2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season Running Thread

We drove yesterday from Greenville, S.C., to Palm Harbor, Fla. My oldest is having a baby and my ex-wife is throwing a baby shower. We still don’t have power and debated going right up to the last minute, but decided it was an important enough trip to make.

We took I-26 to I-95, which basically took us around the eastern edges of the storm’s effects. A few trees and signs down, scattered power outages, nothing major.

In Florida, we took US 301 down the middle of Florida to Ocala, where we caught I-75 and exited into Tampa Bay suburban hell.

My ex-wife’s house in Palm Harbor was untouched, but two streets away, houses were in chest-deep water Friday night. And those houses apparently went from dry to swamped in about an hour.

Individually, none of the damage we saw after we got out of Greenville was all that intense. Collectively, we were shocked at seeing examples of said damage for the entire 600-mile trip. It was shocking in its scale.

 

A breakdown of all that ETSU faced.

 

I slept my own dumb ass in my truck in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn in Pembroke, NC during Matthew.

 

There was a dumbass in a boat on the river that got himself killed washing over that dam. I have no, none, less than zero sympathy for him. What I do hate is the fool had his dog with him. I hate it for the dog.
People on the shore said he was screaming for help as he went by.

 

Think of it as evolution in action. Sorry for the poor dog, though.

 

Same can be said for the dog. Natural selection against trusting dumbass human.

 

Captain Shreve to the red courtesy phone!

 

Just read that two of the dead in North Carolina are sheriffs deputies. One from Madison County and one from Macon County. Both killed in floodwaters.

Two western NC deputies killed by flooding from Tropical Storm Helene

Also, I am worried the death toll will be a lot worse once access and communication to all these mountain enclaves is restored.

Was texting earlier with my old priest who now serves as pastor of a rural church in Haywood County. She was telling me they're very isolated. Texts are coming through but they don't have power, water or Internet and can't get calls out. Most of her congregation is accounted for, but they have a couple of families no one has been able to reach.

 

"Listen to climatologists!"

Climatologist: The earth is warmer.

Yeah, OK. You're right. So?