2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season Running Thread

Florida Fish & Wildlife has had at least two of its conservation officers arrested by a NC Sheriff Hillbilly Hogg for “impersonating” actions. They were there to assist, the local thought they were playing dress-up to steal or whatever. Eventually released and their FWC boss had a conversation with the NC folks.

I’m sure the NC-TN-SC folks are stressed and all, but damn. It’s not difficult to check a law enforcement officer’s status.

 

Saw it with my own eyes, but to read how it unfolded elsewhere brings it home. Well done by the Post and Courier: Helene was the worst storm to slam the Carolinas in a generation. Here's how it unfolded.

 

I'm sure glad there weren't any people killed or missing, or bridges destroyed, or dams threatened, or homes or schools or businesses lost, or areas altered for a generation in East Tennessee.

 

Unintended consequences:
GPSs are starting to route 18-wheelers on roads they can't pass. Can't pass in every sense of the word. Some of the mountain roads have curves 18-wheelers physically can't make. Some have curves where two of them can't pass at once. Some trucks are getting re-routed onto gravel fire roads in the moutains.
They are all getting stuck and in some cases going over the side.

 

From someone who's gotten their motorhome stuck several times becausse GPS isn't as accurate as you think: Never, ever, ever get on a road you don't know well without a plan for escape. Whether it's a turnaround, driveway or intersection. Truckers ought to know better, to be honest. Then again, I've seen them on the Tail of the Dragon because they were too stupid to read all the signs that say Highway 129 is unsafe for 18-wheelers.

 

I've never trusted GPS once in my life, other than looking at a map on my phone. I once took a shortcut between Forney and Rockwall that turned out a little hinky (basically a low water crossing for 2 miles) but otherwise I'm fine.

 

A guy I used to work with came in one morning laughing his butt off. The previous afternoon he was home and heard all kinds of commotion. An 18-wheeler had made it the length of his quarter-mile, single-lane, winding gravel driveway. He just laughed at the guy, said good luck, and enjoyed the show of watching him back it out of there.
I think if you are driving some leviathan of a vehicle, turning onto any single-lane gravel road should be an immediate red flag.

 

This is happening

 

@maumann I know you've seen the way they get the haulers in and out of the Bristol infield 6 inches apart. That always impressed me far more than any driving I saw on the track.

 

I've seen some pictures of idiots who took big trucks onto the Tail of the Dragon and got themselves wedged in. That was the first thing I thought of when bad GPS directions on the NC-Tenn border was mentioned. 318 curves in 11 miles, and for much of the length of it 35 mph is fast - in a sports car. I don't want to think about getting into the middle of it in an 18 wheeler or big RV.

 

My dad used to tell a story about visiting a company warehouse in Chicago. The loading dock backed up to a narrow, curving access road. A security guard who worked there was intimately familiar with the layout and the angles, and supplemented his income by charging frustrated truckers $20 to back trailers in for them after they'd wasted 15-20 minutes trying.

 

The loading dock at my side hustle is a bear because there isn't much maneuvering room for the driver to back up a 53' trailer. More times than not they nail it pretty good, but sometimes hilarity ensues.

The picture Driftwood posted made me cringe because there was some room to increase the radius. There's more to truck driving than CB radio and stupid lot lizards.