Aftermath of Hurricane Helene in the NC mountains, late fall 2024

[MarzNC]

Separately, @MarzNC: don't you live in NC (Asheville)? Maybe you can let us know in the off-topic forum how are things looking there right now.

Will do later. I live near Raleigh in central NC so a 3.5 hour drive from Asheville . . . when I-40 isn't covered with mud in multiple places. My daughter graduated from UNC Asheville in 2022, so I know the area around Asheville pretty well based recent trips. The situation is way bigger, more dangerous, and beyond anyone's imagination, even someone who was well aware about the 1916 flood in Asheville. Most of the newcomers to Asheville had no clue.

 

[MarzNC]

As requested by @jamesdeluxe , I'm going to post some info about the disaster that the torrential rain dumped by the storm named Helene that made landfall as a Cat 4 hurricane in Florida . Asheville is a city of 100,000 with the French Broad River running more or less through the middle of it. Boone is a college town with about 20,000 residents plus another 20,000 college and grad students. Boone is a bit farther north and east of Asheville. There are plenty of other small towns in the region equally hard hit. Asheville and Boone are the closest to seven ski areas in NC, so I'll focus on them.

Bottom line is that anything that was near a stream or river was damaged. That includes many roads and bridges. Currently I-40 is closed to non-emergency traffic headed west of Hickory, which is 80 miles from Asheville. A section of the eastbound lanes I-40 at NC Mile Marker 3 is gone, washed away by the river.

The crisis level in Asheville is extremely high for many reasons. A major issue is potable water. I think only one of the city's water treatment plant is functional, and it cannot operate at full strength. The others are severely damaged. There hasn't been cell service, power, or water in most of the region since Thursday, the day before the worst of the rain hit. Asheville received about 20 inches of rain in 48 hours!

October 1, 2024

After Helene's destruction, a mountain town reliant on fall tourism wonders what's next

Several businesses from a quaint mountain town in the Blue Ridge Mountains are concerned how Tropical Storm Helene's devastation in western North Carolina will affect the local economy.

apnews.com

September 30, 2024

Western North Carolina Monday updates: Death toll rises to 40 in Buncombe County

Relief efforts continue in Asheville and Western North Carolina following the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Helene. Check back for updates.

www.citizen-times.com

 

[MarzNC]

For those who don't know . . . I live in central NC in the Triangle. My house is near the RDU airport that serves Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. The Triangle got heavy rain last Friday morning but the wind wasn't high enough to create major power outage problems.

I have a friend who lives south of Asheville in Hendersonville. Her house is up high on a hill. No landslide problems in her neighborhood, but her husband had to chainsaw a tree that was blocking the access road. Needless to say, their girls won't be having classes at school for a while.

 

[MarzNC]

Asheville is making international news. Drone footage or video from helicopters is the only way to see what's happened in many areas where the roads are impassable. Moving mud and downed trees is one thing, but when a road or bridge is washed out that's a completely other level of problem.

October 1, 2024 - video clips

Watch: Drone footage of floods and torn-up roads in North Carolina

At least 116 people have died across the US during Hurricane Helene - with officials warning the figure could rise.

www.bbc.com

September 30, 2024 - includes video taken around Sugar Mountain, near Boone

https://www.powder.com/news/north-carolina-hurricane-helene-damage-ski

"
Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc across the American southeast this past week with strong storm surges, destructive winds, and buckets of rainfall.

According to the Asheville Citizen Times, a record-breaking 17.31 inches of rain fell on Asheville between September 25-27, 2024. Spruce Pine, NC saw 24.12 inches of rain in the same time period. For context, that's four to five times the monthly average of rainfall in just a matter of days.
. . ."

 

[Benny Profane]

Entire small towns were washed away. That area is screwed for a long time.

I was down there (Franklin) a few months ago. Beautiful place. Crying shame it doesn't snow there. The skiing would be awesome.

 

[MarzNC]

The priorities are to get water, power, and cell service in as many places as possible in the NC/TN mountains.

In Asheville, the main public library had WiFi so people were gathering in front of it to text in the first few days. Of course, keeping a cell phone charged was difficult too. On Facebook, I saw that over the weekend someone walked up far enough on the Blue Ridge Parkway to get a signal. One reason they went was because they had a handwritten list of names of people who were safe from a couple neighborhoods. Pictures were posted of the list on a FB Page, I think it was North Carolina News. A Sugar Mountain FB group (not the resort) has pictures of the town of Banner Elk.

October 1, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/01/climate/helene-hurricane-power-carolinas.html?unlocked_article_code=1.PE4.BGi-.wui1Wa2Ze00R&smid=url-share

Why Restoring Power After Helene Is Complicated​

Damage went beyond downed power lines. Hundreds of substations went out after the storm. Getting them back online is difficult.
" . . .
Duke Energy, the largest electric utility in the Carolinas, said that about 370 substations in its territory were knocked out of service by Helene. The “vast majority” of those outages were caused by damaged power lines and many of those substations have already been restored, said Jennifer Garber, a Duke spokeswoman.

But an unknown number of substations may have faced more extensive damage from the floods. If they cannot be repaired quickly, Duke is aiming to bring in mobile substations to restore service as soon as it is safe to do so, though that could prove difficult as many roads remain destroyed or blocked by debris.
. . ."

October 1, 2024

Cell service dead zones linger in North Carolina behind Helene

WBTV reached out to Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and state emergency officials for updates on network outages.

www.wbtv.com

" . . .
“This particular storm has just had its own challenges,” Stacy Tindell said. “Washed out roads, washed out bridges, trees down across the road that we can’t get around.”

Cell service has returned to some larger mountain towns such as Asheville. Tindell said told WBTV that rebuilding the network by focusing in the bigger population centers that are more easily accesible is the typical starting place when responding to large scale outages caused by natural disasters.

Tindell said the main culprits for the non-existent service are power outages, disrupted or severed fiber connections (called backhaul) and damage to tower sites. T-Mobile has already installed portable generators at more than 250 sites across North and South Carolina where power hasn’t been restored.

“Each site has to be reconned. We have to go look and see what the issue is so that we can provide the proper repair,” Tindell said.

That’s not possible in some places in Western North Carolina. NCDOT announced Tuesday that there are 425 road closures and 700 damaged sections of road.

If utility crews can’t access tower sites to conduct repairs or restore power then service can’t be restored. Tindell said one of her crews in North Carolina had extreme difficulty reaching a location marked for recon and repair on Monday. She said it took twice as long as expected to even reach the site.

“There was a new road closure that hadn’t been reported, and we had to turn around and find a completely different way around,” Tindell said. “And that happens every day.”

T-Mobile and other carriers are trying to provide solutions in the interim. Trucks and mobile sattelite dishes have been set up in various locations. In Cherokee a SatCOLT truck is setup to support the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The SATColt can provide call, text and data services to more people over a wider area than a typical hotspot.
. . ."

 

[MarzNC]

Here is an explanation from the TV meteorologist in Charlotte of why the flooding and wind damage was worse after Helene than other storms. Brad is a skier. He does snow forecasts weekly for SkiSoutheast during the season. He probably knows more than most NC weather geeks know about "orographic lift" when it comes to snow in the Utah Wasatch mountains.

There were warnings issues and evacuations recommended in multiple areas. As has happened in the past along the NC coast, there were some long time residents who refused to leave. Unfortunately, that has led to deaths that were preventable. The total number of fatalities in Buncombe County alone is up over 50 already and is expected to continue to rise. The individual stories are harrowing.

October 1, 2024

(excerpt from transcript)

 

[MarzNC]

This was the status for powder outages in western NC by county as of late Monday, Sept. 30. The Citizen Times is based in Asheville, which is in Buncombe County.

 

[MarzNC]

Quick look at why I-40 and I-26 will be closed at the NC/TN border for months. I'd planned to stop by Asheville with my daughter on the way to Chicago in late October. Needless to say, we'll head west via West Virginia instead. The story includes video of the I-40 washout and a picture of the I-26 bridge that is gone.

September 30, 2024

I-40 won't reopen any time soon between NC and TN, NCDOT says

Historic flooding in East Tennessee and North Carolina swept away a part of I-40 East near the state line on Friday.

www.wbir.com

 

[Andy_ROC]

A mountain biker I like from YouTube lives in the Ashville area. He did a pretty good short report about the storm and his experience.

From what I've seen on the news the scale of damage is hard to comprehend.

Hope you're OK @MarzNC