Weather Thou Goest: Tracking the Skies

[Carolinian]

I'm in central NC, and all we got was heavy rain. No damage or power interruption in my immediate area. The cat family is fine, though Luna is bored. I'm not letting her go outside until she's spayed, and that's not happening until the kittens are weaned, so at least two weeks. I got toys- the babies love the ball race thing, but Luna has no interest in the laser pointer.

If anyone is interested in seeing the hurricane devastation, look on FB for "North Carolina Weather Authority" for general info and "Wautaga County Traffic" for the area around Boone.



ETA: A report from a police chief in the NW mountains says that people can't be rescued because roads and bridges have been washed out and blocked by landslides. They are leaving bodies in place. There's no way to extinguish fires. People can't be rescued from flooded cars, the current is too strong. Because cell service is down emergency services don't know where to look. This is appalling. The National Guard has been mobilized and that part of the state has been declared a major disaster area. I need to step away from the computer.

[seat6]

East TN as well. 58 people has to be rescued by helicopters from the roof of a hospital.

I40 at the TN/NC border is washed out. The road just fell into the river. The photos are terrifying.

Entire towns are gone—Newport, Erwin, and Roan Mountain. It’s a five county area that has been affected.

Footage of the Kinser Bridge over the Nolichucky River being washed away.

I have lived through a 1000-year flood and a 500-year flood (in the same house, within the span of 10 years) and I have never seen anything like this.

A lot of these rivers have a normal flow of 2000 to 3000 cubit feet per second. These are rivers known for white-water rafting. That’s considered class III white water—fun and challenging. I saw that one of the rivers was at 92,000 CFS and another was at 50,000. A third couldn’t even be measured, because the gauge is broken.

People are talking about the flood of 1914, which is before TVA existed.

[sardonictart]

The scenes coming out of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina are scary as hell. Wishing everyone out there safety and better days.

[seat6]

This headline blows my mind.

Nolichucky Dam flow reached nearly twice Niagara Falls during Helene flooding, TDOT says

[Carolinian]

I have friends with esoteric interests. A potter friend was discussing the artists and clays in western NC and pointed out that in the area of Spruce Pine, NC, clays are desirable because of high purity quartz deposits. I looked it up and found out that among other things high purity quartz is used in semiconductor production to make crucibles for melting silicon. Spruce Pine the only large scale source world-wide. There are two mines in Spruce Pine; at least one of them is flooded. This has the potential to be catastrophic for the semiconductor industry.

[Carolinian]

Apologies for the double post. The National Park services has closed the full length of the Blue Ridge Parkway in NC because of hurricane damage. There's no date for reopening any of it.

[seat6]

864.6 miles, more than one-third of the Appalachian Trail, is closed. This is from Springer Mountain, GA, to Rockfish Gap, VA.

[Deleted]

I’m not sure it’s possible to even comprehend the amount of devastation. That area is one of the most scenic, beautiful places I’ve ever been. It breaks my heart.

[mojogirl]

Pacific NW had a "bomb cyclone" storm last night; biggest issue was that the winds were coming from the east, rather than our more usual winds from the south, so a lot of trees were uprooted.

Check out this video posted by a bus driver... crazy! I like how he said there were no passengers so nobody heard his very manly scream when this happened.

[batmom]

I live in a really wooded area so when we get a wind storm, I hear the limbs cracking. The area immediately behind my place appeared fairly unscathed this morning, but I imagine I'll see some more trees down when I take the dog out later.

(Just watched the video - OMG!)