Death Storm Helene

[NJHusky]

And yet they knew better. In 2015 the local paper in Asheville was recounting the 1916 storm and flooding and asking whether it could happen again. They had a whole event to talk about it because it was inevitable.

Asheville's Great Flood of 1916: Can it happen again?

"Come Hell or High Water, Remembering the Flood of 1916" will explore the flood's impact.

www.citizen-times.com

Thx for posting...never knew about that prior flood. The damage caused then with only a fraction of the population density is also telling.

 

[NJHusky]

Asheville is home to the United States Government's climate data hub and there were a bunch of articles written about how it was one of the climate change safe havens in the country with quotes from people saying it's safe haven status factored into their decision to move there. The area has seen explosive growth which has brought good and bad. It clearly isn't any safe haven from the wrath of Mother Nature.

My friend's son started his own little finishing company there and was doing water rescues and is now out there finding bodies.

I've never heard of climate change safe havens....makes no sense to me.

 

[superjohn]

This seems like a weird and entirely anecdotal argument and yet every time I look at any news website (I just went to the weather channel page and there's a massive picture over the headline "DESTRUCTION IN NORTH CAROLINA") there is blanket coverage. My wife has a weird thing for local news and both the run-up and fallout from the storm have been covered incessantly on our local affiliates and we live thousands of miles from North Carolina. The leadup to the storm hitting Florida and people boarding up their houses was covered relatively nonstop where we live. This "no one is covering this storm" just seems like an odd complaint that doesn't really jibe with reality.

I didn't say nobody is covering the storm, I'm saying the coverage is lacking for the gravity of the situation.

 

[John]

There was hardly any reporting on the storm leading up to it. I saw a tweet from a weather service the morning of the night the storm was making landfall in Florida (last Thursday) that people in the western Appalachian areas of the states were in a dire position because there would be massive flooding and mudslides and they should get out. There was very little media buildup and warning about the gravity of this storm/situation and very little tv coverage once the Storm hit. As I stated in previous posts it was hard to find television coverage of the storm this past weekend, I didn't see national correspondents in the Appalachian states, they weren't showing drone footage on TV. Considering it's one of the worst US hurricanes we've had in 100 years and will most likely be the second most deadly US hurricane in 100 years it's strange how little coverage it's gotten compared to past storms.

Small snowstorms in NYC have wall to wall storm coverage on all news channels for days, with plenty of correspndents ready on site, storm tracker cars etc.

There is a running Death Storm joke on this board about how the media makes a mountain out of a molehill so often when it comes to storms. Stock up on milk, eggs, and fill the bathtubs up and then people post about a lawn chair getting knocked over or 3 inches of snow in their backyard.

wayyyyyy off-base here, there was substantial coverage of the storm's expected path, expected intensity, etc in the national media, which continued after landfall and the following days.

 

[superjohn]

wayyyyyy off-base here, there was substantial coverage of the storm's expected path, expected intensity, etc in the national media, which continued after landfall and the following days.

Nothing like past storms that weren't nearly as deadly and didn't do nearly the same amount of damage to communities.

 

[John]

Nothing like past storms that weren't nearly as deadly and didn't do nearly the same amount of damage to communities.

Interesting take. Care to speculate on what's behind the lack of coverage of this particular storm? What forces are at work here?

 

[superjohn]

Interesting take. Care to speculate on what's behind the lack of coverage of this particular storm? What forces are at work here?

I don't know, I just know the coverage is lacking compared to much lesser storms in the past.

I'll ask you again, care to elaborate on smoke signals?

 

[Rocktheworld]

Working in a hospital seeing 6-8 patients a day, whose televisions are almost always on, and almost always tuned into the news, I can say that I knew very well of the storm and its destructive potential since it started forming by Mexico. It was constantly on. This narrative of poor coverage is absolute nonsense.

And I’ll tell you all where that idiotic narrative comes from, since its peddlers don’t seem to have the courage to do so: it’s been woven by people who clutch their pearls over any perceived difference in how the “coastal elites” are treated vs the rest of America. The people who have been convinced of this narrative likely also believe that the NFL is fixed, that there are nanobots in vaccines, and that the government has been pumping out mosquitos into New England towns from helicopter.

 

[superjohn]

Working in a hospital seeing 6-8 patients a day, whose televisions are almost always on, and almost always tuned into the news, I can say that I knew very well of the storm and its destructive potential since it started forming by Mexico. It was constantly on. This narrative of poor coverage is absolute nonsense.

And I’ll tell you all where that idiotic narrative comes from, since its peddlers don’t seem to have the courage to do so: it’s been woven by people who clutch their pearls over any perceived difference in how the “coastal elites” are treated vs the rest of America. The people who have been convinced of this narrative likely also believe in chem trails and nanobots in vaccines.

Wow. Yikes.

 

[John]

I don't know, I just know the coverage is lacking compared to much lesser storms in the past.

I'll ask you again, care to elaborate on smoke signals?

But why is the coverage lacking? Simple oversight? Part of a larger agenda?

 

[superjohn]

But why is the coverage lacking? Simple oversight? Part of a larger agenda?

I said I don't know why?

Now can you answer my question I'm asking for a third time? What do you mean by smoke signals?

 

[Excalibur]

But why is the coverage lacking? Simple oversight? Part of a larger agenda?

You're asking him why something that is not happening is happening. It's a bizarre scenario to say the least . . .

 

[ctchamps]

Quickly putting this out in case cut off. Doing fine. Power and water restored Monday but water under boil order. Internet and cell service is a problem. First chance to call people from home just a short while ago.

Missed connecting with you guys. Terrific news about Adam’s and the football team win over Buffalo.

Our Condo suffered no damage but 23 units out of 192 units had some with three having significant damage from trees falling on them. We lost 20-25% of our wonderful trees.

We have a dedicated staff of workers and they have been terrific in cutting trees on our roads and roof tops. All of you probably have a better visual of the extent of damage in our region because of our internet being down. One of our employees had his house swept away. My neighbors best friend’s brother was swept away and body hasn’t been found.

People have been terrific helping one another and bringing water and food to neighbors.

Hope all you guys are doing well.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

God bless everyone affected by the storm.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I've never heard of climate change safe havens....makes no sense to me.

Climate change or not, any populated area in hills with rivers and streams is susceptible to massive flash flooding events.
The thing with Helene was the region had just gotten a heavy rainfall from an unrelated system and the ground was saturated and water levels were high.
It's not just water, look at California during fire season, and what happens when fires get in to the hills and mountains.
I get that the hills of the Piedmont region or Appalachian or Smokey mountains should he safe from Hurricane winds but never in a million years would I think those areas were safe from flash flooding. They seem particularly vulnerable since much of the infrastructure is along rivers at the bottom of mountains or in the valleys between peaks.
But that's just me.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Climate change or not, any populated area in hills with rivers and streams is susceptible to massive flash flooding events.
The thing with Helene was the region had just gotten a heavy rainfall from an unrelated system and the ground was saturated and water levels were high.
It's not just water, look at California during fire season, and what happens when fires get in to the hills and mountains.
I get that the hills of the Piedmont region or Appalachian or Smokey mountains should he safe from Hurricane winds but never in a million years would I think those areas were safe from flash flooding. They seem particularly vulnerable since much of the infrastructure is along rivers at the bottom of mountains or in the valleys between peaks.
But that's just me.

Same in Vermont. Our house there was cut off from the world by Irene. There is a process by which tropical storms moving into mountains end up dumping far more precipitation, faster, then they would over lower lying land. The cooling air increases the rainfall and the cyclonic pattern means most of it falls on one side. Several meteorologists have confirmed this.

Also, to your point, this was before Helene even made landfall.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I swear these storms just head to the dry areas.
The US Drought Map from this week. I suspect it will look dramtically different next Thursday. View attachment 103762

Drought maps drop every Thursday. Easy to see the effects of Helene.

Current Map | U.S. Drought Monitor

droughtmonitor.unl.edu

 

[husky429]

Just got a text from my BIL. Some happenings in town:

• Someone's house have 4+ feet of mud in it
• A house is literally washed away and was split in two
• Piles of 20+ cars/boats/docks on the river
• They have to clear over 100 trees to go 1/2 a mile to the nearest gas station. Luckily they have a 500 gallon gas tank at the shop (he's a mechanic)
• Entire neighborhoods still submerged to the roofline of their houses.
• Houses floating in waters that haven't receded
• Trailers just moved to entirely different addresses
• Roads near rivers that are just gone... there's not even asphalt in sight

 

[donyell34]

Stirring the pot as always just superjohn being who he is.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Wow. Yikes.

Didn’t think you had anything of substance to say