good normal first world country stuff

It's going to be more than that. I didn't lose anyone I'm super close to luckily, but there were a lot of close calls for friends and co-workers and many of them are missing people they know.

I'm also in Henderson County which overall didn't get hit as bad as Asheville, Marshall, Swananoa, and the other areas closer to the river basins. Our local river went about 10' (3-4 meters) over the typical 1' depth (1/3 meter). Places down stream from the dammed lakes got upwards of 20' (8 meters) of swift water flooding.

Those rural areas are also where lots of elderly people go to retire and many of them were unable to get out of their homes as the wall of water approached during the storm.

This level of flooding is unprecedented and many people who have experienced flooding near them were suddenly hundreds of feet closer to the floodwaters than they've ever been. And by the time it has that point many of the roads and bridges they need to evacuate were underwater.