Severe Weather

[Ben E Lou]

I’m at Costco. I have to get on I-40E briefly to get here. It’s a loop entry where you can get on E or W. Above the West entrance, the big board simply said in all caps “DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TRAVEL TO WESTERN NC.”

EDIT: To be clear, IIRC it’s roughly a 2.5-hour drive to Asheville from there.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Dear God. There is also a dam break that has the town of Newport, Tn evacuated. There are reports from scanners there have been other dam breaks where people where not told or able to get out. There is likely going to be a significant death toll in Tennessee/North Carolina.

Another view of Unicoi County Hospital in Tennessee.
Rescue operation with helicopters underway now. pic.twitter.com/5wbOZeaW9Y
— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) September 27, 2024

Holy shit that's out of a movie.

[RainMaker]

The videos coming out of North Carolina are insane too.

Asheville, NC #ncpol pic.twitter.com/Bv6Ch5zXzi

— Margo (@MargoinWNC) September 27, 2024

[Ksyrup]

I've been trying to get a hold of my brother and my parents for a couple of hours and haven't gotten through. I'm hoping it's just the phone lines are jammed or something.

Those pictures are unbelievable. And as a reminder of why I don't spend time on Twitter any more, that woman's feed is half natural devastation and half pro-Trump devastation. I felt dirty just scrolling through to find the storm-related content.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

The videos coming out of North Carolina are insane too.

And large swaths of the area have had no cell coverage for hours.

[Ksyrup]

That's what I hope is going on with my family because I can't get through to anyone.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

That's what I hope is going on with my family because I can't get through to anyone.

To give you more hope in that arena, I have two friends, one in Sylva and the other in Black Mountain, both of whom are in what they’ve described today as being very safe locations, who had been posting tons of updates to social media. Both stopped posting in the early afternoon today and have been silent since, and I’ve seen multiple posts from parents and grandparents of WCU students saying that their child/grandchild has no service and can’t be contacted.

[Ksyrup]

Thanks. At first I thought I wasn't hearing anything because they were dealing with assessing the damage to my brother's house and cleaning up, but it's been hours so it must be the cell service.

[RainMaker]

Yeah, there's going to be some massive damage to cell towers and other infrastructure. Plus so many people trying to connect at the same time to what's left. You might not hear from them for a day or two depending on how extensive the damage is.

[Ben E Lou]

Panovich referenced Chimney Rock. Apparently this is Chimney Rock.

Chimney Rock, NC is completely gone. This was my favorite place to go as a kid. This is what it looks like now versus what it looked like before. This is insane. pic.twitter.com/9Y5xCDMy7I

— Kristi Yamaguccimane (@TheWapplehouse) September 27, 2024

[GrantDawg]

That is just devastating. We are not going to know for quite awhile how many people were in homes that just slid off the mountains. Scary stuff.

[Ksyrup]

Finally heard from my brother just a little while ago. They are OK, were able to clear a path to drive out and find cell service. The issue for most of the cell service in the area is that it's not the cell towers that are out - many of them have been restored - but a data line that's reportedly been severed. So, cell service works but has no data to connect to.

They were able to drive over to the retirement community my parents live at and everything is as good as it could be there. No power except in the main dining room, but they were eating lunch like normal when they arrived. But he said the devastation is Katrina/Andrew-like. He said he's now got a mountain view he didn't have before. Thousands and thousands trees gone. He and some neighbors think there may have been a tornado because there is one line of damage that looks like more than just loose soil and wind. But who knows.

I'm supposed to go there in 3 weeks. Doubt that happens.

[Ben E Lou]

Glad to hear the official word that they’re ok!

[RainMaker]

That's very good to hear Ksyrup. Hoping all the terrible images I'm seeing online are just damage to property and everyone made it out safe. Don't think I remember seeing flooding this bad since Katrina.

[Ghost Econ]

In addition to chopping up parts of the tree in our yard, we've spent the day watching as our neighbors are frantically trying to keep a 100 ft tall tree from falling on their home. It started leaning during the storm and keeps going.

Earlier, they used a tow truck to hoist someone up by a rope around their waist while they got maybe halfway up and trimmed some limbs.

Then they attempted to use the tow truck to try and pull the tree down in a specific direction. We could hear cracking but it wasn't quite enough. They currently have a second tow truck that they're also going to try to use to help bring it down. The problem is, the direction theyre trying to drop has power lines that are still up about 50 feet away.

A lot of this looks very illegal but I'm riveted like Tom Hanks in The Burbs.

[GrantDawg]

They are saying that parts of I-40 and I-26 are going to be closed for days.

This is the water overflow at Mountain Island Lake Dam.



[GrantDawg]

Video of nightmares:

This is the most terrifying debris flow video I have seen from the flooding in East Tennessee/Western North Carolina#HurricaneHelene #tnwx #ncwx #flood pic.twitter.com/gDCI09Ge4a

— Alan (@smokiesvol) September 28, 2024

[RainMaker]

Good god pic.twitter.com/L3Oz1GYOcL

— Read Abolish Rent (@JoshuaPHilll) September 29, 2024

[RainMaker]

Was the damage to Western NC unexpected? I don't remember seeing much talked about before the storm hit and surprised at how much devastation it's caused. It feels like so many areas are just wiped off the map.

The saddest are people online begging for updates from relatives. Lack of cell coverage and internet likely plays a role in this but it does seem like we might be hearing some sad stories.

[GrantDawg]

The level definitely was beyond expectations. They were warning of flooding and possible tornados, but no one had it being as bad as it is.

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[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Was the damage to Western NC unexpected? I don't remember seeing much talked about before the storm hit and surprised at how much devastation it's caused. It feels like so many areas are just wiped off the map.

The saddest are people online begging for updates from relatives. Lack of cell coverage and internet likely plays a role in this but it does seem like we might be hearing some sad stories.

As I understand it, the track shifting eastward a bit more than anticipated at/after landfall created the additional issues for NC. That may have combined with the unrelated weather front that went through some places ahead of the hurricane stuff to make matters worse.

I've got a couple people dealing with the no-contact (or at least least SUPER-limited contact) relatives thing right now, my general sense is that the communication issues may truly turn out to be an exceptionally high percentage of it. Fingers crossed that is the case.

[Ksyrup]

This reminds me of Eastern KY in 2021 (i think it was) in terms of devastation of landslides/flooding except there are no big population centers there so it didn't really rise to this level of scope.

My brother knew it would be bad just based on the amount of rain they got in the 2 days before the storm arrived. They got 10+ inches at his house.

[Edward64]

Some sobering stats.

At least 97 people have died across six states and officials believe there could be more. So far, state and county officials said 36 people died in North Carolina, 25 in South Carolina, 17 in Georgia, 11 in Florida, four in Tennessee andtwo in Virginia. Hundreds have been reported missing, perhaps unable to leave their location or unable to contact family, with phone and internet service still spotty in some hard-hit communities.

Helene’s path of destruction stretched more than 500 miles, from coastal Florida to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Ravaged by the storm, the historic North Carolina mountain community of Asheville is now isolated as hundreds of roads in the Carolinas remain closed, hampering the delivery of badly-needed supplies — and making it difficult to get people out.

More than 2 million customers remain without power, according to PowerOutage.us. Power companies are dealing with damaged and blocked roads as they work to restore power to homes and businesses.

[Ghost Econ]

Insurance question: what are the chances insurance reimburses us if we go stay at a hotel?

We likely won't have power until Friday at best. If you get technical, the power went out before the tree fell in our yard and knocked down the lines and ripped our breaker box and power meter off the house. It seems insurance doesn't cover hotel stays for general power outages, which technically happened first. And we're getting a guy here today to try and fix it, so it will likely be fixed before the outage as a whole is fixed. But who knows when they'll get to our tree that still sitting on (dead) power lines.

[Ksyrup]

Yes, most policies usually do, but of course - check your policy for the specifics. It should outline the amount it will reimburse and for how long. It's essentially the same thing as getting a rental car after an accident.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

In addition to chopping up parts of the tree in our yard, we've spent the day watching as our neighbors are frantically trying to keep a 100 ft tall tree from falling on their home. It started leaning during the storm and keeps going.

Earlier, they used a tow truck to hoist someone up by a rope around their waist while they got maybe halfway up and trimmed some limbs.

Then they attempted to use the tow truck to try and pull the tree down in a specific direction. We could hear cracking but it wasn't quite enough. They currently have a second tow truck that they're also going to try to use to help bring it down. The problem is, the direction theyre trying to drop has power lines that are still up about 50 feet away.

A lot of this looks very illegal but I'm riveted like Tom Hanks in The Burbs.

The father of one of the boys on my son’s high school team got the call yesterday during a game that his crew is heading to North Carolina to cut down and cut apart dangerous fallen and broken trees.

[RainMaker]

One thing that seems very clear for future preparations is having enough clean drinking water available. I'm seeing so many pleas from people stranded in areas begging for water. If I'm ever in a situation where a terrible storm is coming through, I'm filling up jug after jug just in case.

Does anyone know if those Life Straws would work? Might be a nice thing to just have in your home emergency kit.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Does anyone know if those Life Straws would work? Might be a nice thing to just have in your home emergency kit.

That was, I believe, one of the intended uses. It does have limitations of course -- can't handle salt water for example, or pool water -- but in an extreme emergency it wouldn't be the worst thing to have.

[miked]

We lost power for 48 hours and had a bunch of major areas blocked from downed trees, but overall not too bad. Now with the chemical fire taking place, schools are canceling more activities today.

[HerRealName]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

One thing that seems very clear for future preparations is having enough clean drinking water available. I'm seeing so many pleas from people stranded in areas begging for water. If I'm ever in a situation where a terrible storm is coming through, I'm filling up jug after jug just in case.

Does anyone know if those Life Straws would work? Might be a nice thing to just have in your home emergency kit.

Yes, they're awesome. The Sawyer Squeeze would be my recommendation. They can filter out so much gunk it's incredible and you're left with good, clean water. Highly recommended for trail running/hiking/camping, etc. and would work well for this type of use.

[Ksyrup]

When we lived in Tallahassee, we kept jugs and jugs of water in the house just in case. I suppose you don't think like a coastal community living elsewhere, but living in the mountains comes with its own hazards that can closely approximate a hurricane/tornado scenario.

I texted with my brother today and he said power is slowly getting restored but there's no water. All 3 reservoirs wre compromised and the main one that carries water to Asheville was overrun and washed out the spillways and pipes to the water plants. He's looking at a couple weeks before they can get cranes large enough to remove the trees from his house and was told to not sleep in their bedroom as there are 3 trees that could break the header beam. So, he's not out of the woods yet (pardon the pun).

[Edward64]

As a backpacker I can recommend lifestraw or pretty much their competition. I’ve drunk from some pretty sketchy water sources on the Appalachian trail. But they have real limitations in a flooding. They do not filter out chemicals, oil etc.

So yeah, definitely buy some bottled water. Consider a Bob

Amazon.com: WaterBOB Bathtub Storage Emergency Drinking Water Container, Comes with Hand Pump, Disaster and Hurricane Survival, BPA-Free (100 Gallon) (1 Pack) : Sports & Outdoors

[GrantDawg]

My Augusta friend told me they are still without power and likely will be till next week. He ventured to Athens to get gas. My boss in Madison said they are rationing gas and limiting people going into the grocery store because of occupancy concerns. It is the first exit on the interstate from Augusta that has power.
My buddy does own an EV and says it has been a life saver. It has been powering his fridge, tv, fan, and coffee maker for 4 days with enough charge for 2 to 3 more. He has a gas generator to recharge it after that.

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[RainMaker]

I was wondering about chemicals. The WaterBob seems like a perfect idea.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

My Augusta friend told me they are still without power and likely will be till next week. He ventured to Athens to get gas. My boss in Madison said they are rationing gas and limiting people going into the grocery store because of occupancy concerns. It is the first exit on the interstate from Augusta that has power.
My buddy does own an EV and says it has been a life saver. It has been powering his fridge, tv, fan, and coffee maker for 4 days with enough charge for 2 to 3 more. He has a gas generator to recharge it after that.

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re: Madison grocery stores -- the first available exit thing makes more sense of something I saw over the weekend.

Basically Ingle's there was shut down for 24h (corporate HQ is in Asheville I believe) tho it has reopened with limited supplies on a cash-only basis. Ingle's runs their own supply chain according to reports so with HQ out of commission, some of their warehouses literally underwater/ destroyed outright, getting their stores stocked is going to be an irregular process at best.

Meanwhile that left Walmart -- the only other grocery store in Madison -- open but with pretty much shelves stripped bare. As of yesterday they were awaiting arrival of something (paraphrased) along the lines of "emergency supplies shipment" which means trucks loaded with bottled water, chainsaws, flashlights, etc.

[Ksyrup]

I will never forget in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, I was a college kid working at Albertson's in an area that didn't get hit hard (west of FTL). But a few of us got sent down to Homestead to work one of their stores and it was crazy. Cops were only allowing 10 people in at a time and we were selling whatever was left and a big semi out front had dry ice that was like gold. I did that for about a week immediately after the storm. Driving back and forth on the turnpike and seeing the leveled subdivisions was surreal.

[RainMaker]

Is that chemical fire in Georgia related to the storm or just something different?

[GrantDawg]

Different. It is related to incompetence and deregulation.

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[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Is that chemical fire in Georgia related to the storm or just something different?

Unrelated.

That's the 4th fire at that plant in the past 20 years, pretty similar script to the previous ones.

A small fire, sprinklers go off, water reaches a chemical it shouldn't ... ka-boom.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

To give you more hope in that arena, I have two friends, one in Sylva and the other in Black Mountain, both of whom are in what they’ve described today as being very safe locations, who had been posting tons of updates to social media. Both stopped posting in the early afternoon today and have been silent since, and I’ve seen multiple posts from parents and grandparents of WCU students saying that their child/grandchild has no service and can’t be contacted.

Black Mountain friend was able to post on FB last night: "NC BLACK Mountain update~ still no utilities. Rationing drinking water and gathering grey water. National guard is supposed to be coming. No utilities or cell service at the house. Hanging in. Much love to you all!!! Grateful for your prayers."


Finally received a return text from Sylva a few minutes ago. She's a childhood friend, originally from the small church I grew up in. (Think like just 6 or 7 of us in the 3rd + 4th grade Sunday School class.) Then we ended up going to the same small high school, same graduating class, ran in adjacent friend groups with a fair bit of overlap, kept in touch some even before social media. Point being, I've known her basically all of our lives, and even in just the few texts she just sent, I can tell that she's barely holding it together. She's with her 20something children at their home, safe, but "surrounded by flooding." I've seen enough pictures of their homestead to know that probably means that they can't even get off their property. It's back up in the woods, very long driveway (wouldn't be surprised if it's a quarter mile or longer) with trees overhanging it the whole way. Beautiful pictures over the years, especially in the fall, but likely a nightmarish place to be right now. Ugh.

[RainMaker]

Verizon's massive outage is probably not helping things either for people who were able to get cell service.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

...my general sense is that the communication issues may truly turn out to be an exceptionally high percentage of it. Fingers crossed that is the case...

Yeah...because that area is beautiful--especially in the fall--and just 2-3 hours from here, it's a super-common weekend getaway destination. Yesterday and today I've seen a dozen-ish posts from GSO folks ---ones that I didn't realize were over there for a quick excursion--either in the arena of "I'm ok..had no service" or "my loved one who is there visiting her sister finally was able to text and they're both ok!" At this point, it's still definitely not false hope to assume that the person you haven't heard from just can't communicate.

[JPhillips]

So far everyone I know from that area has checked in as okay.

[Ghost Econ]

Since the storms last Tuesday (9/24) at 8:30 PM, we have had power the following time periods:

9/25-9/27: 3:30 PM - 5:30 AM

In the last 182 hours, we have had power for 38 hours and current best estimate is midnight on Friday, which seems extremely unlikely.

But thankfully, Duke Energy raised rates last month despite previous record profits.

[Ksyrup]

My brother has power. He got some landscaping company to come start pulling trees off the house. Fortunately, he bought business interruption insurance, so he'll have income while his clinic is down.

As another example of why the retirement community we convinced our parents to move into was the right choice, they have largely been doing just fine. There's still no running water, but the place had generator power almost immediately and now has power back. They have continued to eat meals regularly, including the weekly Sunday afternoon prime rib buffet, and apparently a Sysco truck made a delivery a day or two ago. My mom said it feels strange and they're almost guilty that they're in this protected bubble while most of the city is struggling for food and water.

[GrantDawg]

Still remember being in Memphis when there was an ice storm (1993?). We lost power for about 6 hours, but most of the area was without power for days. Some place right in town didn't have power for two weeks. After being stuck in the apartment for a couple of days, my wife and I ventured out to grab some food in one of the few areas that had power, and the restaurant was full of people that looked zombies. We felt guilty but also so thankful.

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[Ghost Econ]

We've finally found the right people to ask about our tree that's down. We had contacted 4 people the day of and heard nothing since. Today I contacted people and all have said they'd be out to look tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

Insurance said they can't make it out until next week so we've taken numerous pics in case they try to screw us over once everything gets fixed.

Hardest part is getting the electrical panel and meter replaced as they're unusable. We had a guy but he said we'd likely need a permit as it needs an upgrade to a 200 amp panel. Said city may fine us if we sell our house in the next 2 years. Problem is city offices are still closed and they somehow haven't thought to set up a way to apply for emergency permits. I doubt they would fine us in the future since we literally have no options, but it's not really a risk we want to take financially.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

My brother has power. He got some landscaping company to come start pulling trees off the house. Fortunately, he bought business interruption insurance, so he'll have income while his clinic is down.

As another example of why the retirement community we convinced our parents to move into was the right choice, they have largely been doing just fine. There's still no running water, but the place had generator power almost immediately and now has power back. They have continued to eat meals regularly, including the weekly Sunday afternoon prime rib buffet, and apparently a Sysco truck made a delivery a day or two ago. My mom said it feels strange and they're almost guilty that they're in this protected bubble while most of the city is struggling for food and water.

Are there ways to get clean water in town? No power sucks but I can't imagine going days without access to clean water. I would think they would have trucks or something coming by with cases of bottled water by now.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Are there ways to get clean water in town? No power sucks but I can't imagine going days without access to clean water. I would think they would have trucks or something coming by with cases of bottled water by now.

I heard a crisis management expert that also happens to be living in Asheville talk about the water situation. She said will take awhile to get the number of trucks they will need to get water flowing again, and it will likely be at least a month before there is regular water. Even then, it will be under a boil warning at least another two months. The main systems and the backups are all completely destroyed, and they basically going to have to rebuild the whole system. That's for in the city. I imagine it might be even slower outside of the more urban areas.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I heard a crisis management expert that also happens to be living in Asheville talk about the water situation. She said will take awhile to get the number of trucks they will need to get water flowing again, and it will likely be at least a month before there is regular water. Even then, it will be under a boil warning at least another two months. The main systems and the backups are all completely destroyed, and they basically going to have to rebuild the whole system. That's for in the city. I imagine it might be even slower outside of the more urban areas.

Boil orders suck but at least you can flush a toilet. I don't know how I'd go without running water.

The overhead shots of the area are devestating. Does anyone know of good charities to donate to that are helping in the area? Red Cross seems to be the go-to but I'd also support any animal ones too as pets often get hit hardest.