Survived storm Helene unscathed

Thank y'all for your thoughts and concern. If anyone feels so compelled, please consider donating to one of the many charities assisting these folks in need. I have an appt. to give blood on Monday, another overlooked need in a time of crisis.

I faired way better than most in the area. Our subdivision is situated with a major Duke Energy Service Center at the corner. We are on the same power sub and I'm sure the main reason we got back online so quickly. Neighborhoods on either side of me are still off-line and not expected to come back on for maybe a week. Had just "robbed" the convenience store nearby of 14 bags of ice right when it started to rain hard, and fueled both cars. Have 2 big 55qt. Rtic coolers that the ice is still solid and no water in the bottom yet as of tonite. It's keeping watch on the extra beer now 😁. Been meaning to get a generator, something in the neighborhood of 5-6K wats. I guess when they get back in stock, I'll definately buy one. Only piece of my longterm survival puzzle I'm missing. Have food supplies to last a month, water, solar battery chargers, sat-phone, extra tanks of propane, and 45gals. of stabilized fuel. Not a "prepper", but I am prepared. Just wished others would take things like this into consideration and do something as small as get enough food and water to last a week. It could ease a lot of pain and anxiety when things turn upside down.
 
The eye came ashore about 40-50 miles from me. This was as close as I have ever been to a Cat 4 and it was something. I have a couple of Pecan trees adjacent to my house and pecans just pelted my roof for hours. A couple of large Black Cherry limbs fell in my driveway where I normally park one of my vehicles, but we had relocated the cars to the pasture to ride out the storm. My yard is just littered with thousands of sticks and small branches. Lost a couple of pieces of trim from my metal garage and, somehow, it sucked the back glass off of a '68 Firebird that was parked behind the garage. (Didn't break the glass) Lost power for 2+ days, but up and running now. All in all, could have been worse.
 
I spoke to my son, who lives in Asheville. He reported that it is difficult to get around, as a lot of roads are still flooded and/or damaged. Almost no power and very limited gas stations open. What gas/diesel is available is being reserved only for emergency vehicles. Water is all on a boil before drinking order. Cell phone signal is very limited. He said he had to go to an old Kmart parking lot, which for whatever reason has a signal, but only for limited phones.

The flooding in some areas is absolutely devastating. To help describe the flooding down by the French Broad River, he told me that at a gas station he frequents, the gas pumps are entirely under water, with only the sign portion on top of the pump being above water.

I asked if it was possible to get out of the county, to get gas at somewhere else, such as Johnsonville, TN. He said almost all roads in and out of Ashville are impassible.

The city officials are communicating with the residents by posting information at the fire stations, and they are reporting that crews are on the way to start restoring power. They expect power to start being restored on Monday.
 
I agree you should be able to take care of yourself for minimum 2 weeks no matter where you live. Having said that - this is Asheville. There 250 miles from the nearest coast line, and there was no prediction of it coming there, let alone 12 hours after landfall. No excuses, but I feel very bad for them quite honestly.

The other problem is I would guess very few had flood insurance.


There were Flood Eatches all out northward along that storms path.

The storm was predicted quite accurately heading to that area. Everywhere east of the Appalachian mountains in Georgia, North Carolina and Soutjh and into Virginia were in the perfect set up for a very high rainfall event….

Upslope with all that tropical moisture and the storm being squeezed by a strong high pressure to the storms east and an approaching front from the west. Equals lots and lot and lots of rainfall.

Hurricane Floyd dropped 12-20 of rainfall in my area in 1999. Same set up except no higher elevation upslope because we are near the coast.

Do I feel bad for those people ?

Sure. When an area gets 12-20 or 30 inches of rainfall in a very, very short period of time… Things happen that just don’t happen hardly ever. Places flood that you would never think would when an area gets that much water.

In Scottsville Virginia here a massive and I mean massive flood happened after Hurricane Camille came that way. Off the top of my head 100 plus people died and I think that area saw almost 30 inches of rainfall in 24 hours. I drove through that small town 7 years ago and saw the historical marker about that event in the town.

So… I am not shocked or surprised by what happened here. It was a perfect set up for this to happen in this circumstance.
 
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I’m not sure the exact situation in Ashville.

Just local flooding or the highway / main arteries closed ?
Do a search on Asheville Flooding.
Lake Lure flooding, Chimney rock flooding to name a few, Biltmore Village Flooding.
Absolutely shocking ! Roads gone, small town areas gone

My wife and I traveled by motorcycle what must be every road up there in NC and TN

There is nothing left of some roads, even parts of interstates 26 and interstate 40 are impassable or missing in multiple locations.

As of right now the only way into and out of Asheville is by helicopter. Think about that, a major area like that, every road destroyed or impassable, helicopter only.

Incredible videos online and news reports still can’t comprehend

Ps my son in Spartanburg still no power.
BMW complex no power for two days so far.
I haven’t checked in yet this morning. But they aren’t even ground zero for half the disaster up at the NC, SC, TN, GA border area and more.
 
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There were Flood Eatches all out northward along that storms path.

The storm was predicted quite accurately heading to that area. Everywhere east of the Appalachian mountains in Georgia, North Carolina and Soutjh and into Virginia were in the perfect set up for a very high rainfall event….

Upslope with all that tropical moisture and the storm being squeezed by a strong high pressure to the storms east and an approaching front from the west. Equals lots and lot and lots of rainfall.

Hurricane Floyd dropped 12-20 of rainfall in my area in 1999. Same set up except no higher elevation upslope because we are near the coast.

Do I feel bad for those people ?

Sure. When an area gets 12-20 or 30 inches of rainfall in a very, very short period of time… Things happen that just don’t happen hardly ever. Places flood that you would never think would when an area gets that much water.

In Scottsville Virginia here a massive and I mean massive flood happened after Hurricane Camille came that way. Off the top of my head 100 plus people died and I think that area saw almost 30 inches of rainfall in 24 hours. I drove through that small town 7 years ago and saw the historical marker about that event in the town.

So… I am not shocked or surprised by what happened here. It was a perfect set up for this to happen in this circumstance.
There were flash flood warning across the entire Southeast, including here, but no one predicted a 100 year event or fired of an evac order.

If you had a generator, 2 weeks of fuel, water and food - does it really matter if it washed away with your house?
 
Been watching lots of Asheville videos on YouTube.
It will take years to rebuild and lots of people will move out of the region.
I wouldn’t hesitate to get out and never return, just being honest.

——————————-

I know someone that was a government contractor dispatched and was working in Homestead / Florida City / Leisure City, Naranja after hurricane Andrew….. 5 days after the hurricane some folks with no food, running water, drinking water, gasoline and electricity were catching rats, squirrels and opossums to survive.
After 5 days with no food some critters will taste good with some ketchup or bbq sauce. Puddles of rainwater were guarded with guns. Yes, people guarding murky water with a shotgun !!!

I am NOT KIDDING.

Disaster relief has come a long way since the early 1990’s.
 
Been watching lots of Asheville videos on YouTube.
It will take years to rebuild and lots of people will move out of the region.
I wouldn’t hesitate to get out and never return, just being honest.

——————————-

I know someone that was a government contractor dispatched and was working in Homestead / Florida City / Leisure City, Naranja after hurricane Andrew….. 5 days after the hurricane some folks with no food, running water, drinking water, gasoline and electricity were catching rats, squirrels and opossums to survive.
After 5 days with no food some critters will taste good with some ketchup or bbq sauce. Puddles of rainwater were guarded with guns. Yes, people guarding murky water with a shotgun !!!

I am NOT KIDDING.

Disaster relief has come a long way since the early 1990’s.
It's hard to get around topography but they'll rebuild.

https://www.asheville.com/flood-of-1916/
 
In our area of SW OH, a good six hundred miles from most of the worst impacts, we saw 50 mph wind gusts, bursts of heavy rain and widespread power outages.
We were without power in my area for about twenty hours.
I can imagine the level of destruction and disruption in those areas more directly impacted, with power restoration taking days or even weeks.
My thoughts and prayers are with those who felt the worst of this, along with those who didn't survive the weather.
 
There were Flood Eatches all out northward along that storms path.

The storm was predicted quite accurately heading to that area. Everywhere east of the Appalachian mountains in Georgia, North Carolina and Soutjh and into Virginia were in the perfect set up for a very high rainfall event….

Upslope with all that tropical moisture and the storm being squeezed by a strong high pressure to the storms east and an approaching front from the west. Equals lots and lot and lots of rainfall.

Hurricane Floyd dropped 12-20 of rainfall in my area in 1999. Same set up except no higher elevation upslope because we are near the coast.

Do I feel bad for those people ?

Sure. When an area gets 12-20 or 30 inches of rainfall in a very, very short period of time… Things happen that just don’t happen hardly ever. Places flood that you would never think would when an area gets that much water.

In Scottsville Virginia here a massive and I mean massive flood happened after Hurricane Camille came that way. Off the top of my head 100 plus people died and I think that area saw almost 30 inches of rainfall in 24 hours. I drove through that small town 7 years ago and saw the historical marker about that event in the town.

So… I am not shocked or surprised by what happened here. It was a perfect set up for this to happen in this circumstance.
I recall thinking there was only that very narrow strip of Florida at the Big Bend to provide some terrain to help wear down the hurricane, and then it was straight into the high relief topography of the mountains where the rain would get concentrated in the valleys. Terrible.
 
I think currently sections of I-40 and I-26 outside Asheville are closed and will be for at least a few days.

https://wlos.com/news/local/parts-i...es-road-conditions-asheville-buncombe-haywood
Pretty big deal. I40 is a main interstate of course, and that fix will not be quick. Asheville is is pretty bad shape, and Chimney Rock they say is gone.

The media like to over use the word "historic". But this is for sure.

Ill bet most do not have flood insurance, and will not be able to rebuild. A big plus for investment firms unfortunately. You know the insurance companies with use every excuse not to pay.

12ft+ deep waters in downtown Asheville.

WOW.

I am east of Charlotte, and we were relatively untouched, by this one at least.
 
Wife and I have had reservations for a month to stay 3 days in Bryson City, N.C. Had planned on visiting Fontana dam, Cherokee, Robbinsville etc. The old saying “ you can’t get there from here “ applies in this case. We cancelled our reservation today.
 
Wife and I have had reservations for a month to stay 3 days in Bryson City, N.C. Had planned on visiting Fontana dam, Cherokee, Robbinsville etc. The old saying “ you can’t get there from here “ applies in this case. We cancelled our reservation today.
Were you going to take the bike?
Up until last week storm just awesome riding up there
 
Pretty big deal. I40 is a main interstate of course, and that fix will not be quick. Asheville is is pretty bad shape, and Chimney Rock they say is gone.

The media like to over use the word "historic". But this is for sure.

Ill bet most do not have flood insurance, and will not be able to rebuild. A big plus for investment firms unfortunately. You know the insurance companies with use every excuse not to pay.

12ft+ deep waters in downtown Asheville.

WOW.

I am east of Charlotte, and we were relatively untouched, by this one at least.
I know poor people who moved there years ago from the gulf coast to "finally be done with hurricanes." WoW. So very sad. I have spent over 45 to 50 years of vacations all in that part of the country and never dreamed to see such a thing.
 
Wife and I have had reservations for a month to stay 3 days in Bryson City, N.C. Had planned on visiting Fontana dam, Cherokee, Robbinsville etc. The old saying “ you can’t get there from here “ applies in this case. We cancelled our reservation today.
Spent many summers as kid at and all around that Fontana dam area.
 
I know poor people who moved there years ago from the gulf coast to "finally be done with hurricanes." WoW. So very sad. I have spent over 45 to 50 years of vacations all in that part of the country and never dreamed to see such a thing.
there is much more than poor people there now, and Ill leave it at that.
 
Going on a day and a half with power now. Hosted almost 40 folks throughout that time who could travel and get here to eat, do laundry, shower, power up batteries and devices, get on the internet etc. Lots brought stuff from their freezers that would have gone bad otherwise, and we have smoked, grilled, and flat griddled so much food that we were basically calling neighbors over for a huge gathering to eat. Lots of folks that didn't even know who their neighbors are, got to come together and meet one another. Also called my former agency and had guys on duty come by and get something to eat since power is still out at most of the places to get food. Even broke down and invited the firefighters too 😁. Trying to make the best of this bad situation.
 
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