UPDATED! 11PM. I95 Closed - Flooding From FLO Cause She's SLOW to Leave... Rain Training Over Same Areas Creating Much Widespread Flooding. A Problem Until She Starts Moving & Picks up Speed and Leaves. Acts of Kindness & Concerns on Orographic Lift & Flooding Rain in W NC
11 PM.
Suffice it to say no real change.
She's moving West at 3 MPH now..
Barely moving.
But the moisture from the tail is increasing.
And still spiraling in...
3 Things Important to know.
1. Roads are closed throughout NC including I95. Please check with authorities before traveling through NC or attempting to go home to your community if you evacuated. This is an evolving situation and I'll update tomorrow. 74, 73, 64, 95 all affected and that also means alternative routes will back up as well and as I said on Twitter you cannot see water on the back roads in the dark nor can you see a huge tree down until you slam into it. Please stay home until the situation improves and stay safe, do not become a statistic!
2. When Florence finally begins to move she will impact Western North Carolina and as rain works it's way up into the more mountainous areas we will have to worry on Orographic Lifting and the dangers of flash flooding in Appalachia in the small towns, back roads and communities not used to tropical downpours. In 1940 after a hurricane hit Beaufort, South Carolina it moved inland with a similar track obviously under similar steering currents or lack thereof and that's when the flood happened. Just as we have with Florence the moisture made it's way into Western North Carolina and created tragic, historic flooding. There was an article in March in Our State Magazine about this flood written in great, intense detail by the incomparable Philip Gerard. It's a hard article to read if you scare easily or hate hearing about families who lost loved ones but it's a MUST READ if you live in an area like Western NC and have not experienced such a flood. And, I say that as moving to North Carolina has become very popular of late and many newcomers who may be familiar with hurricanes at the ocean have never seen what that sort of moisture once it works it's way inland up into the mountains can do. Our State Magazine is one of the true treasures of North Carolina and they often do stories on our weather and our history.
3. Lastly I'll leave you with a heartwarming story of one woman who wanted to make a difference however she could and so she took $50 to a local Walmart in Garner and decided to buy what she could with it and take it to a nearby shelter where evacuees were sheltering from the storm. It turns out the manager at the Walmart added supplies to her $50 and excitedly she took the supplies to the people in the shelter who were very appreciative and felt quite blessed. Then she received a phone call from the store manager who asked her to come back again and he gave her more supplies in a beautiful story of people helping people, but the main point here is had she not gone to the store to try and help as much as she could... the ball would not have started rolling. It shows how one woman can make a huge difference just because she cared enough to try and do something. You can read the story yourself, but after a day of sad stories, news of deaths, people losing their homes, rivers rising and more misery to come it's uplifting to read a story about how one person changed so many lives just by her actions. Many of us think to ourselves we'd like to do something but then we talk ourselves out of it, luckily she is not that type of person she took action.
I'll update tomorrow. But what is important to remind you is that currently people are trying to help other people who are stuck on roads that are flooding out. People are rescuing others with their boats or their friend's boats or any boats they can get their hands on as lives are in danger tonight in North Carolina. And when the sunrises Sunday morning the stories of how people were saved will come out and sadly we may hear stories we do not want to hear of people missing or a climbing death toll. Charlotte NC has issued warnings on their NWS website about the problems of flooding in mountainous terrain as well as local areas that will be experiencing the continued misery that Florence has wrought across our state.
***
The sun has rose...
..the sun has set.
And Flo won't leave.
She just sits there yet.
Moving at 2 MPH-ish West.
Until the steering currents kick in ..
...kick Florence out.
She's an unwelcome guest.
I'll do a full update tomorrow on the flooding.
It's still going on so it's a moving target.
Like a flowing, flooded river.
Or creek about to leave it's banks.
Loop:
Great link by Levi Cowan at Tropical Tidbits.
That rain (moisture) is swirling in nonstop like a top that won't stop. Note the small bursts of convection closer to the NC/SC border that are popping especially bright. Cranky spoke on this earlier on Twitter so I'll let him explain the details. Bottom line is some areas in NC and SC are going to be in for a rocky night of bad weather and additional rain that will add to the flooding, rain totals and misery.
Bottom Line is it's not over yet.
And tomorrow brings more of the same.
Raleigh weather show's the story.
Again those cells are spiraling around.
So extrapolate the area inland..
..and then more comes from the same spot.
And we do this over and over and over.
Why?
How is a weakened Tropical Storm doing this?
She's being fed from down below.
Note the bright oranges feeding Florence.
This is a tree that fell in Raleigh.
Lucky home owners.
Just missed the house...
As for me I'm okay, it mostly rained this afternoon all day, off and on last night though one cell roared loudly and some small twigs and branches down around the property. In general doing very well here, though nearby some trees were down and the ground is saturated and soggy. The wind has been very off and on, more off in Raleigh. I've been told the trees here (large hardwoods and heavy pines) don't need much wind to bring them down. The leaves are soaked, the branches are heavy and they topple easily especially in soaked ground.
Also any damaged trees (which we have a lot of round these parts) are more likely to splinter and topple over. I was once in front of the house (SEVERAL YEARS AGO ...NOT NOW) when I first moved here watering the hydrangeas in front of the house when I suddenly heard this loud odd noise coming from my left in the forested area next to the house in what was known as Salem Woods... and I saw this large pine tree fall down and hit the side of the house, splinter into pieces and then it was quiet. Not a breeze, not a rain storm... maybe a heavy rambunctious squirrel? I mean what the ??? My husband came running out to see if I was okay and I told him a big pine tree fell down nodding over to the now broken pine tree. He looked over and said "yeah they do that" and went back in the house. I stood there over watering the hydrangeas thinking "what the hell???" And yes I came to find out over time that does happen... for no apparent reason, it wasn't a dead pine though it did kind of splinter fast. My husband came back out and went about trying to clean it up. And THAT my friends is North Carolina... We have dips in the road, creeks that over flow, dams owned privately that fail (not owned by the State) and are often poorly maintained. You get a hurricane that dumps a lot of rain and things flood, trees topple and streets get washed out. In general Raleigh tends to be a bit boring as we rarely get bad snow and rarely get the brunt of the hurricane, yet areas Down East are hurting bad and the hurting keeps on going. And whatever you see today on the news is not as bad as it will be tomorrow sadly.
Two things I'll add tonight are words of wisdom from two people that know. Do not cross a street that has running water over it and never underestimate a slow moving, large Tropical Storm to bring historic misery
For anyone living in VA, NC or SC..
and parts of GA apparently.
Hunker down tonight...
Don't go out if you don't have to..
..random roads that are dark have tree branches down.
This part of the world is dark at night.
Until you hit it you won't know it's there.
And if you live near a dip or a creek...
...and water is covering the road.
Just don't.
With prayers to those hit in bad areas.
And asking as always to give charity...
Any Red Cross will do...
...but especially here is good.
Or any organization you know and trust.
Besos BobbiStorm
Ps.. Full update tomorrow on the tropics and Flo.
Labels: Carolinas, flooding, Florence, NC, rain, tropicalstorm, weather, wind
posted by BobbiStorm @ 6:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home