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First pic is of the house directly across the street around 1am Thursday night/Friday morning just before the peak of the surge. The second photo is around 8am the next morning - like nothing had happened.
Apollo Beach, FL got hit so hard that we actually made the news around the country. Mine is one of 5 homes on high enough elevation that we didn’t flood. My neighbors weren’t so lucky. The water came within a foot of my garage door and the pool in the back facing the canal. Way too close for comfort.
In 35 years, I’ve never seen anything like this in my little “drinking village with a boating problem.” Ever. People who’ve been here for generations haven’t either. They’ve lost everything and some homes are being condemned already.
I’ve been working with neighbors to collect pet food and pet supplies. Today I’m going through my extra linens and offering those up to families in need. There are folks who are putting the entire contents of their homes on the street for the County to come pick up and next will come drywall - for some entire homes will be gutted. The scrappers have already come by once - thank goodness for the guys in pickup trucks who will break down and recycle all the appliances, etc.
Some folks are still without power and the sewage treatment plant sprang a leak, so we’re under “boil water” instructions for about a week.
I’m very fortunate and blessed that it wasn’t worse. The ABB down the street got even more badly flooded and I’ve been in touch with them to help. Off to work and then see who needs help.
Gift cards, Venmo, CashApp to the local rescue orgs are a big help. People can’t stay in their homes, so other folks are opening theirs. I still have my “refugees” from last year’s storm and the house they had in escrow was flooded, so back to Start for them.
So sorry and you are indeed very lucky. I’ve been following this pretty closely and what’s happened in western NC, bridges/roads wiped out, no cell, electric, homes/cars washed down rivers. Some towns no way in other than helicopter dropping food/water/people.
There are no doubt many Airbnb hosts whose business will also be wiped out. One manager who used to be a member here managed a cabin at Lake Lure, NC and there are many in the area there and all through the southern Appalachians. I read of a family stuck at an Airbnb with a 4 year old and two dogs and only 2 days of food. They were looking to be airlifted out because the 6 miles of road between them and the highway out were closed. We are just beginning to get the full picture of the devastation.
Awful. Glad you’re okay @casailinglady. Was your area under evacuation orders? That’s something I don’t quite understand reading of all these folks who had to be rescued or died, some who were stuck in their cars in rising waters- there were days of warnings and people told to evacuate- why were they driving around in their car? Why would you have only 2 days worth of food in the house with 2 kids, why wouldn’t people stock up on food when they know there is a devastating hurricane barrelling towards them and extreme flood warnings?
At the same time that Helene was wreaking havoc in the southeast US, Hurricane John wreaked havoc on the Mexican Pacific coast. Acapulco got hit hard, poor folks- they got devastated by another hurricane a year ago.
Here’s a pretty shocking video from Acapulco that drives home the fact that even if you are on high ground, pounding rain and resulting landslides can wipe you out.
Warnings they gave for Florida were not the same as for Western NC. They really had no idea this would happen since it hadn’t happened in our lifetimes. People had zero time to prepare. They woke up to a few inches on the ground and it quickly went to 3-4 feet in an hour.
But I read warnings 2 days before that this was the biggest storm to hit the area in 100 years. And while the major warnings were for the Florida Bend area, they also warned of major flooding in Georgia and the Carolinas.
My attitude is better safe than sorry. I live in a hurricane alley, too, and while there have been, in the 20 years I’ve lived here, serious warnings of several hurricanes hitting here, which didn’t materialize, making landfall elsewhere, I always make sure I’m stocked up on food, water, my devices are charged up, etc. Even if a hurricane doesn’t directly hit here, we have still had flooding, electrical and communication outages, as a by-product of those hurricanes.
I guess it’s hard for some people who have never lived through these events to comprehend how quickly nature can wreak havoc.
A friend of mine who works as a field biologist in northern British Columbia and Alberta told me when there big forest fires in the area and everyone is ordered to evacuate, there are always the “tough guys” who refuse to leave, thinking they can save their property by staying. But the authorities are allowed to take their children to safety if the kids want to go, regardless of whether the parents agree.
Flooding in the mountains is different… part of the problem in Western NC was the heavy rains from a separate weather system two days before Helene. That combined with the velocities achieved from the vertical drop on some of the rivers, makes flash floods with phenomenal force… the river that washed out Chimney Rock merged two rivers that each fall over 1000’ from the mid- continental divide in a few miles with many feeder streams whose water has, similarly, no place to spread out. The Swannanoa River, similarly fed from the mid- continental divide hit a flood level unseen since 1791.
This was a freak weather system exacerbated by extreme rainfall before Helene dumped water at an appalling rate. Those hollers and streams couldn’t take the deluge.
I’ve been buying cleaning and personal sanitary supplies and dropping them at local distribution points. We’re dry now and just waiting for that system in the Gulf to make up its mind about wind and rain. The streets are piled high with entire contents of homes. They’re using front-end loaders to clean up the sidewalks and giant dump trucks. One County has already closed their solid waste facility.
I was in NC the week of Helene’s approach and there were warnings. No, they weren’t the same as FL got. Maybe not enough to prevent all the tragedy, maybe not strong enough. Here’s an article from today about it. The point isn’t victim blaming. With the climate crisis this kind of freakiness is going to become more common and hopefully people will start heeding warnings. The lives lost can’t be replaced but hopefully we can lessen the losses to come by learning.
