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Hurricane Florence strikes!

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cantunamunch

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Kudos to VA DOT: crews have been clearing weeds, sand and TS Gordon debris from storm drains all morning. Wish MD DOT was remotely on the ball.
 

Bad Bob

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I have a daughter and son-in-law that live in Myrtle Beach, he is a lifelong resident of the area. They are staying! Jeff says he has always stayed through these events with very little problem and no real danger. We are just hoping and praying this will be the same for them. They are adults with no kids so it is their choice but we are not thrilled about it. Thank God they sold their place down on Murrells Inlet (elevation about 5') this summer and moved towards the north end of Myrtle; that Inlet is forecast for about a 9' storm surge. The long duration this storm and sustained heavy rains are what have me worried for them.

Good thoughts and prayers for everybody in that part of the country.
 

Mendieta

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I have a daughter and son-in-law that live in Myrtle Beach, he is a lifelong resident of the area. They are staying! Jeff says he has always stayed through these events with very little problem and no real danger. We are just hoping and praying this will be the same for them. They are adults with no kids so it is their choice but we are not thrilled about it. Thank God they sold their place down on Murrells Inlet (elevation about 5') this summer and moved towards the north end of Myrtle; that Inlet is forecast for about a 9' storm surge. The long duration this storm and sustained heavy rains are what have me worried for them.

Good thoughts and prayers for everybody in that part of the country.

Same thoughts and Prayers here. That's a beautiful area, we used to vacation there a lot when we lived in the NE. Before discovering skiing, I always thought it would be one of the top places to live for us. :D Hoping for the best. The downgrade to Category 1 is a good sign. Thank you @Monique for the suggestion to move the discussion to its own thread!
 

Monique

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I got a text from mom half an hour ago. They have no power, but they're fine. "No coffee" seems to be the worst. Clearly they need a french press and to be more creative with the grill!
 

Jim Kenney

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I got a text from mom half an hour ago. They have no power, but they're fine. "No coffee" seems to be the worst. Clearly they need a french press and to be more creative with the grill!

Glad to hear!
My brother owns a house on Emerald Isle, NC and has been staying there through Aug and Sep, 2018. He and his wife evacuated to my house near Wash DC on Wednesday, Sep 12. His beach house is second row from the ocean and on a dune about 25' above sea level. He's not worried about floods or waves, just the wind and flying debris, and difficulty getting back on the island afterwards due to inland floods. I had long planned to vacation with him there this coming Thurs, Sep 20. I'm hoping the island will be open for business again by then, but I may be doing clean-up with him at his house, rather than vacationing :-o


My brother says the worst damage from all these major Carolina storms is always the areas/homes near waterways as far as 50 miles inland that get flooded by storm surge and heavy rain. He has a 20' camper/trailer that is parked at a nearby inland lot about 10' above sea level that he is a little worried about.
 

Uncle-A

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I have some family in NC, my cousin lives on the Outer Banks and her and her husband are riding it out in place. Also my brother-in-law and his family live in different parts of the state. He lives in Cary and they have a beach house on Oak Island on the intercoastal water way. I guess that their home in Cary will be OK but the one on Oak Island may be in harms way. We talked to him Wednesday night and he said he prepped the beach house for the storm over the weekend. Having lived through Super Storm Sandy I do not know if you can ever prep enough.

My prayers go to all in the path of the storm.
 

Monique

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Glad to hear!
My brother owns a house on Emerald Isle, NC and has been staying there through Aug and Sep, 2018. He and his wife evacuated to my house near Wash DC on Wednesday, Sep 12. His beach house is second row from the ocean and on a dune about 25' above sea level. He's not worried about floods or waves, just the wind and flying debris, and difficulty getting back on the island afterwards due to inland floods. I had long planned to vacation with him there this coming Thurs, Sep 20. I'm hoping the island will be open for business again by then, but I may be doing clean-up with him at his house, rather than vacationing :-o


My brother says the worst damage from all these major Carolina storms is always the areas/homes near waterways as far as 50 miles inland that get flooded by storm surge and heavy rain. He has a 20' camper/trailer that is parked at a nearby inland lot about 10' above sea level that he is a little worried about.

You can follow Emerald Isle news here: https://www.emeraldisle-nc.org/latest-news

Having spent plenty of time on the pier over the last twenty years (omg), those pictures strike me a little differently than other photos of storms in other places have.
 

coskigirl

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You can follow Emerald Isle news here: https://www.emeraldisle-nc.org/latest-news

Having spent plenty of time on the pier over the last twenty years (omg), those pictures strike me a little differently than other photos of storms in other places have.

I can't remember which hurricane it was in the last couple of years that hit Fort Myers Beach but my family owns a hotel and restaurants there so I've been a number of times. It was a bit surreal to watch place I know on cameras. After the storm someone, police or a news station maybe, did a drive around the island to show damage and it was the first peek we got at how things looked for the properties.
 

KingGrump

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I can't remember which hurricane it was in the last couple of years that hit Fort Myers Beach but my family owns a hotel and restaurants there so I've been a number of times. It was a bit surreal to watch place I know on cameras. After the storm someone, police or a news station maybe, did a drive around the island to show damage and it was the first peek we got at how things looked for the properties.

It was Irma couple years back. Andrew was going to school in Florida then. He drove home to NYC for the week the school was closed.
 

Monique

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I wonder what the erosion will be.

There will be erosion. There have been similar storms multiple times in the decades I've been paying attention to that area, and the beach is still there. It shrinks every time, though.
 

Monique

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I think technically, my parents' house is on Bogue Sound, but it's brackish, swampy water, and it's on the mainland side. Dad knows the routes that avoid nasty snags and get you out to the intracoastal waterway. Well, he knew them. I'm sure all the men will be out there finding the new routes, possibly digging through obstructions, as soon as they've dealt with the debris and property damage. (Yeah, for some reason it seems that only men handle boats in that area. My mom has zero interest in learning how to do anything but sunbathe on the boat.)
 

SpikeDog

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Eyewall is just now leaving my Dad's house near Southport. Nothing so far from them so far, but I'm not too worried. I expect they have no power, and cell towers are probably messed up.
 

Monique

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I just spoke to mom. Again, their house is on Bogue Sound. Their foundation is about 8' above sea level.

The water came up high enough to flood the basement - 13". By far the most flooding they've ever had in the 20 years they've lived there. The water was almost up to the driveway, she says, which means nothing to you - but is astonishing to me. I have begged them to take pictures. It's slowly receding, but there's a ton of rain, too. Lots of trees down. It's going to look very different next time I'm there. Maybe mom will be happy - she's always wanted to take down more trees, but dad tried to keep it to a minimum.

Everyone's fine. They expect to be without power for a few days. You can't get in or out of their neighborhood. She said she's glad they stayed because they were able to do something to mitigate the flood damage (sigh).
 

scott43

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The water came up high enough to flood the basement - 13". By far the most flooding they've ever had in the 20 years they've lived there..
Not trying to diminish what they're facing, but we had a downburst here, 130mm in 2 hours..that's about 5"..we had about an inch of water in the basement..neighbour's had 3-4' (feet) of water in their basements. Building code thing..new house have to have weeping tiles drained into basement and you rely on sump pump to drain the basement. Power was out for 8 hours so sump pumps failed. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, 13" ain't that bad considering. I'm glad they're relatively unscathed. I hope their next week or two is on the up.
 

Monique

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Not trying to diminish what they're facing, but we had a downburst here, 130mm in 2 hours..that's about 5"..we had about an inch of water in the basement..neighbour's had 3-4' (feet) of water in their basements. Building code thing..new house have to have weeping tiles drained into basement and you rely on sump pump to drain the basement. Power was out for 8 hours so sump pumps failed. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, 13" ain't that bad considering. I'm glad they're relatively unscathed. I hope their next week or two is on the up.

No, 13" of basement flooding isn't bad in isolation. The astonishing part is that the water level was up more than NINE FEET at their house. It wasn't flooding from rain - it was flooding because the seas rose up and tried to swallow them. It's hard for me to fathom (see what I did there?). On top of the storm surge, they are also getting torrential rain.

And yeah, others had higher. I'm not looking to start a flood-waving contest (see what I ..?) - just reporting back.
 

oldschoolskier

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I’ve been down to Hatteras twice for windsurfing before a hurricane and after missing a second nearly getting caught on the islands.

All I can say is, after seeing what Mother Nature can do first hand in smaller storms, storms of this size should be taken seriously as these are really beyond what you can grasp. While man may have nuclear bombs, nature can do the same without and not even break a sweat.

My heart goes out with all the luck I can muster and wish that all goes well for those in its path.
 

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