Helene - everyone okay?

[Pauvog1]

Hey friends,

I hope everyone is doing okay. We're fine in Coastal Georgia, just no power (might be out a few days). Hope everyone else fared well.

[catgrowlB]

Lots of wind and rain this morning in central NC. Lots of rain this whole week. Power flickered off and on a few times, but otherwise OK

[York-aholic]

One thing I learned from having been evacuated for a week and a half with the CA wildfires is that if power will be out for an extended amount of time (I turned off our generator so it wouldn’t run the whole time) is:

Empty the ice in the ice maker of your fridge/freezer and obviously then turn off the ice maker.

Otherwise you come home to a buckled floor in front of your fridge. Tearing up some of the vinyl flooring and replacing some of the sub floor is tomorrow’s number one chore.


Hope everyone weathered the storm!

[davidgilbreath]

Cobb County was drenched as well as the northwestern quarter of the state (which fared better than middle and southern portions). At least fifteen were killed in Georgia including a firefighter from the Blackshear area (Pierce County). Helene was disastrous.

[Mary Ann]

Sorry to hear all that -- my friend in central northern VA also had power and phone go out, and not even in the main path.
Here, we were 108 yesterday, with near zero humidity.

[GC]

I'm about an hour north of David in NW GA. We had not so terrible rain and moderate winds. I really feel for the folks in the southern half of the state and in the Panhandle. It was a disaster for them.

[gocsick]

Got the remnants in Ohio.. Neighbor had a huge oak tree come down in their house. Luckily it crushed the spare bedroom so no injuries.

[JESimmons]

I'm also in coastal Georgia - far away from the eye but we lost lots of trees and power was out for two days. We got lots of wind but little rain.

[Mary Ann]

I just saw on the news what happened in Asheville -- astonishing; I would have thought at that altitude and location that a hurricane, any hurricane, was just a really windy rainstorm. Wow; I saw there were locations that got 30 inches of rain, and many with 20. That sounds like Katrina level damage. Yikes.

[catgrowlB]

^ Yes, western NC (Appalachian mountains) was hit very hard. Boone, Asheville, Chimney Rock all had lots of flooding and damage. Part of I-40 was washed out and will need to be rebuilt. The town of Chimney Rock was literally washed away and completely destroyed. Back in the day (1980s - 1990s) as a kid, my family would go up to Chimney Rock for vacation. Beautiful area; a shame what happened to the town

My roomie has family west of Asheville. They still don't have power

[sweaty]

It's the deadliest US storm since Katrina. Terrible. I have been assigned to SC. What I have seen so far is a lot of this:
https://tubaforum.net/viewtopic.php?p=70783#p70783
Many residents have told me stories of how they just happened to go to the bathroom or fell asleep in the living room right when the tree crushed their bedrooms. They are amazed they have not been severely injured.

Regarding the hardest-hit towns in NC and FL, I looked them up on a color-coded topographical map:
https://tubaforum.net/viewtopic.php?p=32369#p32369

It is hard to imagine how those towns could NOT be flooded given the elevation. This is not intended as a "I told you so" post, but a reminder to proactively use available information to take protective action. The solutions are building codes, infrastructure, and individual preparation. We don't have to live in fear of the weather.

[Billy M.]

I'm in the panhandle of Florida (westernmost part), we got cloud cover, a little breeze, and some sprinkles of rain. Fortunately nothing more. Checked on @Stryk multiple times to ensure he was alright as he was much closer to where the storm made landfall. He came out alright as well.

[bloke]

Of course (in western Tennessee) we did not suffer...
Memphis (a dense/mature oak forest with an above-ground power grid strung underneath it) had its predictable/routine power outages, but none here...and the strongest (rare) wind guts were probably only 50+ mph. I heard reports of locally higher ones, but only of interest (rather than consequence).

The thing that we ended up out here (at blokeplace - from the two-so-far hurricanes) was a whole bunch of pond water recovery (from this summer's drought). Its not full, but it's better than it was.

This far north, the routine threatening weather events are tornadoes (which tend to be really spooky phenomenons), but - by the time hurricanes arrive - they are merely rain events (and usually with no lightning).

Helene flooding: horrible/incomprehensible

Back when we lived in Memphis, we were at the "bottom" of a very conveniently located ("location-location-location") cove. it was so low that the ceiling of the second story was about level with the street that services the cove. Due to a lawsuit, a previous owner of that house ended up with an amazing underground/complex drainage system (which protects the house from flooding) but - regularly - I had to go out and and keep the intake (AND the out-go - on the adjacent school property) clean. Otherwise, we could have ended up with a flooded house anyway. (Early on, I learned that this was necessary, when water reached the top of the front door's stoop, but - luckily - didn't make it into the house.) I don't know if we'll ever move again, but this place (at least the buildings and road into here) is/are up on very high ground, and I won't be buying any more low-lying properties. There's a reason ($$$) why so many trailer parks are located in floodplains.

[bloke]

[sweaty]

Disclaimer- I am not a spokesman for FEMA.

I hope all these people get decent shelter quickly.

When I see stories like that, I always have questions that were not asked by the reporter. For example:

Did they have too many animals for FEMA?
Did they have their application complete?
What do the county and local FEMA people have to say about it?

When I am deployed and I talk to my applicants, their whole situation is usually much more complex than what the video showed. I often have to play detective- seeing discrepancies between evidence and testimony. Government employees are certainly not going to divulge private information about people. People are also selective about what they divulge about themselves in front of a camera.

This is not to excuse government at any level if they are not executing their jobs effectively. But that video clip showed typically lazy and shallow reporting.

[bloke]

Whether or not any of those situations - and endless more about which we've read - are partially the fault of the victims, it's pretty frustrating when we see money being pissed all over the world and these Americans - who may or may not have crossed all their t's or doted all their i's (or the state is creating roadblocks due to zoning regulations and such, for pity's sake) - are trying to live in tents in the winter time... and with non-citizens living on our dime in four star hotels...

I'm pretty sure I understand how those at the top of government view serfs; it's the same as it's always been.

[MiBrassFS]

Fast and loose with the dollars elsewhere, pretty scrutinizing and tight with those footing the bill, as always.

As far as “the news” goes, they love to give quick, simple answers to even the most obviously complex questions.

I hope everyone here fairs ok in the end.

[bloke]

I remember another disaster whereby there were thousands and thousands of FEMA trailers that were never used. One begins to wonder if something is two large to actually be effective, whether it puts too many requirements on its services or whether it furnishes too many supplies and services.

[Mary Ann]

Although there will never be a hurricane here, it is possible that something I've never thought of could happen. Having lost a house and everything in it to mold and having been forced to find a way to live without a building for several years (because basically all housing has some mold, and when your reactivity is extreme, you HAVE to live outside) - I can understand what these people are dealing with. They can't even cram everything in the car and drive out -- at least at first, and how would they get a vehicle to leave with anyway? And where would they go?

To me the humane thing to do would be to get them in safe housing first and THEN worry about applications. Seems like nothing is being coordinated in a humane way but instead is focused on conflicting sets of rules. I know this disaster response is in no way unique, and I also know that people WANT to help but are stymied by situations on both sides. I have walked away from many "volunteer opportunities" because my very competent offers of help were stymied by some idiot control freak in charge who was, in my opinion, doing harm.

[sweaty]

To me the humane thing to do would be to get them in safe housing first and THEN worry about applications.

That assumes everyone is honest. In my job, I get lied to all the time. In any government program where things (and money) are given away free, there are always scammers. The bigger and more publicized disasters get more scammers. The result is that the truly needy get crowded out by those who are not. You want us to be good stewards of taxpayers' money and get resources to the right people.

When I inspect houses of applicants, we have to see each others' ID, they have to show verification of occupancy, verification of ownership (unless they are renters), and I do an inspection to see what actually happened and determine if the house is safe, sanitary, and functional. If a house is not safe, sanitary, or functional, I have to determine if it was caused by the natural disaster. If these criteria are met, they get grant money for repairs and temporary housing.

I did not work in NC but have talked to colleagues who did. One fellow inspector told me how she got applicants pretending to be other people and claiming they lived in a certain house but did not. Another colleague told me about how FEMA had boots on the ground before the storm hit, but the severity in NC was so much worse than anyone expected. Roads and bridges got washed out and people, including emergency workers, could not get in or out for some time.

When I hear people saying things like, "FEMA doesn't help anybody!", I have lots of questions to ask about their specific situation. I would not assume I would get actual answers.