Helene news out of NC and surrounding mountain states is not good 9/28/24

AnnieA

AnnieA

Well-known Member
Location
Down South
It looks as though no one expected Helene to cause as much damage to this part of the US. Too much rain, too fast in the mountains has caused flooding, landslides, destroyed bridges and taken out chunks of roads including major interstates.


In Asheville NC and other towns and communities, cell and internet are down, all roads are either impassable due to damage or blocked by mudslides and downed trees. Flood waters are too swift and full of debris for boats. There's no power, no water (usually water pumping stations have backup generators but the water supply is contaminated), there are reports of deadly mudslides. There's currently a 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM curfew. One huge piece of good news is that earlier today it was feared that the Lake Lure Dam above the city would collapse but supposedly engineers have evaluated it and think it will hold. Water is overflowing the dam but it's holding up.

A few people who have satellite connections are getting info out.
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1839840176505323976


Reports from r/Asheville Reddit megathread. Most people are asking how to get in touch with loved ones but a few people have provided info:

Ive been in touch with some of paramedic friends (who have cell service at the hospital) and here are some updates:​
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I know you are all concerned about family, but pretty much all service has gone out or is spotty so nobody can really communicate out. Power is also out pretty much all over the county so even if someone has service, their phone is likely dead/dying. It might be a while before you hear from your family.​
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For anyone in Asheville reading this, do NOT call 911 unless you have an actual emergency. They are only responding to life threatening emergencies so your back pain that’s been going on for months will not get an ambulance, your broken arm might have to wait for a couple hours, etc. Every ambulance in the county (about 15 minutes ago) responded to a mudslide in Garren Creek that killed quite a few people including a local fire chief.​
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Do not think that because the rain has slowed/stopped that you are safe. There will be landslides, mudslides, structural collapses for the next few days so keep your head on a swivel and stay alert.​
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******​
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I'm in Grovemont. We have cell service, but no power or water. We are completely cut off, old 70 is impassable in either direction. No emergency or first responders can access us.​
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In my neighborhood off Westwood Ave we had major mudslides. 3 or 4 houses went down the mountain with their inhabitants. One woman died (confirmed), and there was possibly another death. Also serious injuries. All we have here now is Neighbor helping neighbor, trying to help aid and cope. We are completely on our own right now.​
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F&J Market, the laundromat, and everything on the river side of the road in that area is destroyed. It looks like bombs went off all over the community. My neighbor saw a man floating down old 70 on top of his mobile home this morning, screaming for help. There was no way to help him. The water was so fast. I'm sure there will be more casualties. My God, I've never seen anything like this.​
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Asheville isn't the only affected area in North Carolina. These are interstate signs bordering western North Carolina:

asheville-flooding-and-helene-megathread-friday-night-and-v0-up6c3tvpdgrd1.png

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AnnieA said:
It looks as though no one expected Helene to cause as much damage to this part of the US. Too much rain, too fast in the mountains has caused flooding, landslides, destroyed bridges and taken out chunks of roads including major interstates.


In Asheville NC and other towns and communities, cell and internet are down, all roads are either impassable due to damage or blocked by mudslides and downed trees. Flood waters are too swift and full of debris for boats. There's no power, no water (usually water pumping stations have backup generators but the water supply is contaminated), there are reports of deadly mudslides. There's currently a 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM curfew. One huge piece of good news is that earlier today it was feared that the Lake Lure Dam above the city would collapse but supposedly engineers have evaluated it and think it will hold. Water is overflowing the dam but it's holding up.

A few people who have satellite connections are getting info out.
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1839840176505323976


Reports from r/Asheville Reddit megathread. Most people are asking how to get in touch with loved ones but a few people have provided info:

Ive been in touch with some of paramedic friends (who have cell service at the hospital) and here are some updates:​
​
I know you are all concerned about family, but pretty much all service has gone out or is spotty so nobody can really communicate out. Power is also out pretty much all over the county so even if someone has service, their phone is likely dead/dying. It might be a while before you hear from your family.​
​
For anyone in Asheville reading this, do NOT call 911 unless you have an actual emergency. They are only responding to life threatening emergencies so your back pain that’s been going on for months will not get an ambulance, your broken arm might have to wait for a couple hours, etc. Every ambulance in the county (about 15 minutes ago) responded to a mudslide in Garren Creek that killed quite a few people including a local fire chief.​
​
Do not think that because the rain has slowed/stopped that you are safe. There will be landslides, mudslides, structural collapses for the next few days so keep your head on a swivel and stay alert.​
​
******​
​
I'm in Grovemont. We have cell service, but no power or water. We are completely cut off, old 70 is impassable in either direction. No emergency or first responders can access us.​
​
In my neighborhood off Westwood Ave we had major mudslides. 3 or 4 houses went down the mountain with their inhabitants. One woman died (confirmed), and there was possibly another death. Also serious injuries. All we have here now is Neighbor helping neighbor, trying to help aid and cope. We are completely on our own right now.​
​
F&J Market, the laundromat, and everything on the river side of the road in that area is destroyed. It looks like bombs went off all over the community. My neighbor saw a man floating down old 70 on top of his mobile home this morning, screaming for help. There was no way to help him. The water was so fast. I'm sure there will be more casualties. My God, I've never seen anything like this.​
​
​
Asheville isn't the only affected area in North Carolina. These are interstate signs bordering western North Carolina:

asheville-flooding-and-helene-megathread-friday-night-and-v0-up6c3tvpdgrd1.png

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​
​
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Click to expand...
I have been to Lake Lure a few times, I hope the dam holds ..... that is a beautiful area .
 
My sister lives near Asheville, on the side of a mountain. They suffered a bad landslide earlier this summer and had to pay thousands of dollars to have new soil trucked in. The landslide took out part of their septic system, which cost even more to fix.

The soil hasn't had time to stabilize yet, so it may have been swept away. No word yet on what has happened this time as they are in Europe.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
There are now studies that show man made climate change affected the strength of Helene
.

Four ways climate change likely made Hurricane Helene worse » Yale Climate Connections
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I just do not believe that . There is no way this storm can be analyzed that quickly. Have you ever seen what a volcano does when it blows ? IMO, there is no way in hell ,mankind can even begin to come close to that.

From the article ....... "Not all of this year’s unusual warmth in the Gulf of Mexico can be confidently attributed to human-caused global warming. "

Besides we do use the planet , and we must.

As I have said before , does anyone wish to go back to shoveling horse shit ? And smelling it, and/or watching millions of gallons of horse piss running down the gutters ?

When people start voicing all that, i want to see the pics of them walking to work [if they'll even have work.]
 
This is Interstate 40 eastbound over the gorge near the NC/TN line. For those outside the US, I40 is a major coast to coast artery. I drove this part once and it's scary with the gorge on one side, mountain on the other and all the semis driving fast. I have no idea how this will be fixed. The only flat ground is across the concrete barrier which is the westbound side. I doubt that's considered stable enough to get construction
equipment into the area.
I-40.jpg
 
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HermitHogan said:
That hospital in Tennessee — where people had to be rescued from the roof — looked like it was sitting in the middle of a lake. They're going to have to start building everything up on stilts from now on, since these floods are becoming a regular occurrence.
Click to expand...

Highway 23 runs beside that hospital and chunks of it are washed away as well. At least it'll be easier to repair once the valley dries out.
 
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If you look at google maps for the area, you can see that most of the roads/highways in North Carolina are all red (closed) and all the way to the borders north and south of the state. Tennessee is not much better, and has had at least one dam break, plus the catastrophic flooding.
To make it even worse, the president just ordered the Tennessee National Guard to deploy to the Middle East for the whole next year, so Tennessee is not having much help from whatever NG are left there.
Governor DeSantis is sending air NG from Florida to help out with the evacuations in North Carolina, and I imagine that some other states will also be sending some of their NG troops to help as well.
Arizona had scheduled some troops to help after the hurricane, but they were not able to deploy because of the VP photo opp at the border yesterday.
 
Happyflowerlady said:
If you look at google maps for the area, you can see that most of the roads/highways in North Carolina are all red (closed) and all the way to the borders north and south of the state. Tennessee is not much better, and has had at least one dam break, plus the catastrophic flooding.
To make it even worse, the president just ordered the Tennessee National Guard to deploy to the Middle East for the whole next year, so Tennessee is not having much help from whatever NG are left there.
Governor DeSantis is sending air NG from Florida to help out with the evacuations in North Carolina, and I imagine that some other states will also be sending some of their NG troops to help as well.
Arizona had scheduled some troops to help after the hurricane, but they were not able to deploy because of the VP photo opp at the border yesterday.
Click to expand...


The hospital rescue above in Tennessee was Virginia State Police. These people need all the help they can get. I've been reading threads on X, facebook and reddit and news getting out is grim. It reminds me so much of Mississippi post-Katrina when we were sitting at computers in shelters trying to help people find out what had happened to loved ones and homes on the coast. What word is getting out is just as bad as then.

Rescue workers are having to leave bodies in hopes of finding the living. One woman posted the last picture she'll ever see of her parents. They were sitting on the roof of their home in Asheville with waters near the roof. Her sister who was also on the roof took the pic. The home collapsed and her parents and six year old nephew (sister's son) were washed away. Her sister got caught in part of the roof debris that got hung up in other debris and is alive somewhere in Asheville but they have been unable to communicate with her other than once after her rescue.
 
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I was just reading that they are opening up special HAM channels to try and heop send information to anf from the people trapped by the floods. I am sure that everyone who has friends and relatives in these areas is desperate to find out if they are okay.
This hurricane has caused more damage overall than any of the other hurricanes that have come through for a long time, if not the worst, because it affected not only the coastal areas that it hit when it came ashore, but so much of these inland states that were just not prepared for this much flooding. There is literally no way that they could have been prepared for a disaster this big.
 
This massive storm, and the billions of dollars damage it did, is going to have a financial impact on all of us. The insurance companies will be making huge payments for the next year, or more, as the rebuilding begins. They will have to raise their premiums, all over the nation, to recover the losses they will experience. I will be surprised if our homeowners insurance doesn't go up by at least 10% next year.
 
My parents were from right outside of Asheville and my grandparents lived there until they passed away. I've visited many times and after visiting this year we were considering moving to Asheville or Hendersonville. No longer. I'll take the heat and tornadoes in Dallas. I so feel for the people in 5 states that have been so affected and may have lost loved ones.

What was especially devastating was seeing all the small businesses in Chimney Rock that were completely wiped out. My grandfather took me there as a child and we were there with the family a few years ago. It was such a wonderful little town. It will be years before they can build back.
 
Don M. said:
This massive storm, and the billions of dollars damage it did, is going to have a financial impact on all of us. The insurance companies will be making huge payments for the next year, or more, as the rebuilding begins. They will have to raise their premiums, all over the nation, to recover the losses they will experience. I will be surprised if our homeowners insurance doesn't go up by at least 10% next year.
Click to expand...
You betcha. State Farm no longer insures homes in Florida and California. I don't know how anyone is going to be able to afford the increases, much less those living in coastal areas. I've read articles about wealthy residents in Miami Beach moving to more inland areas of South Florida that used to be occupied by lower income families. Climate change is affecting all of us.
 

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