Getting ready for Debbie?

Eastern NC – - 10 day forecast:— starting next Tuesday, August 6th, 50 % or higher for rain each day through the 13th (more after that unknown).

Rain totals of 4 to 9 inches or more, the higher total are at the shore.

Front steps are 151 feet above sea level and the closest stream is 137 feet above sea level which is just over 250 meters away. we will have puddles and runoff from neighbors’ yards. We just had all our trees in the yard trimmed / lolipopped.

Since the storm is coming my way from the southwest, it will lose a lot of strength before getting to me Just looking at rain with a little wind. The bigger concern for me is the unknown. Hurricanes (though this isn’t a hurricane yet) have been known to circle around…go out to sea and circle back again. It doesn’t happen often but it has happened. If that happens it will pick up a lot more moisture and possibly gain strength again. I don’t see that on any of the spaghetti models, but they have been wrong before. We are only about 25’ above sea level, but we are a good 10 miles as the crow flies from the coast. We got a whole house generator a couple years ago and it is great. I’ll verify food stores and candles/lamps but beyond that, we should be good.

I’m in Florida about an hour north of Orlando. The center of circulation is way west in the Gulf and then making landfall north of me, so it’s not much of anything for me. We have worse thunderstorms daily in the summer, unless the hurricane wobbles towards me and surprises us.

My community/city has been getting rid of water from retention ponds for days, they run the lawn irrigation to do that. The community also took down all of our gates, they are just single arm gates that lift, mostly to slow down traffic. I did buy a little extra water, and will fill up my tub with some water. I’ll also keep my phone, ipad, and laptop more charged than usual. That’s it. Since May I kind of maintain “hurricane ready.” Less frozen food, more pantry food, some bottled water.

I am getting a rain band right now as I write this. I went to Zumba this morning at 10:00 am and ate out lunch with friends. Mostly, it’s a normal rainy day.

I’m in Southwest Florida and am still here. A tornado touched down a couple hours ago less than a mile from me though. I think we are finished with high wind and rain; now we hope to have no flooding..

A tornado touched down a couple hours ago less than a mile from me though.

Impressive that you still have internet. A couple of days ago we had 90mph winds and torrential rain with tornadoes spotted and we lost power and internet for 14 hours.

Tornadoes in hurricanes are usually F0 or F1. They usually last a few seconds, sometimes a few minutes.

Plus, prior to hurricanes the electric companies and cities cut down branches near above ground wires, they do a lot of prep to try to limit power outages.

Power outage map link below. I’m sure Florida will get worse as the eye wall approaches the coast. Last I looked Tampa Bay area was getting some higher winds, and that’s very densely populated.

Is it still “just” a tropical storm?

Florida outages: https://poweroutage.us/area/state/florida

US outages: https://poweroutage.us/area/regions

One more post. Outages in Florida are climbing now near Tampa and in the bend area where the eye is heading, it’s10:30pm EDT.

Charleston SC representing!

The winds shouldn’t be much of a factor here.
We WILL have really bad flooding. The area floods often anymore. Climate change…
So. I guess we’re used to cleaning up floods. But floods are as bad as fire. They destroy everything.
It’s difficult to waterproof your home. If you’re concerned about the flooding we get free sandbags. But 1 little hole, or weak spot in your sandbag wall, and the water will rush in.
It usually recedes after the storm is gone. But just having floodwaters (which is also sewer and ocean water) get into anything, will ruin thongs easily.
And months later, you typically find out that all you winter clothes developed mold, even if they were never in the floodwaters. You find the mold everywhere. It can be a health hazard. And the mold will grow in the walls, or in places you don’t look often.

It’s a total nightmare.

But. We’re as ready as we’re going to get. I’m about 15–20 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Still close to a big river, and swamps everywhere. I think I will be ok here.
My friends in West Ashley (where I used to call home for many years,) are going to have to deal with flooding.

Sometimes, these storms don’t move as predicted. In those rare cases, we won’t even get any rain. If the storm stays half on land, half in the water, the rain won’t matter. The storm will suck the coastal water in.
Our land is low, and flat. Floods can travel many miles inland, until they meet big forests and swamps.

I love ALL of my jelly buddies.
I hope that everyone has the best outcome possible.

Now. The waiting game. There’s a big mad storm coming our way. We’ll just have to adapt to whatever happens, and remember that material things, aren’t that important compared to still having each other and our pets. Everything else, becomes replaceable. No matter what you lose, you just have to absorb the loss.
I’ve lost everything to several hurricanes and a “hundred year storm,” and the worst was when I got hit by hurricanes and floods 3 Septembers in a row.
That cost me the place I called home.
I got a little house, that endured constant rain, as it was right between two rivers and less than a mile from the Ocean but never flooded. I lost that little house. It’s the place I went crazy being alone there during the first Covid years. I drank myself to death, alone in that little house.
But. It was all I had. I didn’t even have furniture. Just a recliner, a couch, and a bed that I could never sleep on.
My dog, (really my daughter) of 16 years had to be put down.
After ALL the storms, and floods we endured. I finally got us a place, with a yard for her, and affordable rent, and she died almost as soon as I moved in…
That had a much worse effect on me, than I ever imagined.
I drank with a purpose all 2019, and the summer of 2020. November 2020, I was given 4–6 days to live.

I have a new (pre-owned) liver now, and I am coming along, but mainly just surviving. I shouldn’t have pursued the transplant. I’m alive, but I’m homeless and trying to live on a embarrassingly small monthly check. My health insurance is about $400/month. I have Medicare and medicaid currently, which pretty much covers that, but I highly suspect that if Trump is reelected he will cut people like me completely off. I wish I had just died. Or never been born.

These storms, drag up a lot of bad memories…

I was saying to a jelly in a PM, I think that the Charleston area, in ideal weather is a paradise.
And it’s like a tax, we have to pay, for living in paradise. We have to be wary of hurricanes, realistically for over 6 months or half of the year.

Any real hurricane vet, knows this isn’t even the bad part of the hurricane season. That’s coming up. Soon, we will watch who knows how many storms form mostly in the doldrums off the west cost of Africa. They will all head in out direction, we just have to get lucky.
If there’s any advantage to living in Charleston (hurricane wise,) we’re kind of in a corner. Direct hits like Hugo, practically destroy the entire area.
Most storms se to hit Florida, or NC Outter Banks and coast.

We get side swiped often. But rarely take direct hits. Usually, we deal with storms just like Debbie, that will hit us after making landfall and weakening.
These storms, can be sneaky.
They are capable of producing heavy damage, or could miss us and fizzle out over the Atlantic.

Time will tell, what is in store.

@MrGrimm888 Sorry to hear about your pup. Glad you are still with us. Good luck with Debby and whatever else may come your way.

The local TV station (Raleigh NC) says the storm will bring 1 to 2 MONTHS worth of rain in the next week.

@smudges We are on the same feeder that goes to two hospitals. We only lost power for less than 24 hours with Ian and six hours with Irma. That is it for outages since 2014 when I bought this house. Right now there are around 300,000 power outages in Florida….I would have guessed it to be more, but… We will not know until tomorrow that we will have no flooding. My canal is very high and high tide is around 3pm.

Lost power around 3:00am and had to leave my house at 7:30am so I unloaded my fridge and freezer into two coolers. Came back at 1:00am and power was back on.

Report from Atlanta. Disappointingly, nothing at all. The storm curved over south Georgia and didn’t make it this far north or west.

So it’s hot and muggy (!!!) but no storm.

Disappointed that it wasn’t too bad where you live. Lol. You should be happy. Where I live it was like any other long days of rain, just circular.

The retention ponds are way past normal full lines but I didn’t see any flooding. They didn’t release enough water before the storm.

A couple people I know not where I live, but affected by the storm were frustrated their pools were overflowing. I don’t think they emptied their pools at all beforehand, because when I asked they didn’t answer. People need to THINK and listen to the advice. Plenty of information out there. They were all home and had time to prepare.

The latest spaghetti model I’ve seen now shows it will cut across the bottom of SC, then quickly bounce back and hit around Myrtle Beach and head towards Charlotte NC before really turning back NE.

^^ link says “403 Forbidden”

^Forbidden spaghetti!!!

https://spaghettimodels.com/ That is where the picture I was trying to post came from.

Yeah Wulf. That’s what we’re expecting. My friends are mostly sheltering at home, and will ride it out, like a hundred other similar storms.
It’s actually kind of interesting, how people behave during these storms. Some people (usually transplants who don’t have a relationship with hurricanes,) leave, or stay locked in their house terrified.
“Hurricane parties,” are very common. People just drink through the worst of it.
Sometimes, those people die…
My friends and I, used to all go to someone’s place that we thought would be safest, and we had a bunch of kids 10 years ago. So. We wanted to be together, so we stood better chance of keeping us all alive.
I’ve got my canoe, that comes in handy. And honestly, I usually carry a sidearm or have something nearby for potential problems that can be unique to such circumstances. Some people use these storms, to rob and steal. As in bad storms, lots of people leave their places.
Criminals, are opportunists. A hurricane, is an opportunity.

Not to mention, when I was at my old place, some storms were pretty intense. I might need that gun, to make sure my friends and family can get into a more stable building, if shit went sideways. Which shit, tends to do.

I’m sure that many people are like me, and just want it to get here, and leave, so we can return to normal life.

Yep. I’m a transplant but have been here for 12 years. The only storm I left for was Florence and that was only because at one point when we were at a leave now or never stage they had predicted it would be a Cat 5. Of course 8 hours later it was back to a Cat 1 but we had already left.

And yes, if things go sideways, it can get pretty funky pretty quickly. There are always people wanting to loot and steal from people that have left. It’s sad.

^We love to think of ourselves, as a civilized society.
The truth is, if there is an event where you cannot get emergency services, or the power is out for an extended period of time, or essentially law enforcement is non-existent people turn back into animals REALLY fast.

Rather you liked “The Walking Dead,” I thought it was a fair prediction of what would become of America, when suddenly the most ruthless thrive.
We see people leaving in hoards all the time. They almost ALWAYS, end up in complete gridlock on I-26 for hours or even days. I’d rather die…Or cling to a tree for 20 hours in heavy flooding.
Mostly, they ARE really close calls, and it’s just safer to evacuate a lot of people.

It really comes down to each individual. You will probably survive, even a really catastrophic event. But each person is built a bit differently, or more experienced, or just self confident they can handle anything.
And sometimes, when you stay through these monster storms, shit gets REAL. And you are now committed to having to survive whatever happens, likely with no ambulances, firemen, or police response.
When you have moved to the second floor of your house, to avoid the storm surge, sometimes the roof tears off, or trees stab through the roof like giant spears.
Your vehicle is done for, and underwater. You couldn’t drive it anyway. You have to do something though. Like try to move through the raging storm (they sound like freight trains going in circles around you,) through some really bad circumstances. You will have to make decisions like “am I going to try to swim through that?” or, “wear the fuck am I going to go, to find better conditions?”
I’ve never done that with kids or a scared girlfriend. I have done some swimming with my old dog on a leash. She was a trooper. She knew that we were in trouble, bit she trusted me. And rightly, or luckily so, as we made it OK. But if people have a family, or someone who isn’t ready for some possible movie-like adventures. And athletic ability is a must. Any handicap, is made worse by such conditions.
I’ve been holding on to trees in rushing and stormy floods, for hours before. I usually just gritted my teeth, and told myself I will survive, it’s just going to SUCK, for possibly hours more.
I think you could have taken my vitals, and they were normal.
With hurricanes, and my canoeing and kayaking, I have often been a victim of poor circumstances. I know now, at 44, that it’s OK to leave the fish bitting if you even think a storm could be near. We get some pretty extreme electrical and wind/rain storms, around the water.
I’ve been stuck, chest deep in the swamps before, trying to think of how to get to somewhere safer, and when it floods in the swamp countless animals like snakes or other smaller ground dwelling creatures, and LOTS of spiders, pour all over you if you are trying to stay low away from the lightning.

If you’re the type of person who can afford to leave, to avoid becoming a survivor, I think that’s the smart play.

If you think you can kind of get through anything, they are just bad days. You learn from each experience, and usually are better prepared next time.
But you could catch a piece of flying 2×4 in the head, just walking around in a hurricane. It happens. After Hugo, rumor was they had found a dead man stuck on the side of a tall tree, because a big branch stabbed him so hard, it stuck him to the tree, where he died likely a pretty rough death.

But. Natives, or veteran locals, usually bet on the storm not being as bad as predicted, and stay. Many people every year, get caught in the traffic trying to get out of town, just to hear that the storm just grazed us.
So. Those people are wary of leaving.
Honestly. The whole Charleston area, is connected by many bridges, and the evacuation route goes straight to I-26. If you’re going to leave, you should leave as soon as possible to avoid the traffic.
People wanted heads to roll, over several I-26 disasters. But it’s just the reality of the situation.
But. As I said, if you DON’T evacuate, you ARE stuck wherever you are, with whatever resources you hopefully have.
Even if you’re safe in a big building downtown, you won’t be leaving easily after the storm is gone. We will have trees everywhere, and over the roads. After Hugo, there were boats on the streets EVERYWHERE. There were some fairly large vessels, that the storm pulled into the area. Seeing sailboats, and yachts on their sides in the streets was unreal.
The result the morning after Hugo, to me, resembled a place that had been a bit too close to a nuclear explosion. The entire area was completely destroyed. The many island communities we had, came back to no house at all. The big steel Bridge thar used to connect all those islands was laying in the fucking intracoastal river. So it was only accessible by boat, and as the island communities are usually upper class rich people, there were people that were looting things they found on the abandoned islands. The police had to put officers were they could to try to keep people who didn’t live there from being there. But not a single one of the few people who stayed in Ocean front communities, survived.
There used to be an old bar, that was on stilts, right over the ocean. A group of people decided to hold a hurricane party there. Neither those people, or any part of the bar, were ever seen again.
The storms really can do some extraordinary damage.

Hopefully, this one will be a typical less powerful storm, and we will not even have much damage. Unfortunately, the climate change lately suggests that we will likely have a small (compared to Hugo) surge that will mostly flood places that flood all the time. The only hospitals closest to Charleston are actually on the peninsula of Charleston. Now. We have some hospitals that are newer. But if you need a hospital downtown, and it’s a sloshing flooded mess, you’re going to have to make different plans.

Mentioning all of this, makes me think of all the volunteer firemen, and local boys, are just petting their newly serviced/sharpened chainsaws.
There are some bad actors, in such situations, but it’s mainly pretty heart warming seeing everyone helping one another.
Nobody cares who you vote for, or what you’re deal is. They just help each other.
We typically get some national guard troops and trucks too. Those old “deuce n a halfs,” come in handy with pulling debris around.
I guess I’d like to finish on a positive note, and know that part of the reason I never leave, is because I can count on my community too. I will sleep soundly tonight, knowing the army of people who hate these storms and need to get back to normal, and it doesn’t matter how bad things look. We’ve gotten pretty accustomed to dealing with these hurricanes.
Essentially. We get armies of electric company vehicles and workers, and emergency vehicles ready for the second the storm passes. I’ve heard chainsaws, during some storms.
When the storm is done, we will attack the aftermath.
As a tourist area, we need every second of the summer to financially survive the off season. It behooves all able people to aid in the clean up effort.
I hope everyone has neighbors like me. If you’re in the South (Tha Dirty Dirty,) you probably do have nice neighbors and communities.

Let’s get it on Debbie. You know where to find me bitch…Let’s do this, and forget about you.

Peace and love to ALL.

We’re getting a few tornadoes.
We have waterways everywhere, and “waterspouts” form on them then move onto land.
We lost an Arby’s, from a tornado that came from the “Tailrace Canal” nearby.

Downtown Charleston, of course, is flooding.

Otherwise, the wind has been pretty much a non-factor.

Looks like Debbie wants to stay awhile. We are a tourist area…

They showed the Arby’s and auto dealership on Raleigh TV with their reporter / Weatherperson @MrGrimm888 . . . a mess.

Keep the faith.

Here, there are already flooding rains in NJ. We had big rain overnight (Tuesday night into Wednesday). Today, it’s cooler. Big rains and flooding coming Friday, which is Debby.

TW. It’s not that bad. But that’s where I used to get those 2 for $6 “Greek Style Gyros!”..

As I expected, the coastal areas, mostly had issues with flooding.
My old place, according to my old roommate, was less than an inch to another flood.
I can remember, when I used to sit by that back door, and drink and watch the water get closer.
It really ruined my quality of life.

Most of the damage seems to be kind of North of Charleston, (in the snoodie side of town.)

We are expecting a local dam to probably break, and we’ve had multiple sink holes opening up. We have SO many small roads, leading to large population centers, it really screws things up, if even a few roads wash out.
My nephew, and his young family, are ok.
Downtown flooded, and is still a bit. But. I think most places that flooded, flood ALL the time. I don’t really get it, because I always see all these stores fronts, with a foot or more of water just soaking everything.
I assume most ground floor places are kind of converted to water resistant. A lot of those houses, have fucking basements. Where it’s like 2ft below sea level. It’s an ancient old port city, as American history goes. There are plenty of roads, that were made for horse drawn buggies, and foot traffic, on the peninsula. Many roads, you can barely fit down, with one car.
I think some of our rivers are flooded, but it’s been pretty tolerable. Little thunder, but not as much rain, out here in the swamp. We DID have some alligators walking around. It wasn’t THAT flooded. It’s crazy, because if I take out the trash at night, there could be a gator in the yard/street. I think the animals know, it won’t be long, before most of our East Coast is under a few feet of water…

NC. You get our sloppy 3rds. I wish you luck. I am hopeful that the terrain there, will help.

She DID have more tornadoes, than I normally see, from a storm like this. Not sure what that’s about. So. Don’t underestimate her.
I think, all of ours, came out of waterways.

That Arby’s one, also tore up a Chevy dealership a little. Maybe I can make an offer, on the truck I saw upside-down….

Stay strong yall.

Peace and love.

We had a twister tear up a middle school and nearby a house collapsed on one person; they did not survive.

All the roads out of my neighborhood cross streams or creeks, which cover the road when. it rains this much. We will be homebound until Saturday AM. Plenty of victuals in frig and pantry, also have adult beverages covered.

Water comes from the city and they have back-up generators for pumping and purifying water, but I have 6 gallons of water in bottles.

^Aw. We were able to move around out here, in the swamp today. Usually, we’re the one’s stuck with miles of country roads. It’s the main Charleston area, that is still dealing with problems. It REALLY sucks, because a LOT of people work at the hospitals, or attend college ALL on the peninsula.
We’ve been pumping millions of dollars into the place too, for decades, and each time that say they fixed the flooding…

Got a good bit of rain here, but no major winds. Had a tornado warning last night but nothing showed up. My neighbors had a tree fall over and break part of their deck. It was half rotted so it wasn’t strong. We went over today and cut it up into manageable pieces. When the weather breaks finally we will help them move it to wherever they need to go with it.

I’m just now answering this question 4 days later, and it’s finally become relevant to me. I’m in central Maryland and they were calling for four to six inches of rain in my area but then they backed off on it because Debbie is actually going to go more through Western Maryland. Unfortunately, that does increase our chances for severe weather and we currently have a tornado watch through 7:00 a.m. tomorrow, although they expect to extend it. And now interestingly enough, they had downgraded us to one to three inches, but tonight they’re now saying something like three to five inches! I don’t living a low-lying area and I’m in a second floor apartment, so I’m not to worry about the flooding. I’m off tomorrow and I’m not planning to go anywhere. But I will have my weather radio on tonight overnight in case of a tornado warning.