ATL: HELENE - Post-Tropical - Discussion

[xtyphooncyclonex]

At a loss of words reading the situation right now. My hearts go to the people.

 https://x.com/oldscarf1stweek/status/1840376208753590613

[Hurricane2022]

It appears that all this damage caused by Hurricane Helene could rival the Ian and Katrina disasters. I am very shocked by all this catastrophe that is happening now. I already imagined that unfortunately there would be destruction, but it never crossed my mind that this destruction would be like this. My sympathies go out to those affected by this storm and my condolences go out to those who have lost loved ones. I will be praying for all these people.

[JaxGator]

Well, I’m back from no-service land (Valdosta) to report that I am safe and sound. Wow, that was a wild night. The eyewall of Hurricane Helene arrived in between 12:30-1am as a strong Category 2 with 110mph, with Category 3 gusts. Damage looks like it came from winds like that. Trees and power lines are down everywhere. Traffic lights are also damaged and destroyed. Reports of trees on houses and windows blown in by the winds. Thankful and blessed that my apartment has minor damage, and my car is undamaged. Power is still out and looks to be out till next Saturday, October 5th. Good news is that I have service now and can communicate with the outside world. I’m not sure Florida or Georgia will experience another hurricane this season (I pray not). However, this looks to be the hurricane of the season. It only takes one.

Glad to hear you’re good Jax. When you get power and see all that happened, check out west NC. Boone, Asheville, I-40, Newton TN, Black Mountain. Crazy stuff that most of us probably wont see again. Lots of bad across Florida and GA. Different effects but bad where that inland rain came down. Damns failing (some survived) and rivers rolling through cities. Reminds me of Missouri back in like 1993 and Baton Rouge and east 2016. Can’t stop water.

Yes, I’ve been seeing the full scope of the tragedy happening in NC and TN. Just awful. Chimney Rock (the town), just gone. I was there 5 years ago and it was beautiful. Water is the greatest impact from tropical cyclones besides wind (and no-name storms). Those storms are good analogues.

[blueskies]

Access to the barrier islands in Pinellas County opened yesterday at 4:00 pm for residents, business owners and employees with proper id.

There were long lines of cars parked on both sides of Pinellas Bayway stretching back at least half a mile on Friday and Saturday, people hoping to get through. Traffic is backed up today for the check point.

Boil water notice in effect for St Pete Beach, Treasure Island and Tierra Verde.

[galaxy401]

Death toll has now climbed over 100. It's spiking in North Carolina as they are gradually getting access to the devastated region around Asheville.

[Xyls]

Almost 1000 people missing in North Carolina at the moment. Not likely all fatalities but the cell service is so bad that many people cannot be found/reached at the moment.

Tennessee also reporting at least 73 people missing in Unicoi county and rising since this morning when they only were reporting around 30 missing...

[Category5Kaiju]

Slight change I've also noticed on Helene's wiki page is that it is now being described as a "catastrophic" storm rather than a "destructive" storm. This storm will primarily be remembered for the epic inland floods it caused in Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina.

[Xyls]

Per Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Biden's homeland security advisor:

"The current data we have is that it looks like there could be as many as 600 lost lives, but we do not have any confirmation of that," Sherwood-Randall tells the White House briefing.

"We know there are at least 600 who are lost or unaccounted for."

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/crejvrzxgjpt

[ljmac75]

Two links of interest:

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sep2 ... elene.html
NOAA imagery from after the storm. It's not complete of course, and there's basically no inland areas but you can see a lot of slabs in those communities around the coast. Very extensive tree damage where the eyewall moved ashore as well.

 https://x.com/hwind/status/1840839647426957355



Some hwind tweets about Helene. That account has some great information, including a nice visual of the wind field while the storm was over Georgia.

[tolakram]

 https://x.com/EvanDonovan/status/1840876359817498768

[Category5Kaiju]

Helene's death toll has officially surpassed Ian's (the latter with 161 and the former with at least, likely more than 162). Helene will likely be the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Eta in 2020 and the deadliest to hit the US/a US-owned territory in the Atlantic since Maria in 2017.

[kevin]

With a current death toll of 167 and still hundreds of people unaccounted for, Helene becomes the 2nd deadliest hurricane to strike the US mainland in 50 years, only behind the infamous hurricane Katrina.

It is also the deadliest hurricane in North Carolina in more than 150 years (since the 1857 hurricane). Before landfall most people were, logically, focused on Florida, but in all likelihood this will be the worst or one of the worst hurricane disasters in North Carolina in our lifetimes.

[wxman57]

Many of you here remember an excellent meteorologist on S2K called Airforce Met (Nelson Lee). He used to chime in on tropical systems regularly a few years back. He had retired and moved to eastern Tennessee (I think) and became a Pastor. He and his wife, Vanessa, were severely impacted by Helene last week. Always thinking about others, Nelson started a fund for helping those in need that were impacted by the flood. Those of you that remember Nelson and all the excellent advice he used to offer here might want to help him out. I had lunch with Nelson a number of times in the past. He's a good man.

https://ahf-i.com/

[cycloneye]

More sad news as the fatalities continue to rise, now to 161 and sadly, it will continue to rise.

 https://x.com/AlConklin/status/1841486568302772523

[cycloneye]

 https://x.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9/status/1841505750318789070

[Jr0d]

Many of you here remember an excellent meteorologist on S2K called Airforce Met (Nelson Lee). He used to chime in on tropical systems regularly a few years back. He had retired and moved to eastern Tennessee (I think) and became a Pastor. He and his wife, Vanessa, were severely impacted by Helene last week. Always thinking about others, Nelson started a fund for helping those in need that were impacted by the flood. Those of you that remember Nelson and all the excellent advice he used to offer here might want to help him out. I had lunch with Nelson a number of times in the past. He's a good man.

https://ahf-i.com/

I made a small contribution...will make another after I do my monthly finances. ..

Looking for other organizations that truly make an impact to help as well.

[cycloneye]

Wow is the only word as you see this.

 https://x.com/WxNB_/status/1841860257095594493

[toad strangler]

 https://twitter.com/nwsnwc/status/1841895926241059204

[kassi]

Sadly, the death toll has surpassed 200.

https://apnews.com/article/helene-ashev ... c50b291d85

[ljmac75]

NWS Tallahassee has posted a bunch of data for Helene in their area on this page: https://www.weather.gov/tae/TropicalEventSummary

A few bits of interest:

Highest sustained winds were 68.3 kts at 3.8 meters on a bouy while the storm was still approaching Florida. There's nothing sustained at hurricane force on land, although some of the stations only have gusts listed. One is a gust to 84 kts at a height of 1.5 meters, which is a very short anemometer if accurate.

Lowest pressures on land near landfall were 945 mbar and 950 mbar, both in the eye near the coast, but also both 8-12 miles from the center, from my very basic estimate off radar.

Descriptions of the impacts by county are mainly either no damage, or too much damage to catalogue it all at the time of the report.