It's far worse a scene in the western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee region, no doubt, and Asheville, NC has been ravaged by the tropical storm forces of Helene last week, but I wanted to start my discussion this week with my good friend, an old radio buddy of mine, and the guy who essentially provided me the tools and know-how to even launch this show and podcast: Robb Smith - "aka 'Big Robb' of the "Chewing the Fat" podcast.

Long story short: "we just weren't prepared," he said. Robb gives us a sense of the dystopian circumstances in and around Augusta still: no power, no gas, nowhere to go, really ... trees down ... the city shutting its water system down for days ... "Mad Max" he said.

We discussed "how it used to be" with local media there in moments like this ... vs how it is now with seemingly whole radio stations and their digital apparatus on "autopilot." Residents are having a hard time getting information, and corporate media ownership up and down the dial offers them little more than TMZ-style social media offerings and out-of-market voices churning out music like nothing happened.

Of course, it's bad throughout the southeastern US, but did you know - according to Floodlist - the entire world is experiencing a spate of historic flooding right now?

Mother Earth seems upset with us.