Hurricane Helene & Hurricane Milton

VALuvsMKwan said:

​

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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Kirk is the one that we’re tracking in Pto Rico.
 
Frau Muller said:
Kirk is the one that we’re tracking in Pto Rico.
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VALuvsMKwan said:
It appears to be tracking away from you, based on what I have seen.
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Yup, it looks like it's going to wind up out in the Atlantic, but there is another tropical wave that's just come off of Africa that the NHC says has a 90% chance of forming into a TD or TS in the next 7 days. The one in the western Caribbean was dropped from 50% to 40% likely in the next 7 days to form into something more, which is good for Mexico, Jamaica, Cuba and the US.
 
VALuvsMKwan said:
It appears to be tracking away from you, based on what I have seen.
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Many tropical depressions formed near Cape Verde are tracked until they veer to the north before reaching the Carib Isles & PR. Just in the last week we had Isaac, then Joyce, then Kirk. Leslie would be next. It’s like this every year until November. I may be in Jordan then.

Updates from our local meteorologist, Fede Felix, which I bookmark:

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
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Heard from my relatives in Charlotte,NC that the places we had visited in August - Blue Ridge visitor center, Folk art center, and the roads going to them were all under the water when Helene struck Asheville.

So sad! I remember that a large part of the artwork at the Folk art center was on the upper floor. So I hope it was saved. The ground floor had shops and artwork. There was a beautiful quilt like display near the entrance. It must be gone. I am hoping that at least some of the artwork can be restored.

The Blue Ridge visitor center was all on the ground floor. I had taken many pictures there.

I remember sitting at a picnic table outside the folk art center and eating a picnic lunch. I wonder how badly are the surroundings impacted?

I will try to send them a small donation.
 
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To paraphrase Mr Rogers and his Mom, the tragedy of this storm is also giving rise to amazing stories of courage and compassion. I've read some reports about ex NASCAR driver Greg Biffle using his helicopter and coordinating other relief efforts to deliver necessary food and goods to stranded people. Volunteer helicopter pilots from Western NY were in NC delivering donated starlink systems. Lots of other reports of people working hard to bring communication and needed supplies to the people impacted. Reading reports of volunteers going on horseback when the roads have been washed out.
 
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If folks are looking for places that are giving direct help to those in need, Black Mountain Presbyterian Church is providing about 800 meals daily from their location. They are not proselytizing - this is just giving meals. Their new church tagline: "Has everyone been fed yet?"

Realm

Realm is a 100% web based church software solution for churches. It enables your staff to access data 24/7 from anywhere using a computer or mobile device.
onrealm.org onrealm.org
 
"Stephanie Buchanan, a resident of Bakersville, N.C., didn’t know she didn’t have flood insurance until her belongings had been swept away in rising creek waters. Buchanan and her husband fled out the back door and watched the water rise two feet up into their home, ruining furniture and dragging their possessions into the garage.
She called her homeowner’s insurance company, only to learn that her policy didn’t cover floods. In Mitchell County, home to Bakersville, FEMA reported just 31 flood insurance policies for more than 8,600 housing units." https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim.../03/flood-insurance-program-hurricane-helene/

This just ticks me off. She's 47, not blind, and willfully ignorant. EVERY homeowner's insurance renewal stresses that flood damage is not covered. FEMA sends out millions of letters reminding folks that flood damage is not covered by home insurance. Newspaper articles & news broadasts repeatedly -- and for decades -- have stressed that flood damages are not covered by regular home insurance. Now she wants a bailout, claiming that she just didn't know.

Just incredible.
 
barbk said:
"Stephanie Buchanan, a resident of Bakersville, N.C., didn’t know she didn’t have flood insurance until her belongings had been swept away in rising creek waters. Buchanan and her husband fled out the back door and watched the water rise two feet up into their home, ruining furniture and dragging their possessions into the garage.
She called her homeowner’s insurance company, only to learn that her policy didn’t cover floods. In Mitchell County, home to Bakersville, FEMA reported just 31 flood insurance policies for more than 8,600 housing units." https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim.../03/flood-insurance-program-hurricane-helene/

This just ticks me off. She's 47, not blind, and willfully ignorant. EVERY homeowner's insurance renewal stresses that flood damage is not covered. FEMA sends out millions of letters reminding folks that flood damage is not covered by home insurance. Newspaper articles & news broadasts repeatedly -- and for decades -- have stressed that flood damages are not covered by regular home insurance. Now she wants a bailout, claiming that she just didn't know.

Just incredible.
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Oh, come on... This is not a normal occurrence. Flood insurance is not required for most properties as long as they're not in designated flood zones. I closed plenty of home loans where the borrower did not have flood insurance because 1) it's usually REALLY expensive, and 2) most people really don't need it. Without knowing how close to a "creek" their home was, it's impossible to say whether or not she & her husband should have considered the possibility they might need flood insurance some day. This is a catastrophic natural disaster, not something that you would necessarily plan for or expect.
 
Karen-W said:
Oh, come on... This is not a normal occurrence. Flood insurance is not required for most properties as long as they're not in designated flood zones. I closed plenty of home loans where the borrower did not have flood insurance because 1) it's usually REALLY expensive, and 2) most people really don't need it. Without knowing how close to a "creek" their home was, it's impossible to say whether or not she & her husband should have considered the possibility they might need flood insurance some day. This is a catastrophic natural disaster, not something that you would necessarily plan for or expect.
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A. It is not necessarily expensive. Ours ran $450 a year, and our home backed on the largest creek in the county and the lowest level was 1' above the 100-year-flood plain level.
B. She said she didn't know it wasn't covered...which is different than choosing not to buy coverage. It is willful ignorance.

Floods are frequently NOT in the zone of high hazzard. I'm tired of hearing people say that they didn't believe it could ever happen to them. Ashville had a major, town demolishing flood a hundred years ago. It is not unforseeable. And in this case--unlike a hundred years ago--the weather forecasters gave lots and lots of increasinly ominous warnings, which they ignored.
 
barbk said:
A. It is not necessarily expensive. Ours ran $450 a year, and our home backed on the largest creek in the county and the lowest level was 1' above the 100-year-flood plain level.
B. She said she didn't know it wasn't covered...which is different than choosing not to buy coverage. It is willful ignorance.

Floods are frequently NOT in the zone of high hazzard. I'm tired of hearing people say that they didn't believe it could ever happen to them. Ashville had a major, town demolishing flood a hundred years ago. It is not unforseeable. And in this case--unlike a hundred years ago--the weather forecasters gave lots and lots of increasinly ominous warnings, which they ignored.
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Again, you are making a LOT of assumptions about the location of their home, as well as their income and the cost of flood insurance in their area.

As far as saying she didn't know... Again, quit making assumptions. Maybe her husband took care of the bills or it just didn't "click" in her mind that there was any sort of danger that a major, town demolishing flood could happen again.

Additionally - sure, there was plenty of warning that there would be flooding, but ask any number of people who have been posting in this thread who have friends or relatives who have also lost their homes what kind of risk they thought this hurricane posed to themselves or their home & possessions before it came roaring in. Ask the people who got flooded out by Hurricane Sandy back in 2008 if they ever thought they would have something like that happen - despite it being a well-known fact that, sometimes, hurricanes do massively impact that part of the Eastern Seaboard.

You are being incredibly self-righteous and judgmental about this - all I can do is pray that you never have something like this happen to someone you know. Chance are you'll lose that person as a friend if you're as self-righteous and judgmental with them as you're being with this random woman you don't even know who has lived through a devastating catastrophe.
 
It is a good reminder to check your insurance. We aren’t sure if we have flood but I am checking tomorrow. I remember reading how Asheville was a good place for the future water crisis and thinking it might be worth looking into for a retirement town. Nowhere is safe.
 
Spikefan said:
It is a good reminder to check your insurance. We aren’t sure if we have flood but I am checking tomorrow. I remember reading how Asheville was a good place for the future water crisis and thinking it might be worth looking into for a retirement town. Nowhere is safe.
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I believe flood coverage has to be a separate policy from the typical homeowners’ insurance that covers damage from wind, fire, quakes, etc.
 
ilovepaydays said:
I believe flood coverage has to be a separate policy from the typical homeowners’ insurance that covers damage from wind, fire, quakes, etc.
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Flood insurance is a separate policy. Typical HOI does not cover excessive wind or fire if you live in a high risk area. I haven't closed a lot of home loans for the Midwest, but I do know that a lot of insurers have begun limiting their basic homeowners policies if you live in an area that has a high risk for wildfires or tornadoes.

It's a good idea to check your coverage for pretty much any natural disaster.
 
Karen-W said:
You are being incredibly self-righteous and judgmental about this - all I can do is pray that you never have something like this happen to someone you know. Chance are you'll lose that person as a friend if you're as self-righteous and judgmental with them as you're being with this random woman you don't even know who has lived through a devastating catastrophe.
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Well, you would be wrong. My folks lost their roof (and many belongings) to Hurricane Fran in NC. They did, however, evacuate when they were advised to evacuate so they didn't put first responders at risk. They did have flood insurance on the building, but not the contents. I have many friends and clients who lost their homes in the firestorm that swept our area destroying 1100 homes in a matter of hours a few years ago. I had other clients who lost homes (or lost access to their homes for > 1year due to bridge losses in the flooding) in the 2013 floods, and many other friends and neighbors who who had significant flood damage without losing their homes. I heard a lot of folks rueful that they hadn't bought flood insurance, but I didn't hear (or read) so much "I didn't know it wasn't covered," as seems to be the case in the current flood.

At what point are we supposed to expect that folks take responsiblity for knowing that regular homeowner's insurance does not cover flooding? Apparently, letters from FEMA, ads, plentiful stories on the news and in newspapers for more than a decade now highlight that homeowner's policies do not cover flooding.

I donated to the Salvation Army and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief because I know the good work those groups do after disasters. There is a lot of work to do.Still, I am dismayed by the obstinate refusal of so many to ignore the plentiful warnings and then declare that they were never aware of lack of coverage, didn't believe it could be as bad as the forecasters were projecting, and who now are hoping that someone else makes them whole.
 
Everybody's hero, Dolly Parton, donated $1million personally and related Dollywood businesses and the Dollywood Foundation donated another $1 million. In connection with Holly's appearance, Wal-Mart related businesses and charities increased their donation to $10 million.

www.southernliving.com

Dolly Parton And Walmart Announce Combined $12 Million Donation To Hurricane Helene Relief

Dolly Parton joined Walmart CEO John Furner for a news conference this afternoon announcing their commitments to helping those impacted by the catastrophic storm.
www.southernliving.com www.southernliving.com
 
ilovepaydays said:
I believe flood coverage has to be a separate policy from the typical homeowners’ insurance that covers damage from wind, fire, quakes, etc.
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It is separate and in some states, it's prohibitively expensive (such as FL). You would know if you have it as you'd have a separate rider. Now, I suspect flood coverage in the mountains of NC aren't that expensive because it's the mountains and a lot of people wouldn't buy it because the risk of a major flood is relatively small. In fact, most people I know don't have it unless they are in a designated flood zone in which case their mortgage requires it. They gambled and lost. Which is very sad but not uncommon. I also suspect there are people with no insurance at all which was the case here in LR when the tornado came through.
 
I heard someone on the news who lives in NC, and I thought it was in the mountains but maybe not, saying it would have been $600/month for them to get flood insurance, so once it was no longer required by their mortgage company, they dropped it…
 
Spikefan said:
It is a good reminder to check your insurance. We aren’t sure if we have flood but I am checking tomorrow. I remember reading how Asheville was a good place for the future water crisis and thinking it might be worth looking into for a retirement town. Nowhere is safe.
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It’s a good reminder to check your insurance no matter which country you live in. A lot of people assume. Or they can’t afford it.
 
My friends who live on a barrier island off of Tampa said their power and water is back on. Their home was flooded to about 3-4 feet, so they lost furniture, appliance, cabinets under waist high, and a ton of the smaller contents (even things that were stored on high bookshelves fell over). They have both flood and hurricane insurance, which will help some. They found a contractor with a crew to fix the house, friends are helping to launder their clothes and linens, and they are working long days to remove the muck and salvage what they can. Short and long-term housing is still an issue, but they have leads.

My BIL used to live in Asheville and still has many friends there. The stories he forwards to me are awful. BIL is about 80 years old, so I assume many of his friends are in the same age group. One couple hikes 4 miles into and back from town, every other day, for food and water. That's a lot when you are 80. They still don't have power or water. They said they wash stuff and bathe using cold spring water and do their business in the woods "like a cat". I used to camp a lot, but can't imagine doing that as a much older self.
 
As much as I love Dolly and her good works, I kind of wish she wouldn't indirectly validate Wal-Mart by appearing with them. Wal-Mart pays some of its workers so poorly that they qualify for social assistance: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/wal...of-medicaid-and-food-stamp-beneficiaries.html

It's good that Wal-Mart is stepping up in an emergency, but that shouldn't overshadow its corporate choices the rest of the time.
 
sk8pics said:
I heard someone on the news who lives in NC, and I thought it was in the mountains but maybe not, saying it would have been $600/month for them to get flood insurance, so once it was no longer required by their mortgage company, they dropped it…
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$600/mo sounds more like on the coast, and even that sounds high, but probably depends on the value of the property. Either way... :yikes: that price is crazy.

I'll try and be nosy and ask my friend who just moved to a Wilmington suburb what their cost of the flood insurance is.

As I understand it, NC still requires flood insurance for "high risk" areas, but only if you have a federally regulated mortgage.
 
overedge said:
As much as I love Dolly and her good works, I kind of wish she wouldn't indirectly validate Wal-Mart by appearing with them. Wal-Mart pays some of its workers so poorly that they qualify for social assistance: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/wal...of-medicaid-and-food-stamp-beneficiaries.html

It's good that Wal-Mart is stepping up in an emergency, but that shouldn't overshadow its corporate choices the rest of the time.
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I feel the same way about Walmart, and won't shop there. But I don't know if their pay and practices are still as bad as previously.
 
National Hurricane Center - Milton

It looks like the title of this thread needs to be updated. 😔 I thought I could just update the title because I started this thread, but it looks like I can't. Can someone with moderator rights help me?

It looks like (now) Tropical Storm Milton is expected to became a hurricane today and will smack across ALL of Florida sometime on Wednesday. Storm surge is expected to be a major concern.
 
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barbk said:
A. It is not necessarily expensive. Ours ran $450 a year, and our home backed on the largest creek in the county and the lowest level was 1' above the 100-year-flood plain level.
B. She said she didn't know it wasn't covered...which is different than choosing not to buy coverage. It is willful ignorance.

Floods are frequently NOT in the zone of high hazzard. I'm tired of hearing people say that they didn't believe it could ever happen to them. Ashville had a major, town demolishing flood a hundred years ago. It is not unforseeable. And in this case--unlike a hundred years ago--the weather forecasters gave lots and lots of increasinly ominous warnings, which they ignored.
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just shut the eff up and help us. When climate change comes and destroys your life like it has ours I hope to have a better response to your hell on earth. It'll get you too in ways no one has imagined, either. Have some empathy, you probably would if you were literally here...
 
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