East TN and Western NC after the storm.

DirtySteve

DirtySteve

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Is anyone aware of what's going on in the Appalachians? I don't know if they're talking about it anywhere. Except for a couple of forum brothers no one I know in Florida (or anywhere) has tried to contact me to see if I'm ok so I assume they don't know what's happened here. After the Hurricane made landfall in Florida Thursday night it made a beeline straight up to TN. The center eye parked right over Knoxville and to the east the mountains in TN and NC got hammered with rain from the stronger side of the system. It had already been raining steady and non-stop since Tuesday afternoon and then the storm came. The rain totals broke every record ever recorded. We got more than a years worth of rain in 3 days. Across the border in NC they got over 30".

Almost very road is washed out in the mountains. Streams, creeks, rivers all flooded and washed out everything in their path. Dams over flowed. There are entire towns completely washed away. There are still places with no power, no cell service and no way to get to some of these towns. There are still hundreds of people missing and trapped with no way in or out and no way to contact anyone. They have no way of getting supplies, gas, food and water and no one knows when they will.

I got lucky where I live, we didn't even lose power, but just a few miles in any direction and it's destruction. There are literally no roads open across the TN/NC border, interstates and all major highways are all closed because of washouts, bridge collapses, mud slides and who knows what. I know it was bad in FL and GA along the path, but it was much worse up here and we are only just now starting to see just how bad it is.

Are you guys hearing/seeing anything about this?
 
We have been. Got friends in FL. Sarasota, Ft Myers, Tampa area. We spent a week this spring in the panhandle where my wife’s brother and wife camped for two months. Port St. Joe / Apalachicola area. Mostly they all missed the worst stuff

Also have a cousin that lives around Knoxville and a couple other cousins near Charlotte.

Couple years ago we spent a week near Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.

Long way to say…. We’ve been following the news. At least for us, Chicago stations have been reporting the devastation as has network news. We’ve also been trying to follow thru social media as well as news posting on the internet. What we’ve seen is not good. But also betting reality is even worse.

Glad you’re safe, but I know so many others lost everything.
 
DirtySteve said:
Is anyone aware of what's going on in the Appalachians? I don't know if they're talking about it anywhere. Except for a couple of forum brothers no one I know in Florida (or anywhere) has tried to contact me to see if I'm ok so I assume they don't know what's happened here. After the Hurricane made landfall in Florida Thursday night it made a beeline straight up to TN. The center eye parked right over Knoxville and to the east the mountains in TN and NC got hammered with rain from the stronger side of the system. It had already been raining steady and non-stop since Tuesday afternoon and then the storm came. The rain totals broke every record ever recorded. We got more than a years worth of rain in 3 days. Across the border in NC they got over 30".

Almost very road is washed out in the mountains. Streams, creeks, rivers all flooded and washed out everything in their path. Dams over flowed. There are entire towns completely washed away. There are still places with no power, no cell service and no way to get to some of these towns. There are still hundreds of people missing and trapped with no way in or out and no way to contact anyone. They have no way of getting supplies, gas, food and water and no one knows when they will.

I got lucky where I live, we didn't even lose power, but just a few miles in any direction and it's destruction. There are literally no roads open across the TN/NC border, interstates and all major highways are all closed because of washouts, bridge collapses, mud slides and who knows what. I know it was bad in FL and GA along the path, but it was much worse up here and we are only just now starting to see just how bad it is.

Are you guys hearing/seeing anything about this?
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Learning as the evening progresses…horrific. Glad you have been spared some of the things I’ve been reading about tonight. Sadness. Entire towns….washed away….ugh.
 
I grew up in Florida, I've been thru so many hurricanes I can't even count. I lived in Oklahoma and witnessed tornado destruction. I've been thru floods and earthquakes. I've never seen anything like this or felt such loss before. This area is where my family is from, they moved to Florida, but this is home and to me it always has been. That's why I moved here the first chance I got and I don't ever plan to leave. It's so sad to see it change forever.
 
I had to stop checking facebook, all I see are videos of the flooding as it was happening and they just keep showing the worst of it. I'm not seeing anything about the recovery efforts and updates. Bad news sells I guess. There are so many people coming together to help clean up and restore power and roads and no ones talking about that. At least not on my feeds.
 
Ghostman said:
But yeah, as far as the news goes, you'll only see the destruction and chaos.
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We're a warped society for sure. But destruction and chaos is what sells advertising on TV. How many people watch NASCAR for the crashes.... and could care less about the actually racing. Fortunately, there has been some human interest type stories I've been lucky to catch. Optimism. Neighbors helping neighbors. Helicopter rescue of several people trapped in the middle of nowhere.

As for the destruction. This storm left it in a magnitude few of us can grasp. We only have the news and what they cover. Example..... my eldest worked in a Middle School in Washington Illinois. Eleven years ago on Sunday after Thanksgiving a 1/2 mile wide EF4 tornado hit the town. Just missed the grade school by a few hundred feet. School still sustained damage, primarily from shrapnel. HVAC on the roof was wind damaged. Took a week to get the school back to up and running. The part of town it hit looked like a vacuum cleaner had gone thru. And my point. One tornado as destructive as it was does not compare to what just happened with Helene. What is similar.... since my kid wasn't working for a week, volunteered a couple days to help the locals as best he could. Told me "Dad.... the news showing the damaged isn't even remotely what reality is." The reality was numbing..... and that was "only" a 1/2 mile path of destruction on one small section of town. Can't even begin to imagine how the folk impacted by this storm is emotionally coping.

I have heard from one of my three cousins that live in the area. She lives on the NW side of Charlotte as does another cousin. The 3rd one lives in Knoxville. Her property did sustain a little damage, but overall unscathed. The other two, not surprised they haven't responded. I don't think they check mail often.
 
And make no mistake. This type of event has lasting emotional effects. Several years later, tornado siren went off during the day. Kids still in school. Teachers ushered their kids into the halls as the safe areas. My kid is an 8th grade teacher. Many of his students were sobbing they were so scared. This will be the new reality for many in the TN/NC region for years.
 
iblive said:
We're a warped society for sure. But destruction and chaos is what sells advertising on TV. How many people watch NASCAR for the crashes.... and could care less about the actually racing....
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Have you been to a NASCAR race? They are unbelievably boring. :D I had no idea how impossible it is to watch in the flesh. Walls are too tall on the stand side to see who is whipping by at 200+mph and the far side of the track is 3/4mile away to be able to see who is who. I spent my time staring at the position marker at the finish line or wandered the pits.
No offense to the NASCAR fans.
 
Ghostman said:
Have you been to a NASCAR race? They are unbelievably boring. :D I had no idea how impossible it is to watch in the flesh. Walls are too tall on the stand side to see who is whipping by at 200+mph and the far side of the track is 3/4mile away to be able to see who is who. I spent my time staring at the position marker at the finish line or wandered the pits.
No offense to the NASCAR fans.
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Not to mention going deaf without hearing protection.
 
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