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Hurricane Helene check-in


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We're not anywheres near the path, in the mountains of southwestern Virginia, but apparently school is closed tomorrow because of rain.  Frankly, I'm kinda confused, but it's been raining for a week so water levels on the river are high.  I can see maybe flash flooding being an issue.

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I'm so scared for friends and family in the area.  This is the THIRD hurricane to come in at basically the same spot this year in two years. I've never heard of that happening before.

The first death was reported in the Tampa area... a stop highway sign blew into someone's car and killed them.

 

ETA: I was wrong, Idalia was last year. Corrected above.

Edited by Katy
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We’re in NE Georgia and have had a little over 6” of rain today according to my rain gauge. The ground is super saturated, and the real issue is going to be the overnight heavy rains and heavy winds that are coming. No tornadoes up here yet, but lots south of us so they are likely coming. 
Praying for those much closer to where Helene made landfall- it must be terrifying.

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I’m waiting to hear from my family in Atlanta. Some outside the perimeter and one on the very outskirts of the city proper. My parents and sister’s places are surrounded by giant, old trees.  My stepfather is on constant oxygen.

I didn’t want to go to bed last night “just in case”. As if I can control a hurricane from hundreds of miles away. Sigh.

Also waiting to hear from ds on the other side of Florida.

Doing my best not to start calling and waking everyone up for my own peace of mind!

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I'm waiting to hear from my mom who lives about an hour north of Tampa right on the coast. She evacuated to her sister's house inland, and they hadn't gotten too much wind/rain in that area when I spoke to them yesterday afternoon. The storm surge/high tide should have been in the middle of the night, so we wait. She just got her house repairs from the flooding of Hurricane Idalia in August 2023 finished 2 months ago.

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My ds and his girlfriend have an apartment a little over a mile from the bay in st Pete. They were on the edge of an evacuation zone but didn’t. They felt confident they were high enough and far enough from the water and that even in a worst case scenario they have a second story in their apartment that they could retreat to. He did move his car to higher ground because it is a small sedan. 
 

They lost power around 8:00 and then a little later that area of st Pete shut down the waste water treatment so they lost sewer and said it would be offline for at least 48 hours. They never had much wind or rain and fell asleep around midnight but were woken around 2:00 am (high tide) by car alarms going off as the water reached the parking lot. My son’s girlfriend’s jeep was fine but the lower cars were flooded. 
 

They had girlfriend’s sister and husband and baby with them because their house floods and he has a huge truck so as soon as roads are clear he will get them out of there to a friend’s house inland where they will have power and sewer again. 
 

So all in all they made it ok. Please do not come at me for them not evacuating. They had their reasons and they were well thought out. They figured even in the worst case scenario they would be ok. This was record storm surge and it was just a few inches in their parking lot so they weren’t really wrong. Evacuation isn’t always a simple answer either. 

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North Atlanta suburbanite here. We have power and just a few small branches down. There is significant flooding in town - Buckhead and midtown, I believe. I just saw there is tree down on the connector near Grady. I'm supposed to go into work, it is only 2 miles away and from the mom's group on FB everything is ok, just have to look out for standing water. I really thought we were going to get smacked with it last night but it went east of us. Concerned about my DS as he's in Western Carolina where they are expecting significant flooding. 

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Also in Atlanta - the original track literally had the hurricane going down my little street. The storm shifted east so nothing to report here except the cats were up all night acting crazy! They are now sleeping peacefully. 

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12.5 hours without power here in N FL. Most debris we have ever seen. Many large trees down across the neighborhood and town. Power lines down in several places. All traffic lights are 4 way stops with police stationed. Even gas stations and Dollar Generals are still down, which is ultra rare. Ace Hardware is open without power, cash only. We are very lucky to just need to tough out some balmy weather and clean the yard. 

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12.5 hours without power here in N FL. Most debris we have ever seen. Many large trees down across the neighborhood and town. Power lines down in several places. All traffic lights are 4 way stops with police stationed. Even gas stations and Dollar Generals are still down, which is ultra rare. Ace Hardware is open without power, cash only. We are very lucky to just need to tough out some balmy weather and clean the yard. 

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2 hours ago, historically accurate said:

I'm waiting to hear from my mom who lives about an hour north of Tampa right on the coast. She evacuated to her sister's house inland, and they hadn't gotten too much wind/rain in that area when I spoke to them yesterday afternoon. The storm surge/high tide should have been in the middle of the night, so we wait. She just got her house repairs from the flooding of Hurricane Idalia in August 2023 finished 2 months ago.

She can't get into her town right now - it's completely blocked off. Unlikely her house made it through unscathed. A friend of my cousin who lives in the area had water up to his waist at his house. She's overwhelmed and teary right now. 

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We only had rain since it shifted east. I was most concerned with our trees and a run-off ditch that helps move water away from our property as well as a neighbor. The trees are good, and the run-off is flowing freely, so it hasn't been blocked down the line. 

I just talked to my daddy, and he is good, too. My older sister is near Atlanta, and she is good. 

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We had way more winds than I thought we would. According to the news, it came aground closer to us than predicted. It came through here about 11 pm so sleeping wasn't easy but we never lost electricity nor received any damages other than small broken branches. My parents had a large limb come down that hit the corner of the house. I was just out and it seems that large fallen branches, small downed trees and downed fences seem to be the majority of the local damage.

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We live in Tallahassee and were expecting a direct hit, so we left town (we're in Alabama). That shift to the east just before landfall made a HUGE difference for us. Our house is fine (in-laws went over there) and even still has power. I am so incredibly thankful.

At the same time I know its effects have been terribly far-reaching. I have family and friends in Augusta, Georgia, and I'm hearing reports of a lot of damage there. My heart goes out to everyone affected.

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Our kids and grandsons as well as the house are fine. They are on the mountain just south of Huntsville. With the shift east they didn't get anything from the outer bands. A tenth inch of rain and winds up to 20mph.  I am grateful for that, but my heart goes out to everyone who has been hit by this monster storm. I am very worried about what this means for home owner insurance. I fear more companies will pull our of the southeast region.

Hugs to all

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We only ended up with rain and a bit of wind here in N AL.  I was supposed to be going to NC, near Asheville, tomorrow for a week long event.  The area we were going has no power and roads are closed.  The organizers say we may be able to do a shortened event starting Tuesday, but I’m not holding my breath.  I’m just glad that friends in the worst hit areas are ok.

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Prayers appreciated for my DH headed to work now and for my DS coming home in a little while. The wind is really picking up and timed for horrible afternoon commutes in southwest Ohio. Lots of backups (likely accidents) already.

Edited by kbutton
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5 hours ago, historically accurate said:

She can't get into her town right now - it's completely blocked off. Unlikely her house made it through unscathed. A friend of my cousin who lives in the area had water up to his waist at his house. She's overwhelmed and teary right now. 

Road is open according to the sheriff's office's Facebook feed, but I am still waiting to hear from her. She and my aunt were going to meet my cousins at the house and hopefully get started on cleanup. 

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Our 24 hour total in my rain gauge was a little over 9”, but I feel fortunate because starting two doors down from our house a strong wind knocked down trees in five yards in a row.  They all just fell over, roots and all, I guess saturated ground couldn’t hold the roots through the wind. Our neighborhood is wonderful- they pulled together and got all the trees cut up and off houses, and damaged roofs covered w tarps.  Bunch of guys with chainsaws, ladders, pickup trucks…got the job done before lunch. 

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1 hour ago, Annie G said:

Our 24 hour total in my rain gauge was a little over 9”, but I feel fortunate because starting two doors down from our house a strong wind knocked down trees in five yards in a row.  They all just fell over, roots and all, I guess saturated ground couldn’t hold the roots through the wind. Our neighborhood is wonderful- they pulled together and got all the trees cut up and off houses, and damaged roofs covered w tarps.  Bunch of guys with chainsaws, ladders, pickup trucks…got the job done before lunch. 

I love to see the neighborhood helping each other so quickly .

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DH arrived at work with a slow trip but no drama. We’re back to rain and not much wind! DS is late, but not because of weather.

We have had a very serious drought here, so I am hoping we won’t have many downed trees locally. You can never tell with evergreens in the wind and rain though. They are unpredictable.

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6 hours ago, Indigo Blue said:

In NC (Charlotte area). No power. Yard is a complete mess as we live on a very wooded lot, but no large trees down. The wind sounded really strong all night. I got very little sleep. 


Just don’t venture out to the store, I made that mistake and it was a nightmare 😭 

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3 hours ago, historically accurate said:

Road is open according to the sheriff's office's Facebook feed, but I am still waiting to hear from her. She and my aunt were going to meet my cousins at the house and hopefully get started on cleanup. 

I finally spoke to my mother; 4 1/2 feet of water in the house. The whole house is a gut and 99% of her furniture is toast. She had been thinking of moving previously due to the long recovery from Idalia; she will probably walk away from the house and sell it for the lot as a tear down. She'll lose a lot of money but she doesn't think she can do it again.

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28 minutes ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

No one can seem to make contact with DD’s BIL who works for the forest service in western NC. We would all feel a lot better if contact was made and it isn’t like him to not update. 

Part of 140 fell into the river.  A hospital in Unocoi, TN. (near NC) had to put staff and patients on roof since the roads got flooded.1

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4 hours ago, athena1277 said:

We only ended up with rain and a bit of wind here in N AL.  I was supposed to be going to NC, near Asheville, tomorrow for a week long event.  The area we were going has no power and roads are closed.  The organizers say we may be able to do a shortened event starting Tuesday, but I’m not holding my breath.  I’m just glad that friends in the worst hit areas are ok.

Parts of I 40 in eastern TN and western NC are washed out. Several rivers flooding.

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57 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

I finally spoke to my mother; 4 1/2 feet of water in the house. The whole house is a gut and 99% of her furniture is toast. She had been thinking of moving previously due to the long recovery from Idalia; she will probably walk away from the house and sell it for the lot as a tear down. She'll lose a lot of money but she doesn't think she can do it again.

I am so sorry.  That is devastating.   

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My FL & GA people are ok.  One tree-totaled car and other property damage, everyone is safe. Surprisingly most of those even in the counties where the eye came in got power back in the last 2 hours (in town, away from coast).

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NBC is reporting more than 40 dead, and there are still so many places they haven't gotten to.  The reporter also said that a lot of Floridians who were severely hit by Helene had just finished rebuilding after Idalia, and many are currently uninsured because they couldn't afford the huge premium increases after Idalia, so now they've lost everything. 😥

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We got power back at 21 hour mark. Our town has had far more damage than we initially realized. Wind gusts were in the 80-100 mph range for almost 2 hours, highest ever recorded. 

We and some others we know were still working on clean up from Debby in early August. We just got our insurance renewal packet last week and it's up another 20% this year. 

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Google Tampa General coffer-dams for something really interesting.  There were news stories showing the portable barriers being put up, and it appears that they kept back about 12 feet of storm surge.  (Two videos showing before and during.) I'm not able to link them here. (I've tried.)

Edited by Halftime Hope
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