Florence 2018

[bykfixer]

I always smile when I drive past a site that's down for the weekend, holiday, etc. and I see compressors, generators and Job Boxes slung WAY up in the air on the cranes. Somebody didn't want to explain why stuff got stolen when they were charged with securing it...

It's crazy to hear that roads are flooding in New Hampshire from Florence. Such an impact that one has had on the east coast.

Meanwhile the number without power in NC was under 100k already this morning. Amazing how much work has already taken place.

 

[scout24]

Looking at the radar, the bands of rain weren't moving through quickly. And the northeast is completely saturated at this point. Florence didn't help. No wind damage obviously, but streams and creeks were already at capacity. The last 8 weeks or so up here were a LOT wetter than normal.

And yes, major props to the utility repair crews.

 

[bykfixer]

While watching a weather geek network... Not the weather channel, but one for nerds and nuts... This fellow was showing how Florence is split into a pair of low pressure systems. One at the north end over New England and the other one still hovering over NC.

The even crazier part is that the one over NC is going to split into two, and one of them is going to spin away from land, gather up some energy and become another depression. The track is scheduled to be aimed back to NC but it is project to disipate before making landfall.

Causes me to wonder just what in the world happened in Greenvile NC to **** off Mother Nature like that....

The tornadoe reportings in Richmond Va.
They say a couple of sightings may have been the same tornadoe.

 

[WDR65]

Hey everybody, thought I'd give a quick update. We're finally starting to get back to some normalcy. Power came back on Friday afternoon after 7.5 days without (kudos to the lineman, they never stopped it was just a lot to do). The areas along the rivers in my county are some of the hardest hit. People that didn't flood during hurricane Floyd are dealing with the aftermath of several feet of water in their homes. Floyd was supposed to be their benchmark with the "500 year flood".
Grocery stores are being gradually restocked and gasoline supplies are stable again. I don't know if anybody can recall being cut off for as long as some areas were and some still are to a degree. I've got to say from what I've seen the federal government has done the best job here that they've ever done after a storm. The response has been much quicker than in the past. That may be because they were staging for a Category 4 storm but either way they've done well. The sheer amount of helicopter resources and rescues locally backs that up.
Anyway I'll post more later on what worked and what didn't for my family and friends. Today marks the third Tuesday that I've been doing work related to this storm and I see that continuing for another week at least.

 

[bykfixer]

Glad to hear you are ok.

Please keep checking back in as it's nice to hear the good stories now that the media doesn't get their ratings from you folks' suffering.....

 

[markr6]

Did you guys see that clip of Mike Seidel from the Weather Channel? Classic! He seemed to be playing it up almost falling over from the wind, then two guys in shorts and deck shoes came into frame, casually walking around. I think one of them was on their cell phone. They (TWC) blamed it on being tired and standing on wet grass.

He did a similar thing in Miami last year that I had to record on my phone.

 

[PartyPete]

Did you guys see that clip of Mike Seidel from the Weather Channel? Classic! He seemed to be playing it up almost falling over from the wind, then two guys in shorts and deck shoes came into frame, casually walking around. I think one of them was on their cell phone. They (TWC) blamed it on being tired and standing on wet grass.

He did a similar thing in Miami last year that I had to record on my phone.

That was hilarious. I guess even TWC isn't above tabloid-esque moves to draw in ratings.

Although by all accounts it was pretty fierce at the coast and even slightly inland in some places. However, we are so fair inland we had nothing more than some clouds, wind and some rain. Luckily we didn't get hit hard at all. We actually had storms over the summer that hit harder with more rain. Our house lost power then but not for Florence, go figure.

Hope everyone is OK.

 

[scout24]

I gave up on the weather channel when they started naming it every time it became cloudy out. And sensationalized everything, like "bombogenesis". Give me a break...

 

[markr6]

I gave up on the weather channel when they started naming it every time it became cloudy out. And sensationalized everything, like "bombogenesis". Give me a break...

They love hype! It was funny when they started naming winter storms; NOAA didn't want to play along so they just kept marketing the hell out of it anyway...and it actually caught on, I think.

 

[scout24]

I hope it goes away, personally. I live in the northeast. You know what? It snows here in winter. Fairly frequently. Sometimes a lot. Has for years. They don't need names. The risk is being the weather station that cried wolf. Every time it gets cloudy can't be a Cat 5 F-5 blizzard with the fastest drop to a lowest pressure we've ever seen on a Tuesday in February. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky, but it's ridiculous...

 

[bykfixer]

It snows in the northeast? (Gasp)

Global warming, global warming.

What's next? Leaves fall off trees in October?

 

[WDR65]

I hope it goes away, personally. I live in the northeast. You know what? It snows here in winter. Fairly frequently. Sometimes a lot. Has for years. They don't need names. The risk is being the weather station that cried wolf. Every time it gets cloudy can't be a Cat 5 F-5 blizzard with the fastest drop to a lowest pressure we've ever seen on a Tuesday in February. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky, but it's ridiculous...

I can't agree more with you on this. The media and their "millions at risk of severe weather" headline might just do more to the national level of anxiety than anything else.

 

[WDR65]

Glad to hear you are ok.

Please keep checking back in as it's nice to hear the good stories now that the media doesn't get their ratings from you folks' suffering.....

Another update. Spent the weekend away and didn't do anything related to the storm for two whole days. Almost back to normal for me but locally there are so many others that are not that fortunate. Read an article where many have not gotten enough money from flood insurance to repair the damage from hurricane Matthew and apparently may not receive payouts for this storm. I think things are going to have to change as to how people here live in many places but I realize that's hard with many having ties to the land going back decades if not centuries. For some this is the third major flood since 2001. Some built higher then and others rebuilt with the assumption that Hurricane Floyd was a once in a lifetime event. I'm hearing that for my county there is an expected shift in population, either away from the low lying areas or out of the county entirely.

 

[WDR65]

I wanted to add a post about our preparations and what worked and what didn't during and after the storm. I'll do this in a couple of posts so as not to make them too long.

While I keep certain things around, there are various consumables that I don't keep in deep supply. I had a hunch that this one was going to hit us and I started filling gas cans with ethanol free gas the Wednesday before the storm was even forecast to head our way. I noticed other people doing the same. I also noticed bottled water running low at the local Food Lion. I started grabbing extra bottled water then and picked up cases as I saw them at various stores. (We never came close to running out of drinking water and could have gotten by on what we had for several more weeks at least). By Friday I had all of the chainsaws running, full of gas and sharp. I also had my generators running as well as my Dad's. By the weekend I had my wife on board with the preps and she did the major grocery runs and started filling trash cans and water containers at the house. (Major drawback that I'm looking to fix is that I don't have a 240 extension cord to run my well, it has a 1 hp pump and is pretty far from my house so I don't think running it off a transfer switch with a 5000 watt generator is the right thing.)


By the Monday before the storm we had plenty of food, ice for the freezer and coolers, as well as plenty of dog food. The vehicles were full of gas. At that time it was still a major hurricane or forecast to be one and we were debating on evacuating inland to my brother's home. My wife packed air mattresses and bedding into a large duffel and I had several crates ready to go. (We did not leave because my father who is partially disabled would not leave. Also my wife's family wouldn't leave either.)


One important note here is to get meds refilled as soon as possible before the storm. For some unknown reason all of our local Walgreen's decided to close down on Tuesday night at nine o clock.(We did not see major effects from the storm until Thursday night) The message was not sent out until Tuesday afternoon and they actually closed before nine. My mother rushed over as soon as she heard and was there by quarter until nine and the manager was locking the security doors. My Dad's prescriptions held out until about a week after the storm but having a bit more of a safety net would have been nice. I know they have families to worry about as well but the abrupt manner in which they closed with little to no warning was a little hard to swallow.

 

[bykfixer]

Thanks for the update(s).

How are thing fare-ing there? Has all of the flood water receded?

Glad you and yours are ok.

 

[WDR65]

Thanks for the update(s).

How are thing fare-ing there? Has all of the flood water receded?

Glad you and yours are ok.

The floodwaters are pretty much gone. The areas that were worst hit are mostly dry. The tire shop I use is about twenty five miles away and when I went on Tuesday for ten miles along that stretch I didn't see a single home that wasn't being gutted or without a pile of debris in the yard. While that stretch starts with a high end development along a river the rest of it is rural agriculture families and small trailer parks. Few had flood insurance and some never thought it would be an issue. Those people are going to be suffering for a while, though FEMA and other organizations are out and about doing a lot already. A few spots are still pretty hard to access and people were not allowed back in until the beginning of this week.

 

[bykfixer]

It seems like FEMA is doing much better since Katrina.

It's unfortunate these days that often times homes are now being built in places very vulnerable to flooding. Yet when Mother Nature throws trillions of gallons of water at a spot not unlike Noah's time, even safe locations can be affected at times.

I live in a spot that is ordinarily pretty safe. But if we got what you guys did I cannot say with certainty I wouldn't be gutting my home instead of typing this post.