Hope our Carolina gang is ok after the storm

[Paul Taylor]

What a crazy storm.

[Don Jenkins]

Thanks for your concern Paul.  Based on several text messages, I believe everyone from the Carolina Gang made it through the storm safely, other than downed tress, some property damage and several days without power.  I lost power here in Lake Wylie, SC Friday morning and it was restored Sunday afternoon.  Unfortunately some folks in my area are still without power.  Yes, a crazy storm with western NC taking the hardest hit.

Don

[john e. holliday]

Mother nature can sure throw curves at us humans.   Sad to hear of the deaths of some people.  But, property can be restored and life will go on.   I expect hurricanes are more dangerous than our tornados.

[John Rist]

Mother nature can sure throw curves at us humans.   Sad to hear of the deaths of some people.  But, property can be restored and life will go on.   I expect hurricanes are more dangerous than our tornados.

Not necessarily true.  Hurricanes may do more damage overall but they usually can be predicated allowing folks to get out of the way.  Tornados come unannounced and no structure can stand up to a direct hit from one.   

[Dan Berry]

Mother nature can sure throw curves at us humans.   Sad to hear of the deaths of some people.  But, property can be restored and life will go on.   I expect hurricanes are more dangerous than our tornados.

Tornados don't have hurricanes.

[Douglas Bykoff]

Dennis Toth recently moved to Asheville NC which was hit hard by the hurricane. Let's pray that all is well with him and his family.

[Robert Zambelli]

I live in Manning, SC, around 70 miles due west of Myrtle Beach.
I spent the week in Odessa, FL, around 20 miles north of Tampa and 15 miles from the Gulf.
Lots of wind and rain but minimal damage.
I drove home on Saturday.
No damage whatsoever at my airport, not even a tree down.
We were very fortunate.

Bob Z.

[Mike Griffin]

Living here in New Orleans I can tell you that a Cat 3 thru a Cat 5 Hurricane can do unbelievable damage with winds and storm surge, not to mention the torrential rain.  During Hurricane IDA, 3 years ago, I had 130MPH winds blowing down my street.  The force of he wind literally knocked my front door out of plumb and square to the point where the deadbolt on the door would not catch.  A Hurricane will also produce imbedded tornadoes, and we had one pass over our house during IDA.  Talk about scary, you have the sound of 130 MPH wind and then hear a tornado passing overhead at the same time.  I cannot even begin to describe how that sounds.
KATRINA hit us almost 20 years ago and we are still trying to recover from that storm.  Storms like these are life changing events and so will be HELENE.

Mike

[Dennis Toth]

Hi all. We just got internet back last night. My wife and I are safe and sound at my daughters in Asheville, NC. We decide to come here for the storm thinking it would be a one night stay (in FL this storm would have be a piece of cake). Well western NC is not used to this kind of heavy continuous rain, trees failing on power lines and across road were the main damage in this area.

There was no structural damage in my daughter's neighborhood, a few trees down but not in critical areas. Power came back on here Saturday. but still lost most of the stuff in the frig. There is no water to this part of Asheville, they had the main 36" water lines broken by the flood waters and the backup 24" line. They are making good progress on repairing those lines but once they can pressurize the system they need to fine and repair distribution line leaks. My guess is about another week. Claire and I had been staying about 15 miles on the other side of town near the airport (by were our new house is being built, it is fine no damage) in an AirBnB. It has water and power came back Thursday, still no internet there. We have been shuttling between the two houses to get water, mostly for flushing toilets (never appreciated how much water a flush takes till you have to haul it in buckets). In this area there is no shortage of food or bottled water or gasoline but until yesterday most businesses that were opened were cash only. That caused some issues but we had enough to get by till the net got back and stores are now online again. Most of the very bad damage was to areas down by the French Broad River and several other rivers that feed into it. The flood water washed away the River Arts District and a number of towns that were in those low-lying areas. The power outages were mostly from trees falling on wires (Duke needs to step up vegetation management from now on). There was a couple substations that were flooded but they have access and are getting things working there probably 90% of power was restored by late night. People in our area are pulling together and going the extra mile to help and be civil, even drivers (some traffic lights are out and need to be treated as 4 way stop).

Looking forward, least one of the places I thought I would be able to start to fly at, Westgate Park, was totally flooded over and is covered in dirt from the video I saw, water has resided now. The second was an unused baseball field and I don't know how that one faired, they may wind up using it as a staging area for tree debris (that happen to our site in West Palm at 6th avenue park, then they cleared and beautified it and no more flying).

We were getting set to close on the new house in a few weeks, the house in in upper Fletcher and supplied by Asheville water so not sure if there is water there or not as we have not been into the house itself only looked around outside. I am sure the storm will set that back a bit, will need to hear from the builder probably next week for an updated time line. 

Hopefully in a week or so we will get water and start moving forward.

Best,   DennisT

[john e. holliday]

Y am glad none of our model plane group got hurt.  But I feel sad for those people who lost lives. 

[Robert Zambelli]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it looks like Milton is going to hammer Florida again, from the Tampa area east, across the state to the east coast.
The TV weather stations are making some pretty gloomy predictions.
I’m not sure of the situation now but last I heard, landfall should be sometime Wednesday morning.
Heavy rain and some serious storm surge.

Bob Z.