Helene

[doc henderson]

thought I would start this up.  I got an alert to deploy from Kansas search and rescue task force 1.  It was only for swift water, so I am not going.  already some deaths, and lots of people involved and people trying to help.  Of course many will just jump on the climate change band wagon.  this is reported to be historical in part due to the area and tact of the storm.  Godspeed!

[Magicman]

It tracked very close to Jake aka Customsawyer.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I have a 99 y/o aunt and her son in Lake City FL and another first cousin in Tallahassee I have not heard from yet. I'm betting they are in the dark and don't have to walk far to find standing water.

[Raider Bill]

2 miles from me the barrier island bridges are closed. There is 4-5 ft of sand in some of the streets. It's a mess down there. Boats blow all over.

Wild Bill lost power and is waiting for reconnect.

Our friend who lost her husband a couple months ago just lost her house to storm surge.

I had a couple fence panels and limbs blow down, [no calls from the rentals].

I just looked at the 911 dispatch and they have over 120 units out working wires down, tree and structure fires plus the normal in my county.

[TroyC]

It tracked very close to Jake aka Customsawyer.

Power out at my place close to Jake.

[TreefarmerNN]

It's hard to click "like" on the posts where people are in distress.  Prayers for all affected by the storm.  It certainly has laid a swath of destruction from Florida into Tennessee.

Unfortunately, I doubt we've seen the total deaths yet as some of the flood victims may not be realized for some time. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, this is a bad one for sure. I sent Jake a PM early today but no response. Sent him a text but no joy there either. Hopefully he gets power back soon and he pops up.

[Jeff]

Same. Not heard from him yet.

[YellowHammer]

Jake and I texted this morning, he's ok, he had a big mess of trees come down in his yard, and was woken up at 5am by the local cops needing his help.  I also got a text later saying he had bad cell signal, so haven't heard from him since then.  

[Ianab]

Been following things on the local news, reports that 40 people have been killed (that they know about?). So pretty serious stuff. I'd say cell reception would be patchy if power to the towers is out, they run out of battery and roads being closed means that techs can't get to them to set up generators etc.  They also say the size of the storm has meant a wider area affected, and moist air around the storm means more wide spread heavy rain that's going to cause issues as the former cyclone tracks North over other States. 

[rusticretreater]

Rained all day in Virginia, sometimes pretty hard.  I had a tree fall down which is not really unusual, but dangit, I should be runnin out of those types of trees soon.

Wife home early from work as there was lowland flooding throughout the state.  Internet service has been pretty crappy all day.

While Helene is veering to the west, we are getting tons of rain clouds pushed our way.  I live on a hill, so things shouldn't be too bad as long as the trees behave. 

[SwampDonkey]

I'm surprised that we aren't going to get a drop of rain off it. I'm guessing because it went inland so quick.

Take care all.

[Ianab]

We can see that here in NZ. Last big storm to hit the East coast, maybe 160 miles away, roads flooded, bridges washed, houses with folks on roofs and some victims never found. Meanwhile here i'ts cloudy and some light rain.

A different storm pattern and we can get slammed of course.  

[Jeff]

I got a text and brief broken up phone call from Jake this morning. He reiterated what Robert has told us. He says they are all right but it sounds like a mess. The sheriff was calling him as he was calling me, so he had to go.

[Old Greenhorn]

Robert and Jeff, thanks for the update, just wanted to know he was OK. Trees are fixable and maybe he can find a place to mill some lumber out of them. As long as his house and mill are undamaged all is good.
 I should have guessed he would be out helping others and that may be consuming a lot of his time for a while. I hope all our other members in the affected areas came through OK also.
 The storm came pretty much north doing a lot of damage, but then sort of faded to the west and is combining with a low pressure area being pushed/held south.

[gspren]

We have been at our Delaware beach house, about a mile and a half from the ocean but with a canal 25' behind the house, since Wednesday and just rainey here. The tides are high but not quite coming out of the canal. I get texts from our neighbor in PA and getting lots of much needed rain there. He sent a picture of a 5-6" tree that blew down and missed our mailbox so no damage and it can wait a few more days till I get back although I wouldn't be surprised if it's moved already. We don't have a good neighbor, we have a great neighbor.

[Jeff]

Jake mentioned names that he knew were okay, but he was breaking up. I did here Slider in there, but it sounded like members local to Jake are safe.

[rusticretreater]

Helene pushed a big bunch of clouds up the eastern seaboard and they slid off over the Atlantic in the VA MD area.  We get a day of sunshine here and then the remnants of the hurricane will be blown eastward and we get rain for another week.

App State football game in Charleston WV is postponed.  Once again the Alleghenies protect us from the midwest weather in the great valley of Virginia.

[YellowHammer]

He sent me a short vid of his yard and the trees on the ground.  Big mess for sure, and he says some connectivity is slowly coming back on line 

[Jim_Rogers]

Bad internet outage in my area for several days. We just got it back a short while ago. Some heavy rain when one "band" circled through but no wind damage.

Western NC got clobbered lots of roads washed out, and more. Many without power. Got a text from Dan in Hendersonville just south of Ashville saying he was running his generator.

Jim Rogers 

[SwampDonkey]

Nasty business them hurricanes. Hope things are fixed up and repaired as fast as possible. Loss of power sucks, but loss of life is certainly no joy.

[Machinebuilder]

Here in Maryville, TN I had most of the rain Wendsday and Thursday......about 7-8"

Northeast in the mountains is really bad, I 40 is washed out near the TN/NC line, I26 is washed out in Erwin.
There is a youtube video of Erwin taken this AM WOW.

In the last TVA release concerning the Nolichucky Dam it said 19+inches of rain had fallen. They had a red alert on the dam because they couldn't see it under the water.

My nephew near Ashville, NC can't get out there are too many roads flooded.

[Magicman]

Dave, It sounded like you made it through OK which is good news.  I am assuming that your access in and out plus 411 & 441 are both OK East of you.  ??

[customsawyer]

Thanks for all of the calls, texts,  and PMs from everyone reaching out, and the comments here. We are fine here and just got power and internet yesterday. The power going out isn't a problem for me as I have the standby generator. They said I was on the east side of the storm according to there tracking. However most of my trees are blown down to the south and east. In my mind that puts me on the other edge of the storm. It doesn't really matter as I did get the brief break when the eye passed over me. Same thing happened 6 years ago with Michael.
You know it's going to be a bad day when the sheriffs office is calling you before 6am because they can't get down hwy 441. There were a few deaths just south of me that I have heard of and probably more that I don't know about. This was a bad one. Grateful to be able to assist them when they need it and that they don't mind calling.

[Dan_Shade]

Good to hear from you.  Sounds like boredom won't be a problem for a few days.