Here Comes Irene: Flood Prep & Rain Expectations

[rhody]

I had a friend pass this http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/08/hurricane-irene/100138/" on, so I thought I would share it, some amazing pictures from all up and down the east coast. Puts things in perspective, doesn't it ? I feel for those who are cut off because the roads are out in VT and NY. They have no way to get help, at least at the moment. The good news, if there is any in this situation, I can't speak for NY, but I can Vermont, those folks help their neighbors and are pretty good at coming up with creative solutions in difficult circumstances. This is mostly from dealing with winter blizzards over the past hundred years or so. I have been told there were times as a small child of being trapped in our homes for a week because of a blizzard. Sounds like time to call out the Army Corps of Engineers and National Guard to the most isolated and hard hit areas.

Rhody...

 

[wuliheron]

I heard about the tornadoes (I assume you meant torndado when you said hurricane above) - that just seems like pouring salt on the wound - nasty storms around here.

Virginia also has a local phenomena known as a "cluster storm" that resembles a tornado. The US in general has more then its share of violent weather and Virginia is actually one of the milder places. The West Virginia mountains protect us from the worst of the winter storms, and the barrier islands from the summer ones. Central Virginia is even rated 2nd in the nation for temperate weather with the longest springs and falls you'll find anywhere.

 

[rhody]

Thankfully, it seems that someone in state Government is on the ball in Vermont,

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44324289/ns/weather/?google_editors_picks=true"

NEWFANE, Vt. — Vermont on Tuesday began airlifting food and water to a dozen towns cut off by Irene, while New Jersey saw new flood evacuations, and across the East Coast power outages, while down by half, impacted millions.

At the Killington ski resort in Vermont, some 400 people were stranded due to road damage, and part of a lodge had collapsed in the earlier rain and flooding, NBC affiliate WPTZ-TV reported Tuesday. Another news link, here: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110830/NEWS07/108300301/From-Waterbury-Wilmington-Vermonters-shocked-by-Irene-s-destruction?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE"

Rhody...

P.S. Update from someone who lives near there, they claim it is FEMA who is making the airlift possible. I hope they bring bulldozers and other heavy equipment as well. They are going to need it.

 

[turbo]

Wrong place to be when storm-waters surge.

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Trucker-s-vehicle-stuck-between-lost-Maine-bridges-2147125.php

 

[rhody]

Eh, I don't believe it. Is your source NWS ? Hard to believe it can hit colder water and temps and still gain strength. I hope I don't have to eat my words. Knock on wood, Flying port-a-potties, eh Evo, hmm... there aren't any in my neighborhood so I don't need to worry about that.

I did do one important thing though, brought in my three ghost pepper plants with over 50 peppers, some near being ripe, the seem to turn yellow before turning red. Will post some pictures tomorrow.

Rhody... See some of you in chat. No winds here yet though.

P.S. NWS says winds in the mid 60's with gusts no more than 71 mph in the am tomorrow, tropical storm, not even a Cat 1. The uninformed and sensationalist media drive me crazy, it's all about ratings and not facts.

After reading my post the other day, I must admit after reading post Irene news reports and looking at hundreds of pictures of the damage, I was wrong , this sucker did a lot of damage in unexpected ways to unsuspecting states, like Vermont for instance, not to mention the midatlantic states, and Connecticut and New Jersey. What a mess.

Rhody...

 

[Evo]

After reading my post the other day, I must admit after reading post Irene news reports and looking at hundreds of pictures of the damage, I was wrong , this sucker did a lot of damage in unexpected ways to unsuspecting states, like Vermont for instance, not to mention the midatlantic states, and Connecticut and New Jersey. What a mess.

Rhody...

Vermont had some terrible roads and bridges that were literally falling apart, it's no wonder even a storm this small caused so much trouble. I used to drive from Saratoga Springs, NY to Bennington, VT at least once a week, a bridge we had to cross was in such bad shape that only one car was allowed to cross at a time, they made it a single lane and you could not get onto the bridge until the other car was off of the bridge, and the speed limit was 20MPH, maybe it was 10mph. I was terrified every time I had to cross it, but going around it would have added an extra hour to my drive. During bad weather, I did go the long way.

 

[turbo]

My barber cut my hair today. I was about her first customer after she got her license. It has been at least 30 years. Anyway the reason for the Irene link is: She is still without power, though water-damage around here was minimal. People on hilly/rural roads are about the last to get any renewed power. No power to a rural road with 4-5 families with wells and cattle pumps? We are too busy and we'll get to you. The business comes down to "how many paying customers can we get back, and how fast?"

Isn't there anybody at the utility who is smart enough to realize that they ought to be grabbing the low-hanging fruit (easy safety-resets, by employees in their ubiquitous pickups, with hot-sticks) etc at least to make nice with people who might live out in the woods, but might be influential in town governments?

 

[Evo]

My barber cut my hair today. I was about her first customer after she got her license.

She is still without power, though water-damage around here was minimal. People on hilly/rural roads are about the last to get any renewed power.

Funny, during bad ice storms and blizzards, (back when I lived in a rural area) I'd call in an outage from my home phone and get a recording that they expected restoral in 2 weeks, not even an option to speak to a real person.

Then I called from one of my AT&T home office lines (I worked for AT&T out of my house), reached a special task force person for critical services on the first ring, time to repair...3 hours. My neighbors never knew how they got service back so quickly. I think the longest were were out was when the poles had to be physically replaced, that took a few days, but still not the weeks we were told as resididential customers.

 

[rhody]

Being without internet is having an effect, A friend of ours showed up, unannounced so she could check her e-mail on her laptop.
She is having internet withdrawal, specifically, e-mail and Face Plant. Amazing, those little hits of dopamine on her brain made her stop by. And her left eye was twitching from the stress of not getting her fix.

Rhody...

 

[Redbelly98]

Here is an informative link, it is a map of recent U.S. rainfall at the NOAA site.

Click the link, check "Last 5 Days" (or whatever period would cover from last Friday), and zoom around the east coast.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ridge2/RFC_Precip/

Note the section of NC receiving 20+ inches (50+ cm), and the red band running northward indicating 6-10 inches (15-25 cm) of rain.

 

[Astronuc]

The Life of Hurricane Irene from Caribbean to Canada
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=108951491

 

[Astronuc]

Here is an informative link, it is a map of recent U.S. rainfall at the NOAA site.

Click the link, check "Last 5 Days" (or whatever period would cover from last Friday), and zoom around the east coast.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ridge2/RFC_Precip/

Note the section of NC receiving 20+ inches (50+ cm), and the red band running northward indicating 6-10 inches (15-25 cm) of rain.

We're in the 8-10 inch band since Friday, and in the 14-16 inch band for the last 30 days. We've had 16-18 inches in 3 days before - in two consecutive weekends - which is which we got the basement flood prevention system.

It's very strange to see cool dry sunny days. One can smell a musty odor in the air, especially when driving through areas that flooded.

 

[rhody]

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110830/NEWS02/110830022/Guard-choppers-from-Illinois-assist-Vermont-recovery-effort-?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs"

These will help, I hope they have a supply of of jet grade diesel fuel onhand (this can be airlifted in if needed as well). The Blackhawk's can lift about 4.5 tons of supplies. The Chinooks (D version) can haul about 13 tons of supplies. This should help in the short term.

Vermont had some terrible roads and bridges that were literally falling apart, it's no wonder even a storm this small caused so much trouble. I used to drive from Saratoga Springs, NY to Bennington, VT at least once a week, a bridge we had to cross was in such bad shape that only one car was allowed to cross at a time, they made it a single lane and you could not get onto the bridge until the other car was off of the bridge, and the speed limit was 20MPH, maybe it was 10mph. I was terrified every time I had to cross it, but going around it would have added an extra hour to my drive. During bad weather, I did go the long way.

I agree Evo that some of the bridge's, covered ones at least should long since have been replaced, but river erosion that caused adjacent roads to collapse, nothing could have been done to prevent this from happening.

Rhody...

 

[Astronuc]

The storm was not small by any means. It was a Cat 1 by the time it not to NJ and quickly decreased to a tropical storm, but it dumped a lot of rain in Pa, NY, CT, VT. Some areas have had the worst flooding on record. VT and upstate NY got is particular bad in terms of rainfall, and some places were already saturated from rains earlier in the week or previous weeks.

Windham Wiped Out- Lance Wheeler Video



Some farmers have lost all of their crops due to flooding. Even if they could harvest, they can't sell it because it is considered contaminated. And some land is contaminated with fuel and sewage.

We've had more rain (15-18 inches) in three days, but that was an isolated cell.

During the storm, most of our county got more than 6 inches, with one stretch getting 8-10 inches. We'd aslo had 2+ inches of rain during the Thursday and Friday before Irene rolled over us. Several counties N and W of us had similar widespread rainfall, and some areas go 10 to 16 inches of rain. Many areas in the Catskills are valleys, to all that rain ran off the mountains and down into the valleys, and basically took out whole towns.

 

[rhody]

Some more http://interactives.wwlp.com/photomojo/gallery/929/26/irene-aftermath-in-western-mass/irene-aftermath/" from my neck of the woods. Hard to believe, grew up in Western Mass.

Rhody...

 

[Astronuc]

At the moment, it looks like hurricane Katia is aimed at the Carolinas. It's track is a bit further north than Irene's. It's also possible Katia will become Cat 3.

But where will it go? We'll have a better idea next Wednesday.

 

[rhody]

At the moment, it looks like hurricane Katia is aimed at the Carolinas. It's track is a bit further north than Irene's. It's also possible Katia will become Cat 3.

But where will it go? We'll have a better idea next Wednesday.

ACK !

Rhody...

 

[Norman]

At the moment, it looks like hurricane Katia is aimed at the Carolinas. It's track is a bit further north than Irene's. It's also possible Katia will become Cat 3.

But where will it go? We'll have a better idea next Wednesday.

I think current forecasts are calling for the front that is over the great lakes region right now to swing southeast and be over the atlantic coast by Monday - this should hopefully push Katia up-up and away...

See here: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/day0-7loop.html

 

[Borek]

Some more http://interactives.wwlp.com/photomojo/gallery/929/26/irene-aftermath-in-western-mass/irene-aftermath/" from my neck of the woods.

Aqua Vista Campground - so true.

 

[rhody]

Going to pick up a Honda EU2000i generator after work. Whisper quiet, 1.1 gallon fuel tank, auto-idle fuel saver feature and built in 12 volt inverter that converts AC to DC then back to AC with smoothing software that produces smoothed AC power, safe for the most sensitive electronic gear. Runs about 5.5 hours at 1/2 load. This will ease my anxiety over a flooded basement (financially significant) and spoiled food (not so financially significant). I hope we never need it, but it will come in handle for things other than emergencies I am sure. Like camping trips, track days, etc...

Rhody...

P.S Just got it, it weighs 47 lbs and is about as big as eight toasters stacked in a rectangle, starts on one pull, if you stand 5 feet from it, you can hear someone talk normally, if you stand 20 feet away you can barely tell it is running at all, 53 db Amazing. The biggest worry with this little unit is being stolen. They are hot items for thieves.

 

[Jack21222]

Power came back on at 3pm yesterday (3.5 days out) and the internet returned about an hour ago (nearly 4.5 days out). Here are some photographs of why:

And here's the tree that fell that started that chain reaction:

 

[rhody]

This http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=smwv-J7BJ3U" put to music sent by a friend who grew up in central Vermont puts things in perspective.
The only vehicle that can navigate this section of RT100 to RT107 is a four wheeler.
Watching this you really get a sense of what a ton of fast flowing mountain water can do.

Rhody...

 

[Astronuc]

Katia is tracking further north than Irene, and the predictions seem to indicate it will turn north about middle of next week.

Hopefully Katia will follow Jose and Franklin, and dissipate over the north Atlantic. Unfortunately, that's not good for Bermuda or shipping in the W. Atlantic.

 

[turbo]

Central Maine Power company expects to clear the last power outages today. Reed and Reed have crews (including my neighbor-a crane operator) clearing out the debris from the washed out bridges on Route 27, and they hope to have temporary bridges in place by next week sometime. In the meantime, the folks in Rangely, Stratton, and Eustis can't expect rapid-response EMS service from Kingfield - they have to route ambulance calls to Farmington. Irene was no slacker!

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

If you look at the latest tracking map and extrapolate linearly, they don't cross over my house, but it looks like my garage will get it and get it good.

 

[turbo]

I don't know if the forecasters are being optimistic with that "jog" in Katia's predicted path or not.

http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I don't know if the forecasters are being optimistic with that "jog" in Katia's predicted path or not.

http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

Might be right. I just got back from Patagonia where I noticed a butterfly flap its wings.

 

[Astronuc]

I don't know if the forecasters are being optimistic with that "jog" in Katia's predicted path or not.

http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

Well Katia is supposed to turn north while SE or ESE of Hatteras. Hopely it will keep turning out to the NE well south of LI.

We're supposed to be getting remnants of Lee. It will be interesting to see the effect of Lee on Katia.

It would also be unfortunate if Katia hugs the east coast.

 

[turbo]

It would also be unfortunate if Katia hugs the east coast.

That's for sure! Our roads and bridges are already in poor shape from Irene.

 

[turbo]

This post could be titled "Baby, it's wet outside!" The "scattered showers" that were forecast for today have been non-stop rain and the already-saturated soil is too soft to anchor tree roots properly. There is just a hint of a breeze (at times), but the Anson fire department has been called out for a tree that has toppled onto power lines and is on fire.

My garden is soaked, my backyard pond is pretty full, though not yet overflowing, but enough already! I haven't been able to tend to my mowing and trimming on the few relatively dry days that we have had, because I'm still throwing in firewood for the 2012-2013 season. If the lawn gets much taller, I may have to consider borrowing a bush-hog for my Kubota. :/

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

The ground here was saturated before Irene came. Irene flooded the town and Lee dumped a lot of rain here. If Maria swings by to take a shot at us we may sink altogether.

 

[lisab]

The ground here was saturated before Irene came. Irene flooded the town and Lee dumped a lot of rain here. If Maria swings by to take a shot at us we may sink altogether.

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?

 

[turbo]

A flibbertijibbet, for sure.