes are typical.
frankly, even tho my husband was a highway civil engineer, i still marvel men can work as they do, accomodating traffic whenever possible, literally risking their lives to accomodate traffic while doing hard physical labor in all sorts of weather.

drivers not slowing down, not paying attention, sometimes rear-ending other drvers, or hitting workers is a nonstop fear.

it’s nothing to take for granted. getting a lane or two slow+passable is a major accomplishment.

Of course not.

But the fact that they managed to get a single lane in each direction re-opened 5 months after the hurricane is most definitely NOT any sort of evidence that they rebuilt this highway 3x faster and cheaper than projected as was claimed in the tweet. If you watch the video it is clear that they are only just getting started and no such claims are made.

If you have questions about their work, ASK THEM for further explanation about what THEY are saying.
Everything else is speculation and conjecture. Not to mention, biased.

The world won’t come to an end if you take an occasional breather.

[Robert]

Maybe he is new to North Carolina? Do we know how old he is, could he have been registered in a different state as a Democrat? Or voted in a different state as a Democrat?

I would not worry about it. Typical tactic to slay the messenger.