At times like these, you see a community coming together, the generosity of strangers and neighbors. I like your Appalachian Airlift!!!

Death toll now at 133.   

Pack mules being employed in areas that are inaccessible by other means:

https://www.axios.com/2024/10/01/hurricane-helene-north-carolina-mules-aid

Numerous volunteer organizations from many states getting involved.

States along the Ohio River have experienced flooding and power outages.

Vultures in human guise are out in force, so if anyone reading this lives in an affected area, keep your wits about you:





In unrelated news, the danger from the chemical fire in Conyers seems to be over.  The shelter-in-place order has been lifted:

https://apnews.com/article/biolab-chemical-plant-fire-chlorine-evacuation-9552ac17f3674ecbd1a52be13b08413f

Death toll stands at 91 at last count.

https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-helene-tropical-weather-destruction-16b41006d3cb6fedad78d19ca3f389a9

I expect that number to continue to rise as more of the missing are found.   

It's amazing just how hard the mountains were hit.  They've had flooding up there before, of course, but nothing even remotely like this.  Entire towns are gone.  Roads are washed out, power is out, and communication is down, so much of the region is now isolated to the point that it might as well be on Mars.

Lake Lure Dam is in danger of failing.   

Flooding in the mountains has been pretty epic.

Lakes along the Catawba River are expected to hit record levels soon if not already.

St. Petersburg, Florida had to shut down one of its sewage plants:

https://baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2024/09/27/st--pete-officials-say-northeast-sewer-treatment-taken-offline

No draining water or flushing toilets for a couple of days.  That place could get post-apocalyptic fast.

Well, luckily, this thing blew through pretty fast.  I was afraid it would be like Tropical Storm Alberto from 1994 and just park itself over the state and dump rain for what seems like forever, so I'm relieved that's not the case.

There are a few limbs down in the yard, but that's it.  No damage that I've seen yet, though I'll take another look around a little later.  I live closer to the top of the hill than the bottom of it, so flooding from the nearest creek rising isn't a concern for me.

The sky is cloudy, but the sun is already trying to peek out.  We should have blue skies and lots of shine again in a matter of hours.

Vijaya, I'm glad you made it through okay.  I saw all the tornado warnings for your neck of the woods.  It got a little wild down there on the plain for a while.   

All told, things could have been much worse.  It was a strong storm that killed some folks and did a lot of damage, but it fortunately raced through.