Some FReepers pooh-hooed this storm.
Big mistake.
When Mo’ Nature wraps up this much latent power in a system like this and hurls it at us, the likelihood that somewhere some of us will die, and many others will be harmed, is quite high.
Horrible and heartbreaking. Prayers for all affected by Helene’s wrath.
I pray for the victims there but when you build in known flood areas next to a rivers, below a dam one day and that day will come a 50 year or even a 100 year flood and wipe out everything.. I live not more than a mile from a river and couple lakes behind dams but I do live 650 ft above elevation, I have see it flood due to one dam having to open the flood gates and flood out 300+ homes due to getting 12 inches of rain in 3 hours. I have seen water go over the top of the other dam and short out all the transformers on the backside, wash away an 80 year old bridge and actually move the dam 6 feet on one side tearing it from the anchors in the mountain... Moral of this story is do not live in flood zones.
I lived in the Asheville, Hendersonville, Greenville SC, corridor for 10 years. I do not remember any flooding at all.
If you live right next to a river or lake or reservoir, then there is obvious risk.
But, flooding from intense rain fall?
Wow. That's a new one for me.
The devastation is real and its heartbreaking. Many of these areas had already gotten inches of rain days before. Helene just added to a precarious situation. It moved fast.
It was raining at a rate of 2.5” per hour in some places. In a valley, the only place for the water to go is up.
Biltmore Village in Asheville is built in a low lying area and regularly floods. But the towns like Black Mountain, Old Fort, Chimney Rock and Boone rarely see such events.
The area of devastation is staggering. From southeast VA all the way to TN near Knoxville. Thats a huge area of impact. In a lot of places the destruction is total. Its going to take more than crews with chainsaws and electrical crews to get these places up and running.
My beloved mountains have been damaged badly. It will take years for them to be made whole.
I live in the Hickory, NC area. At the moment I am in Spokane, WA, due to an auto accident in Aug. The family got hit but everyone is ok and all houses in good shape. they started getting power back around 2:00pm. Yesterday for some reason I was able to communicate with everyone but the people that live within 10 miles of each other could not. Hopefully dad will be able to travel soon and we can get back home.
Hell of a mess. We lucked out here in north Georgia. Western wall of the eye went over the top of us. Tons of rain but little to no wind thanks to the mountain behind us and never lost power which is amazing. It went out for a couple hours on Thursday well before the storm got here which is typical.
We lost the only restaurant and the only grocery store in town. The New River crested at 21 feet taking out 3 campgrounds locally.
I live just north of Asheville, and spent most of yesterday bringing jugs of drinking water from my free-flowing spring to my neighbors who are on wells with no electricity to pump their water.
bump
I live in NC and do a lot of hiking in Western NC. There are so many areas with houses right on little creeks in various valleys. Those areas tend to be poor but really beautiful. It doesn’t take much imagination to see those creeks becoming swollen with the torrential rains and sweeping a lot of those homes away.
Reminds me of a similar storm in the early 1970s that flooded and killed lots of people. Hurricane went from Alabama up into West Virginia.
One thing that offended lots of TV viewers...A child had just lost his parents in a flood back then. A news reporter runs up to the boy, shoves a microphone in his face and says in a loud voice....”HOW DOES IT FEEL NOW YOUR PARENTS ARE DEAD!”
My sister is in NC.
My niece made it home from college before this hit; her college has limited water and all roads blocked. The students are conserving water, prohibited from showering, and rationing food.
My niece’s boyfriend came over to see her and is now stuck at my sister’s house. The roads to his house are closed down and a failing dam is threatening to destroy his home and wash away all his possessions. His older sister is trapped in the house and can’t get out. He’s trying daily to get to her, checking every route to see if it is passable.
One of my sister’s friends was trapped at work and begged for help on Facebook. Her dogs were crated on the first floor and the water was rising. By the time a mutual friend in a boat got to the house, the first floor was already submerged. They were able to enter the home through a second floor window. House totalled, dogs drowned.
A hospital had 50 patients on the roof because it was flooding so fast.
It is 10× worse than the media is reporting. There are several towns aside from Chimney Rock that are gone.
The Lord works in mysterious ways... Asheville is ground zero for ALT Lifestyles in the south.
Never did see that eerie video the headline asked about
This wasn’t a Katrina-size hurricane.
Helene was just a cat 1 storm. Then it crossed the Gulf Stream. Anyone who ignored that trek wasn’t paying attention or thinking. Hurricanes LOVE warm water.
I’m not sure the rains brought with it were particularly huge, but..
The track took those rains over some landscape really vulnerable to flooding - a lot of rivers and valleys with narrow escape routes for the flood water.
I’ve always believed it’s a bad idea to live next to the water, be it beaches, lakes, or rivers. The water will eventually rise up and slap you up side the head, hard.
When the National Hurricane Center put their maps out on I think Wednesday. They were showing these large potential rain amounts in these areas.
I saw that and was shouting at my phone this will be catastrophic , get out.
Predictions were very accurate unfortunately
I live in Baton Rouge. We deal with this literally every year down here. City after city smashed by hurricanes. My heart goes out to Appalachia. No one deserves this.