Hurricane Helene & Hurricane Milton

My SIL in Tampa just informed us that everything in her lower level (a small guest apartment) was destroyed. They live along the Hillsborough River and have a 3 story home with their living space upstairs, so they were safe, but they already tore out the drywall to the studs and carried out the furniture.
 
My friends’ son heard from them and texted me: no power and they had to drive 20 miles to find a tower, but they have food and a grill and their house isn’t damaged. Very relieved.

But looking at Asheville I have a feeling our visit there will be cancelled, I really doubt the town will be in condition for visitors in 5 weeks.
 
Biltmore Village, just south of Asheville really got slammed with flooding including some beautiful historic hotels. There's a lot of road /highway damage as well.

I have friends who moved to the east side of NC and was planning on driving and spending a few days in Asheville on the way next year. Maybe that's going to have to wait a few years to be realized now? A lot of the major damage will take awhile to clean up.
 
Conditions in western North Carolina are quite bad. Around App State, roads are washed out and access to the few major roads that are open is tricky at best, so they’ve cancelled classes for this coming week. Knowing my nephew’s kid, he will probably look for opportunities to volunteer, but getting to where the most need is will be a problem.
 
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PRlady said:
My friends’ son heard from them and texted me: no power and they had to drive 20 miles to find a tower, but they have food and a grill and their house isn’t damaged. Very relieved.

But looking at Asheville I have a feeling our visit there will be cancelled, I really doubt the town will be in condition for visitors in 5 weeks.
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Don't go. There is massive flooding with roads washed out and boulders and debris everywhere. Some nearby towns are completely devastated. This is from the North Carolina's Weather Authority Facebook page:

“I’m sorry to text so early. Our friend, Steve, Black Mountains Police Chief, got home this morning to get some rest and then he’s headed back to Black Mountain. He’s been up for 72 hours evacuating and rescuing. It’s catastrophic in that area. Montreat and Swannanoa are gone. Neighborhoods are gone from flooding or mudslides. They’re having to leave bodies behind, houses are on fire. There’s no communication so people that need to be rescued can’t call for help so they have no idea where to look. The flood current is so strong and they weren’t able to save some people that were in their cars. No one even knows this is going on right now because of having no communication. We’ve been watching the news since we woke up this morning and it hasn’t even been mentioned. So many prayers are needed. My heart is so heavy.”

I don't know if my friends in Asheville are safe. There is no power and no cell phone coverage. I don't know if other friends in North Carolina are safe, either. It's heartbreaking seeing the videos of places where I've visited that are no longer there and wondering how many lives have been lost.
 
The Presbyterians have a major conference center next to Black Mountain so I’ve been there a few times, and have some friends outside Asheville. The reports and scenes are apocalyptic. I think there’s going to be a lot of suffering because folks are stranded because of roads and floods. The fact we haven’t heard much is scary.
 
Wyliefan said:
I was at Black Mountain for a conference a few years ago -- lovely little place. This is awful. :(
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Just received this from one of the organizers of the Black Mountain music festival:

"As I’m sure you have been seeing on the news, Black Mountain is a disaster area right now. Go to Facebook and search “Black Mountain NC” and you’ll see some of the disaster. And I can’t see that changing in the 2 weeks we have remaining until the festival. One of the reports that has come out of that area says that Asheville is “cut off from the world”. There have been rock and mud slides blocking interstates making access impossible. News sources are saying that the only other time this has happened was in 1791. One of my past experiences was 15 years serving on a disaster relief team. We would “stage” outside an area that was about to be hit and go in once the storm had passed. Currently, there are no avenues for relief to get into the affected areas. So, it could be weeks before power, etc. is back to any form of “normal”. So, before all else, our prayers go out to everyone affected by this disaster.

In light of these reports, it seems obvious that this year’s festival will have to be cancelled. I can’t tell you how difficult it is for me to have to admit that fact. The festival is one of the high points of my year and I know this is a real disappointment for all of us involved.

My offer to you as staff is to invite you to next year’s festival. So, we can keep all the same classes, instructors, etc. for next year. In one sense, that will make a bright spot for us knowing that the bulk of the planning for next year has already been done. I realize that next year may not be an option for everyone. But, for those who can make it, I hope you will get next year’s festival on your calendar. If we keep the same week, next year’s dates would be October 11-16. But that remains to be finalized. So, I’ll be in touch about later with those details.

Again, I appreciate all that you’ve done to prepare for this year’s festival, and I hope you’ll be available for next year’s gathering. Please know that I am in complete disbelief and heartbroken over this decision. But it is the only wise and logical choice given the circumstances. When times like these come it reminds us of all that we take for granted. If you have any questions at all don’t hesitate to let me know. I’ll look forward to seeing many of you in the coming year at other venues and NEXT fall in Black Mountain.

Much love to you all"
 
Our friends are refugee-ing to us some time this week. Their grown son lives near here (in a studio, they can’t stay there) and they lived here for years so this is logical spot. Ordinarily I’d be wary of open-ended houseguests but they are very close friends and yikes, it’s a catastrophe down there.
 
PRlady said:
Our friends are refugee-ing to us some time this week. Their grown son lives near here (in a studio, they can’t stay there) and they lived here for years so this is logical spot. Ordinarily I’d be wary of open-ended houseguests but they are very close friends and yikes, it’s a catastrophe down there.
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What a blessing to them. I’m sure there’ll be some minor bumps but hopefully you’ll all remember this fondly in retrospect.
 
The pictures from Buncombe County are awful. I know how hard it is to get supplies in after a major disaster that disrupts roads/bridges like this one did, but I hope that they're able to get a supply chain going of water sooner rather than later. It sounds very spotty right now--and with communications outages, it is hard for people to even know where water is available.

We did not refill our emergency water supplies after we moved. That is getting fixed tomorrow.
 
Latest useful links I found for Hurricane Helene:

USA Today - United States Power Outage Tracker. Update the entire U.S. every 15 minutes. There's also a drop down to zoom in a particular state. I highly recommend bookmarking this page for future use.

FEMA - Hurricane Helene. Also has links to state resources for each state affected.

USA.Gov - Hurricane Helene

Feeding America - Hurricane Helene Donation Page

American Red Cross - Hurricane Helene Donation Page

Salvation Army - Hurricane Helene Donation Page
 
PRlady said:
Heard from friends again and they will be without power 2-4 weeks. Told them to come here. They’re the lucky ones, no damage to house but roads washed out everywhere.
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Yeah, my parents have acquaintances in St. Petersburg. I don't know what the term is in English but they said the place that provides them with electricity and water were both destroyed, so it's going to take a while until they get either back.
They chose to ride out the storm, don't know why but all of their four cars (they're 6 in the family) are a totaled and the water entered their home's basement and came up the stairs to the main level halfway. They said some of their neighbors rode out the storm on top of their cabinets.
Also, they've heard of Teslas going up in flames because something in the battery reacted with the salt water.

They've now decided to evacuate because of the no electricity, no water situation even if they're still figuring out how since they have no working cares anymore.

90° and no water or electricity for weeks doesn't sound good in terms of like everything but especially illnesses and health care overall. :(

After the Tampa/St. Petersburg area got away with the proverbial black eye the last couple of storms in terms of what was predicted vs how it turned out, it seems like Helene thought, well, third time's the charm.

The images that I've seen are just insanity. Much like after Sandy, there were images that looked like they were from a war zone. (Although, there was video footage of a home in Horseshoe Beach that was battered as Helene approached and after I saw the images from Horseshoe Beach, I thought it was a goner for sure. Turns out, it's still standing. :wideeyes:)
 
kwanfan1818 said:
How are your friends getting to you, @PRlady? I thought all of the roads were inaccessible.
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I’m not sure. They’re in Brevard and managed to drive 20 miles to get a cell connection so at least they can get out of their area. I suppose if they drive east rather than north (they’re near the SC line) maybe they can get out? Our communications have been very brief.
 
PRlady said:
I’m not sure. They’re in Brevard and managed to drive 20 miles to get a cell connection so at least they can get out of their area. I suppose if they drive east rather than north (they’re near the SC line) maybe they can get out? Our communications have been very brief.
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There are people out (road crews supplemented by volunteers) clearing roads that don’t have live wires on them. Going east should be possible if they ignore GPS and just listen to locals.
 
Vash01 said:
It should be Kirk if it is after Helene. They alternate the names M/F.
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Yes, well, the reason it could wind up being Leslie is because there's a tropical depression in the eastern Atlantic that may level up to a named storm before the one in the western Caribbean does.

The devastation in western North Carolina is massive. I've seen similar scenes of flooding in eastern Tennessee and northeastern Georgia.
 
Vash01 said:
It should be Kirk if it is after Helene. They alternate the names M/F.
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​

What Karen-W said above.​


Tropical Storm Kirk​

[edit]
Tropical storm (SSHWS)
DurationSeptember 29 – present
Peak intensity50 mph (85 km/h) (1-min);
1001 mbar (hPa)
On September 27, the NHC noted that an area of low pressure could form over the eastern tropical Atlantic the next week.[200] Early the next day, they began monitoring a broad area of low pressure producing limited shower activity west of Cabo Verde.[201] As showers and thunderstorms associated with the disturbance became better organized,[202] satellite imagery on September 29 revealed that the disturbance's circulation was becoming better defined.[203] As a result, later that day, it developed into Tropical Depression Twelve.[204] The next day it developed into Tropical Storm Kirk.[205]


Kirk is far out in the Atlantic southeast of Bermuda and tracking north. The projected Gulf storm is more likely to be named Leslie (or even a later name) based on this situation.
 
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