Updated 5 PM TD 12 Forms in Atlantic--------Tropics Today & Post Helene... E NC & W TN No Water, No Power, No Cellphone Service. Accounted For ?? Dead? Hurt? Injured? Where's Government Officials. Where's Media? Send Help NoW!

TD Twelve Formed in Atlantic

Basic cone for now... 

...just pointing it out.

Yes, still watching GOM for possible development.

Again.

 

Starting with what's next.

Then rest of what needs to be discussed.

Kirk and Leslie next names up.

Some models forecast a huge Fish Storm that takes up a large part of the Atlantic and some weaker systems try and gain traction in other places. Two areas close together in GOM try to spin up. CAG and Tropical Wave. Models backing off yesterday's melodramatic landfalls, tomorrow who knows. Too soon to tell. If you want a long range models will show this one..

This is actually not that long range.

SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND WILL.

But it shows the huge hurricane.

Shows small system FL Big Bend.

Shows small area in BOC maybe W GOM

MAYBE being the big word.

Also an EPAC system.

When all is said and done and the last storm chaser has gotten back to home base, the realization of catastrophic damage in Perry Florida is NOT the main story. I won't go long on second guessing actual strength in Perry after landfall nearby, but when storm chasers show videos with Fast Food restaurant's signs still there not blown away and even some lit up (before power went out) and then video shows lots of pine tree damage (soft wood) and branches fallen from huge Live Oak Trees and smashed roofs from winds that toppled a gas station's roof over the pumps but left the poorly built little gas station office looking okay...thankfully.......this was not your regular Category 4 landfall as NWS figures for highest wind gusts were nowhere near as high as feared. A lot filled with mobile homes in good conditions was shown at the height of the storm all sitting there fairly well while the media covered a small portable shed that blew across the highway. Yes, that happens to those sheds in Cat 1 and Cat 2 storms, my neighbors portable shed blew across a fence and landed next to my house in Miami in a high end but very gusty Cat 1 Hurricane, no one blinked it wasn't worthy of national news though a shed dancing it's way across a street is more of a visual. 

Great pics and video.

Lot it came from had mobile homes in good shape.

It's portable for backyard storage.

Not a building.

Cars driving about.

Not your Momma's Cat 4 what can I say?

NHC will figure it out....

...will review.

Not Cat 4 wind wise...

...but along every town to the South..

devastating storm surge.

It was never about the WINDS.

Was ALWAYS about the WATER.

While there is damage, locally this is a horrible hit after previous hurricanes in the last 3 years that impacted this same area, but this is not catastrophic damage consistent with a Category 4. Doesn't take a Cat 4 to knock over this canopy. Glad the devastation was not Major but horrible, frustrating and tragic.

Not posting private pics from my friend's yard in Augusta.

Trees down everywhere, cars smashed and homes damaged.

So this is the part where I only rant bu6 time this morning does not permit me going longer than I am and I'm fairly sure you don't want to read it vs hearing about where the next storm may form.

I remember after Andrew big media stars, Gloria Estefan and others were on the ground and on air everywhere trying to bring attention to what Homestead Florida needed, a small town to the South of Miami in the same county but smashed by a Cat 5 Hurricane. Many people in that area were poor, working class people and retirees who lived in small townhomes. Many lost their lives, many refused to leave (inland from Atlantic Ocean) as they had cats and dogs they could not take to shelters. When I say damage, home lots of townhomes were leveled and remember originally Andrew made landfall as a Category 4 Hurricane upgraded when data was found to verify it was actually a Cat 5. After Hugo Oprah took her show on the road when it was all about news and begged people to give even a dollor or $5 and people paid attention. It often takes stars in the entertainment industry to get the word out it seems.

I just heard on the news at least 10 were killed.

Death Toll most likely will go over 100.

Nearing 70 now..

This was all forecast.

But the media talks on landfall.

Media down at the beach.

TWC went to Asheville before....

..to cover flooding day before from frontal system.

The system that grabbed Helene.

French Broard River flooded.

Then all about Florida landfall.

vs Valdosta GA getting hurricane winds...

..way before landfall in FL

Same thing happened in Idalia...

yes TWC had someone there.

Why is no one in E NC

or W TN

??????

Most of my friends from high school left Miami. I did too, I lived in California for a long time before returning then getting remarried and moving to Carolinas. A good percentage of my friends are living in Georgia and parts of the South nearby in small towns, cute towns with a good quality of life FAR FROM THE OCEAN because well we did grow up in Miami. We got all the summer anyone ever needs and saw damage at the beaches and living in a nice little town inland in Georgia or Carolinas seemed safer and generally is...

But hurricanes move far inland and flooding occurs far inland anywhere there's moutains and valleys and anywhere there is a river flood basin and the river basin flooding is very huge in Carolinas and Virginia and if you paid attention in history class that's why the early settlers settled there as the soil was rich as most of the towns were developed along rivers and those rivers have flood basins and they flood badly in Floyd and Florence. 

Inland hurricane force winds are not regular deep in Georgia inland. 

I get it's hard to cover the scope. I get that. Get reporters on the ground, try.

So think on this............during election coverage CNN and FOX show huge maps on their screens showing numbers as they come in of who voted for who in which county and explaining the demographics of a small town with a large college vs a small town without a large college community. Info is distributed across the country during primaries and so I think it's not that hard for them to do this now with Helene and her horrific damage where many vital roads washed out, bridges gone and this covers an area across two states as what happens in E NC doesn't stay there it's part of W TN.

I put on CNN and FOX they are both covering the never ending election. To be air FOX just went to storm coverage though before they were talking on politics. CNN is talking on how politicians are spending money with ads and I'm sure they will do a segment on TN/NC but frankly I'm tired of watching both and tired of hearing about agenda driven news vs showing the news and finding the news and reporting on it!

The news today was a group of local officials gave a short Zoom Media Conference in Buncome County (Asheville and mountain communities) and they look shell shocked, they are short staffed as some cannot participate because power is out, roads are gone and they are trying but where are the government officials of both parties. The Governor (he told people in a press conference "turn around don't drown" sorry that was last hurricane there are no roads to drive on and their cars are down the ravine from the mudslides) the Senators, the Congress people are they afraid I guess in an election cycle to have a bad press moment? Kind of ironic as every candidate has been crawling all over NC vying for votes (both VP and Pres candidate) and yet this Sunday morning, days after Helene made landfall the local emergency managers are trying to figure out how to get water into the area (it's stuck on the other side of the river) and doing the best they can while the lack of higher level, higher profile officials is deafeningly silent.

Seriously, is NC not ready for Prime Time if a hurricane devastates the mountains in ENC but better down at the coastline where I guess they are supposed to wreak havoc?

Look at their faces.

Trying so hard to give facts yet no water.

No food, no cellphone service.

No number of dead because...

..so many unaccounted for.

Understand people unaccounted for and trapped in their homes will die of injuries they could not receive. Why were medics not dropped by helicopters into some of the far reaching areas? Just one example.Why is NC refusing to give a partial death Toll until all area accounted for days after a hurricane? Tennessee also grappling with this in their far Western counties adjacent to Eastern NC.

I have things to do today, so have to get them done in a timely way.

Lastly.........I don't care whose feelings this hurts but the NHC HAS TO CHANGE and STOP the dropping the cone because the winds are not hurricane strength and they only track the winds, the center, etc. This happens all the time, and yes the media can interview the local NWS but the media doesn't want to and it is what it is and NHC is tasked to cover the hurricane so stop pulling the plug because you can track the center swirling but it's no longer a Tropical Storm.  At hurricane conferences I have had long discussions with officials on how a hurricane is more than the center and the winds in the center and the point of landfall and flooding is often the story after landfall. I had long conversations with Bill Read who at the time was director of the NHC that inland flooding gets ignored always and how much of a problem it was and as he was moved over from the NWS he knew up close and personal the dangers of inland flooding and how upsetting it is the media is lined up at the beach doing live shots before a hurricane, and yet once the catastrophic flooding inland occures most of the media is gone. Note you only see one reporter but they are lined up ten feet apart in front of the beautiful beach, near landfall. Though it's true the media often goes back in to areas to show it but usually only when it's a sexy, popular place which is why you keep getting shown Biltmore Village partially underwater but not the homes of poor people living where they can for generations whose home, car and most of the tree went downhill in a mudslide and quite frankly they may find their missing loved one after the mud is dug out and you haven't heard from them as cellphone towers went down hill with their cars and they do not have power, water, cellphone service nor access to medical help as they are cut off living through hell. 

But sure keep showing picture of homes in Cedar Key smashed sadly in the water and talk on trying to pin down landfall before the storm and the guy rescued luckily from his boat with his dog.

Let's talk Helene. 

Just because their Cone ends... 

..and wind center went N and NW

Doesn't mean that everyone in the path ..

of the flooding rains was going to be okay.

Where was the media before.........

...when forecasters knew and predicted.

Flooding in the Mountains in their forecast.

Oh right down on the beach for the sexy shot.

Where is the media now?

Right, replaying videos posted on X

Where are all the governement officials?

Waiting for Monday morning business hours??

Pathetic, sadly pathetic.

Happened in Floyd in NC too.

Eventually they show up.

Send in the Marines...

Ps..contact your local government 

beg them to send help now.

Send WATER

It's been days.

????? 

To be continued.