It has been a rough coupleof days with high winds and rain

[Clipper]

We had incessant rain and drizzle for a couple of days before the remnants of the hurricane even reached here. I am sure some of you have seen some of the damage on national tv. A hospital not far from here was trapped in flood waters and flooded up to the second floor and higher, forcing patients and staff to the roof. The current was too swift for rescue boats so they called in helicopters. The wind speeds were to high for flying at first but eventually State Police choppers from Virginia and national guard choppers who eventually rescued those people and flew them to Johnson City Medical Center. Multiple bridges failed and washed away stranding people and late last night a dam failed and sent a flash flood southward causing even more havoc, flooding, and evacuations. We had steady downpours and rain that ranged from drizzle to all out deluge for the entirety of the hurricane remnants. Winds reached in excess 60mph gusts and with all the tall trees around the house the dog and I left and were going to ride it out in a hotel. NOPE! All the decent hotels were full and the remaining hotels that had vacancies were nasty dumps full of addicts and trashy looking full time residents, not to mention the high probability of bugs. We were able to safely drive around town and stopped for breakfast before returning home. The winds finally calmed a bit after noon and the sun finally came out.

A section of I-40 washed out on the Westbound lanes, leaving folks with no way to get to I-81. Normally the detour would be up I-26 to Kingsport and back down 81 but I-26 was flooded in the same area where the hospital flooded and that road was also closed and impassible. Hopefully they will be able to open I-40 again by moving traffic to the Eastbound side forming a single lane in each direction until the repairs can be made. It is probably going to be a project that takes a year or so. Hopefully the water will recede on the Doe river and traffic in the area where I-26 flooded and the bridges were damaged can be detoured around it on the two lane road that parallels it.

Sunny and bright here this morning and I am heading out to mow the lawn. Have a great day in CNY. There is a lot of cleanup and power restoration to be done all around NE Tennessee today and over the next few days and weeks.

[BHU]

This hurricane may end up being the worst or one of the worse natural disaster in history to hit the U.S. Glad you made it thru safely. The climate is changing.Temps in the NE are averaging about 10* above normal for this time of year.

Will this impact your upcoming camping trip?

[Clipper]

It won't be washout. There is a 40% chance of showers on Wednesday and a 10% chance for the rest of the days we will be there. Going during the week and in the off season we may well be about the only ones there and our sites are next to the game room building. If it rains we can all go in there and play cards or pool or something. There are tables, board games, and vending machines in there. It is a very well kept place and the couple that owns it is very friendly.

[Atticus Pizzaballa]

I was thinking about you when this hurricane was on the news and I saw the direction up and through Tenn. Glad you came out ok.Looks like Florida got it good. I read a your hospital I cannot imagine climbing to roof as a patient.

[Clipper]

Sept 28, 2024 15:13:15 GMT -5 Atticus Pizzaballa said:

I was thinking about you when this hurricane was on the news and I saw the direction up and through Tenn. Glad you came out ok.Looks like Florida got it good. I read a your hospital I cannot imagine climbing to roof as a patient.

They first attempted swift water rescue with boats but the current was too strong to safely affect a rescue. There is a huge area over that way that are now cut off from the world and are literally on an island. One by one the bridges washed out until there was no way in or out of that area.

[Clipper]

They have been asking for donations for those affected by the hurricane. Greeneville Tn was hit pretty hard, as was the area North of there that is isolated like an island by the washed out bridges and roads. There is an area over 15 miles long and I don't know how wide that is virtually and Island with no way in or out other than by air. National guard helicopters are bringing them supplies and flying out emergency patients. I stopped at Sam's Club in Johnson City and picked up a couple of 200 plate packages of Dixie paper plates, 6 cases of water, 2 packages of Sam's Club brand paper towels with 15 rolls in each package,2 pkgs of Colgate toothpaste (10 tubes total), 20 bars of Irish Spring soap, 2 pkgs of diapers (108 diapers in each pkg). They have set up places to charge phones, and have opened sites where oxygen tanks can be filled or replaced for those who have oxygen machines and no power. There is a true emergency shortage of oxygen supplies and they are bringing in what they can acquire from outside the area and state. Some volunteer fire departments are providing oxygen filling sites, schools are offering shelter and showers as well as hot meals. it is a true disaster area.

People are really coming together to help those affected. I actually had to wait in a line for about 15 minutes or so to get to the unloading area at the school. I don't know where the loading area was for outgoing resources but it was on the opposite side of the building from where we unloaded. There was a line going around the building that I assume was the line for those needing the stuff to pick it up. They had volunteer teenagers with reflective vests on guiding people to where they needed to go.

After seeing the devastation elsewhere I came home feeling very blessed to have escaped any serious damage in this area.

I took advantage of the $450 I won at the casino and tucked away. The casino paid for all that stuff. It all only came to a little over $125 and it actually didn't come out of my own pocket. There are people around here that lost everything they have worked for all of their lives and it was wiped out and either blown to pieces or washed away in flood waters. While I was unloading the stuff two walmart tractor trailers pulled in with 53 foot trailers loaded to the doors with pallets of drinking water. No one in that area has potable water. The water supply comes from the river and the river water can't be used. After I unloaded I wanted to pee before I hit the road back home. No water, so no public restrooms open. I tried three different places and finally I saw a construction site where they were building an urgent care facility. Nobody working there on a Sunday so I pulled in and used one of the portable outhouses. Old men and their water pills can bring about a true crisis when there are no public johns available, lol. Everywhere you go around here you will see convoys of power line crew trucks and tree service trucks coming in from all over. My friend went to Walmart after church and said there were 18 bucket trucks in the parking lot and THOSE guys were loading up on drinking water, either for themselves or to take to those in need.

[clarencebunsen]

The more I read and see on the news makes me realize how lucky we were to get out safely. We were on a two lane road leaving our daughter's when we encountered a tree which fallen across the road. The top tree had landed on something on the left side of the road leaving the trunk suspended above the road. Someone had used a chain saw to cut a tunnel through the tree top in the left lane. That was a bit strange to drive through. News from my daughter is that they have power this morning. Water has been restored with a boil water advisory.

[BHU]

I shudder to think how long it's going take to rebuild the infrastructure such as bridges that have beem washed out.

[Clipper]

I was back at Sam's Club again this evening to pick up a few things for the camping trip. When I pulled in the parking lot there was a 24 foot car trailer parked on the side of the building. As I walked to the doors a literal chain of shopping carts and flat bed carts started streaming out the door and heading to that trailer. The Elks Club from Elizabethton Tn. loaded that trailer from front to back and all the way to the ceiling with groceries of every type, plus diapers and baby formula. Significant quantities of such things as milk and bread. There were three shopping carts full of bread and flat bed carts that must have 50 or 60 gallons of milk. Snacks, baked goods, cereal, non-perishable foods of every type and lots of hygiene products. They were heading first to Elizabethton where they took a terrible hit from both the Doe River and the Watauga River. They converge in the middle of the city. The entire city other than the very highest of places was entirely flooded and when the water receded everything was covered by a couple of inches of mud and debris. All the bridges were closed dividing the city into two separate sections, isolated from each other. They were going to drop half of the stuff on each side of the river, and when they dropped at the first distribution site, they would have to drive 35 miles or so back to Bluff City and then to Johnson City and finally to the West end of the city of Elizabethton to another distribution site. The bridges are all closed until the state can inspect them to insure they are safe to use.

This evening my friend Bonnie called and asked me if I could help load a truck with the donations from her church. The church I attended for a short time. A young man who had a large box truck and ran a small local moving company had volunteered to deliver the goods first to the Erwin Tn area and then to the Asheville NC, donating his time and truck to make the trip. He was picking up stuff at several local churches and expected a full load of goods.

Churches and fraternal organizations are all pulling together and stepping up with massive quantities of goods and other resources. I have a friend here that has a food truck. He stocked it up and went to the worst hit area in Unicoi County and set up where first responders, cops, firefighters, ems folks, and others working gather. He plans to serve mostly sandwiches and breakfast items. Foods that they can grab and go and hold in their hand.

[Atticus Pizzaballa]

What a mess. I doubt those area's severally affected well ever be restored.

[Clipper]

Oct 1, 2024 7:43:58 GMT -5 Atticus Pizzaballa said:

What a mess. I doubt those area's severally affected well ever be restored.

It is going to be a long time. I hope local and state agencies can provide major help to these areas. They sure can't depend on the federal government. Rome is a perfect example.

I went out this morning and volunteered at church that was providing meal deliveries to all the different devastated areas. They had cooked 1200 meals that volunteers like myself delivered. I took 200 meals and 12 cases of water to Hampton Tn to a school and to the fire department for folks in the shelter to eat and the rest to be delivered by national guard to a shelter high up on Roan Mountain. The guard is using Hum Vs and 21/2 ton trucks to access roads that are barely passable and not able to be traveled by car.

Tomorrow morning I plan to do it all again. I think tomorrow we will be focused on delivering to Mitchell County NC. That is over the mountains East of Unicoi County on the Eastern slope of the Western NC mountains. As of today the area is marginally accessible as far as Bakersville. Hopefully it will be even more accessible tomorrow. I guess there are places where only one lane is open and other places where there are crews still working to clear downed trees and remove debris and mud from the road.

There are churches and agencies providing meals for folks that are without power or water from both those churches here in NE Tn and also from farther East in NC.

I feel fortunate that I am able to volunteer. It keeps me busy while also helping others. Helping others who suffered catastrophic damage to their property and some of who lost everything they owned.

We had to cancel our camping trip. The campsite had suffered some fairly minor flood damage but they are still without power and not expected to have it back on until Friday or Saturday.

[Atticus Pizzaballa]

There is another huge system in the Gulf that seems to mimic Helene. If that develops into a Cat 4 nothing will be left in large geographic areas.

[Clipper]

I am getting ready to take my shower, shave, and head out to the church. I have decided that I don't want to travel over the mountain. If I were to get stranded on the road or on the other side of the mountain my poor dog would be left here for an extended period with no one to let her out or make sure she is fed. I am sure that there are other places that they will be delivering to and work to be done at the church.

PB, I certainly hope and pray that another storm doesn't reach category 4 and come ashore on the same track as Helene. It is already going to be years before the hardest hit areas return to some semblance normalcy. The devastation within 20 miles of here is unbelievable. I can't even imagine what folks that were hit with the full force of the storm are experiencing.

[BHU]

NBC was in Johnson City a couple days ago covering the devastation. It don't look good.

[Clipper]

www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/hurricane-helene-batters-tennessee-interstate-see-the-stunning-aftermath/ss-AA1rBcIU?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=EDGEDB&cvid=45f1af820ab244979d9e0db5218172a1&ei=18

I was just reading that it may be September 2025 before that bridge is replaced and that section of I-26 can be reopened. I-40 washout may be March of 2025 before that is reopened. I was on I-81 yesterday and the traffic is unbelievably heavy because those wanting to get to Tennessee from Eastern NC are forced to travel North from Statesville NC on I-74 to Wytheville Va, 75 miles North of us here in Bristol and then 140 miles back South to the I-81 and I-40 interchange to resume their journey Westbound or Southbound. The traffic was heavy enough to cause a congested condition that actually slowed traffic to 60 or so where the speed limit is 70 and most drive over that. No stoppages, just a slower flow.