All of you in the path of Helene be careful

[M-technik-3]

Hoping the flooding is not as bad as it is projected.

[spazzyfry123]

I was putting some notes in another thread, but so far the flooding looks to be a bit wild.

Latest I saw from NOAA is forecasting up to 18 inches of rain in my area.

First that I've seen a warning like this...

[2000cs]

Eastern TN here. Our lake (Cherokee) is a reservoir managed by TVA for flood control, downriver navigation, and recreation. Lake level normally rises and falls 20ft over the course of a year. Was down as is normal about 12 ft recently, up 2 feet this week so far and projected to rise another 5-6 feet by the end of Saturday. (The estimate this AM was another 10 ft). Still below full pool and well below flood level, but that’s a lot of water and all TVA lakes east of Knoxville area have similar forecasts.

More rain and lake fill will come Sunday-Tuesday (TVA only forecasts 72 hrs out). Typically with this much rain there will be flooding in the hollows and in the lowlands of GA, SC and NC. FL obviously at greatest risk.

Everyone stay safe.

[rebekahb]

Unfortunately, there will be widespread catastrophic flooding. Helene is definitely getting her name retired.

[floridaorange]

Prayers to those affected by the storm.

No biggie around inland central Florida. Same for my sister in Jacksonville neither of us lost power and all schools are open today.
Just rain and some win gusts - wife went to gym at 5am as usual - not too much debris.
No trees down or anything like Irma.

[vreihen16]

We had a storm total of 7.72" of rain in my rain gauge at our tree farm in the midlands of South Carolina. No rain is currently falling, and the lightning sensor's last recorded strikes in the area was around 6:30 AM.

The lake level is 4 feet above normal, and forecast to peak at 8 feet above normal this evening.....

[DrVenture]

Just talked to son who is in Tampa near Palm River off Hillsborough Bay. Had about 1" in the garage and water was up to the back door leading to his storage room during the night. Thankfully that was the worst of it by their place.

[vreihen16]

The NWS dropped the tropical storm warning and tornado watch for our tree farm in the midlands of SC, and the rain appears to be over. The county down there has sent three different code red alerts in the past hour though, advising residents to stay home because roads are blocked all over the area with fallen trees.

The tree farm itself is on a sheltered slope, and the peak storm wind gust was only 11 MPH per my remote weather station. Hopefully there was no significant damage to the trees.....

[dreamingat30fps]

It’s crazy it hadn’t even made landfall in FL and we were getting tons of rain since Wednesday and a LOT yesterday and earlier today. Lots of wind overnight up until maybe like an hour or two ago.

We lost power around 5am. I went down the road and saw tree fell on lines so dunno when they will be getting it back up.

Fortunately it’s fairly cool out and we have generator for fridge and charging stuff, tv etc. Will ride it out for a couple days but if it’s going to take longer than that we are outta here.

[vreihen16]

The local power monopoly by the tree farm in SC is reporting almost 1/3 of their customers without electricity as of 3:00 PM.....

[kscarrol]

Nothing compared some folks or those on the coast the Fla but…

[nyalpine90]

+4.5 million without power
30 casualties

[floridaorange]

My parents are up in the mountains and it’s pretty rough up there right now - roads out and no power.

[DrVenture]

Ooof! I hope it is nothing more than an inconvenience. That they have everything that they need to wait it out.

[dreamingat30fps]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

The local power monopoly by the tree farm in SC is reporting almost 1/3 of their customers without electricity as of 3:00 PM.....

Pretty sure no one around me has power or will any time soon. I drove into town earlier and basically my road is only open in one direction. The other two ways have massive trees downed blocking the road and also they both took down power lines.

Originally Posted by kscarrol

Nothing compared some folks or those on the coast the Fla but…

They have had really bad flooding up the mountain in Boone and Asheville was apparently hit pretty hard with flooding. Honestly never expected a hurricane in FL to cause so much damage all the way up here. I guess it’s mainly all the rain and the trees.

What’s freaking me out is when we get a lot of rain really fast our basement tends to get ground water in it. It’s only happened like twice in the past 3 years we’ve been here. Anyways this usually raises the radon levels in the basement to like 5 or 6. Normally it’s around 2 or less. After this storm that shit’s at over 24. I brought up the meter to the main floor and still a couple hours later the 1 day has only gone down to 20. I’m hoping it’s just very slow to update and it’s not actually that high on the main floor, especially with all the windows open.

Also noticed a piece of the side of the roof is coming off. The power and cable lines attach there and then go through a bunch of trees so I’m guessing the trees swaying in the wind pulled the cable and in turn pulled that side off the house.

[floridaorange]

SC near my cousins house:


This is one of the main intersections coming into the neighborhood and it has not been touched all day. No chainsaws, nothing - tree and light are totally blocking it and now it’s totally dark. No barricades up or anything. People are going to run right into it.

And this is near my parents:

[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by DrVenture

Ooof! I hope it is nothing more than an inconvenience. That they have everything that they need to wait it out.

Yes - they say the do. They have some good local contacts up there - so we kids are not worried for them. I’m not, my sister is a bit. My parents are pretty tough and both FL natives - have dealt with this before.

[AACROD]

Hi,

So I was in the path and my 2020 BMW X3 was in the condo garage. We had about 1.5-2.0 feet of water. After water went down, I looked in my car and it did not get wet inside, but the battery to my engine is clicking. But all inside electronics works good. Should I charge the battery in the engine area?

Thanks.

[DrVenture]

The best move might be to disconnect the battery, and open things up and put a fan on things to dry them out.

The clicking is likely not the battery and could be something like a relay/solenoid trying to operate. I wouldn't charge anything until it was dried out.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by dreamingat30fps

Pretty sure no one around me has power or will any time soon. I drove into town earlier and basically my road is only open in one direction. The other two ways have massive trees downed blocking the road and also they both took down power lines.

I was just looking at the Columbia SC TV news web sites. They are reporting that 40% of all people in the state are without power. The local power co-op near the tree farm is down to only 25% of their customers without power as of a few minutes ago.

An email came in this morning about a meeting with a county political candidate being cancelled for this evening due to flooding and blocked roadways. Sounds like it is going to be a mess in the SC Midlands for several more days.....

[floridaorange]

Parents are now leaving the area and heading for hotel - no water or electricity likely for over a week